The Defenders are finally reuniting in Daredevil: Born Again Season 3. The partnership between Marvel Television and Netflix set up a new superhero team, the Defenders, who starred in their own show. Sadly, looking back, The Defenders was the beginning of the end for Marvel Netflix; it didn’t land well, with disappointing viewership blamed on a less-than-inspiring story and the failure of Iron Fist Season 1. The potential was there, but it just wasn’t realized, and the partnership between Marvel and Netflix gradually fell apart.
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Everything old is new again, and that includes the Marvel Netflix heroes. Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin have ushered in a new age for these heroes, with Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones and Mike Colter’s Luke Cage returning in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. Set photos have officially confirmed the Defenders will reassemble in Born Again Season 3, with Finn Jones’ Danny Rand joining the cast as well. But how powerful are these heroes compared to Daredevil?
4. Jessica Jones
Let’s start with Jessica Jones, who would be ranked as much more powerful if not for weaknesses introduced in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. Fatally injured in a car crash, Jessica was experimented on using a form of genome editing using a mysterious substance called IGH (possibly Inhuman Growth Hormone, riffing on the Mutant Growth Hormone in the comics). “One day, you’re a scrawny kid getting D’s in PE,” she quipped. “The next day, you can toss a minivan.” It’s hard to estimate Jessica’s strength, because she has a high base level but increases in strength due to emotions such as anger.
Jessica does have a degree of enhanced resistance to injury, as well as a healing factor similar to Wolverine’s (but nowhere near as extreme). This healing factor seems to include an ability to generate antibodies at an unusual rate, which allowed her to develop resistance to Kilgrave’s mind control. Jessica is not invulnerable, though, and can be crowded out by normal human opponents – a weakness Kilgrave used against her, when he controlled crowds of civilians.
Born Again Season 2 revealed Jessica Jones’ powers are acting up after her pregnancy. This is likely hormone-related, given her powers are rooted in an artificial hormone, but it nonetheless nerfs Jessica quite significantly. Her powers drop without warning, and we’ve already seen there is no consistent pattern to their sudden disappearance. It gives Jessica a massive vulnerability in combat, and explains why she comes fourth on this list. Hopefully Born Again Season 3 (or a Jessica Jones revival) will deal with this, and restore her power level.
3. Daredevil
He may be the flagship hero for Marvel’s Defenders, but Daredevil is far from the most powerful. Daredevil’s superhuman senses act as a substitute for the loss of his sight, including a unique radar sense far more potent than Spider-Man’s spider-sense. According to Marvel Anatomy: A Scientific Study of the Superhuman, this allows him to generate a “monochromatic, three-dimensional mental image” of the world around him, giving him incredible awareness of his environment. This can, however, be overwhelmed by torrential rain.
In addition to his radar sense, Daredevil’s other senses operate at superhuman levels. His sense of smell is better than a tracker dog’s, he can taste particles on the air, and his hearing is incredible precise. Daredevil’s sense of touch allows him to detect the slightest vibrations, tracking movement in entire buildings, and he’s even learned how to use this to orient himself in unfamiliar environments. All these hyper-senses operate together seamlessly, giving him huge advantages over ordinary humans.
Daredevil is an otherwise ordinary human being, which means he’s vulnerable to all the injuries other people can suffer. He is, however, easily one of the most skilled hand-to-hand combatants in the world; trained by martial artists, he’s developed a unique scrappy technique that takes full advantage of his situational awareness and hyper-senses. This means he can avoid blows that would otherwise cripple him, hence he’s ranked above Jessica Jones on this ranking.
2. Luke Cage
The final two Defenders are actually pretty difficult to rank, because both are absolute powerhouses. Luke Cage went through an experimental procedure that enhanced his entire physiology. He has superhuman strength and speed, a degree of enhanced agility due to his incredibly strong muscles, and athlete-level reflexes. Most notably, Luke famously has skin that is literally bulletproof; he’s resistant to physical injury, to such an extent that he’s practically invulnerable.
There is, however, one major limitation to Luke’s invulnerability. His skin may be impervious to injury, but internal organs still suffer damage. This meant he suffered a brain hemorrhage after he was shot point-blank by a shotgun, and it turned his invulnerability into a weakness; Claire Temple had to drain cerebrospinal fluid from his eye because she couldn’t penetrate his skin. So Luke shouldn’t be considered all-powerful and invincible.
1. Iron Fist
Finally, we have Finn Jones’ Iron Fist – ironically the most powerful Defender, while also the biggest “risk” after the failure of Iron Fist Season 1 (albeit with a much-improved Season 2). Iron Fist is another skilled martial artist, arguably one of the most formidable in the entire MCU. In terms of power, Danny Rand has been trained to manipulate the life-force known as “chi” to explosive effect. A Chi-powered punch from Danny can hurt Luke Cage, break steel, or generate waves of concussive force that blast enemies back.
The final scenes of Iron Fist Season 2 suggested Danny has learned another trick, channeling his Chi through pistols – meaning he can fire explosive bullets that can do a phenomenal amount of damage. There’s no reason to assume he hasn’t also learned to channel Chi through other weapons and objects. At one point, he trained Colleen Wing on how to draw Chi from an environment to boost her own powers, so it’s safe to say he has this ability as well.
The Defenders are largely scrappers, dealing with threats in hand-to-hand-fights. Danny Rand holds his own in that kind of fight, but he has the added advantage of ranged attacks courtesy of his Chi manipulation, which places him at the top of this ranking. It will be fascinating to see whether Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 shows just how powerful he really is.
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