Who she is: Claire Temple
Her power: Claire Temple is a qualified nurse with a proven ability to handle difficult and extraordinary situations, but she possesses no supernatural abilities. She is training to learn how to kick ass, though.
Her story: A nurse at New York’s Metro-General Hospital, Claire Temple’s life takes a turn for the strange when she discovers Matt Murdock, a.k.a. The Devil Of Hell’s Kitchen, wounded outside her home. Healing his wounds and discovering his superhuman powers, Temple quickly becomes involved in Murdock’s crusade against the city’s crime, and the two become lovers. But after being kidnapped by the Russian mob and confronted with the extremes Murdock is willing to go to in his quest, she breaks off the relationship (while continuing to occasionally attend to his medical needs).
Some time later, she encounters New York private eye Jessica Jones, seeking assistance for a badly wounded Luke Cage, who Jones shot in the head while he was under the power of the mind-controlling Kilgrave. Jones convinces Temple to bring Cage back to her apartment and help him; she eventually devises a way to give the supernaturally durable Cage an injection through the soft tissue behind his eye.
Temple reencounters Murdock when he brings a number of children, physically altered by the ninja group The Hand, to Metro-General. Ninjas eventually attack the hospital, murdering one of Temple’s friends and forcing her to kill in self-defense; later, after the hospital attempts to cover up the attack, Temple quits her job in disgust.
Returning to her hometown of Harlem, Temple reunites with her mother, as well as Cage. She assists him with a number of medical issues, including a fatally wounded corrupt cop and Cage’s own injuries inflicted by Diamondback’s Judas Bullets. She also urges Cage to continue to clean up Harlem and protect it from criminals, while developing a romantic attraction for him that gets sidelined when he is eventually arrested. After offering to connect him with Murdock, she starts taking a martial arts class from Colleen Wing.
This fight training is where we first see her in Iron Fist. Claire ends up being an integral part of Danny Rand’s life, helping him to tackle the fight against the Hand, and even traveling to China to help him capture the villainous Madame Gao and bring her back to the states. By the end of the show, she is good friends with Danny—meaning all the Defenders now have a common ally.
Played by: Rosario Dawson
Currently, Claire Temple is: Serving as the one-woman connective tissue for Marvel’s entire line of Netflix shows.
Where will we see her next? Iron Fist, followed by The Defenders.