Marvel Television and Netflix recently unveiled a ton of new images and details for their upcoming superhero team-up series ‘The Defenders’. But that won’t be the only place you can catch the highly anticipated team of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist later this year as the House of Ideas are set to assemble these heroes for a brand new comic book.
Marvel Comics announced earlier this week that after collaborating on such titles as ‘Invincible Iron Man’, ‘Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man’, and ‘Civil War II’, acclaimed comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis and all-star artist David Marquez will team up once again for an all-new volume of ‘The Defenders’, which will feature the same line-up as the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the team. In the press release for the title, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort discussed the angle that the book will take once it hits the shelves of our local comic shops in June:
“As opposed to other more global or galactic superhero groups, the Defenders are very much focused on the streets, on the neighborhoods, on the community. Their battles are no less fiercely fought or consequential, but the arena is a very different one, and the stakes more personal. Brian will be building upon the relationships that he established years ago in ‘New Avengers’ to create something unique and primary within the Marvel Universe.”
To elaborate on the plot details, Bendis spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and shared that this story will be somewhat along the lines of one of the greatest film trilogies of all of film history:
“I wanted to do a sprawling, ‘Godfather’-like epic at the street level of the Marvel Universe, really putting out hooks down and creating a modern, elaborate organized crime story that is different than what has gone before, but builds on everything that has happened to these characters, as individuals or as a team, and putting them in the hardest battle for the street that anyone can imagine.”
Looking back on some of Bendis’ stories in recent years, it’s good to see him return to team books following a few less than desirable events like ‘Siege’, ’Age of Ultron’, and ‘Civil War II’. After all, some of his best work has been with the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. And now, he’s revisiting some characters that he reinvigorated during his days on ‘New Avengers’ and ‘Alias’, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does with these street level heroes in a group dynamic after all these years.
Will you be adding ‘The Defenders’ to your pull list this summer? Are you excited about the creative team working on this book? And do you think that it will reach ‘Godfather’ levels of epicness? Let us know in the comments.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
