Did you notice the huge Marvel easter egg hiding in 'The Defenders' finale?
This post contains spoilers for the finale of The Defenders, so unless you've finished episode 8, make like Danny and get lost.
We were honestly expecting a higher body count from The Defenders -- okay, so Stick and The Hand bit it, but that's NBD -- but in the end, all of our heroes and their closest allies made it out of the crossover miniseries in one piece... except for Misty Knight.
During a showdown with Hand member Bakuto, Misty threw herself into harm's way to save Claire Temple from being killed, and lost her arm in the process.
The injury was brutal, but for Marvel comics fans, it's also kind of a big deal, because it brings Misty one step closer to her comic book persona, opening up an exciting new avenue for the scene-stealing detective.
In the comics, Misty loses her arm while preventing a bombing, and after resigning from the police force to avoid being stuck with a desk job, she's gifted a new, bionic arm by Iron Man himself, Tony Stark.
The arm imbues her with super strength, which enables Misty to begin a life of superheroics too. She later teams up with Colleen Wing to form a crime-fighting duo dubbed the "Daughters of the Dragon," and the two create a private detective agency, going on to work frequently with Power Man and Iron Fist -- aka Luke Cage and Danny Rand -- who operate their own PI and protection firm (yeah, a lot of Marvel's street-level heroes are private eyes in New York, don't think about it too hard).
Which is why the scene between Colleen and Misty towards the end of The Defenders finale is so thrilling for Marvel fans. Colleen visits Misty's hospital room to offer her some hope, reassuring her, "Danny has connections at this hospital, and it’s a state-of-the-art kind of place, so… maybe they can help get you back up and running."
Okay, so it's not as satisfying as a Robert Downey, Jr. cameo, but it's certainly a sweet hat-tip to Misty's comic book counterpart, and a tantalizing tease that a Daughters of the Dragon spinoff might not be such a pipe dream after all.
