As if Netflix and “Luke Cage” creator Cheo Hodari Coker knew that the nation needed a Black superhero, the development of Marvel’s bulletproof “Luke Cage” seems to be both masterful and timely.
Netflix series brings the Harlem of Marvel’s Luke Cage to life. (Courtesy photo)
Wrongfully convicted of a crime and turned superhuman through prison experimentation, the escaped Cage, played by Mike Colter, finds himself fastened between Harlem’s working-class, its criminal underbelly, and the police and politicians manipulating both. Assuming the posture of a cleaner in a local barbershop, Cage is a reluctant, haunted hero. The character is a throwback to the strong and dignified Black men from which so many Harlem tales are derived.
“He fights ‘the Man’ at a time when Black males are being gunned down in the streets by police officers, and is himself, a victim of their aggression. At the same time, the script is equal parts poignant and intelligent – there are discussions of Chester Himes and Donald Goines and the culture of a disappearing landscape still haunted by its past glory,” Chicago-based culture critic Darius Sexton told the AFRO. “There is sophistication in Coker’s writing and in the way in which the characters breathe life back into Harlem – especially Alfre Woodard’s Mariah Dillard, who epitomizes the balance between corrupt and cunning, sensual and savvy.”
Perhaps most important for viewers, a record number of whom caused Netflix to crash trying to access “Luke Cage” the day the show went live on Oct. 7, is the array of diverse and divergent characters within the show. From the weapons dealers and family-run memorabilia salesgirls, to the police officers and politicians, blackness is visible.
“Every age is represented, every class and hue is represented, and every personality is there,” blogger BlackDiva Divine told the AFRO. “Coker is deliberate in presenting ‘the community’ in the way that films like “Shaft,” “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” “Claudine,” and “Across 110th Street,” did years ago. Even more important, cinematically, to have Mariah Dillard pointing out all of places Adam Clayton Powell, Malcolm X, and Zora Neale Hurston stomped within the dialogue of the show, connects the past with the present. It documents these locations as ‘ours’ despite gentrification.”
Far from being corny, the odes to Harlem stand firm alongside the actors and scripts. In addition to Woodard, who offers a new kind of crazy, Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, (who portrays gangster Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes) and Simone Missick (who portrays police detective Misty Knight) lead a stellar and believable cast.
Even Woodard called Coker a “student of the Harlem Renaissance,” with an extended understanding of the pride Blacks continue to feel for its old lounges, apartments, and eateries.
“ traces the roots it took and the branches that have reached out from Harlem across the world in terms of influence. The reason the show succeeds is that even though Luke has superpowers, it’s grounded in that reality,” Woodard told The New York Times.
Coker told USA Today that he drew inspiration from his grandfather, a Harlem native who became a Tuskegee Airman and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in creating the show and its characters.
“He used to say that at a time when it was purported African Americans didn’t have the mental capacity to fly airplanes, they knew the stakes were as profound at home as anything they were dealing with in the air or being a part of a segregated unit,” Coker said. “I’m not going to be one of those people who says, I’m a showrunner, I’m not a Black showrunner. I’m Black when I go to sleep. I’m Black when I wake up, period. It doesn’t affect my perspective on everything, but at the same time, it’s who I am, and I’m proud of it.”