The Coming of Snuffcarcass

I'm posting a day earlier than usual since I'm thinking of going to Aberdeen tomorrow, to see the lunchtime play at the Lemon Tree.
Today, I wanted to talk about the dvd boxsets of the Netflix Defenders series. They form a mosaic of interlocking stories, largely drawn from comics written by Brian Bendis and Frank Miller. And, unfortunately, they've all been cancelled recently.


Two years ago, I was in a pretty bad place, work- and mental health-wise, living in suburban East Ren. I had bought the boxset of the first season of Daredevil to watch on Saturday nights and hadn't enjoyed it at all. I found the pace too slow and the gory violence in the series was depressing.


However, negative reviews aside, curiosity drew me to season one of Iron Fist last summer :https://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-thing-of-iron.html

I was entertained enough to give Daredevil season two a chance. Again, it was very bloody and extremely violent: it adapted the tragic, early 80s stories of Elektra and the Punisher.

I moved on next to Luke Cage, which surpassed the gritty bloodshed of DD. This is a story of murder and corruption, revolving around the Harlem's Paradise nightclub and the family relationships of councilwoman Mariah Dillard, gang leader Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes, Luke Cage and his half-brother Willis "Diamondback" Stryker.


We learn of Cage's transformation in experiments by Noah Burstein and prison counsellor Reva Connors and of Cage's prison breakout. All the story strands climax in an operatic collision of betrayal and vengeance. The music throughout the series is amazing, representing all genres of black popular music.

Although I knew the character from FOOM Magazine, as a child, I first discovered Cage in the pages of the Defenders. Then I found him again in Fantastic Four and in his own mag with Danny Rand. I read the first issue of 90s Cage but it didn't speak to me. It was Brian Bendis succeeded in convincing me that Cage was a mainstay of the Avengers.

I enjoyed the boxset enough to explore the (very) darkly humorous PI story of Jessica Jones, the bleakest and most pivotal strand in this saga. JJ Season One is a metaphor for rape and PTSD as it reveals Jessica's abuse at the hands of hoary DD villain, Kilgrave the Purple Man.

Cage and Reva Connors are also victims, indirectly, of Kilgrave as is Trish Walker, talk radio host and tv child star. The orphaned Jessica discovers her super powers in flashback sequences detailing Trish-Patsy's relationship with her abusive mother. Trish is, of course, an iteration of the venerable Marvel teen starlet who became Hellcat.

Another victim, police officer Simpson, begins a relationship with Trish. (This is a series with a number of graphic and vigorous  sex scenes.) Simpson is gradually revealed to be the pill-popping  Nuke from Miller's Born Again DD story.

As with Iron Fist, Cage and DD, Night Nurse Claire Temple becomes involved in Kilgrave's revenge on Jessica. The last episode is particularly grisly. David Tennant's Kilgrave is a deranged and malevolent creature, unforgettably close to the extremes of his performance as the Time Lord Victorious in 2009 and early 2010.

 The violence and sex make these Netflix series tonally very different from the MCU but ironically, Jessica Jones is the most overtly connected to the movie universe with its references to both the "green guy" and "the flag waver" in Manhattan. The interlocking nature of the four series reminds me of King Kirby's Fourth World and I badly want to see the eight-episode Defenders.


I would highly recommend all of these series and currently, I'm enjoying the Inhumans on Pick TV. I can't quite believe that Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal and Lockjaw ( Lockjaw!!) are in Hawaii, on my television, every Tuesday evening.


This weekend, however, I intend to start watching the first Black Lightning box set but I'm re-watching Jodie Whittaker's first season of Doctor Who again too. Coming up in the next few weeks: more First Doctor Adventures, Mr. Miracle , China's New Superman and bad blood with Batwoman.


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