Its not often superheroes have children, usually because comic book editors don't want to age or tie-down their characters and ward off fresh, young readers. Its even more uncommon for these children to be accidents. Among these accidental super-babies there's today's Z-Lister Danielle Cage.
Danielle Cage is the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones and she was created on March 1st, 2008 in the pages of "The Pulse #13". Danny was created by Brian Michael Bendis, the same creator of Jessica Jones. "The Pulse" was Bendis' follow-up series to "Alias" which was the series following Jessica Jones. At the end of "Alias" Jessica revealed to Luke Cage-the street hero known as Power Man-that she was pregnant with his child. You see, "Alias" was one of Marvel's more "real" series. What I mean is that the focus was more on the pessimistic lives of superheroes rather than aliens and magic and typical superhero adventures. Jess and Luke had been sleeping with each other, but Luke slept with plenty of women and Jess wasn't interested in dating anyone. But when Jess was pregnant Luke stepped up and swore to support her, and by spending time together (time not spent breaking bed frames) Luke and Jess began to like each other.
When she was born, Danielle was named after Luke Cage's best friend Danny Rand/The Iron Fist. As such, Danny Rand was treated like family just like many members of The New Avengers. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones had officially gotten married shortly after Danny's birth. Among the New Avengers was Iron Man's butler Jarvis who babysat on occasion. However it was revealed during "Secret Invasion" that Jarvis had been replaced with a shapeshifting alien called a Skrull. Luke and Jess were so desperate to get their baby back (ribs) they turned to Norman Osborn. What made this difficult for the couple was the fact that Norman (as The Green Goblin) had attacked Jessica during her time as a reporter for almost outing Norman's secret identity. Luke was able to defeat Norman, reveal his secret, and get him locked up. At this point Norman was in charge of SHIELD and agreed to help under certain conditions. Jess had already registered with The Superhuman Registration Act to keep her baby safe, but Norman had asked Luke to register in return for helping them. Norman would also recruit Luke to lead his Thunderbolts, a team of supervillains forced to be heroes. After Venom (Mac Gargan) interrogated a captured Skrull, Luke was able to find the warehouse Skrullvis (Skrull Jarvis) had been living in with Danny and surprise him. After Skrullvis handed the baby back to Luke, the Skrull was sniped in the head by the villain Bullseye.
Danny would go on to be a side character in the pages of New Avengers, being among powerful role models like Doctor Strange and The Thing and...Spider-Man....and Wolverine. Hmm. Also she received a new babysitter, Squirrel Girl! That guarantees safety. More recently Danny is seen in the pages of 2016's "Power Man & Iron Fist" where she and her mother Jess spectate the adventures of Luke and Danny Rand. It has also been revealed that a new Captain America will be on a team called The U.S.Avengers. This Cap comes from the future and is apparently the adult version of Danielle Cage!
Like Spider-Man and Nightwing, Danielle Cage seems to be a character who's allowed to age. In publication she's eight, but in comic book years I'd say three or four. Danielle-just as a baby-represents a lot of things I love about comic books. For one thing: She was an accident. Luke and Jess were just two sex-driven people having sex. Next thing they knew they had a baby and had to get married and all that jazz. It's fortunate Luke and Jess liked each other enough to stay together unlike many real-world cases of people banging, having kids, and then hating each other. But I guess when you're a superhero there is more pressure not to do that kind of thing. Danny was the spark that created one of my favorite comic book romances, she gave Luke and Jess so much more character and a reasonably happy future. Also by the look of Cap Danny, that baby is going to strong as The Hulk on a Monday morning. Danny is a family starter beyond her parents, she was basically the mascot to The New Avengers, a team of heroes more based in reality and more focused on their personalities. I hope to see Danny continue to age, I like her as a widdle baby and as a future Captain America (seriously, props to that) but watching her develop as a child of a superhero world will be entertaining. And unlike Superman and Spider-Man and so many others, The Cage Family is a family Marvel Editorial can't break-up at this point. I mean, come on, they're unbreakable.
Thanks for reading!
Would you babysit a baby that could lift a TV? Comment below!
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