Luke Jacobson's appearance in She-Hulk's episode 5 could be more than your regular Marvel easter egg. Here's why!
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law introduced Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews) in the show’s most recent episode. The scenes contained references to Frog-Man and Detective Dakota North and even showed part of Daredevil’s iconic red and yellow suit. So, what may have looked like a quick scene with She-Hulk giving an unexpected cameo to another Marvel legend, was actually packed to the brim with Marvel knowledge and Easter eggs.
There was also a wink to bootlegged merchandise with “Avongers” t-shirts along the way. The secretive fashion designer connects a number of Marvel superheroes and might be a bridge to introduce a few more in the future.
Luke Jacobson is more than Pug’s “drip broker.” But we did like that nod to the Power Broker, except, you know, for fashion. While most of us were distracted by Titania’s (Jameela Jamil) hilarious trademark attack on the "She-Hulk" name, the MCU slipped in an interesting super-suit designer that could lead to many developments in the Marvel Universe. Not to mention how it’s always a thrill to meet the designer behind your favorite heroes’ choice in form and function. Luke Jacobson is a fashion designer to some of the most powerful people in the MCU, and he will not waste his talents in the regular world of fashion.
Everything started when Jen’s best friend/paralegal Nikki Ramos (Ginger Gonzaga) decided that She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) needed a new look to combat Titania’s parasitic fashion brand. After the two of them explored Titania’s beauty expo to serve her with a fairly verbal cease and desist order, Nikki got to thinking of how She-Hulk could step up her own fashion game. The answer came when their coworker Pug (Josh Segarra) came into the office bragging about his Iron Man 3’s – a line of Iron Man branded sneakers and a subtle nod to the Iron Man franchise’s least popular movie. Pug explained the logic of a sneakerhead and how he needed two pairs, “one to rock and one to stock.”
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When Nikki asked him how he got a hold of the rare shoes, Pug spilled the beans on his secret fashion connection. That’s when Nikki got the idea of how to hook up her bestie with some of the best gear around. Pug took her to a Boba café that was a front for some pretty lame bootlegged Avengers merch. The t-shirts clearly said “Avongers.” Everything about the merch was explicitly fake; the Hulk was purple, Thor was wielding a shovel, and Iron Man’s colors were backward. It was a pretty funny joke when it broke the fourth wall. After the release of She-Hulk’s fifth episode, the official Avengers Twitter account changed its title to “Avongers: Earth’s Toughest Heroes.”
After purchasing some fake merch at exorbitant prices, Nikki managed to get the name of the real connect. After speaking through a voice-only panel outside what seemed to be a stylish New York penthouse, Nikki lied her way into a meeting with the reclusive fashion designer, telling him that She-Hulk was an Avenger.
At Jen and Nikki’s first meeting with Luke Jacobson, he was concerned only with combat specifications. This is what he does for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Luke Jacobson doesn’t design fashion; he creates practical superhero armor. He began talking to Jennifer Walters about what kind of superhero-ing she does and what she would need in the field. He asked whether she wanted “fire-resistance” or armor for some other sort of unique combat condition that she would be facing.
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When Jen explained that no, she was a lawyer and only needed a business suit, Jacobson laughed and told both of them to get out. The two were taken aback after being shunned, but the designer eventually came around after Jen showed off exactly what she needed. Jen came in for a suit that would fit her both when she was Jen and She-Hulk. Jacobson loved the challenge and set to work immediately designing something for her.
But that’s not all that happened in the scene with New York’s premier fashion designer for superheroes. At the end of the episode, we saw him go to put the lid on an unassuming hat box that contained a Daredevil Easter egg, his new yellow helmet. We all saw this little tidbit, but what a lot of us didn’t see was in the credits. Jacobson’s assistant was named Eugene Patilio (played by Brandon Stanley), a character that eventually becomes Frog-Man in the Marvel Comics.
Luke Jacobson is also famous in the comic world for being associated with Detective Dakota North. If She-Hulk is the lawyer of the superhero world, Dakota North is their boots-on-the-ground detective. She’s worked for Black Panther and the Dora Milaje, as well as Luke Cage, Punisher, Spider-Man, and numerous others. Along with being a good friend of Jessica Jones, she has also often been involved with the Nelson and Murdock law firm from Daredevil. So we might see her in the very near future.