…So I’ve watched the first few Netflix eps before, but don’t remember anything, so I’ve started over.
Holy Shit, the tone is Verrrrrrrry un-MCU-like! The sheer amount of brutal violence in just the first ten minutes? Did matt kill that goon who was just sitting in a chair watching the fight?? Looks like the dude knocked into the water was either knocked out or his throat was crushed.
So I definitely see what a quandry Feige is in. That tone isn’t going to sit right in a Disney movie or Disney plus series. Ideally, I’d have liked to combine the best of the Netflix series and what Disney has to offer. Most of the cast, the iconic stories and Disneys resources. IMHO, the Netflix series all have this weird color pall over them. Maybe things are just a bit too grimy? …but obviously Feige isn’t doing that. I don’t see them going back and retelling any of the Netflix stories.
I haven’t got to Fisk yet…but I can see how the Netflix series fans would be irked by what happened in Hawkeye…while I think its kinda funny.
All Fisk did was get up in the morning and everything went to shit!! His whole Hawkeye appearance screams, “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” He was just gonna finish up some Christmas shopping, and take a few days off. Next thing he knows, half is org. is in jail and he’s been shot in the head.
Years ago, some academics did a study of social interconnectivity in the Marvel (comic book) Universe. The most interconnected were Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man. Way (way,way,way) down near the bottom of heroes with their own titles was Daredevil. He’s a great character, but somehow he’s a bad fit for team-ups and super groups. I’ll bet he’s made more appearances in other characters’ books as a lawyer than a superhero. One notable exception was a run where he teamed up with Black Widow - but I don’t think we’ll be seeing that any time soon in the MCU.
Kingpin, on the other hand, has a presence that spans several titles, even if he’s often just a throwaway figurehead for organized crime in NYC.
All of the Netflix TV shows felt a bit limited (IMO) because all of their heroes had basically the same power: super-punching. (Luke Cage at least had nigh-invulnerability to add some variety.)
So you end up with the situation (in Daredevil season 1, for instance) where they set up a villain who can’t be immediately defeated by punching for the first 9 episodes (e.g. Kingpin has a bunch of crooked police and judges), but then in the finale the villain gets defeated by – you guessed it – punching. Which I found a bit anti-climactic.
The Daredevil comic book in its “classic” Frank Miller period was dark, grimy and extremely violent with a very high death count. Daredevil himself was a rather Batman-like semi-anti-hero inclined towards beating on thugs to extract information. I think in one several issue run literally scores of malevolent ninja are sliced, stabbed, shot and beaten to death. There are many, many wounds and pools of blood. In that respect the Netflix series was sorta on point.
But I’ll grant it is not the easiest milieu to blend into the MCU.
The expectation is that, as She Hulk is a lawyer, Matt Murdock will likely appear in that show. If not him, then Foggy Nelson, Jeri Hogarth, or Karen Page. There’s no doubt that Feige is softening on their connectivity to the MCU. But it’s also true that the Multiverse can help explain any inconsistencies.
Honestly, even though I knew it wouldn’t happen I half expected Kingpin to just kill Eleanor, just based on how he was in DD. And to punch the hell out of Kate, simply because he was a brutal fellow there. It’ll take a little while to get used to Disney Fisk.