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Marvel’s The Defenders is a story about disparate souls putting their egos aside to come together and work as a team. It is about the tension of collaboration. So is the story of how Marvel’s The Defenders made its long journey from the pages of Marvel Comics to Netflix. The show doesn’t just merge the creative forces of four pre-existing Netflix series; it reveals the complex dialogue happening between the world of comic books and the ever-expanding television landscape.
Decider reached out to key creative talents who work at Marvel Comics and who have helped build the live-action wonderland of Marvel’s The Defenders. What we discovered was that bringing Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist’s team-up to life took more than just a reverence for the comics. It took creative vision, flexibility, and compromise. Moreover, we found that the give and take between the worlds of comics and television is more vibrant, and perhaps more complicated, than you would believe.
This is Part I of a three part story about how The Defenders came together in the comics and made their way to the small screen. In this first installment we look at the history of the comics and talk to the one man arguably most responsible for bringing Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand together: Brian Michael Bendis.
PART I: HOW TO MAKE A MARVEL TEAM-UP
Netflix’s Defenders–a team of inherently damaged and comparatively low-powered superheroes–stand in stark contrast to the big screen image of superhero teams, rosters stacked with literal gods and equipped with billion dollar tech. The team also rebels against what the Defenders have traditionally been, as this lineup never existed in the source material before the Netflix series was announced.
The proto-Defenders, a group called the Titans Three, first teamed up in 1971’s Sub-Mariner #34. That lineup, assembled by writer Roy Thomas, did not include the Defenders you know today; three of them (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones) were still years–or decades–away from creation. Instead, the original Defenders were, as their initial name implied, true titans: the sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange, the rampaging Hulk, and the Atlantean king Namor. By their second appearance as a unit in 1971’s Marvel Feature #1, this powerhouse lineup had changed their name to the Defenders (while Roy Thomas also wrote that issue, he’s said in the past that he’s pretty sure Stan Lee himself came up with the team’s new name).
The Defenders’ own comic launched in 1972 and lasted an impressive 14 years (that’s 152 issues), but that title bears little resemblance to what you’ll stream on Netflix. The original comic book team grew to include the Norse warrior Valkyrie; ex-X-Men Iceman, Angel, and Beast; the scrappy Hellcat; and, for a short time, Luke Cage. While the Netflix series isn’t a straightforward adaptation when it comes to the cast, it is when it comes to the Defenders spirit. From its inception, the Defenders has always been a team comprised of outsiders, of superheroes that would never hang together. When we meet Matt, Jess, Luke, and Danny in Marvel’s the Defenders, that’s exactly what they are. To really trace the comic book origins of Marvel’s new TV team-up, you need to skip past the original Defenders comic and instead look at the work of one prolific comic book writer: Brian Michael Bendis.
“Actually, my first paid gig at Marvel was Daredevil. Daredevil actually got me Ultimate Spider-Man, even though Ultimate Spider Man came out first,” Bendis told Decider. Bendis explained that, back in 2000, his good friend David Mack was already ensconced at the legendary comic book house and that Mack helped Bendis along by showing editor Joe Quesada his work. “Daredevil, which was a flagship book at Marvel at the time, because of Kevin Smith and Joe [Quesada], had fallen way behind schedule because of Kevin Smith and Joe. So Joe called me up and said, ‘I really like your work here.’ And there were a couple of projects that he was thinking about me for, and things I was developing. He called me and said, ‘Could you do me a huge favor while we’re figuring out what to do with you? Could you take over Daredevil? And just help me get it back on track. Just come in and help us.’ And I’m like, ‘Help you? This is the greatest thing of my life.’ It was the book that made me want to do comics.”
Bendis’s work on the book was so impressive that it got the writer the gig rebooting Spider-Man for Marvel’s new “Ultimate” line of comics, which made him a key figure at the publisher. That meant he now had opportunities to write for all of his favorite Marvel superheroes, though he says his list of favorites was a little offbeat. “Everyone in comics says the same list of characters: Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Nick Fury,” said Bendis. “My list is a little different. Because I love Luke Cage and Danny [Rand] and Spider-Woman. My taste in characters is more street level.”
Bendis’ unfiltered style can be seen in Jessica Jones, a character he came up with and developed alongside artist Michael Gaydos. As Bendis settled into what would become a lengthy run as Daredevil’s writer, the Marvel editors asked him to pitch them something in the vein of the true crime graphic novels he had hitherto been known for. He introduced the idea of a gritty new character written exclusively for an adult audience.
“Everyone in comics says the same list of characters: Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Nick Fury…My list is a little different. Because I love Luke Cage and Danny [Rand] and Spider-Woman. My taste in characters is more street level.”
“I did have this idea for what would be Jessica Jones. And instead of writing a traditional outline, I knew I was so off the mark with content–and I didn’t know how else to write it, just dull content– that I wrote what ended up being the first 11 pages of Alias # 1. It was called Marvel Incorporated. It had a Luke and Jessica sex scene. It had everything in it. It was just an idea of what I would want to write,” Bendis said. The early Alias comics, which were published under Marvel’s newly-launched mature readers line Max, helped lay the foundation for what would become Marvel’s entire Netflix line. Luke Cage was a recurring character, and Bendis soon brought Jessica (along with Luke and Iron Fist) into his Daredevil run as supporting characters. This wouldn’t be the last time Bendis would unite this quirky quartet.
After using Luke Cage in a supporting role in the small-scale book Alias, Bendis found that he had to make a case to use Luke Cage in some of the bigger books he was asked to work on, like New Avengers. In the decades since his debut in 1972’s Hero for Hire #1, Marvel had pretty much left Luke Cage behind. The character was created as a response to Blaxploitation cinema, and was thus inextricably linked to a very dated (and somewhat problematic) film genre. It didn’t help that, as the years went by, his yellow shirt and silver tiara look became even less intimidating. Cage underwent a few modern makeovers in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, but none really won new audiences over. It was Bendis’ take, first in Alias and then in the flagship New Avengers series, that finally brought Luke back to the big leagues.
“I always positioned him as the King Arthur of Harlem,” Bendis explained. “The crown weighs heavy, and he’s a silent but very charismatic person who gets shit done. And the people locally just love him. And [I wanted to] have him be more proactive than the other Avengers. He sees problems differently than they do. So I was able to able to convince people that they belonged on the Avengers. And eventually I got Daredevil on there, too. And Jessica. So I squeezed all of them in there.”
Bendis is also the person who decided to marry Jessica Jones and Luke Cage in the comics, a move that has romantic origins. “Over the course of my life, I found out that I absolutely love being married, liked and loved my wife, and sometimes I was referred to by other women as the only person who did like their wife,” Bendis said.
“And you know, we always talk about representation, but there’s also emotional representation. So I say I would like to write a marriage that’s as delicate and fragile as everyone else’s, but the people involved are completely committed to it, and they’re better for being in the marriage. The partnership is good and that they’re best friends, and wouldn’t that be nice to write. So that is my goal with Luke and Jessica.” He continued: “The stuff they find in front of them is almost a mountain too high to climb, but they’re there for each other, and that’s kind of cool. I’m actually as of last night writing the Jessica Jones ‘Return of the Purple Man’ [comic] storyline, because I’m helping with [Netflix’s] Jessica Jones, and one of the biggest takeaways for the character is how much in a different place she legitimately is emotionally and physically than she was when the Purple Man was first in her life.”
“And you know, we always talk about representation, but there’s also emotional representation.”
While Luke Cage and Jessica Jones might be facing off against Kilgrave, aka the Purple Man, again in the comics, they still have to unite with Daredevil and Iron Fist on the small screen…which leads us to Marvel’s Defenders. The series not only connects the threads of the current Netflix Marvel universe, but brings Bendis’s own vision to life.
“When Jeph Loeb called and said, ‘What we’re going to do is this,’ — what ended up being The Defenders Netflix plan — I was stunned. It was so flattering. I felt like at one point I was the only person that wanted this, and then I had to spend a great deal of the aughts convincing people. And you’re never totally sure if you were successful in convincing them…And for it to have leaped this far into [Marvel’s Jessica Jones] being a good show and now we’re just weeks away from Defenders, which is debuting on my birthday, on a landmark birthday for me, and I literally said to Jeff Loeb, ‘That’s my birthday!’ and he says ‘We know.’”
Coming tomorrow in Part II: We speak to Marvel’s The Defenders‘ showrunner Marco Ramirez and key members of the production team about the struggles inherent in bringing a comic book team to life.
