'Defenders' Made a Character More Comics-Accurate in a Brutal Way

Netflix had made several changes from the comics in its adaptation of Marvel’s The Defenders and the four solo-series leading up to it. Many of the characters look different or have altered backstories and experiences. In The Defenders’s season finale, something happens to one of these characters that makes them significantly more like their comics counterpart, and it’s a shocking change.

This post contains big ol’ spoilers for the last episode of The Defenders, so read ahead at your own risk.

The finale sees three of the four Defenders, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, descending into the pit at the center of Midland Financial to rescue Iron Fist from the Hand. Meanwhile, Colleen Wing and Claire Temple place explosives around the ground floor in an attempt to take down the building. Bakuto, Colleen’s former mentor and evil sensei, attacks the pair right around the same time that Misty Knight enters the building. During the scuffle, Bakuto uses his sword to effortlessly slice off Misty’s right arm.

In the comics, Misty was also an officer with the NYPD, but she lost her arm while trying to prevent a bomb from going off. Tony Stark later outfitted her with a sleek golden bionic arm that gave her enhanced strength a signature new look.

The Defenders ends with Misty in the hospital, missing her arm above the elbow. But, as Colleen notes, Danny Rand owns the hospital, and they dabble in some pretty cutting-edge stuff, so it’s not too hard to imagine Misty might get a golden replacement arm of some sort in the future.

Misty losing her arm in The Defenders was shocking because it was such a quick, violent moment, but it was really surprising because the Netflix shows had already seemed to have teased that possibility before tossing it out. In Luke Cage, Diamondback shot her in the arm during a standoff at Harlem’s Paradise. It was a pretty serious injury, and Claire warned that it might have to be amputated if she didn’t get proper media attention soon.

At the time, the line seemed like a nod towards Misty’s comic arc, but since she ended the season with the arm still attached, fans assumed that was as close as the show would get.

“I think it was a great kind of teaser for the fans you know because everyone wants Misty to have that arm,” actress Simone Missick told IGN after Luke Cage premiered. “I’ve never seen anyone want me to lose an appendage more. So I think that they wanted to play with that and give people the ‘will it happen or will it not?’”

Guess fans got what they wanted in The Defenders.

The Defenders is currently streaming on Netflix.