Ranking Every 2017 Comic Book TV Show Worst To Best

15. The Defenders

The Defenders
Netflix

The Defenders should - in theory - have been a surefire success. Bringing together all of Marvel's hottest street-level characters for a gigantic showdown with The Hand (led by a sinister Sigourney Weaver), it was plain for all to see that Marvel could've had another Avengers on their hand, sans the alien invasion.

And yet, when the show did arrive, it turned out to be a major disappointment. Switching the format from thirteen episodes to eight should've helped cut through the usual mid-season lull most Netflix Originals experience, but all it did was make The Defenders feel frustratingly congested. The actual group don't come together until the third episode, and even then you have to put up with Danny Rand reiterating that he is, in fact, "the Iron Fist" at every opportunity, provoking groans from his teammates and the viewer in periodic fashion until its end.

It's a shame, because there are clear parts of The Defenders that work. Seeing Jessica Jones verbally spar with Daredevil is great fun to see, and Iron Fist even gets his comeuppance when Matt and Jessica knock him out close to the series' end.

But, at the end of the day, it all gets overshadowed by a clichéd plot, a silly twist, and an even sillier resolution.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.