Jessica Jones has returned to the MCU, and she’s bringing a child with her.
Krysten Ritter pulled out the iconic leather jacket for “Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2, Episode 6 (titled “Requiem”) on Tuesday, years after her own Netflix show for the character ended in 2019.
This week’s episode opens with Wilson Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) raiding Jessica’s home, revealing that she now has a child — a daughter named Danielle.
But who is Danielle Jones? Does she exist in the comics? And who is her father? Read on to find out.
Who is Danielle Jones?
Danielle Jones does not exist in Marvel Comics. At least, she doesn’t exist by that name. Her real name is Danielle Cage-Jones, the daughter of Jessica and Luke Cage (played in the Marvel Netflix shows by Mike Colter).
Danielle was introduced in 2006’s “The Pulse #13,” written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Michael Gaydos. “The Pulse,” a spiritual successor to Bendis and Gaydos’ massively popular Jessica Jones comic “Alias,” follows a group of superhero beat reporters at The Daily Bugle, with Jessica serving as a consultant. “The Pulse #13” also features Luke Cage proposing to Jessica. The pair would later marry in Bendis and Olivier Coipel’s 2006 comic “New Avengers Annual #1.”
Dani has been a big part of Luke and Jessica’s comic book adventures for decades, featured prominently in stories like Bendis’ “New Avengers” (where Squirrel Girl is her nanny) and “Secret Invasion” (where she is abducted by a Skrull).
The pair named Danielle “Dani” Cage-Jones after Danny Rand, a.k.a. Iron Fist (played in the Marvel Netflix shows by Finn Jones). In the MCU, Danny served on the Defenders with Luke and Jessica in their crossover Netflix series. In the comics, Danny and Luke have a more established bond as best friends and fellow Heroes for Hire, a superpowered vigilante team that would bill their services.
Now that we know Jessica’s daughter is named Danielle in “Daredevil: Born Again,” it seems highly likely that Luke would be the father. This also tracks with the presence of Ritter, Colter and Jones on the set for “Born Again” Season 3. Colter shared his own photos of the Defenders reunion on Instagram — though he had to remove one particularly spoiler-y image.
The existence of Dani implies that Jessica and Luke have changed a lot since we last saw them. The two hooked up once during the first season of “Jessica Jones,” though Luke later learned that a mind-controlled Jessica killed his wife.
The two would later patch things up and fight alongside each other as Defenders. However, we did not leave them in a place that indicated such a union could be coming down the road.
What are Dani Cage-Jones’ powers?
Have you heard of the sliding timeline? Otherwise known as the sliding timescale or floating timeline, this narrative device essentially ensures that key events in the Marvel Comics universe are allowed to happen without ruining the decades-long soap operatic nature of the comics.
Gwen Stacy died in 1973, but today’s Spider-Man comics treat that event as if it was 10 years ago. Franklin Richards was born in a comic from the ’60s, but he’s only a few years older than his sister Valeria, born in a book from 2002. With each year that passes, Captain America retroactively spends more time in the ice.
Essentially, events in Marvel Comics happened as recently as a given book needs them to have happened, and the rest of the universe’s lore adjusts accordingly. So Dani Jones-Cage may have been born in a book from 2006, but her recent appearances (such as in Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s 2021 event “Devil’s Reign,” a clear influence on “Born Again”) still have her at around three years old.
So the Dani Cage-Jones of Earth-616 (Marvel’s main comics universe) has yet to demonstrate any meaningful powers… but her multiversal counterparts have.
Introduced by Al Ewing and Alan Davis in 2015’s “Avengers: Ultron Forever #1” (part of a slate of Ultron-related comics released around that time due to the release of “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), the grown-up Danielle Cage of Earth-15061 serves as her planet’s Captain America.
Dani grew up on a dystopian near-future Earth, where Thanos killed half her planet’s heroes in an event called Zero Day. She went on to study under Black Widow, who defeated Thanos through her A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S. Initiative. Dani would eventually take up the mantle of Captain America, wielding the famed hero’s shield while having the same powers as both of her parents: Luke’s invulnerability and Jessica’s strength.
“I don’t just throw the shield,” Dani says. “I am the shield.”
That’s a pretty significant set of abilities, one that rivals many MCU heroes we’ve seen so far. It would certainly make Dani, even at a young age, the strongest member of the “Defenders” crew by pure power alone.
It is, of course, unlikely that this version of Dani Cage will ever see the light of day in the MCU — at least not in “Daredevil: Born Again.” However, the latest episode did tease that Jessica is struggling with her own powers, losing them at random periods ever since Dani’s birth. Perhaps this is our first clue that a super-strong, bulletproof child is now part of the Defenders family.
