The Defenders already exist in the MCU as a street level team featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron First. I’m going to make a condescending sniffing noise and use the team name “Heroes for Hire,” but what do I know?
My favorite era of The Defenders was a quirky late-70’s run written by the late Steve Gerber and then by (also late) David Anthony Kraft. This line-up of the team was centered on Dr. Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie, Hellcat (Patsy Walker who, as Trish Walker, appeared as a villain in the third season of Jessica Jones) and Nighthawk (whose relationship with the MCU is “it’s complicated”). This line-up viewed themselves as an “non-team” – they didn’t have a headquarters so much as a house where they hung out, they tried to keep a super low profile and had sort of an “you’re a member as long as you want to be” ethos. Sort of like a Generation X super team before Generation X was identified as a thing. Or whatever. Nevermind.
The Defenders had originally started as a team of all big guns – Dr. Strange, Namor, Hulk and Silver Surfer. As you might imagine, with that line-up they spent a whole lot of time defending the planet from cosmic level threats. Even as the big guns left, they tended to focus on cosmic and supernatural threats. Later on in their original run, they added X-Men’s The Beast, Angel and Iceman as well as Gargoyle, Moondragon, Son of Satan, as well as a few regular characters who never officially join the team (I recall Manslaughter, Cloud, and Andromeda). In the last issue of the original run, every non-mutant member of the team is killed off.
Then, of course, there’s equally baffling line-ups that occurred since the original as the creators struggled to find an identity and purpose for them beyond “Marvel super-team that is not The Avengers.” Slapping the name “Defenders” on the MCU “Heroes for Hire” line-up makes just about as much sense as any of the line-ups.
But, you know, what I really liked about The Defenders was the “non-team” concept. They hung out because they worked well together and seemed to be, in essence, a group of weirdos that just liked each other. The image I have of them is of them kind of hanging out around a pool being bored until they’re needed to defeat a ravenous tentacle beast from another dimension. Basically, they lived in the weird and living in the weird is not for everybody.
Buuuuut The Defenders are a defined thing now in the MCU. So the first thing we got to do is give them a different name. I’m going to suggest “Deterrent” because I don’t immediately have anything better.
I’m going to use the “Defender for a Day” storyline as the in to the MCU. See, they met this dude who called himself Dollar Bill who didn’t get the team at all, but loved them and filmed them doing their thing. He then released a documentary about the group, which exposed them to the world and led to like 20 or so B and C tier Marvel heroes wanting to join the group. Seriously, they descended on the team’s pool like locusts and just crushed the vibe for three issues or so.
We can use the documentary (or leaked videos or whatever) as a way of introducing team backstory and establishing why we’ve not seen them much. In my version, the documentary features Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Gargoyle and Moondragon fighting some kind of Lovecraftian horror. We might get very brief profiles on each of the five. Wong pointedly says “we’re not a team” in response to some question or other and it freezes on that frame on somebody’s laptop.
We see Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk (ideally played by Kevin Hart or somebody with similar “going to explode any second” energy) and Heather Douglas/Moondragon (since the Tilda Swinton Ancient One has already stolen her look, let me suggest a character design Stephanie Hsu in a Jobu Tupaki-but-heroic form – super confident, arrogant but her arrogance is always deserved, and has a bit of a hard time connecting with us lesser humans). They’re on a Zoom call (with poor reception) with Wong. At some point, Wong gets fed up with Zoom freezing on him and just opens a portal to talk with them
We need to learn these things during this conversation – The Defenders are a sort of ad-hoc team put together by Wong to deal with certain low-level supernatural threats in the wake of the many sorcerers killed during Multiverse of Madness and he bankrolls them; Kyle and Heather are survivors from two different universes destroyed during the recent MCU multiverse business; other members are recruited per mission to deal with particular issues as they arise; and the guy who leaked the footage was Kyle’s best friend, “Dollar Bill,” who is always hanging around the house.
Now that the group has been made public (and since ultimately the plan was for Wong to leave it in Moondragon’s hands anyways), Wong is bowing out from active participation. He sets up some mystic system to let them know when they’re needed.
We now see that the place where Kyle and Heather live is basically one of those McMansions that pop up in suburbia. Big house, yard, pool and hot tub in the back, but really nothing all that special. As Kyle and Heather argue about Bill, they walk through the house. Valkyrie is hanging around and, as Heather passes her, the two briefly kiss or flirt like a couple in the early stages of a relationship. They update her on what’s going on and Valkyrie offers to stick around a little longer while they sort this shit out.
They arrive by the pool, watched over by a stone gargoyle version of Gargoyle, who is unmoving and balanced on the edge of the diving board. Kyle talks really loudly to him (Gargoyle later establishes that he doesn’t need to yell) to update him and complain that he’s blocking the diving board. The four characters (well, Gargoyle can only listen at the moment) discuss their new circumstance. Neither Nighthawk nor Moondragon are especially magical, Valkyrie is just visiting, and Gargoyle’s curse only lets him be active when he’s needed. Wong was the magical heavy hitter.
Bill joins them mid-conversation and doesn’t really realize that this is more brainstorming for solutions than an actual recruitment drive. They specifically ask him to stop helping them, but Bill can’t help himself. He runs another video, this time with some more details about the “anyone can be a member of the Deterrent” concept and both an address and a picture of their house.
The other three members of the group spend the rest of night drinking and laughing, because they genuinely like each other. Kyle and Heather are having a great time telling Valkyrie about some of their adventures so far and some of the stupider mistakes they’ve both made. Valkyrie makes sure some sort of booze or other is poured into Gargoyle’s mouth (which he is grateful for when he unfreezes later). They wake up the next morning hungover and in “just woke up” state and Bill excitedly brings them downstairs to meet their guests…
Like 15 or so costumed dopes of all power levels/reputation (including a bunch of MCU characters that have barely been used) are lounging around the pool.
“And more are coming.”
Valkyrie gives Heather a “you got this” look and goes back to bed, as Heather and Kyle stare out slack-jawed at the plague of c-listers. Some masked knucklehead announces “we’re your new members” and the visitors cheer. Dollar Bill looks VERY pleased with himself.
Anyhow, that’s how I’d bring them into the MCU. The mob would eventually be whittled down to just one or two new members (through attrition, injury, and just being generally freaked out by freaky weird stuff) and those new members would be at least one powerful magic based character (like Son of Satan) and the cosmic character Cloud (Cloud eventually learns that they’re a sentient nebula – they’re also genderfluid by design).
Basically, the show or movie would basically be What We Do in The Shadows meets The X-Files with superheroes. While they’re all perfectly capable heroes, they never have any idea what loopiness they’ll be facing from day to day, so all they can do is be ready.
I would watch the hell out of the version of this team that I imagine.