Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
If you watched Jessica Jones on Netflix, then you’re familiar with Luke Cage, whose own series drops Sept. 30. But if you look at the character’s old appearances in Marvel Comics, you’ll be in for a few surprises.
Cage on TV, played by Mike Colter, first appeared as a bartender, but turned out to be a superhero – albeit a reluctant one. Like Cage in the comics, the hero on Netflix has enormous strength and bullet-proof, steel-hard skin. He is also a heckuva guy, who provides Jessica with both emotional support and sufficient space to deal with her PTSD (and the man who caused it).
On screen, Cage favors a shaved-head look and street clothes, which is more or less how he’s depicted in the comics, where he’s a valued member of various Avengers teams. He’s also been, in the past, a fill-in member of the Fantastic Four, as well as an occasional part of the informal pseudo-team known as the Defenders – of which we’ll have more to say anon.
But before all of that, Luke Cage was Shaft.
Released in 1971, Shaft the movie was a huge success. Starring Richard Roundtree, the film was part of the “blaxploitation” wave of the time, and explored themes of masculinity, sexuality and racial politics. But mostly, it was a fun film with crossover appeal that starred a black guy who was always in control and always won. That was a pretty rare bird, and it spawned a host of sequels and imitators.
Mike Colter stars in Luke Cage, coming Sept. 30 on Netflix. Credit: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix
One of which was the comic book series Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. Created by Archie Goodwin and John Romita Sr., Cage was born Carl Lucas, and grows up in Harlem. There he breaks away from the gangs, but is set up by an ex-buddy named Willis Stryker and goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. There he undergoes the traditional Scientific Experiment That Goes Awry, escaping with enhanced strength and impervious skin. He returns to Harlem, changes his name to “Luke Cage,” and becomes a superhero – but one that charges for his services. Because, you know, a brother’s got to eat.
His initial outfit was an eye-opener, to say the least. Black Spandex leggings were matched with a yellow, chest-baring silk shirt; yellow boots; a chain belt; and a metal headband/tiara. Much has been made of the chain imagery and the name “cage,” but probably more thought has gone into it by readers than by the creators. For me, though, the baffler was the tiara (topped with the requisite ‘70s Afro). As they say in the comics, “What th-?”
Speaking of euphemisms, Luke Cage strove for an urban, street-level grittiness, and – surprisingly – often succeeded, despite its G-rated nature. But one thing Cage couldn’t do was cuss, so his go-to phrase was – and I am not making this up – “Sweet Christmas!”
Some of this made the Li’l Capn – a middle-class white kid in the South, all too familiar with ugly racial stereotypes – a little uncomfortable. Anecdotally, though, the black kids I knew didn’t mind the cringe-worthy elements in Luke Cage. They were just so happy to see a superhero that looked like them that they loved the book. It’s possible they felt like I did when I first saw nerdy, bullied Peter Parker, and felt the electric shock of recognition.
So Luke Cage could get away with “sweet Christmas” and a chain belt. And a supervillain named “Black Mariah,” who was a hugely fat black woman who stole from ambulances. And black thugs who spoke and dressed like Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch.
Simone Missick plays Misty Knight in Luke Cage, coming Sept. 30 on Netflix. Credit: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix
Cage could get away with that because he was a cat who wouldn’t cop out, when there’s danger all about. He was a man who would risk his neck for his brother man. This cat Cage was a bad mother (shut your mouth).
But as fun – and weird – as Cage’s Shaft period was, it didn’t last any longer than blaxploitation did. With its seventeenth issue, the book was re-titled Luke Cage, Power Man. With the adoption of a superhero name, Cage’s adventures mixed more with the broader Marvel Universe. Whereas it was really weird to see Cage take on Dr. Doom (over an upaid bill) in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #9, superhero team-ups and supervillains became commonplace in Luke Cage, Power Man.
Even that didn’t keep Cage’s sales viable forever, so with issue #50 he got a partner – Danny Rand, a.k.a. Iron Fist. Raised in the extra-dimensional city of K’un Lun, Rand was a world-class martial artist who could also channel the power of his chi, turning his fist “like unto a thing of iron,” as the text kept reminding us.
Now, to normal people, teaming a streetwise black superhero with a privileged white superhero might be like unto a thing of crazy. But it made perfect sense to fans, who recognized what the two had in common: Both were the products of fads that had faded (blaxploitation, kung fu films), and both had books on the verge of cancellation. Combining them might reap the readership of both fan bases, and keep both characters in print.
And it did. Despite the preposterous nature of the ongoing team-up, Luke’s big-hearted urban focus and Danny’s naïve but eternally optimistic outlook gelled perfectly. Power Man and Iron Fist continued the numbering of Luke Cage for another 75 issues, collecting a supporting cast that is now making its way to Netflix.
In the early days of the comics, for example, Cage dated a doctor named Claire Temple. Portrayed by Rosario Dawson, Temple doesn’t have a romantic relationship with Cage (although she did with Daredevil), but is the one recurring character in all the Marvel series on Netflix.
In the comics, Jeryn Hogarth was a male lawyer who ran “Heroes for Hire,” while on TV Jeryn “Jeri” Hogarth (played by Carrie-Anne Moss) is a female lawyer who occasionally contracts Alias Investigations on Jessica Jones. In Power Man, Rafael Scarfe was a police detective in Harlem who was an occasional ally, and will appear on TV (played by Frank Whaley). Black mob boss Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali) will appear in some form. And the infamous Black Mariah is now the slim Mariah Dillard, a politician played by Alfre Woodard.
But the biggest name in the cast is Misty Knight, played by Simone Missick. During the kung fu craze, Misty was a former police officer with a super-strong bionic arm who teamed with a katana-wielding modern samurai named Colleen Wing to form Nightwing Restorations, a private detective firm that appeared in various Marvel comics and magazines.
More importantly, though, she and Danny Rand became a long-running item. So when Luke Cage, Power Man became Power Man and Iron Fist, Misty (and Colleen) came along for the ride.
On TV, though, we will see Misty Knight in Luke Cage long before we see the Iron Fist series, which drops next year. That Misty and Danny form a romantic couple on screen isn’t a given, but her appearance does raise the possibility that Iron Fist – or at least Danny Rand – might show up sooner than we expect.
And after that, Netflix will combine all its series into a giant team-up called Defenders. (Told you that name would come up again.) In the comics, the Defenders lineup was rarely carved in stone, with characters often gathering in an ad hoc fashion to meet some threat or other. On TV, it will certainly include Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
In the meantime, we’ve got 13 episodes of Luke Cage to binge-watch on Sept. 30. Then on Oct. 5 comes the first issue of a new, four-issue Cage! miniseries. Written and drawn by animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars), Cage! is set in the ‘70s and features the silk-shirted, tiara-wearing, big-haired Luke that so many fans learned to love so many years ago.
Sweet Christmas, I can’t wait.
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Replies
I once read somewhere -- I can't remember where, it might even have been on this board -- that the "Sweet Christmas!" thing was inspired by the Chester Himes series of crime novels featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, a pair of Black NYPD detectives working the mean streets of Harlem. Two of those books were made into movies during the Blaxploitation era, Cotton Comes to Harlem and Come Back, Charleston Blue.