After a Decade of Fan Demands, the MCU Quietly Sets Up the Avenger You’ve Been Waiting For

Marvel has been clawing its way back from the Phase 4/5 slump, and now the studio is quietly setting the table for some big moves. After Thunderbolts* pulled an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and The Fantastic Four: First Steps landed at 86% (their first back-to-back at that level since 2019), Wonder Man hit Disney+ in January 2026, got great reviews, and scored a season 2 almost immediately. The animated Marvel Zombies swung hard into a new lane and actually stuck the landing. Spider- Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday are two of 2026’s most-wanted tickets. And through all of that, Daredevil: Born Again has been doing the unsexy but essential work of stitching together Marvel’s street-level world while hinting at bigger shifts. This week, it dropped a not-so-subtle grenade: a Luke Cage tease that could connect directly to the New Avengers. Spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 6, 'Requiem'What actually happens in 'Requiem'Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is back. She gets jumped at her suburban home by operatives tied to Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), a CIA fixer running covert superhuman recruitment for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Jessica lays out that Charles previously tried to pull her in to help scout powered people for off-the-books work. Her response was very Jessica Jones. "I told him to f*** off. Not everyone I know did." The episode never says the name out loud, but the implication is loud anyway: Luke Cage (Mike Colter). Jessica’s daughter, Danielle, is framed as Cage’s kid in everything but explicit wording. That turns Luke’s post-Netflix absence from a dangling thread into a choice the MCU is finally paying off. If he said yes to Mr. Charles, then Luke is now parked inside the exact government pipeline that recently helped birth the New Avengers. It’s a deep-cut setup that links the CIA/Valentina back-channel to the current Avengers architecture, and it makes Jessica’s return more than a nostalgia play. It’s groundwork.Why that Luke Cage hint mattersLuke Cage wasn’t just part of the Avengers in the comics; he helped redefine the team during one of its best modern runs. When Brian Michael Bendis rebuilt the lineup in the mid-2000s, he didn’t just slap a new coat of paint on the mansion. He changed who got to be an Avenger and what being an Avenger even meant, and Luke was the spine of that idea.2004–2005: In New Avengers #1, a mass breakout at the Raft forces a new team to assemble on the fly. Luke is there as a private bodyguard escorting attorneys, proves his mettle, and gets the invite from Captain America. Bendis uses Luke to bring a grounded, working-class, race-conscious POV the Avengers rarely voiced. Before long, he’s the ethical anchor asking what the team is actually doing with all that power. 2006: Civil War hits, Congress passes the Superhuman Registration Act, and Luke refuses to register. He joins Cap’s underground, becomes a fugitive, and does it while newly married to Jessica (New Avengers Annual #1) with a baby on the way. Post–Civil War: He keeps leading the unregistered Avengers outside federal control, overlapping with the Secret Avengers era. Dark Reign: Norman Osborn takes over the Avengers program, Danielle is taken, and Luke briefly plays ball before making his move against Osborn. Post–Siege: Luke is officially named leader of the New Avengers, runs the team out of Avengers Mansion, and eventually steps down after Avengers vs. X-Men (2012) to focus on raising Danielle. Translation: Luke’s whole arc is choosing community responsibility over institutional loyalty. Which is exactly why the show hinting he might be working under Valentina is such an eyebrow-raiser. Either he breaks from her machine and the MCU honors his core, or he becomes a more complicated, compromised player on the board. Either way, this is the closest we’ve ever been to Luke Cage standing on an Avengers lineup in live action. So where does this leave Marvel right now?Between the recent wins (Thunderbolts* at 88%, The Fantastic Four: First Steps at 86%), the TV rebound (Wonder Man’s quick renewal and Marvel Zombies’ big swing), and the hype train for Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel’s momentum is finally pointed in the right direction again. Daredevil: Born Again is doing the connective tissue work, and 'Requiem' just stitched Jessica and (very likely) Luke into the larger New Avengers picture without screaming about it. Daredevil: Born Again continues weekly on Disney+.

After a Decade of Fan Demands, the MCU Quietly Sets Up the Avenger You’ve Been Waiting For

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