Comic Couples We Love: The Unbreakable Strength Of Luke Cage & Jessica Jones

Welcome all to the next entry for Comic Couples We Love, a special feature for the year’s most romantic week. All week, we’re going to take a peek at some of our favorite comics couples in some of our favorite stories featuring them.

Marvel Comics has a plethora of iconic couples whose love spans the decades placing them into a classic fandom status. As noted, the majority of those are many decades old at this point, with very few more recent examples quite reaching those heights.

Enter Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.

While yes, their romance now also fits into the category of decades (Alias #1 came out in 2001), it’s still relatively new comparatively.

From friends with benefits to expectant parents to married couple to an enduring family unit, the duo has been through it all. They’ve been Avengers and Defenders and private investigators and even Mayor and First Lady of New York City. All along, they’ve been trying to carve out the safest space for their daughter Dani and the rest of the innocents of their world.

Their dynamic at times is rocky but it’s usually authentic and loving. A beginning that was about sex and not much else grew into something more touching. The glee upon Luke’s face upon learning that Jessica was not only pregnant but wanted to keep their child, speaks volumes. Losses have been endured together, and they’ve even been on opposing sides of issues that plague the whole of the Marvel echelon. Yet, they always find their way back to one another, their relationship remaining strong as ever.

Personally, there is an even more important matter at hand that makes their character love so important to me. Luke Cage is a Black man, and Jessica Jones is a White woman. Therefore, obviously, they are an interracial couple with a biracial daughter. As someone born of the same interracial couple dynamic and biracial, it’s clear why this resonates for me so much.

Interracial relationships and biracial characters are still minimal in comic books, even at this stage. Some happen off and on but with the way comics are written today, none of them stick. A large part of that comes from how the supporting cast and relationships take a back seat to action and bad guy big arc stuff. Which truly is a shame, but also a topic to delve into at another time.

All that rawness mixed with devotion and love is why this couple resonates so much. It’s why they have stood the test of time in the modern era where publishers are yanking couples apart and putting down off an on edicts about character marriages and “relatability.”

Sadly, neither is really showing up in many comics these days, despite Luke being the aforementioned Mayor of the city where the whole Marvel universe takes place. It’s an oversight that is glaring and needs its own whole other article (wink wink). Being the 25th anniversary of Alias debut does mean a mini is coming this year, which is something I guess.

Either way, this is a relationship that needs to be around more and deserves the spotlight. A powerful mixed-race family deserves all the attention possible. Especially in this still predominantly vanilla publishing universe.

Also, never forget, Danielle “Dani” Cage is also the Captain America of the future. Talk about a powerful family right there.