Hahahaha, oh my god. I'm very sorry to all of the worthy pairings that were steamrolled along the way...but also, this is amazing.
Anyway, as a huge fan of all four of these characters, I do have thoughts. Obviously this is win/win, both choices are good, there is nothing wrong with adding Matt Murdock to things, etc. Also, I'm not actually into shipping, so I feel a little bit like I should keep my mouth shut here. But if anyone's on the fence and looking for some guidance, I am advocating for kicking ol' Hornhead (lovingly) to the curb, and this is why:
Luke Cage and Danny Rand met back in 1977 (yep, strap in, we're starting from the beginning). Luke was being blackmailed by his enemy Bushmaster into capturing one of Bushmaster's nemeses: private eye Misty Knight, who had succeeded in infiltrating his base of operations. Misty was a stranger to Luke, and the lives of his loved ones were on the line, so he agreed to do this one dirty deed. Of course, it wasn't that simple. Messing with Misty meant also messing with her best friend and her boyfriend. Luke managed to incapacitate Misty and Colleen, but ended up with a knock-down, drag-out fight with Danny, whose combat prowess and agility were a match for Luke's superhuman toughness and strength. Despite everything, Danny sensed that Luke was a good person, and so he eventually turned this hunch into a life-threatening gamble to end the fight.
This moment of trust and understanding became the basis on which one of Marvel's most powerful friendships would be built. After helping Luke to defeat Bushmaster and overturning the charges that made him a fugitive from the law way back in his origin story, Danny, Misty, and Colleen became a key part of his circle of friends, with Luke ultimately inviting Danny to join his Hero for Hire business. This partnership has been through tremendous turmoil, forging an unbreakable bond of love. At the end of the original Power Man and Iron Fist run, for example, Danny was seemingly murdered, and poor Luke was dragged in front of the D.A. as a suspect.
While he avoided a conviction, Luke left New York and reinvented himself as a tougher, meaner, non-nonsense mercenary who--importantly--did not make friends. When Danny returned from his not-death and tracked his dear friend down, the reasons for Luke's antisocial behavior immediately became clear: Having lost Danny, he was unwilling to let anyone get that close to him again. Fortunately, reunited, they were able to rebuild--as partners, as best friends, as family, as whatever else you might call them. And that bond has only grown stronger over the nearly fifty years since they first met, through vast changes in the Marvel Universe and their own journeys as heroes, through multiple iterations of Heroes for Hire as well as an Avengers team or two, and--yes--through Luke's marriage to Jessica Jones, which I'll get to in a moment.
Also--for what it's worth--people ship them in-universe too.
Jessica Jones was created in 2001, so she lacks the backstory heft of the many older Marvel characters, but her creative team was diligent about building a history for her that tied her into the earlier days of the Marvel Universe. We learn, for instance, that Jessica first met Luke and Danny during their original Heroes for Hire days, when she ran into them during a brief test-run of a new superhero moniker, Knightress. Knightress's career ended that same night, but she left a lasting impression on Luke.
Years later, after Jessica founded Alias Investigations and began coping with her trauma and the difficulties of P.I. work using alcohol and a string of poorly considered relationships, she slept with Luke on a drunken whim. Neither of them particularly wanted to talk about it afterward, but what could have been a regrettable one-night stand and nothing more ended up pulling the two into each other's orbits, again and again, almost in spite of their best efforts.
Jessica is messy and flawed and that is key to what makes her such a wonderful character, and to a certain degree it's baked into every relationship she has (hell, she and Luke are teetering on the brink of divorce as we speak, in the current Alias miniseries). But Luke made it work with her because he saw things in her that she could not see in herself, and he offered his support whether she wanted it or not. And that approach worked for Jessica; she knew she could take him seriously and trust him to do the same, and so she felt able to open up a gap in her armor to him. At the end of her introductory series, Jessica discovered that she was pregnant and that Luke is the father. And the two of them decided that they wanted to try to make things work together.
Since the birth of their daughter Danielle, and following their marriage in 2006, Luke and Jessica have ridden the waves of drama that come with being superhero parents in the Marvel Universe, through the Skrull invasion and various Civil Wars, and their baby turning purple that one time, and through all of the messiness that comes with raising a child anywhere. Jessica and Luke are both strong-willed people who are not afraid to butt heads, but they also keep each other grounded and supported and, ultimately, give each other hope for a brighter future for themselves and their child. And I think that's beautiful.
Jessica and Danny's relationship is extremely fun to me because they are such vastly different people, who--by their own admission--would never have had much to do with each other if not for Luke. Initially, after Jessica and Luke first got together, Danny was a bit wary of Jessica and her intentions regarding his best friend.
A few years ago there was an odd, cross-series trend of Danny being convinced that Jessica hated him again, which seemed to come out of nowhere, given their shared history by that point. But at the very least, it emphasized the fact that Danny has always had a hard time reading Jessica, which feels accurate. Despite their initial awkwardness, these two have grown to care deeply about each other and to value each other as family--epitomized by Jessica and Luke naming their child after Danny.
So, what about Matt? He's friends with all of these guys. Luke, Danny, and Jessica have bodyguarded for him at various points, just as he's provided legal services for them. Danny took over as Daredevil for a bit, Luke and Jessica invited Matt to join their Avengers team, Jessica had an actual crush on Matt for a little while, and they are all street-level superheroes who run in the same circles and have had some excellent team-ups over the years. But it feels...unnecessary, in terms of spotlighting deep, iconic, emotionally resonant relationships, to add Matt to this particular equation, because his friendship just isn't on the same level as what the other three have going on. I say this as a massive Daredevil fan: Matt doesn't need to be in everything.
I'm admittedly extra sensitive about this because of the MCU, which currently seems determined--for reasons I can't begin to fathom--to treat Luke, Danny, and Jessica like Daredevil side-characters. I gave up caring too much about the MCU years ago and that's not what this poll is about, but it's difficult to not look at Matt being included in this group in the comics as a vestige of MCU-ification. I love him a lot, he has many wonderful close relationships of his own, and I always enjoy his interactions with Luke, Danny, and Jessica, but he's just not a member of this particular family.
