Escape from Midland Circle

The Escape from Midland Circle was the first time that the Defenders of New York City fought side by side. Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Danny Rand had all arrived at Midland Circle for different reasons, but found themselves all fighting against the Hand and their newest weapon, the newly resurrected Elektra.

Background

Over a year after her final confrontation with Kilgrave, Jessica Jones was enlisted by Michelle Raymond to find her missing architect husband John. Jones' discovery that Raymond was stockpiling explosives, leading to a confrontation at Alias Investigations, during which Raymond hinted at his ties to a shadowy organization before committing suicide in order to avoid being killed by a resurrected Elektra Natchios. With a growing interest in the case, Jones set out to learn more about Midland Circle after learning that it was the last building Raymond designed prior to his death.

Unbeknownst to Jones, pro bono lawyer and vigilante Matt Murdock, who briefly represented Jones after she was arrested for her involvement in Raymond's suicide, started following her in an attempt to alert her to the dangers her investigation poised.

Meanwhile, former convict Luke Cage was recruited by Misty Knight to look into a series of incidents involving Harlem children who died after being recruited to work for an unknown business. Through following recruit Cole Miller, Cage discovered that he and the dead children were being paid by Midland Circle Financial for their work.

Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, used his resources from Rand Enterprises to look at the transfers that the Hand had made through his company. He learned that the transfer of money ended at Midland Circle. He decided to go there to directly confront the Hand.^[4]

Escape

Rand's direct confrontation proved to be a reckless mistake. By the time he arrived to face the CEOs of Midland Circle, their leader, Alexandra Reid revealed that they laid a trap for him and that they intended to capture him. Immediately the 'CEOs' revealed themselves to be Hand fighter who then tried to capture Rand. Iron Fist fought them bravely. He defeated many of his opponents before they began to overwhelm him with their numbers. The timely arrival of Cage prevented that from happening. Both fighters joined forces and proceed to fight their opponents.

Meanwhile, Murdock, who had followed Jones into the building, heard the gunshots and started heading upstairs, using Jones' scarf as a makeshift mask. Jones followed him. By the time that they arrived upstairs, they found Cage and Rand defeating their attackers. Before they could escape, they were attacked by Elektra and more Hand reinforcements who tried to prevent their escape. The Defenders fought together for the first time and proved to be a deadly and competent team. While Daredevil fought and held off Elektra alone, the remaining Defenders worked to secure their escape by defeating the enemies blocking their escape.

The battle between Daredevil and Elektra proved fierce. Daredevil was shocked to discover that his opponent was his former lover who had been killed several months before. Elektra would have killed Daredevil if it wasn't for Rand coming to his ally's rescue and her own hesitation when Daredevil mentioned her name.

With their enemies defeated, the Defenders escaped from Midland Circle.^[4]

Aftermath

The Defenders escaped from Midland Circle and proceed to find shelter at a Chinese restaurant, the Royal Dragon. The Hand gathered all of their leaders and forces to begin hunting them down. This eventually led to Ambush at the Royal Dragon, where the Defenders would fight the Hand once again.^[6]

This event proved significant as it made the four street heroes join forces and form the Defenders. The team's actions eventually led to the Hand's destruction during the final battle beneath Midland Circle.^[7]

References