Remember when I said Jessica Jones had the darkest storyline in the MCU? I might just have to take that back.
Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect with Luke Cage. I never knew much about the character other than the fact that his BFF is Danny Rand and that he is essentially bulletproof. The only times I had ever seen Luke Cage in action was in the animated series ‘Ultimate Spider-man’ on Disney XD. And even then, they (obviously) didn’t make use of Luke’s full abilities or his personality. Sure, he was super strong in the animated series, but we never saw his relationships, what troubles him, why he became a superhero.
Netflix and Marvel continue to excel in making TV adaptations together. With every new release, I get more excited for the next. They even got me hyped up for the movies all over again, since you know, the series’ also takes place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even though there’s a strong chance we wouldn’t see any of the Netflix heroes on the big screen, at least we have our little Netflix/Marvel nook, where no one can shield us from the harsh realities that actually take place in the MCU, which we don’t necessarily see on the big screen.
Sure, Steve beating Tony up in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ was intense. But nothing can trump Mariah Dillard beating the living daylight out of her own cousin.
Fair warning, there are some spoilers up ahead!
From the very beginning, we see Luke Cage (Mike Colter) trying to live a normal, non-superhero life. He has two jobs – one at a barbershop where he sweeps, and the other as a dishwasher at ‘Harlem’s Paradise’. Similarly to ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’, this series kicks off straight into the trials and tribulations of Luke Cage’s life. Without jumping into his origin story right away, Netflix brings us the people Luke currently loves and cares for. And in true Marvel/Netflix manner, we get flashbacks of Luke’s past and his origin; how he became the iconic bulletproof hero for hire, how he fell in love with a woman who only ever wanted to help him and how her life was eventually taken because of it.
Luke Cage is undeniably different from any other MCU character we’ve seen. The guy is bulletproof. He shows how completely badass he is time after time, especially when he uses a car door as a shield and just takes out a bunch of goons. It eerily reminded me of Steve Rogers’ early days when he used a car door as a shield while he was getting shot. Although he does seem pretty emotionless at certain times, Luke proves to be a true hero. Like Steve, he too doesn’t think of himself as one, but he does good because he knows it’s the right thing to do.
Both characters have these abilities that could easily make them the bad guy instead, but they fight for what they believe in and they do good.
Specifically, in this Netflix adaptation, Luke is driven to do good after the father figure in his life had been wrongfully killed. Pop (played by Frankie Faison) was a father figure to many in Harlem, and his death hurt a lot of people, especially Luke.
We also get a glimpse at Reva Connors (Parisa Fitz-Henley), Luke’s wife. We get to see how the two meet at Seagate prison, and how they bond. Reva eventually helps Luke move on from his life of ‘Carl Lucas’ and builds a new one with him.
Similarly to the previous Marvel/Netflix series’, we get mentions of The Avengers and the “incident” in New York. People are still visibly pissed about the alien invasion and have decided to target all of the “enhanced”. But unfortunately, we don’t get cameos from either Daredevil or Jessica Jones. We do, however, get Claire Temple, who is now one of my favorite characters in the entire MCU.
Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple is probably one of my favorite castings. I fell in love with her character the first moment I saw her, and sometimes seeing her in these shows gets me more excited than seeing anyone else (except in ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’, because David Tennant just completely stole the show). Temple develops a more than friendly relationship with Luke Cage, which was kind of predictable but exciting at the same time. The gentle side of Claire comes out in this series, as she constantly shows how much she cares about Luke’s well-being.
And can we just appreciate how she asks Luke out for “coffee”? You go girl.
Simone Missick plays Mercedes “Misty” Knight, who many fans know as a love interest to both Luke Cage and Danny Rand (Iron Fist). The first interactions between Misty and Luke are that of a very flirtatious nature, which was predicted. Missick has been confirmed to appear in ‘Marvel’s Iron Fist’ so that gave me a hint to her not being Luke’s love interest in this series. The two (eventually) form a professional partnership to take down Harlem’s baddies. I personally loved Misty. I thought she was a complete badass, who still showed that she was human with her breakdowns and being scared. She never hid her emotions, and was always honest – and that itself makes her such a memorable character, and I’m so excited to see where her character goes in the Iron Fist series. My favorite aspect of her character was how she completely immersed herself into the crime scenes. She was able to visualize every detail of a crime and that was so amazing to watch her get lost in it.
Now, as for villains, we have quite a few in this series.
Mahershala Ali plays Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes, who we’ve seen and anticipated from the previous trailers. Cottonmouth is the owner of the ‘Harlem Paradise’ nightclub in Harlem and is a feared gangster. From the trailer itself, fans were expecting the character to be an absolute badass after seeing him bloodily beat up a guy in front of a poster of Notorious B.I.G.
But alas, the character of Cottonmouth didn’t have that big of an effect on me. I won’t deny that he was relatively terrifying, but Marvel has a history of less than interesting villains, and Cottonmouth falls under that category for me. We do get a brief look at Cottonmouth’s past; what made him the man he is today, and I’ll say that I found his sociopath aunt more terrifying than him.
That’s not to say Ali did a bad job as an actor, I just wish there was a little bit more to him.
Mariah Dillard, played by Alfre Woodard, is Cottonmouth’s cousin. And if you’re wondering whether you’ve seen her in the MCU before or not, you have. Woodard played the role of Miriam Sharpe – the mourning mother who tells Tony Stark that The Avengers killed her son in Sokovia. This does disrupt the continuity that the MCU has going on, but I think that’s alright. It’s just a minor inconvenience that can be looked over since Woodard does a great job as one of the series’ villains. I never thought much of Dillard in the series until she started beating the hell out of her own cousin. Even my dad was taken aback. You just see her lose her mind after Cottonmouth accuses her of asking to be assaulted when they were younger. She ends up killing Cottonmouth and that really surprised me. From my knowledge, I just thought Cottonmouth was the only villain we’d see trying to take out Luke Cage. But, damn. Dillard just flat out murders her own cousin and attempts to do the job he sought out to do.
Once Mariah finishes the job, she’s joined by Hernan “Shades” Alvarez (played by Theo Rossi). It was clear from the beginning that Shades wanted to overthrow Cottonmouth, but he just never carried out any plan to take him down. He’s first introduced to us as a sort of right-hand man to Cottonmouth, but once Mariah takes him out, Shades praises her. Shades beats up Cottonmouth’s remains in an attempt to disfigure him, and the two put the blame on Luke Cage. And I’m really not even surprised the two got together in the end. Although that kiss was super awkward to watch. Character-wise though, I will say that I wasn’t that impressed. We see Shades being a part of Luke’s past at Seagate, but other than that there was just no depth.
But really, all the series was doing was setting it up for another villain – Diamondback. Willis Stryker, played by Erik LaRay Harvey, is back into Luke’s life and wants revenge. In this series, the two are half-brothers. Stryker holds a grudge because he didn’t feel loved by their father, so obviously he feels like he needs to take it out on Luke (and also take Luke out). I’ll be honest, I didn’t care for the character. I just thought he was kind of odd and lacked so much of everything. I preferred Mariah over him. Sure, his past was what made him into the villain he is, but it was just so bland for me.I wasn’t convinced by his character at all. Yeah, he was a menace and almost killed the bulletproof Luke Cage, but he just didn’t leave a mark on me, which is extremely disappointing.
And can we just talk about the music?! Every episode had me Shazam-ing the music because it was just so good. I mean, we even had a cameo from Method Man! Each track that was featured in the series just perfectly captured the tone of the series, and even got me pumped up. This series made use of their soundtrack so flawlessly – they managed to make each track fit into their scenes, letting everything flow so beautifully.
It just left me there thinking that the Suicide Squad producers could’ve learned a thing or two from this. This is exactly how you should make use of a soundtrack.
And a fun fact for you – each episode was titled after a Gang Starr record. In an interview with HipHopDX, showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker revealed “Well, Gang Starr for me, it wasn’t about the content of music as much as it was about the song titles. One of the old tricks we used to use back in the day in music journalism is we used to pick a song for cover line. No matter what group you’re talking about. If there’s a cool cover line you can do that and then simultaneously as a huge fan of Shonda Rhimes, she also names a lot of her shows. Original episodes of Grey’s Anatomy after different songs. So it was really just a combination of just like finding songs titles that resonate and then seeing how you can build cinematic resonance with your story and your characters”.
References and Easter eggs
‘Hero for Hire’
The first episode itself makes a reference to Luke’s comic book title “Hero for Hire”. When Luke saves the owners of a Chinese restaurant from being shot, they mention that they want to “hire” him – throwing a nod at the title.
Luke’s original costume
During his origin story, we see Luke sporting the metal cuffs and headband that were Luke’s iconic outfit back in the day. He even grabs a yellow shirt to finish the look off!
“Sweet Christmas”
Luke’s popular catchphrase returned with a bang (literally)! If I had to pick a favorite catchphrase from any Marvel character, it’s definitely Luke’s.
Trish Walker
Episode 6 featured a voice-over from non-other than Trish Walker, who we first saw in ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’. Still on her radio talk show, Trish talks to listeners about Cage, and whether or not the people can/should trust him.
Jessica Jones mention
When Claire first meets Luke in Harlem, she brings up the fact that his then girlfriend asked Claire to help him. Throughout the series, Claire does bring up how Jessica shot Luke previously as well.
“Power Man”
While Claire examines Luke’s bullet wounds and tries to numb his pain with drugs, Luke refuses, causing Claire to sarcastically say “Alright, Macho Man” – to which he replies “Actually, it’s Power Man” throwing back to his comic book alias!
Night Nurse
Someone finally said it! One of Diamondback’s thugs calls Claire the “Night Nurse” while Claire pretends to take care of a supposedly distressed hostage. Yes!
Matt Murdock mention
While Luke is getting sent back to jail, Claire brings up the fact that she knows a good lawyer – and that could really only mean she’s talking about Murdock. I’ll admit, I really did think he would show up last minute to bail Luke out but he sadly doesn’t make an appearance.
Colleen Wing
At the end of the series, while Claire appears to be walking around, she stops by a poster that advertises Self Defense and Martial Arts classes from Colleen Wing. Colleen Wing, in the comics, teams up with Misty Knight, as well as both Cage and Danny Rand. Jessica Henwick will portray the character in ‘Marvel’s Iron Fist’ and I really do hope we get to see her team up with Misty for ‘Daughters of the Dragon’.
Stan Lee cameo
And of course, no Marvel entity is complete without the inclusion of the great Stan Lee! Like ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’, the Stan Lee cameo comes in the form of a poster!
‘Marvel’s Luke Cage’ comes at a very appropriate time. I don’t think it was “too Black Lives Matter” at all. This is exactly what people needed – to see a black man in a hoodie doing good. The series itself focuses on the lives of the black men and women of Harlem and makes numerous references to the actual relationship American policemen seem to have with black men, in particular, today. In a way, I think Luke Cage gives a lot of younger black people hope. You can do good in a hoodie, and you can come across a police officer who won’t discriminate against you because of your color. Eventually, people will progress past this irrational discrimination.
“Never backward, always forward. Always”
This was Pop’s well-known motto and it resonated with Luke deeply throughout the series. But as Luke did say, “sometimes backward to go forward. Always”, and I think this will sit well with a lot of black viewers today.
‘Marvel’s Luke Cage’ undoubtedly brings a lot of action into the Marvel/Netflix universe, but it also brings hope.
