4.5 stars

I got wind of all these characters—well, except for Daredevil—from the run of original Marvel shows Netflix has been doing the past few years. Some are better than others, but I liked the Defenders enough to try out this new graphic novel series about them.
And it was great! The art is fantastic—I love how each character is drawn. And Iron Fist is so funny with Bendis writing him, much better than the Iron Fist in the comic I tried last year, or Netflix’s depiction of the character, for that matter.
Besides Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil, Volume 1 is full of other familiar faces too. I’m sure I didn’t catch everyone I was supposed to recognize, but each one I did catch made me happy.
As always, when I dive into the Marvel universe, I feel like I’m just treading water. I know I have gaps in my backstory knowledge, because I just don’t read that many superhero comics. But being familiar with the shows was enough background to enjoy this, even if I didn’t know how the characters got to the starting point of this story. Jessica and Luke married, for example?
This is a good choice for people who know a bit about each character already. If you don’t, it will probably make you sad and confused. But Iron Fist might still make you laugh. ( )

Time to go on a Bendis bender! (#2 of 8)

An underwhelming villain, a conclusion deferred to the next volume, and a surprising lack of chemistry between the members of the Defenders make for a lukewarm debut. And I must have missed it, but at some point they went from a bunch of heroes who know each other and are bumbling around against a c-list bad guy to calling themselves the Defenders like it's a thing.

Nice Bendis scenes and dialogue can only carry the enterprise so far. The book needs a purpose to exist beyond there being a TV show. ( )

The more I read of this the more I want to watch the TV series(s). This story features Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones along with an appearance from the Punisher, this time the four heroes have taken on a drug dealer and he eeks revenge on them and they have to deal with someone who has powers and is using them for his own gain, there's a lot of colateral damage.

Its interesting and I want more. ( )

It's extremely rare that I re-read a comic book, this one is one of the few I had to re-read! Bendis sure shows how much he knows the characters -extensive- stories and place multiplie references across the pages(and I'm sure I missed a bazillion more) a really, really good story with the art to go with it. Really sad that this series will likely die when Bendis leaves Marvel. ( )