Who Are Marvel's 'The Defenders'?

It's that beautiful time of year once more, when we are flooded with trailers, posters, hype-building panels and celeb appearances galore for all things comic book related. Yes, I'm talking about the glorious San Diego Comic Con. Among the Day One treats that's have been released to the world is the mysterious trailer for Netflix's The Defenders. But wait, I thought Marvel already had a superhero squad in the form of the Avengers? So, who are The Defenders? Since making their coming book debut in the early '70s, The Defenders have been a pretty badass assemblage of Marvel's underdogs. While the line-up has been in rotation since those early days, this latest trailer purports a team of heroes you actually know pretty well already.

With a rather moody song scoring it (Nirvana's "Come As You Are"), all we see are teasers of the series' characters — but they're only semi-cryptic in what they reveal. While Kurt Cobain's voice wails, "Come as you are/as you were/as I want you to be," layers of paper and images are shown, then peeled back to reveal half-obscured words: the names or identities of The Defenders themselves. The first two revealed are relatively easy to identify. We first see the headline, "The Devil Of Hell's Kitchen" and the paper gets pulled back to show (you guessed it) a bright red letter "D." So, Daredevil is definitely part of the team but will he be the leader? Is there even a leader of this version of The Defenders?

As we go through the subsequent reveals, we see a purple camera lens, a note on Seagate Prison and the letter "F," followed by the question, "Who is Danny Rand?" If you have as a keen as eye as myself, you can deduce pretty quickly that (spoiler) the other members of The Defenders are Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and The Iron Fist. While we've immersed ourselves in the worlds of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, we have yet to experience Luke Cage or The Iron Fist's worlds, respectively. If you're curious to see what is in store for these guys, Marvel has also released the super-tantalizing trailers for the heroes' separate shows. Go watch them watch ASAP over on Marvel's Facebook page.

But there are still plenty of questions I have after watching The Defenders trailer. Like, how does the team actually come together? Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are the only ones who've actually met in this version of New York City. Will we see The Iron Fist take up residence in New York City in his own series, before The Defenders airs? Will Daredevil have a magical run-in with any of the other three team members during his own upcoming Season 3? Or, will there be a backdoor pilot-esque episode in any of the new solo seasons (Daredevil, Luke Cage or The Iron Fist) which explains how they meet?

Oh, and did I mention there's a seriously ominous vibe? The only bit of spoken dialogue in the trailer comes from an unseen character who says, "You think you four can save New York? You can't even save yourselves." Is that the villain speaking? Is it the organizer of The Defenders? Who or what do The Defenders have to save New York City from? The line implies that when we first meet the team, they might be in far worse shape than we last left them in their own separate shows. For Luke Cage and The Iron Fist, whose solo stories we still have yet to see, I am already fearing for their safety already because it sounds like they have some major problems on their hands.

You guys, I'm so, so ready to binge watch The Defenders, it's not even fair. Get the full sneak peek for yourself with the newly released trailer below.

Images: Netflix US & Canada/Youtube (4)