It might seem that every installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whether it’s a TV episode or a movie, comes with something that makes fans go, “Wow, an Easter egg!” . However, in the fifth episode, She-Hulk: Lawyer It could have been the crown jewel of Marvel Comics’ Deep Cut.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a brave new world. The MCU just made a reference Dakota North.
[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for She-Hulk episode 5.]
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Image: Marvel Studios
She-Hulk In Episode 5, we learn the tailoring difficulties of being a woman who can grow two feet tall and hundreds of pounds of muscle at will. But luckily, Jen’s best friend/paralegal is already working on a solution, tracking down secretive fashion designer Luke Jacobson. Flight attendantGriffin Matthews — only designs battle gear for superheroes. With a little persuasion, however, he agrees to take on the task of creating Jen’s transition his wardrobe. Jen to She-Hulk rather than a summer-to-fall or day-to-night “transition”.
The answer to the question, “Who designs and manufactures all these superhero costumes?” is something comic creators have often responded to in creative ways. Gotham City in the 2000s had Taylor, a neutral player who dressed as both hero and villain. In Marvel Comics, Wasp is a founding member of the Avengers and an internationally renowned fashion designer, creating superhero clothing for his friends. There is a jumbo carnation with a real arm.
But Luke Jacobson? It’s a pull from the little known. Dakota North.
As Keith Silva wrote in a 2018 feature for Comics Journal: Dakota North Being an outlier is a disadvantage to outliers. The first issue of the series he published in June 1986, followed just eight months later by the fifth and final issue. Written by Martha Thomas and drawn by Tony Salmons, both are basically newcomers to creating comics and it’s a concept so unique in scope and weird in tone that it’s the only one that really goes The place was engulfed in (bright and charming) flames. Dakota North It wasn’t even set in the Marvel Comics universe, but its lead, Dakota, eventually appeared in a cosmic comic, making guest appearances alongside characters like Luke Cage, Daredevil, and Power Pack.
What is Dakota North? She’s a leather-jacketed, joking, motorcycle-riding, butt-kicking, no-shit head who, as Silva puts it, “is an international private security agency specializing in domestic fraud.” is the sole operational employee of the institution. fashion industry. ’ And Luke Jacobson was her first case.
Who is Luke Jacobson?
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Image: Martha Thomas, Tony Salmons/Marvel Comics
Well, he’s a fashion designer unwittingly caught up in a complex corporate conspiracy under threat of violence. He also constantly proposes marriage and expresses his love for Dakota. because Of the ones you’ve probably already collected: He was definitely supposed to be gay.
Writer Martha Thomasies told Silva that Jacobson was “based on my friend and fashion designer David Freelander, who died of AIDS in 1987.” [Marvel editor Larry Hama] I said that’s not why people read comics. ”
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Thomas may have been hopeful, but Marvel Comics’ history of outright banning or disrespectful of queer characters has taken its toll. very A few more years.
Of only 5 Dakota NorthLuke only appeared in three and was never carried over into the main Marvel Universe. She-Hulk: Lawyer Incarnation inspires cartoonists to fix it? Good, I hope so.
