Unsurprisingly, given the upcoming Netflix show, Marvel is also bringing back the Defenders in the comics, with writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Marquez. Which is, on the one hand, a nice attempt to create a comic that people watching the shows can use as an easy entry point. On the other hand, it does sound like a craven money grab with a name people will recognise.
Image: Marvel
The Hollywood Reporter made the announcement of the new book, which will have the same core creative team as Civil War II. It also spoke with Brian Michael Bendis and Marvel senior VP executive editor Tom Brevoort about the new series. Brevoort says that this iteration of The Defenders is based in Bendis’ 2012 New Avengers run.
Bendis said:
You will get Jessica Jones looking out her window, street-level, and my return to Daredevil, which will be different than what I and Alex did before. And Luke and Danny, characters that I have a strong affinity for. I spent most of the oughts being mocked for the love of Luke Cage. Now that Luke Cage is a household name, I just sit back in my chair and laugh and laugh.
It will be interesting to see what Bendis does with Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, who are estranged as of her new series. Or, in true comics fashion, we’ll have a completely different interpretation that fans will have to reconcile for themselves. And, again, this book is taking some cues from the Netflix shows, putting all the Defenders in New York and working together against crime there. Bendis called it “a sprawling, Godfather-like epic at the street level of the Marvel Universe” focusing on organised crime in a “modern” way.
Image: Full cover, Marvel
Despite all that, there’s a fair amount here that feels like a retread of things that Bendis has done before or that Netflix is doing. Only time will tell.
Comments
6 responses to “Brian Michael Bendis Is Bringing The Defenders Back For Marvel Comics”
A cowardly money grab? What?
Because Marvel should only be making comics that people don’t want to buy, or ones that will only break even. Anything else is just selling out.
It’s not cowardly or “craven” as the author put it. It’s brazen. The wording is awful in the article.
Nothing but a money grab. Not surprising from Bendis
Happy for bendis to return to daredevil. Haven’t liked it since the shadowland arc finished. Daredevil became too light hearted.
He’s not bringing back the Defenders at all.
He’s hijacking the name for an all-new team with zero ties to the original group to coincide with the upcoming Netflix series.
(Yeah yeah, Cage was a member for like 5 minutes and Iron Fist was a Defender for a Day, but that aside, zero ties!)
Regardless, Bendis has proven that he just cannot write team books as well as he can write solo titles like Daredevil & Alias, so this will get a hard pass from me.