What does it mean for Luke Cage to be the first entry in the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe to focus on an African American character?
Of course, there have been superhero films built around black characters. Shaq starred in Steel and Halle Berry starred in Catwoman. The most successful example of black superhero cinema is probably the Blade trilogy, which launched slightly before Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Bryan Singer’s X-Men reinvented the comic book movie for the new millennium. However, Wesley Snipe’s half-vampire vampire hunter is frequently forgotten in these discussions, perhaps because the films are generally pitched as action horror movies rather than superhero films.
It is astonishing that it has taken so long for the superhero boom to encompass stories focusing on protagonists that are not white men. So Luke Cage arrives with a lot of expectations. The series is keenly aware of this fact, never shying away from the Luke’s cultural perspective. Then again, this makes a certain amount of sense. Luke Cage is a black superhero whose superpower is his own skin. The opening credits make this quite clear, projecting evocative images of Harlem on to that skin so as to reaffirm that connection.
Luke Cage is a black superhero. Luke Cage is a black superhero television show. The result is a fascinating piece of television that finds something new to say about a long-established genre by looking beyond the stock perspective.
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