Expectations: I knew very little about Luke Cage/Power Man before watching this show. I knew the character was one of the first black superheroes and that he had grown out of the blaxploitation industry of the 1970s. I knew he had unbreakable skin and super strength. And I knew that he was friends with some of the other “street level” heroes in the Marvel canon, including Iron Fist and Jessica Jones.
Viewers got a glimpse or three of Luke Cage in Marvel’s Jessica Jones, which aired last year. Played with calm confidence by Mike Coulter whose performance, along with the writing treatment of the character in that series, gave me a lot of hope for a fully orbed story centered on him. I got what I came for and more besides.
Easter Eggs: I didn’t catch a ton of easter eggs in the show, but there is a poster cameo of Stan Lee in one of the shops in Harlem. Also, when Luke wakes up from the botched experiment that gave him his powers, he’s wearing the tiara and bracers from his original costume. He goes on to steal the yellow shirt, jeans, and chain belt that were the rest of his costume in a later scene. We hear references to magic hammers, a drop-in radio program of “Trish Talk” from the Jessica Jones show, and other tidbits that connect the story of Luke Cage to the shows and movies that have gone before.
Opening Sequence: I’m giving this its own section of the review because Marvel has just done an amazing job at this with all of their Netflix shows. Each sequence sets the tone and theme for the show, showcasing the music and art in a way that fits well with the characters it represents.
The opening sequence shows images of well known Harlem landmarks, like the Apollo Theater, overlaid on Luke Cage’s physique as he throws a punch, all set to funk guitar. Two shots in particular stood out to me. In the first, the bridge into Harlem is overlaid on Luke’s back and his arms are stretched out, as if he’s holding the weight of it on his shoulders. In the second, you can see the light of the images in a shimmer around the human fist hurtling at the camera with supernatural strength.
It’s as if the showrunners want you to know that what gives Power Man his power is Harlem itself: the history, the artistry, and the community of people that he both represents and fights for.
Themes: If Daredevil is a show about the costs of power and Jessica Jones is about the various faces of control, then Luke Cage is a show about choices, especially relating to self-definition. The various episodes confront issues of family, history, religion, politics, gang culture, police/community relations, and finding out who you are in the midst of all those things. But it addresses each of those issues in terms of the choices we make and the narrative we tell ourselves to justify them.
Acting: I’m not sure where to start with this. There isn’t a bad actor on screen for any real length of time. Coulter owns the title role. Mahershala Ali is brilliant as Cornell Stokes. Alfre Woodard, Theo Rossi, and Rosario Dawson put in strong showings as Mariah Dillard, Shades Alvarez, and Claire Temple, respectively. I was impressed by two actors I didn’t know well: cop duo Simone Missick and Frank Whaley as detectives Misty Knight and Rafael Scarfe.
But I think the award for best performance goes to Erik LaRay Harvey for Willis “Diamondback” Stryker. He was perfectly cast as the maniacal villain and he brought Samuel L. Jackson levels of cool and charisma to the role. He even makes the evil-villain-monologue menacing.
Writing: I have two major complaints about the writing which I’ll address now. First, the pacing was very uneven, with unexpected lulls even within the same episode. To be fair, a lot of this occurs as the result of necessary introspection from the characters or from the non-linear storytelling aspects, but it left the show feeling much less tight than, say, the first season of Daredevil.
Second, while the show does a good job of diagnosing several problems in society today, it shows very little of what to do about it in any real way. Luke Cage changes Harlem for the good, but by the end of the show he hasn’t changed it for good.
That said, there is a lot to like about this show’s writing. The first is that just about everyone has a story. Other than the occasional shop owner or Hired Thug #23, everyone has a context that makes them make sense. A prime example is Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes, the main villain for the first half of the show.
We first meet Cornell as the owner of Harlem’s Paradise, using money from his gangland activities to fuel the club and protected by his cousin, City Councilwoman Mariah Dillard. Cornell is at the top of the heap. He has respect, money, power, and every pleasure those three can obtain. He’s restored a family legacy and made a place where the history of great music, art, and innovation that Harlem is famous for can continue. But Cornell never wanted to be the man building the stage. He wanted to be the man on the stage.
Through flashbacks, we learn about the pressures young Cornell was under: growing up without a father, under the ruthless tutelage of his aunt Mama Mabel, forced to work for the family in the protection racket, and finally forced to kill his own uncle.
In one of the most telling shots in the show, we see Cottonmouth in his loft apartment above Harlem’s Paradise. We see him from the back, playing beautifully on the keyboard in the corner while two of his “models” listen from the couches. From this angle, the man has everything he could ever want. Then the camera flips one hundred and eighty degrees to show us his numb, shadowed face and we realize that he is not enjoying a single moment of this life. And that shot turns our dislike to pity and Cornell from the villain that Harlem must be saved from into a lost soul who’s trying to get Harlem to save him.
Another thing I liked about the writing on the show is that Luke Cage is a hero because he chooses to be. Daredevil is a man compelled by anger and guilt to fight crime. Punisher is under a continual and heightened form of PTSD from a bullet lodged in his brain. Jessica Jones basically only acted in self-defense and in the knowledge that she was the only one who could. Luke Cage has a choice at nearly every point in this show to leave and just not come back. He has no ties, no responsibility, no reason to stay, especially at first. But stay he does, first to honor the memory of Pop, then to help the people caught in the middle of his feud with Cottonmouth, and finally because it’s who he has chosen to be.
Action: There is a lot of action in this show, though most of it is a bit anticlimactic. After all, how many times do we need to see a group of thugs make bullets bounce off of Cage’s unbreakable hide before it gets old? Luke even quips that he’s getting tired of buying new clothes.
That said, the non-superpowered action is heavy and bloody. Thugs fly and bullets ping. At one point, a rocket drops a building on Luke and his landlady. Gang members shoot rival gangs and each other. One gets thrown off of a building. One is bloodily pummeled. People are strangled.
Where the action takes on more meaning is when invulnerability is out of the equation and carefully built empathy is in: when Pop gets gunned down inside his own shop, when Misty is strangled and nearly killed by Diamondback, when Mariah kills Cornell in Harlem’s Paradise, when Carl Lucas is beaten and forced to fight in Seagate.
Along those lines, the final fight scene between Luke and Diamondback wasn’t nearly as impactful as the first one in the old theater. When Luke is shot with the Judas bullet that pierces his impermeable skin and still literally bringing the house down...well, the Samson parallels leap to mind.
Music: The music in this show is its own character, showcasing pieces of the history of Harlem artists. From Jazz to Funk to Hip-Hop to Method Man’s “impromptu” rap on a local radio show, you’ll hear and feel a wide range of styles. While not always my cup of tea, the music fit the show and setting amazingly well and was unique to the characters of this story. It sets Luke Cage apart in a good way.
Summary: Marvel’s Luke Cage will introduce newcomers to a quiet, well spoken, compassionate hero. Mike Coulter is by turns charismatic, corny, confused, and colossal. He’s “just a man, trying to do the right thing, one day at a time” against the backdrop of a city full of beauty, hope, history, turmoil, and violence.Viewers will also see a stark view of the tragedy of fatherless-ness, emotional manipulation for political gain, family and monetary pressure, and the lie that is the gang culture in America.
Viewers will also see a city that ends much as it began: in a bathtub full of bloody violence, harsh language, and one or two scenes of explicit sexuality. Sadly, even Luke Cage’s mighty shoulders can’t lift the weight of a fallen world. His strength brings us a glimpse of justice, but fans of comic mythology will have to look for a different hero to bring restoration.
