Relationship Spotlight: Colleen Wing & Claire Temple (The Defenders)

*Note: While I will spend some time specifically talking about The Defenders here, I’m also using it as a shorthand for the Marvel Netflix universe of shows in general.*

I’ve been gradually rewatching the Marvel Netflix shows, which of course have now all migrated to Disney+. Chronologically, I’m now up to season 1 of The Punisher, which means I’ve revisited at least one season of each of the series in this sub-universe. After watching season 1 of Iron Fist and The Defenders lately, I’m reminded of how much I appreciate the friendship between Claire and Colleen.

Claire, of course, is the glue that holds The Defenders verse together. But while she first meets Matt, Jessica, and Luke by happenstance, encountering these powered people at times when they’re badly injured and in need of a discreet nurse, she doesn’t enter Iron Fist via a random meeting with Danny. Instead, we first see her as a student of Colleen’s, taking private self-defense lessons at the dojo.

First of all, this is just a smart thing for Claire to be doing. She’s very much not-super and knows it, but at this point, she’s decided that “helping special people” is her purpose in life, and that inevitably means winding up in dangerous situations. She has no illusions that she’s going to rival Matt in hand-to-hand combat or throw somebody across a bar like Jessica, but she wants to do what she can to keep herself safe when the shit goes down.

So, as Danny repeatedly attempts to insert himself into Colleen’s life, Claire is there to witness it and slowly finds herself getting involved as well, sometimes in her capacity as a nurse and sometimes as a level head amid all the ancient sects and mystical wildness. She’s there for Danny, lending a hand when someone needs patching up and trying to talk sense into him when he’s going off half-cocked, but she’s there for Colleen, too.

As we move from Iron Fist into The Defenders, we see the bond between them as two non-powered women who’ve gotten tangled up in the lives of these powered vigilantes. To me, it takes on an extra dimension beyond, say, Foggy and Karen or Malcolm and Trish. Colleen is someone who’s frequently on the frontlines, fighting alongside Danny with only her skills to keep her alive, no powers to protect her or give her an edge. That places her more in the thick of things than most of the non-powered friends/lovers in this universe, and as all the heroes bring their loved ones to the Harlem precinct to keep them safe from the Hand, Colleen does not think she should be counted as one of them.

This leads to what’s honestly one of my favorite scenes in The Defenders, Claire and Colleen discussing the wild superhero shenanigans they’ve gotten mixed up in, and what it’s like to care about and help these heroes while knowing they can’t fully be in that league. As Colleen gets down on herself, upset at being relegated to the sidelines, Claire reminds her how incredible she is and how much Danny relies on her blade. In turn, Colleen champions Claire for her serious guerilla nursing skills, saving the lives of these heroes (along with Colleen herself) more than once. Claire may think of herself as a cut below, but Colleen points out that none of the others can do what she can.

I love that, this commiseration between non-powered people who are trying to keep up and do their part, worrying about their people and wishing they could do more to help. Sometimes, to recognize the extraordinary within the ordinary, it takes someone else who doesn’t have powers, a costume, or a moniker, and Claire and Colleen are that for each other. Their support for one another is beautiful here, and it’s great to see them do their vital part to help take down Midland Circle while the actual Defenders are doing battle with the Hand. Never to be counted out, these two.

Character Highlight: Danny Rand (Iron Fist)

I didn’t do a write-up specifically on Danny back when Iron Fist came out, although I did a few of the show’s supporting characters, and he remains the only Defender that I haven’t done a full write-up on yet.  I’m on record as being disappointed in the direction they went with for Danny.  Not to rehash all that again, but I’ll quickly hit the highlights.  I know that Danny is white in the comics, so casting Finn Jones for the show isn’t whitewashing – it’s in keeping with the comic, even if that comic is rooted in Orientalist/white savior tropes that feel outdated at best.  So, while the show didn’t precisely do anything wrong with the casting, I am disappointed that they didn’t take the opportunity to go in a different direction with the character.  However, given the character and the show that we wound up getting, I’m doubtful that any hypothetical #AAIronFist would’ve had writing that reflected well on his character, and Asian-American actors who went out for the role may have in fact dodged a bullet.

Because Danny?  I’m not a fan.  I know that my feelings about #AAIronFist and what might’ve been with more adventurous casting and far more interesting writing (again, that second part is critical) color my impressions of the character, but still, he’s no prize.  In fact, he’s a little bit like new Who’s series 8 version of Clara Oswald in that I’m not really sure what the writers think they’re doing with this character, and whether they entirely realize what they wrote.

The CliffNotes origin story:  as a child, Danny Rand (scion of the business giant Rand Industries) survives a plane crash that kills his parents and, as a result, is taken in by the monks of K’un-Lun.  Growing up in a mystical dimension makes for a rather unconventional childhood, and by the time Danny returns home to New York as a young adult, he’s become the Iron Fist, the keeper of a mantle passed down among the greatest of K’un-Lun’s martial artists and in possession of a power forged in the heart of a dragon.  The Iron Fist is supposed to guard the gates of K’un-Lun, but Danny has left the dimension altogether, both to reclaim his old identity (and billion-dollar company) back home and to fight the Hand in America.

There’s some cognitive dissonance between the character we’re informed of and the character we get.  I’ve already discussed Danny’s fight scenes in the first season, which do little to support the idea that he’s the greatest kung fu artist ever (because he uses the actual Fist so sparingly, it’s even more important that his kung fu be insanely impressive, and we really don’t get that.)  There’s a lot of talk about qi and how in-tune/centered Danny is, but more often than not, we get an emotionally-volatile kid who runs into things half-cocked and is easily goaded into ill-advised decisions by his enemies.

I think what they’re going for is that Danny left K’un-Lun way too soon and isn’t ready for the mental and emotional demands of his duty (the series argues that he’s all good on the physical side of things, but like I said, I don’t see it,) and to be fair, a couple characters remark that he’s a pretty terrible Iron Fist.  But over the season, I don’t see much of an intentional journey of him realizing he has to fight smarter, that he needs to reckon more with his emotions, etc.  Things just kind of happen, and I spend much of the season wondering why he’s the one calling the shots rather than Colleen and/or Claire.

As I’ve said, I do enjoy Danny more in The Defenders, although that’s really more about his place in the group dynamic than about improvements to the character.  He works better for me as a foil for the other characters – self-important, sort of blithely-naïve, and talking a lot about his qi – than as the main mover and shaker on his own show.  I like the incredulous “is this guy for real?” reactions to him from Matt, Jessica, and Luke.  Is that enough to make him worth it?  I’d have a hard time arguing that.  For my money, Iron Fist is Marvel’s first big TV misstep, and Danny himself is a major part of that.

Favorite Characters: Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher (The Punisher)

It would’ve been relatively easy to make Frank Castle the uncomplicated face of a high-octane revenge scenario, all ultraviolence style and little substance.  And to be sure, Frank’s action scenes, on both Daredevil and The Punisher, are extremely well-done, brutal but deftly crafted and executed.  Frank could’ve been a cool enough character that way, a similar sort of satisfying to watching Hit-Girl in action (although less darkly comic and more just dark.)  Marvel’s Netflix shows, however, resist that temptation, going deeper with Frank so that you never lose sight of the man behind the vendetta (premise spoilers.)

Frank has the tragic backstory of many a comic-book protagonist.  His wife and children were killed, not by his own mistakes, but by his proximity to those of others.  After witnessing something he shouldn’t have, Frank loses his family in a bloody, devastating way.  He’d already been dragging around a lot of damage from his time in the service, and this violent injustice utterly breaks him.  He divorces himself from whatever life he might otherwise have had and devotes himself to taking revenge on everyone in any way connected to the deaths of his loved ones.  In season 2 of Daredevil, he dispatches those who had a hand in the killings one by one, with ruthless efficiency, and in his own series, he moves on to those at the heart of the conspiracy.

The franchise doesn’t absolve Frank’s actions, but it doesn’t condemn him for them, either.  On Daredevil, Matt wants to draw clearly-delineated lines between the Punisher and himself, painting Frank as a dangerous murderer who’s taken the law into his own hands, while Karen gradually begins to see him more as a victim of circumstance who’s responding the only way he can.  But Frank is both of these things, and neither, and more.  He makes immoral decisions about his means of punishing immoral people, and even as he cuts a swathe of bodies through those who destroyed his life, he has certain ethical boundaries that spring up in unexpected places, pulling him just back from the brink of becoming the same as what he hates.  At this point, it’s not even clear what Frank is still doing it for.  I think he’s lost hope of it bringing him release, and he never expected salvation.  But despite the despair and futility behind his quest for vengeance, he can’t give it up.

Frank’s damage runs deep, and in The Punisher especially, that takes center stage.  He’s an imposing figure, a lethal killer who rarely thinks twice about taking a life he’s decided to take, but he’s also a man wracked by PTSD, both from his experience overseas and from the loss of his family.  Bloody memories punctuate his nightmares and waking hours alike, and sometimes, amid all his careful plans of revenge, it’s a struggle for him simply to function.  He sees other veterans try to deal with their demons in different ways, but he’s chosen his own path to address his, even if he knows it won’t bring him any peace.