This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again seasons 2 and 3.
Only those who aren’t paying attention to the absolute mountain of Disney marketing were surprised to see Jessica Jones stride onto a rooftop to meet up with Matt Murdock in season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. And, thanks to some now-deleted posts from actor Mike Colter, only those who aren’t on social media don’t know that Luke Cage will return for Born Again‘s third season.
But until then, there’s a Luke Cage-shaped hole in the lives of Jessica Jones and her daughter Danielle on Daredevil: Born Again season 2. Moreover, the nuggets we do get from Jessica make us think that Marvel‘s got bigger plans for Power Man than even a Defenders reunion in the third season of Born Again.
A few seconds into their rooftop rendezvous, Jessica mentions some “sketchy” government guy calling around with interest in “us”—meaning super-powered vigilantes. She and Matt don’t say any names for sure, but the subtext becomes text in episode seven, when Jessica goes to confront Mr. Charles, the CIA operative played by Matthew Lillard. When the two start threatening one another, Mr. Charles drops a bomb, reminding Jessica that he’s the only person who can connect her with Luke. When she demands to know where he is, Charles says only, “He’s overseas… doing the Lord’s work.”
That’s a loaded phrase, especially when we remember that Charles works directly under CIA head and general sketchy person Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. So one has to wonder, why would Luke take a job for someone like Mr. Charles and Val?
The simplest possibility is that Luke is doing a job. After all, he made his debut in a 1972 comic titled Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. Since his inception, Luke has been someone who understands the need to pay the bills, and doesn’t allow his labor to be exploited. As shown in an oft-memed comic frame, not even Doctor Doom could escape paying the bill if he owed Luke Cage money. Even in that earliest incarnation, Cage cared about justice and would never do anything to harm the community. But he was fundamentally a member of the working class, and understood that sometimes, you’ve got to do a job. So if Mr. Charles offered him a job, and he thought it wasn’t unethical to take it, Luke Cage could theoretically accept.
A more interesting answer involves the team with whom Val is most associated, at least among MCU fans. In 2010, Cage became the new leader of the Thunderbolts, a team of supervillains trying to become heroes. The assignment came at the request of Steve Rogers, who knew that Luke’s history as a man wrongfully imprisoned would give him insight and sympathy that other Avengers may lack. He served in that position for several years, until going onto form an Avengers splinter group dubbed the Mighty Avengers, and eventually rejoining with his frequent partner Danny Rand, a.k.a. Iron Fist.
While both of those options make sense, some might feel uncomfortable thinking about Luke Cage working for Mr. Charles for any reason. However, the comics might provide some insight there too. In the late 1990s series Heroes for Hire by writers Roger Stern and John Ostrander, penciled by Pasqual Ferry, Iron Fist puts together a new team and, of course, asks his old pal Luke to join. Luke declines, having decided to retire from superheroing and run the movie theater he bought with a long-time pal named David W. Griffith (yes… his name is D. W. Griffith).
Eventually, Luke does join the new Heroes for Hire. Yet, by the end of the series, we learn that he’s doing so under the command of a villain called the Master of the World, the type of caveman turned super-genius that you find kind of often in comics, believe it or not. However, it turns out that Cage was acting as a double-agent, pretending to betray his friends to the Master of the World to thwart his plan. If the MCU adapts this story, then Luke’s working with Mr. Charles could be part of a big heroic plan, so complex that not even his wife understands it.
Whatever Luke’s been up to, it can’t last forever. The pics that Mike Colter leaked show Cage back with Matt and Karen. And, if Matt’s bright orange duds are any indication, Daredevil won’t be leaving New York City anytime soon, so Luke must be back in the Big Apple. And when he does, he’ll have some explaining to do, not just to us fans, but especially to his wife, Jessica.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 releases new episodes every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+.
