Race is intrinsic to his character and adds provocative dimension to his genre archetype.
He answers the call with whatever hes got on, hoodies or three-piece suits.
Hes a gritty vigilante like Batman, minus the mope and moral ambiguity.
Credit: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix
He is disciplined with violence and does right because its the right thing to do.
Luke Cage is a triumph of representation, and Mike Colter commands the part like a boss.
Like Christopher Reeve, Colter holds the screen with confident charisma and makes his too-good-to-be-true dude completely credible.
Now he needs an entertaining show worthy of him.
His spin-off showcase sends him uptown from Hells Kitchen to Harlem, albeit an underproduced, personality-lite Harlem.
The storytelling rarely strays beyond a few bland sets and a few nondescript street locations.
The locale is used as a metaphor for inner-city crisis, but the issues are generically simplified.
Both aspire to escape their criminal heritage; both are snared by it.
Their struggles have poignancy, but their corruption is cliche.
Simone Missick is terrific as Det.
Misty Knight: She transforms her stock cop ally/love interest into a fully realized person.
The abundance of flaws a sluggish pace, thinly stretched plots cant smother everything interesting.
But his primary concern is evolving Cage away from exploitative and retrograde depictions of black masculinity.
Luke Cage is a meaningful attempt at developing a new-model black hero.
As entertaining drama, its trapped in a not-so-Marvelous cage.B-
