A word, counselor

[selenak]

Because the Marvel shows - Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders - are leaving Netflix as of the end of this month, I dipped into some of them to rewatch some favourite scenes or episodes and found that several years later, my basic opinions on their virtues and flaws haven't changed. This includes: Luke Cage, s2 and Jessica Jones, s2 and 3 went too much into the dark direction, while Daredevil by virtue of an excellent third season (complete with "bringing the team back together again" arc) managed to make up for a mixed second season and avoided going out on a grimdark note; Danny Fisk works best for me as a guest star on other people's shows - he's a breath of fresh air in s2 of Luke Cage and before that, his scenes with Luke in Defenders were great fun -, and not so much in what I've seen of his own show; Frank Castle's show surprisingly (or not, if you consider how he starts out) manages to avoid the "hero gets alienated from their loved ones" trope plagueing DD, LC and JJ in their sophomore seasons and instead has Frank bonding with his recurring cast in both seasons (this includes displaying good household repair skills), and unlike Luke and Jessica ending his shows better off than where he was when he started, but my main problem with The Punisher is the shameless anti weapons regulation propaganda (complete with strawman liberal weakling senator whose arguments are ridiculously unlike anything real activists against the US gun cult use) which I can't get over because of the rl implications; I'll always regret we didn't get the Daughters of the Dragon show with Colleen and Misty; Jeri Hogarth, not Trinity, is my definite Carrie Ann Moss role; and while The Defenders is objectively not a good miniseries, I still love it. The Matt & Jessica as well as the Luke & Danny interactions were golden, Matt/Electra are my "they are bad for each other with the canon freely acknowledges but also, they are irresistable to me together" doomed pairing and all the Electra scenes mid season do fo rme what "but I knew him" does for Steve/Bucky shippers, and the Jessica and Luke scenes are a way more hopeful note for both characters to go out on (not just in terms of their relationship with each other) than the canon of their solo shows.

Now, given that Spoilery Thing Which Happened in Spider-man: No Way Home and the other spoilery thing that happened in Hawkeye, of course I have a wish list for more spoilerly things in future MCU movies and the Disney shows.



Jessica as a P.I. could certainly make cameo appearances in anything New York based. Also, the thought of Kate Bishop giving each of the Defenders the same type of branding/fashion advice she gave Clint cracks me up. (Danny would go for it.) So Kate hiring Jessica for an episode or two in the next season (if there is one) of Hawkeye would be great. Something I want from fanfiction but I doubt canon would ever go for it: Peter, now in dire need of a job from someone who doesn't want his social security number and has no problem with his taking off to fight crime at the drop of a moment, ends up as Jessica's new assistant for a while (read: until the spell is broken/modified/whatever). As for Luke, if you have him blipped, you can easily explain how he's lost the poisoned keys to the kingdom Mariah has handed him and has to start from scratch. Thematically, I'd love for him to meet Isaiah Bradley and Sam, before ending up in a completely ridiculous mystical adventure with Danny somehow (hey, maybe in the upcoming Dr. Strange multiverse extravaganza).

I also checked the fanfiction situation, and here are some I liked:

aka Every Color but Purple: Jessica and Matt on a case.

Fear and Hope: Jessica and Danny on a case

Not far from the tree: Sister Maggie and Matt, after.

Comments

[lightofdaye]

They're what?! Will they be anywhere else (D+)? I stopped watching after The Defenders and always meant to catch up. (Obviously not that badly)

[selenak]

Afraid so. And I don't know whether they'll be anywhere else, but here's hoping for D+; given that Disney has now used two of the Netflix actors in its own productions, there's a chance...

[musesfool]

I love all of your ideas and hope someone at Marvel is listening!

[andraste]

I'm still hoping that we get that Daughters of the Dragon show on Disney+! Bringing Daredevil and Kingpin back at least indicates that they're willing to bring the Netflix actors over, and hopefully there will be more of that kind of thing once the shows land on Disney+. (Which I am assuming they will. Disney might like to put things in the vault and bring them out again, but they rarely let stuff vanish into the void.)

[kore]

Feige wants to cross everything over! He brought back all the Spider-Man actors from another studio franchise! Do it, Feige, give us the street MCU heroes!

[andraste]

Indeed. Given *INSERT DOCTOR STRANGE TRAILER SPOILERS HERE* his enthusiasm for bringing characters back seems high.

[kore]

These are such great ideas. I love Defenders and actually bought an ahem'd copy on DVD just to make sure I have it when it gets yanked. (The shows might go to Hulu? D+? I don't know....) I think Mike Colter (Luke) is now doing other things, and nobody much liked the Iron Fist lead, but there'd be uproar if they tried to recast Jessica, and Misty and Colleen were just perfect.

[itsnotmymind]

I've been re-watching the Defenders and enjoying it more the second time around. Also apparently I <3 Colleen Wing. I never bothered to watch Iron Fist when it first came out, but if I have time before March I might have to watch it just for Colleen's backstory.

[chelseagirl]

Yes about LC 2 and JJ 2 & 3 going too dark.

I still love the characters/actors and hope to see them in other Marvel projects in the future -- they've given us Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk and they've promised more Punisher, so hmmm, what is it about Jessica and Luke, oh they wouldn't be not white males would they? But I really only rewatch JJ season 1 and wow, should really rewatch The Defenders one last time because yes, it's the character interactions that matter!

Someone's probably already said this (sorry, have to run out in 10 minutes so not reading the other comments), but Danny Rand. Although connecting Danny to Wilson Fisk/Kingpin is an interesting idea! And yes, he's much better when he doesn't have to carry the thing itself.

[jesuswasbatman]

I gather from what I've heard of current Marvel comics that they are sidelining Danny Rand because of embarrassment at just how Mighty Whitey his origin is by current standards - the new Iron Fist in the comics is Chinese, and Shang-Chi has been given the "mystic Asian martial arts" niche in the MCU.

[selenak]

I remember back in the day when "Iron Fist" the Netflix series was first released, one recurring argument was that it would have been very easy to simply make Danny (and family) Asian Americans. There was no plot reason why they couldn't have been, and it would have avoided that implication altogether. This said, the Netflix series did end with Colleen Wing as Iron Fist, and at least two people from my dw circle love it to bits, and it was the most dumped upon of the Netflix shows, and I only saw a few episodes, so I feel both unqualified and a bit guilty when commenting on it.