The Defenders I Guess?

Things got off to an awkward start, as it appeared that no panel moderator had been assigned, so the entire thing was unorganized and quickly disintegrated into the usual geek banter. Also, speaking about the entirety of what the Marvel Netflix series will be able to accomplish can only mostly be speculation at this point—we’ve only seen one season of Daredevil. The panel kicked off with lots of ironic talk about how nobody really remembers who the Defenders actually were and whether or not the characters of these Netflix series were ever in the comic book iteration of the superhero team. Panelist J.M Bell made some attempt at corralling the conversation toward the actual topic, but the exuberance of the panelists led things far off subject. The never-ending DC vs. Marvel debate somehow reared its ugly head, and any talk of the Defenders had little chance. It’s unfortunate that the topic fell by the wayside, since Marvel is attempting what could be considered the greatest feat in entertainment history by combining multi-platform, filmed storylines into one single continuity, and this Netflix series gives an opportunity to tell longer, more serious stories than a two-hour film or a series on a major network will let them. We used to think in terms of just movie trilogies and TV seasons, but with the free form of streaming and everything being tied back into Marvel cinematic universe, Marvel has the opportunity to jump onto existing threads and use a back-log of characters that audiences would go crazy over. Unfortunately, that did happen at this panel and with the excitement of some of the audience members things never quite got on track. At least it was easy to tell that we are all excited to see what’s happening in comic book and superhero television.