Defenders

Marvel’s Netflix Luke Cage may not have led Netflix’s Defenders, but the hero-for-hire certainly broke new ground in taking the series to eager fans at Comic-Con 2016. We already caught the first trailer, but what major details did Harlem’s newest hero reveal from the assembled cast in San Diego? Our full panel report!

Marvel’s Netflix Daredevil first bucked our conceptions of the four Defenders series with a second season, so it’s only fitting ol’ Hornhead continue the trend at Comic-Con 2016. Even as Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders gear up for 2017, Marvel and Netflix confirm Daredevil Season 3 will arrive sometime thereafter.

Marvel Television’s huge Netflix panel at San Diego Comic-Con was loaded with surprises, and plenty of new teasers and trailers. You’ve got your Luke Cage trailer and you’ve got your Defenders teaser. But what would the Defenders be without Iron Fist? They would just be two guys and a woman who fought crime, but didn’t have a crazy martial artist who could harness his chi into his hands for mega-powerful punches. Still pretty formidable, to be honest. But not quite as cool.

In case you thought Luke Cage’s first official trailer, Iron Fist footage or Daredevil Season 3 news weren’t enough, prepare for The Defenders! Straight from Comic-Con 2016, the four Marvel Netflix heroes gather for a first teaser that confirms a familiar voice, and a Hand-y foe ahead.

You didn’t think Marvel’s Netflix hero-for-hire would hit Comic-Con 2016 without some fresh footage, did you? Luke Cage is ready to rumble in the first official trailer for Marvel’s next Defender series, and Harlem won’t know what hit it.

We’ll remember to pour one out for Agent Carter on the Comic-Con circuit, but it looks like the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have a new friend to play with in San Diego. Marvel has officially confirmed both its flagship ABC drama and Netflix’s Luke Cage are coming to Comic-Con 2016, the first details of which have arrived.

Marvel’s Netflix Defenders have largely kept to their home turf of Hell’s Kitchen, appearing at New York Comic-Con, rather than the big show in San Diego, but if anyone could break the mold, it’d be Luke Cage. Yes, sweet Christmas, Luke Cage is coming to Comic-Con 2016 for a sneak peek of the new Netflix series.

Thus far, first photos of Marvel’s Netflix Iron Fist have given us a pretty good look at Finn Jones’ Danny Rand in full-on hippie mode, but less so that badass warrior fans are hoping for. Now, the latest look is more “The Dude” than The Defenders, but still gives us our first taste of Iron Fist in action.

Steve Englehart was born on this day in 1947. By his mid-twenties, he was reshaping the Marvel Universe. At thirty, he was reinventing Batman. Englehart is easily one of the greatest comic book writers of all time, and probably the definitive writer of the 1970s. One of the interesting things about Englehart is that he doesn’t get credit for creating that many interesting characters. In fact, he’s probably most strongly associated with Mantis, a character he introduced in Avengers and held onto (in an incognito form) even when he moved to Justice League of America and beyond. But while Englehart certainly created some peculiar characters, what he was really great at was perfecting characters that already existed.

Likely as it seems that Marvel will prove as quick to renew Daredevil for Season 3 as last year, we don’t yet know when The Defenders will pull the cast toward a team-up miniseries. Daredevil showrunners Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez aren’t talking either, though they at least know where the various Daredevil Season 2 threads might pick up, and how Jessica Jones might be involved.