With the reacquistion of some fan favorites like Daredevil, Blade, Punisher etc. we were all hoping as fans that they would get the Marvel Movie treatment. This doesn't look like its happening soon.
Kevin Feige - “We’re trying to figure out what to do with Daredevil now. Punisher could show up at one point. You know, once we get characters back into the Marvel fold we don’t want to do something right away, we want to do the smart thing at the smart time.”
So then we got Daredevil in the form of a new show on Netflix, but what about everyone else they got back? Fans all around are clamoring for a decent Marvel TV series as well as a gritter look into the MCU since they feel the MCU is too Disneyfied and meant for the General Audience ergo Families with Children.
My proposal is bring in the Marvel Knights as a series event consisting of 26 one hour episodes and put them on something like HBO or AMC. Not Netflix, as I don't think that many people subscribe to Netflix and may miss the shows entirely. It baffles me really, I really like Daredevil and I'm genuinely excited about the Defenders Series but I'm not sure its enough to get me to subscribe to an online television service just to see it.
The usual lineup for the Marvel Knights would be Blade, Punisher, Daredevil and Ghost Rider. I propose the same line up except with Daredevil being replaced by Moon Knight.
Now the common thing with all these characters is that they're not your typical friendly neighborhood hero. Blade is a sword wielding vampire who kills vampires. Punisher is gun-toting anti hero who puts bullets in criminals. Moon Knight beats up thugs in the night like Batman but has got multiple personality issues. Ghost Rider is flaming bike rider possessed by a demon because of deal he made with the Devil.
For these reasons they should be on HBO or AMC or even FX. These have hosted succesful shows with large fanbases such as Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and FX will soon show the Guillermo Del Toro directed The Strain, which is based on a Vampire Horror novel.
Instead of going just to the usual route of introducing each character then having them team up at the end of the series, I would just like them to go and be at it already established and fighting crime. If the series gets enough interest after their first season then I say go solo and spring off 4 spin offs for each character.
With these characters, a darker side of the MCU can be explored without having to name drop or cameo the other characters/heroes established in the movies or Agents Of SHIELD. Simply just set in rural areas and small towns and have the timeline set between The Winter Soldier and Avengers 2, a time when most of the world would be more worried about HYDRA and SHIELD than some freak in a white cape, a flaming skeleton, a vampire, and a vigilante with a skull painted on his chest.
The main premise for the Marvel Knights would be: 4 crime fighting individuals travel across small towns tracking down an uknown mythical evil (also unknowingly and mistakenly tracking down eachother as each will be marked as monster by the general public) and ending up with a team up in Las Vegas against the true forces of evil.
Each protagnist's episode would be running in a timeline simultaneously to eachother and at first we start with Punisher.
Punisher (Think Grimm + Leverage)
We see him traveling through small buroughs of New York as he is more grounded and showing him taking down thugs and human traffickers.
He follows one of these human traffickers through the forests around New York till he gets to the more rural and mountainous areas.
He continues his search when he finds a lead on the traffickers while finding local reports of someone slaying women and children with a sword. He continues the search until at one point he comes across someone who is trafficking humans to consume. Punisher finds slain bodies with their heads chopped off and a bunch of freaks he simply just can't shoot and kill normally.
Enter Vampires...
But with a twist. These vampires turn back to their human form after being killed. And this whole time he's been blasting off vampire head shots and tracking down the murderer of the women and children vampires, he's actually been tracking down...
Blade. (Think a better version of True Blood + Buffy the Vampire Slayer + Everything good about the Blade Movies)
So enter Blade's side of the story and his parallel mini series. Blade has been following a lead of a new cult of Vampires right out of the backwoods and swapms in New Orleans. (Yes Cajun Vampires) They take anyone and everyone, men, women, children, addicts, bums, and anyone no one would miss right away right in the middle of Mardi Gras. Some they kept as drone Vampires to gather more bodies, and some they just shipped to Vampire Safehouses and Warehouses to feed off of.
He slays most of the Vampires no matter children or women, and the local police start hunting him down after he leaves a trail of human bodies. He was disgusted at this as he was killing people who were innocent and did the only thing he could, to slay all the Vampires that had turned. But Blade knew there was a lead Vampire ordering these cronies around. He had to keep searching.
He hears reports of a mortal human going around shooting up Vampires and that's where he meets up with Frank Castle the Punisher. Who was actually hot on his trail whilst he was hunting the same Vampires Blade was looking for.
First they would do the usual song and dance when two anti-heroes meet.
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Have a huge misunderstanding
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Fight but find they are equally matched
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Have some common enemies show up
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Enemy of my Enemy is my friend
So they work together tracking down the lead Vampire who turns out to be Baron Blood in Las Vegas(they can have this in connection to Cap or any WW2 Marvel Related stories) .
They get outnumbered and cornered by all the Vampires in Sin CIty. Looks to be the end of Blade and Punisher, when Moon Knight and Ghost Rider Crash the party.
END FIRST HALF OF SEASON.
Part 2 Will deal with Ghost Rider and Moon Knight's stories running parallel with the events of the first half of the season.
It will also have that thematic arc of Punisher/Blade where each is hunting eachother as one is a Monster posing as a Man(Blade and Moon Knight), and the other is a Man becoming a Monster(Punisher and Ghost Rider).
Ghost Rider (Think Sons of Anarchy + Angel)
Ghost Rider will start off in Texas and him hunting down some demon worshipping cults in the deserts. This will be the Dannny Ketch version but already established as a demon hunthing spirit of Vengeance. He finds out that they've been sacrificing people and draining them of their blood. When he finds one of the supposed demons, he find out they're just Vampires and starts hunting them down anyway. Leading him right into a gang of Vampire Bikers.
Moon Knight (Think Dexter + Supernatural + some Arrow)
Moon Knight will be in Hollywood also tracking down a lead with Vampires stalking people at night in Clubs and rave parties in remote areas of the desert. All the while with Khonshu the Egyptian Spirit goading him on to be more ruthless with his kills.
The series will deal more about his split personalities and less on his mercenary background and origins. As he tracks down the killers we find him dealing with a biker gang of Vampires that he follows through the deserts into New Mexico.
Moon Knight and Ghost Rider have a little fight, reconcile and head to Las Vegas where they track down the rest of the Vampires and Baron Blood. There they find Punisher and Blade alread amidst the Vampire Horde.
They fight alongside eachother and the Marvel Knights are born.
Hit the comments section to let me know what you think. And for any possible casting choices that you'd like to see. I might just write an article for that, but for another day.
I'd actually like to see Wesley Snipes and Thomas Jane back in their respective roles.
The setup for this Marvel Knights event would be 2 mini series contained within the 1 Season
First Mini Season Half
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Punisher ( 6 episodes)
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Blade (6 episodes)
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Blade and Punisher meet up ( 1 episode - Mid Season Finale) with a cameo of Moon Knight and Ghost Rider
Second Mini Season Half
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Ghost Rider ( 6 episodes)
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Moon Knight ( 6 episodes)
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The whole team together as a continuation of the finale (1 Episode)