We've Got The Power

Now that the Game Of Thrones season is over, I've been watching Marvel's The Defenders on Netflix.  It's about four heroes--Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil and Iron Fist--getting together to defeat The Hand, an evil organization.

I wasn't that interested, but I'd seen the Jessica Jones series so I thought I'd watch for her.  The other characters had their own shows, but I'd missed them.  Apparently The Defenders takes up where they left off.

The show is okay, but what fascinates me is how do you decide how much power each character has?  There are lots of fights between the good and the bad guys (often the worst part of the show), but they're usually fought to a standstill.

Based on the show alone, and no outside information I know about from Marvel, here's what the characters can do.

Jessica Jones--has superstrength, but can be hurt (though she can take a lot and recover fast) and, I believe, could be killed by chopping off her head or a bullet to the brain. (She also drinks a lot, so maybe she has a superliver.)

Luke Cage--perhaps has superstrength.  At the least he's very strong. But he can be hurt.  His main power is skin that can't be pierced. But you could kill him with, say, poison gas.

Iron Fist--seems to have normal human strength, but has had special training which makes him a great fighter.  And, when he can work himself up to it, has got his iron fist, which seems to be a uniquely powerful force

Daredevil--seems to have normal human strength, but is very well trained so can defeat almost any normal fighter.  He's blind, but it's almost not worth mentioning, since his other sense are heightened to such a degree that I think we can call this a superpower.

The bad guys include the five members of the Hand, who seem to have special powers, though it's never clear when and how they'll use them.  However, they're not invulnerable.  Their heads can be chopped off and their bodies pierced just like anyone's. (Though perhaps they're at low ebb in the series.  They've existed for millennia thanks to a special substance, but they're running out.)

Then there's Black Sky.  She used to be Daredevil's love Elektra, but was killed in a previous series.  Now the Hand, using the substance, has brought her back to life and trained her to be the greatest fighter of all.

There are numerous friends of the good guys, most of whom are normals who wouldn't last long in a fight. Though there's also Stick, an old guy who's the last of an army that fought the Hand, and there's Colleen, a friend of Iron Fist and well-trained in combat.

The bad guys have numerous henchmen, and though they are tough fighters by normal standards, they're really just red shirts.

This long introduction is just to set up a simple question. Who would really win in a fight?  The point is, the fights we do see seem fairly arbitrary in how they work out. And if either side wanted to kill each other, would it be that hard?  (Whenever the Hand shoots bullets, the only guy who gets shot is Luke Cage--the sole good guy who can take it.)

The Hand is supposed to be this fearsome organization that's been behind everything throughout history, but if you get up close to them, how hard is it to chop of a head?

Wow, that was a long post for a very little point.