Matthew Murdock. The blind lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen has thrown himself into his pro bono work in the hopes of putting the Devil, and the loss of a woman he loved, aside. But the devote Catholic can’t escape the remorse he feels for her death, nor can he escape the draw he feels of his alter-ego, Daredevil. Murdock longs for the streets of New York so he can put the fists of “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen,” to work to help protect the innocents.

Jessica Jones. The private investigator who has a penchant for booze and a dislike for the lime light. She is a woman who wants to be a hero, but doesn’t want to be known for being a hero. She is a loner, who truly doesn’t want to be alone. She attempts to push others away through her witty sarcasm and perpetual pessimism, but deep within her soul wants to help.

Luke Cage. The Hero of Harlem. A man willing to pay a debt to society that he didn’t incur. A man who just wants to move forward from his incarceration. A man, who’s True North is doing the right thing, no matter what the consequences. A man who wants nothing more than to help people.

Danny Rand. The Immortal Iron Fist. Billionaire. A man who in many ways is still a boy. Danny believed that if he became the Immortal Iron Fist that it would slake the pain he felt in losing his parents at the tender age of ten, but alas it did not. In fact, in his quest to find himself he left Kun Lun, the city he swore to protect. In his absence, the Hand, the mortal enemy of the monks of Kun Lun, returned and killed everyone there. Now, yoked with the guilt of his failure to protect the city he has followed the Hand back to New York, his original home. Danny’s mission: to exact revenge on the Hand. It is all that he has left, with no other purpose than his need to help protect the people of New York and obviate losing it to the Hand as well.

What unifies these four markedly different souls, these unlikely heroes, is their individual need to help. They all want to help protect New York city, and their loved ones that reside within. Matt, Jessica, Luke, and Danny learn to unite under one banner as they all come to see their common goal: protecting New York from the Hand. As they work together to help one another defeat the Hand their bonds of friendship grow deeper, like the roots of a tree being feed water. As those roots grow deeper so do the branches of the tree get stronger, creating a family, one to replace those family members that have been lost. Or maybe they fill the void of family members they never had.

In the end, they become Defenders, not because they are your typical superheroes (in fact they are quite the opposite) but because they need each, not only to defeat the Hand and save New York, but simply because they need each other. They each need a family.

Family can be found in the most unlikely places. Keep your heart, mind, and soul open to others. You never know where, or with whom, you might find a common tie; a person who may, in time, become like a brother or sister. If it can happen in a big, crowded city like New York, with four people who have little to nothing in common, I think it can happen anywhere.