The Marvel Netflixverse has come to an end with the airing of Jessica Jones season 3. I myself loved the Marvel Netflixverse. The best thing about it was that all of the characters were B or even C-characters. But that didn’t make their stories less compelling. In fact when you think about it, you weren’t watching a TV show, you were watching a season long movie. Like Daredevil, the first season really felt like a 13 hour movie. Same goes for most of the other shows.
The Marvel’s Netflix verse
The Marvel Netflixverse consisted of six shows featuring:
- Daredevil (2015-2018)
- Jessica Jones (2015-2019)
- Luke Cage (2016-2018)
- Iron Fist (2017-2018)
- The Defenders (2017)
- The Punisher (2017-2019)
I have watched all of them and most of them in a single weekend. Shows you how often I go outside, I suppose. While I loved all of the shows, I do have clear favorites. I have compiled a list from amazing to less amazing.
Marvel’s Netflixverse Daredevil season 2
The first season of Marvel’s Netflix Daredevil was pretty amazing but it took until the last episode before they showed the famous red suit with the horns and the billy clubs.
In season two the characters were well established and the red suit was put on on every occasion possible. It showed a more compelling version of Daredevil. Ofcourse the main event was Matt Murdock defending Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher for his infamous killing spree. But also the fights between Daredevil and The Punisher on the roof.
Who could forget the entrace of Elektra? Elodie Yung wasn’t my first choice to play Elektra but that was because I saw her in the G.I. Joe movie. I am still hoping that the makers of that movie will give me my time back, that’s how bad it was.
But Elodie Yung was the scenestealer as Elektra and made up for the lost time I spent on G.I. Joe. She played Elektra with a certain violent elegance that made you both like her and be scared of her at the same time.
Marvel’s Netflixverse The Defenders
The accumulation of all the series ended with The Defenders. Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Daredevil came together to battle The Hand one last time before they were all either killed or buried alive deep underneath New York City. The Defenders battle resurrected Elektra who suffers from memory loss, to protect New York from the threat that is The Hand. The Hand was introduced in Daredevil season 1 and further established in Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist. The shows showed us the magnitude of The Hand who controlled crime in several parts in the world. Heroine, prostitution, human trafficking and much more.
Jessica Jones season 1
When I read the news that Jessica Jones was the next TV show in Marvel’s Netflixverse I was surprised. Jessica Jones wasn’t a very well known character unless you are a comicbook die hard. But it is often the ones you have never heard of that have the wildest stories. This goes especially for Jessica Jones. The first season was based on the comicbook Alias, written by one of my favorite writers from the past decade, the man who is also responsible for writing Ultimate Spiderman, Brian Michael Bendis.
The first season establishes Jessica Jones recovering from the main villain who makes a return in her life: The Purple Man a.k.a. Zebediah Kilgrave but in the show his name is Kevin Thompson. He controls Jessica and her environment on the show.
Furthermore the TV show establishes Trish Walker, who is actually Hellcat (Patsy Kline) from the comicbooks. And Jeri Hogarth, who owns the lawfirm who frequently hires Jessica Jones as her private detective.
The first season really creeps into your head and you’ll soon feel like you are the one being controlled by Kilgrave!
Double thumbs up for Krysten Ritter’s performance as Jessica Jones. She managed to bring the character to life!
The Punisher season 1
When Marvel’s Netflixverse announced The Punisher, I often wondered how they would bring that to the small screen. Sure, Netflix is more flexible when it comes to the use of foul language and violence but this The Punisher we are talking. The most violent Marvel character ever!
Instead what we got was a great story about a soldier who list his wife and kids at a picnic. They were the victims of a violent gangwar and Frank Castle starts his quest for retribution. He is helped by Micro, who staged his death after finding out the truth of that gangwar.
The first season establishes the characters and villains. The main villain of the first season is William Rawlins, the director of the CIA’s covert operations. Castle worked for him in Afghanistan. But the main attraction is Billy Russo, the archrival of The Punisher in the comics. In the comics he’s named Jiggsaw.
The first season was great because of the great storytelling and the actors Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach have great chemistry on screen.
Iron Fist season 2
The first season of Marvel’s Netflixverse Iron Fist was pretty great in my opinion. I realize, as I am writing this, that me liking the first season of Iron Fist is a very unpopular opinion since the character didn’t resonate so well with the audience. In my opinion what most of the people failed to grasp is that Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, is a kid in a grown man’s body. The first season established The Hand furthermore as a force to be reckoned with.
Danny Rand as the Iron Fist was well cast if you look at the physicality of the stunts. Actingwise, Iam still not sure. Colleen Wing, played by Jessica Henwick from Game of Thrones, was the real scenestealer in my opinion. Her grounded character was the anchor that kept Danny Rand in reality.
The Meachums were well cast too. Especially Tom Pelphrey who’s fall to the darkside and back to the lightside is very well done. Joy, played by Jessica Stroup, was pretty good as well. She walks the other way and turns dark by the end of the season.
Luke Cage season 1 & 2
While I loved Luke Cage and especially the soundtrack, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the casting of Luke Cage. Mike Coulter is a great actor with a good range but I feel he was miscast as Luke Cage. It was, in my opinion, Marvel’s Netflixverse first miss.
The first season had Diamondback, Cage’s halfbrother, as the main villain. And he was spouting so many christian bible quotes that I started to wonder if I hadn’t ended up in a church somewhere. The breakout characters of that season were Cottonmouth played by none other than Mahershala Ali and Alfre Woodward who played Mariah Dillard.
The second season featured the Bushmaster as the main villain and he packed a lot more punch. No more Bible references and a continuation of the story of Mariah Dillard’s political corruption as established in season 1. It proved to be her downfall.
