Marvel’s the Defenders has a lot of hype to live up to. Like its big screen predecessor Marvel’s the Avengers, the Netflix series unites four previously solo heroes (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist) into a city-saving unit. And while this team-up is on TV, it feels just as big as the 2012 blockbuster. Along the way to this Netflix series, fans have watched five seasons of four other shows. Not only does The Defenders have to be an awesome in its own right, but this eight-episode run has to somehow live up to the 58 hours of television that came before.

Going off of the four episodes made available to the press, The Defenders delivers.

There has been a lot of Marvel content since Avengers rocked the box office five years ago. The best moments in Defenders took me back to that midnight movie screening, causing me to stand straight up and gape at the screen in utter delight/shock. Because of that, I want to keep this as vague and spoiler-free as possible, because The Defenders is something you don’t want spoiled. I’ll put it this way: I’m very glad I watched the first four episodes before seeing the trailer Marvel/Netflix dropped at Comic-Con.

Thankfully, what works best about The Defenders is the cast. Marvel’s Netflix shows are built on lead characters that are also your favorite characters. Yeah, each show has a scenestealer (none as powerful as Luke Cage’s fantastic Misty Knight, played by Simone Missick), but you really love Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter). I didn’t forget the controversial Danny Rand (Finn Jones), and I’ll get to him in a bit. The Defenders has the unenviable task of putting all these characters together while not sacrificing what makes each of them special; you don’t want The Defenders to feel like Jessica Jones guest-starring in a Daredevil episode.

It doesn’t.

The Defenders feels like a true hybrid, the sum being impossibly more enthralling than its charismatic parts. You can practically see the sparks flying as soon as these rock solid characters strike against each other. You see just how good each performer is in their respective role once they’re put in context of the other three. These interactions even make them feel more like their comic counterparts; Matt’s more tortured, Luke’s even cooler, Jess is way flippant.

And then there’s Danny Rand. Of the four heroes chosen for Marvel’s Defenders, Iron Fist was always the most inherently “hmmmmm”-worthy. Created in the ’70s before we put a name to the white savior trope, Danny Rand was a wildly privileged and sandy-haired bro with a surfer vibe and kung fu skills. That’s what Marvel adapted when they cast Finn Jones 40 years after the character’s we-now-recognize-it-as-problematic debut. It was even more problematic considering that Marvel has only now started to put people of color in lead roles; Marvel’s getting there, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still overwhelmingly white. People went into Iron Fist already annoyed and the show’s quality didn’t do much to change their minds. When we meet Danny and his partner-in-crimefighting Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) in Defenders, his chi slows the show down. His performance feels stilted and out of place–until he gets in a room with the other three Defenders.

It’s too soon to tell if Defenders can rehabilitate Danny’s image, but it at least makes Finn Jones’ performance make sense. Defenders calls out Danny’s privilege immediately and bluntly, and–in some of the most entertaining scenes of these episodes–smartly frames Danny as what he is: an immensely naive and socially stunted weirdo who foolishly throws money at the problems his infrequently used Iron Fist can’t solve. The show gives Danny just as much side-eye as Tumblr did, and that finally makes the character work. You can actually see Jones’ performance shift in these four episodes, going from childishly stoic to shockingly watchable as soon as he’s put in close quarters with Luke, Jess, and Matt. I did not expect Iron Fist to win me over in these four episodes, but here we are.

On the less effusive front, Defenders works best when this quartet is verbally (and sometimes physically) sparring with each other, and it drags when they’re apart. Since the first episode was screened in front of a Comic-Con audience, it’s not a super spoiler to reveal that the foursome don’t interact in episode one. Instead, the first chunk of these episodes unfolds like four mini-sodes of four different TV shows spliced together. They’re even color-coded by lighting and filters: red for Daredevil, purple for Jones, yellow for Cage, and green for Iron Fist. These mini-sodes aren’t in any way bad (although the Iron Fist portions drag more than the others), and they’re necessary to set-up the high stakes that bring our heroes together. Still, you want to spend as much time with these four together as you can, and every minute Jessica Jones isn’t teasing Matt Murdock feels like a minute wasted. You do get other cross-show interactions in this stretch, like Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Luke Cage and–a true clash of the titans–Misty Knight and Jessica Jones. To keep the color theory going, when the gang gets together for their first team-up hallway fight, everything goes blindingly white.

Uniting the Defenders is a threat posed by Sigourney Weaver’s Alexandra. The less said about Alexandra the better, as who she is and why she’s doing what she’s doing is one of the show’s central mysteries. Weaver is the reigning queen of genre entertainment thanks to the Alien franchise and Ghostbusters and Galaxy Quest and just being Sigourney f’in Weaver, and seeing her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a massive deal. Thankfully, Weaver’s playing a fascinating character–and she relishes playing the villain. Alexandra is more on the Kingpin side of MCU villains, though; she’s not as charismatic as Mahershala Ali’s Cottonmouth or as energetic as David Tennant’s Kilgrave. Like Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, she’s quiet, menacing, and powerful. Weaver commands attention when she’s onscreen (a side effect of her being Sigourney f’in Weaver) and the show knows uses that. By the end of episode four, I was sufficiently intimidated by Alexandra, letting out an audible gasp when she made an appearance in a place she should not be.

The show also brings Elodie Yung’s endlessly enigmatic Elektra back to life, this time as a weapon wielded by Alexandra. And much like her new employer, Elektra’s role is best left as a surprise to viewers. Yung’s performance in Daredevil’s second season was infused with danger and tension, and The Defenders adds a new wrinkle to the crimson-colored assassin.

Ultimately, The Defenders had to successfully accomplish one huge thing: justify 65 episodes of build-up. Despite a slow start, the show comes through on its promise and gives the heroes a threat worthy of their newly united attention. Defenders also doesn’t sacrifice the vital voices of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage when it throws them in a very Daredevil-y plot, and Defenders even makes Iron Fist work. These characters work so well together, it’s now hard to imagine them apart.

The full eight-episode season of Marvel’s The Defenders arrives on Netflix on August 18

Where to stream Marvel's The Defenders

Where to stream Marvel's Daredevil

Where to stream Marvel's Jessica Jones

Where to stream Marvel's Luke Cage

Where to stream Marvel's Iron Fist