The Creators – Brian Michael Bendis – Writer, David Marquez – Artist, Justin Ponsor – Colours, VC’s Cory Petit – Letters

The Players – Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Diamondback, Black Cat

The Story – Diamondback has returned and is ready to re-establish his criminal empire, but a few things stand in his way, namely Luke Cage, Luke’s friends and Black Cat.

The Take – To cash in on the upcoming Netflix show of the same name, Marvel recruited top writer Brian Michael Bendis who is more than familiar with the characters, and artist David Marquez to see if they could infuse a little magic into a new title bearing the name of The Defenders. Sadly, that magic is not present and what should be an amazing book is just a fairly tame and unexciting read. It is in fact, slightly boring despite the action present and to make matters a bit worse, part of the story is told off-camera and related through a caption on the title/credits page. Comic books, like film or television, are a visual medium and most who might read this book, will simply skip over said title page and then realize they missed something. It was a sloppy choice to make from an editing standpoint and breaks the flow of the events taking place. A few of the heroes bear striking similarities to their Netflix counterparts, most especially Luke Cage and while not a bad thing, it is slightly distracting. The artwork as it were, is the best thing about this book, the story not going hand in hand with what ended up on the page. What is most surprising is how lacklustre this book is, and when one considers the talent involved, it makes it more surprising still. Simply put, with the innumerable amount of books available on the stands today, a person’s money is best spent elsewhere.

Worth It? – Skip it.