CAGE-Y SUPERHERO, EDGE
Netflix launches new superhero from Marvel’s vault
With “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones,” Netflix proved that an avid Marvel Comics fan base would enthusiastically support a pay model for such series. This week, the streaming service hopes to make it a hat trick with “Marvel’s Luke Cage.”
Dropping Friday, with 13 first-season episodes, the action/adventure series stars Mike Colter (“The Good Wife,” “Ringer”) in the title role of an ex-convict imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, who develops superhuman strength and unbreakable skin thanks to an experiment gone awry. He tries to rebuild his life in the Harlem section of New York but is soon pulled out of the shadows to confront his past and fight a battle for the heart of his city.
One of his chief targets is Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali, “House of Cards,” “The 4400”), a local nightclub owner and crime boss who uses his legitimate business dealings as a front for his nefarious activities. Another is Shades Alvarez (Theo Rossi, “Sons of Anarchy,” “Cloverfield”), a smooth, streetsmart criminal with ties to Cage’s past.
Seeking to clean up Harlem’s criminal element is Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard, “Desperate Housewives,” “True Blood”), a local politician whose life is thrown into turmoil by the actions of Cage and Stokes; Misty Knight (Simone Missick, “Wayward Pines,” “Scandal”), a police detective with a strong sense of justice; and Rafael Scarfe (Frank Whaley, “Ray Donovan,” “Field of Dreams”), Knight’s hard-nosed partner and mentor.
Luke Cage first appeared in a Marvel comic book in the early ’70s, but showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker told a recent gathering of TV critics in Beverly Hills, Calif., that updating the African-American character for 2016 wasn’t difficult.
“Luke Cage came out in 1972, the year I was born, and also, you know, within the era of ‘Shaft’ and ‘Super Fly,’ ” he said. “So the character was always Marvel Universe’s reaction to, to a certain extent, blaxploitation. But all blaxploitation really is, honestly, (is) the ability for an African-American character to, you know, fight, get the girl and have, you know, the low angle shot ... the same as John Wayne, Sean Connery, Steve McQueen or anybody else that kind of defined an era and even in this current environment. ... It’s no different than anything else except we get to have swagger and, you know, the chance to have a compelling hero and compelling villains.
“The thing that I think is going to surprise people,” he continued, “is that you’re going to come in thinking it’s serious, and it’s fun. You are going to come in thinking it’s fun, and it’s serious. I mean, we kind of go back and forth, and there’s so much emotional depth to all of these characters. And with these wonderful actors, I mean, they just they bring it so hard.”
For his part, Colter, who added 30 pounds of muscle to play the 6-foot-6-inch, 425-pound Cage, hopes to project a positive image of black superheroes and culture.
“We’re just trying to tell a story about a superhero who’s going through the same kind of changes that other superheroes, who are not black, go through,” he said. “But because we are in small numbers, and there’s not as many of us, we’re kind of looked at differently. ... But we’re just trying to tell a unique story. And I think we’ve done so. And anything you can glean from that, then that’s not something that we’re trying to overtly do. We have no agenda. But I’m proud that people do think he’s a good superhero. And I hope that the black community can feel good about him as well.”