The slow inter-connection between Netflix’s four Marvel super-hero shows begins here as Misty Knight‘s (Simone Missick) multiple run-ins with Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and the bitchy private eye’s proximity to dead bodies, which also allows her to meet a certain Hell’s Kitchen lawyer, and the more violent meeting between Danny Rand (Finn Jones) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) whose separate investigations lead them to the same warehouse where the Chaste have been slaughtered. The Cage/Iron Fist battle is pretty much run-of-the-mill comic story with two heroes mistaking each other for adversaries and duking it out before discovering they are on the same side. While the Knight/Jones interaction is less explosive, it does help set the stage for the police getting involved in the heroes’ battle with the Hand.
For a show that had 65 previous episodes to set-up all the characters necessary to tell a combined storyline, the first episode of The Defenders spends an awful long time reintroducing us to the characters from each show. Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is released from prison, thanks in part to the help of Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), and returns to Harlem and Claire (Rosario Dawson). Danny Rand (Finn Jones) and Colleen (Jessica Henwick) stop their worldwide travels searching for the Hand and return to New York after an encounter with a familiar deadly warrior. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is slowly drinking herself to death and refusing to take any case until threatened to stay away from the search for a missing architect piques her interest. And Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), long since putting his horned-mask and billy-club aside, continues to struggle against leaving that part of his life behind.
“Purple” comes to a close by finally revealing the truth of how everyone forgot that Matt Murdock was Daredevil. As expected, given the events of the recent issues, events tie back to the Purple Man and his children. After defeating Kilgrave, the Purple Children decide to make one final use of their father’s machine to undo the damage he did to the city and to Daredevil. And just like that, Daredevil’s true identity was forgotten.
Now the method of Daredevil’s identity being put back under wraps does have some flaws. Kilgrave’s powers are proximity based. Even if the kids and the machine helped amplify his powers across the world, what about characters in space? In another dimension? Or immune to mind control? This would seem to leave individuals out there who still know the truth and could reveal Matt Murdock’s secret at some point in the future.
Continuing to fill-in the events between the previous series set in San Fransisco and Matt Murdock‘s return to New York City as an Assistant District Attorney, Daredevil #18 brings back a classic villain with the return of the Purple Man. As told in flashbacks during Murdock’s confession, the Purple Man’s escape from prison and the arrival of two of the Purple Children on his door with a mind-controlled mob behind them springs Daredevil into action to seek out the remaining children and discover just what the Purple Man has in store for them.
