Luke Cage-- Marvel/Netflix

[Christopher]

Good trailer. Mike Colter is a really impressive lead. Looks like there will be a lot of Rosario Dawson too, though that may not be representative.

Note that the getup Luke has on in the tank during his creation flashback mimics the metal headband and wristbands of his original comics costume.

 

[shapeshifter]

Jumped on this thread just in time to catch the trailer. So Luke Cage is Marvels answer to DCs Superman! I'll be watching!

 

[JD]

Did anybody else notice that the band around his head during the experiment looks like the tiara/headband thing he used to wear as part of his original costume?

 

[Christopher]

So Luke Cage is Marvels answer to DCs Superman! I'll be watching!

Hmm, not exactly. That's Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), in terms of the overall power set. Luke is bulletproof, unbreakable, and somewhat superstrong, but he doesn't have flight or supersenses or heat vision or the like.

Did anybody else notice that the band around his head during the experiment looks like the tiara/headband thing he used to wear as part of his original costume?

I guess you missed my previous post?

 

[shapeshifter]

Hmm, not exactly. That's Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), in terms of the overall power set. Luke is bulletproof, unbreakable, and somewhat superstrong, but he doesn't have flight or supersenses or heat vision or the like.

Being unfamiliar with the character, I hoped my broad statement would draw some clarification on his ability's. Thanks for saving me a Google.

 

[Christopher]

I'm actually a little unsure about Luke's powers myself. Nominally, his power is that he has "unbreakable skin." Okay, that would make him bulletproof and knife-proof, but it shouldn't protect him from shocks that would break his bones or damage his organs, things like superstrong punches or long falls or explosions. And yet Luke is consistently portrayed as being immune to damage from just about any kind of physical attack. And as we can see in the trailers, he's generally shown as superstrong, too. Indeed, in the comics, he's even been shown to be capable of performing the "Fastball Special" -- i.e. picking up Wolverine (who's small but quite heavy) and throwing him a great distance at high speed like pitching a baseball. Which is generally something done by the strongest heroes in the Marvel Universe -- Colossus by default, but when others do it, it's generally people like Rogue, Captain Marvel, the Hulk, or She-Hulk. So if Cage can do it too, that would put him in a pretty high superstrength class. So I'm not really sure how strong Cage is supposed to be, and how you get from "unbreakable skin" to that kind of superhuman strength. Maybe someone else here knows more about the character than I do.

 

[Icemizer]

According to the official handbook Luke can lift 25 tons, and has great stamina. His skin is virtually unbreakable but everything under it is not.

 

[Christopher]

His skin is virtually unbreakable but everything under it is not.

I've seen stories where he withstood blows that, if that were the case, would've pulverized his innards and been instantly lethal. So he's got to be far more durable than a normal human inside as well as out, even if his skin is his most indestructible part.

The problem is that a lot of writers don't understand the physics of how the body suffers injury. There was an episode of Alphas that made this mistake -- there was a drug that gave people invulnerable skin, and that somehow made them able to survive jumping off of skyscrapers. Invulnerable skin would've done nothing to reduce the stresses to their skeletons and organs. Indeed, a rigid skin surface would probably have transmitted the shock even better. And... err... killed them slightly harder.

See also Iron Man, where a metal suit of armor outside Tony Stark's body is somehow able to protect him from the lethal acceleration of slamming into the ground at rocket-propelled velocity. Now, we could assume the later models of armor have some kind of repulsor-based inertial damping acting on his body inside the suit, but even the first prototype suit that he built from spare parts in a cave was somehow able to protect him from that kind of impact. When in fact it would just reduce him to a goopy mess inside the intact metal suit.

 

[kirk55555]

A few thoughts:

-He has had a huge power up since Jessica Jones. He could barely throw a few people around in JJ, and honestly less impressive then, say, Captain America when it came to superstrength. Maybe that experiment they mention/show happens after JJ, and it powers him up. Or, more likely, the LC showrunner thought he was too toned down in JJ so they just powered him up with no explanation.

- It does feel like I'd imagine a Luke Cage show would feel. I don't recognize who the bad guy is supposed to be, but when I imagine a Luke Cage show this trailer represents what I'd imagine pretty well.

-How will this show spend time trying to jerk the main character around about being a hero? Will it be like daredevil, where everyone he knows constantly tries to browbeat him into giving up helping people? Or will he just help people but constantly complain about it and keep repeating how he's not a hero, like Jessica Jones? (I'm a bit bitter towards Marvel netflix, in case you couldn't tell )

- Will Punisher show up every 5 minutes just to cry and whine? After Daredevil season 2, I'm assuming that's what Marvel's Netflix's shows will mostly be about from now on, heroes either complaining about being heroes or having friends constantly trying to put them down for being heroes while Punisher lurks in the background crying like a baby at the drop of a hat. (Again, I'm definitely not bitter ).

 

[Skywalker]

The portrayal of both Jessica and Luke's superpowers in Jessica Jones was pretty weak, if you ask me. Not surprised to see them doing a better job of it in his own show. Hopefully the trend will continue for both of them in The Defenders.

 

[kirk55555]

The portrayal of both Jessica and Luke's superpowers in Jessica Jones was pretty weak, if you ask me. Not surprised to see them doing a better job of it in his own show. Hopefully the trend will continue for both of them in The Defenders.

Yeah, Jessica was very toned down when it came to strength (she can also fly in the comics, although she was out of practice in the Alias comic the show was kind of based on so I give the show a pass on that). It really seemed to be worst for Luke, since he's known as Power Man in the comics. He has unbreakable skin and super strength and uses them a lot in the comics, but JJ really didn't seem to want to have a powerful hero and it just made Cage seem off. Its like in Kevin Smith's story about writing a superman script where superman wasn't supposed to fly. some people just want to really tone down heroes they think are "too powerful", although in a world with Thor and The hulk that's ridiculous.

 

[Christopher]

The portrayal of both Jessica and Luke's superpowers in Jessica Jones was pretty weak, if you ask me.

I thought it suited the tone of that show quite well. I liked how casual and matter-of-fact the portrayal of Jessica's powers was. No special attention called to it, no sound effect, no slow motion, just bam, she casually breaks the door lock and goes on in.

 

[Captain Craig]

That trailer has me even more ramped up for this now!!

Yes, the "experiment tank" scene with the nod to the comic look was well done!

 

[DWMarch]

The music is going to be a character in this show:

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It makes me wonder how this show is going to handle issues of race though. One of the quotes in that clip is about provoking "brothers" to kick buckets. And brothers is not the original lyric. I don't think the actual word has ever been said in the MCU. Race was sort of addressed in Agent Carter season 2 with a female scientist telling a black scientist how they'd never get any respect because of who they are. Agents of SHIELD also did a race allegory with the Inhumans but they were a bunch of SoCal whitest-whitey-mcwhitersons-who-ever-whited. This show is going to be a lot darker, literally and figuratively so I wonder how they're going to handle that street slang that would be conspicuous by its absence or presence.

 

[Christopher]

Agents of SHIELD also did a race allegory with the Inhumans but they were a bunch of SoCal whitest-whitey-mcwhitersons-who-ever-whited.

Not so. The Inhuman characters in AoS include characters of a variety of ethnicities: Daisy Johnson (half-Chinese), her mother Jiaying (Chinese), Raina (biracial, played by an Irish-Ethiopian actress), Andrew Garner (African-American), Joey Gutierrez (Hispanic, also gay), Elena Rodriguez (Colombian), Lucio (Colombian), Giyera (Asian, played by a multiracial actor), and Jiaying's assistant Yat-Sen (Chinese).

 

[Hugo Rune]

First reviews are in. Looks promising.

http://collider.com/luke-cage-review-netflix/ (Possible Spoilers)

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/marvels-luke-cage/43501/marvels-luke-cage-spoiler-free-review (Spoiler Free)

http://411mania.com/movies/marvels-luke-cage-season-one-review/ (Spoiler Free)

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/tv-review-marvels-luke-cage---season-1-episode-1-moment-of-truth-689 (Spoiler Free)

Critics have been given the first 7 episodes of the show to review. Reviews range from 7/10 to 9/10 and one 5-star review.

I'm reading none of them as I want to go in as fresh as possible.

Hugo - Enjoy

 

[Christopher]

Those are pretty glowing reviews. Good to hear.

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/tv-review-marvels-luke-cage---season-1-episode-1-moment-of-truth-689 (Spoiler Free)

This review incorrectly states that this is "the first superhero property starring an African-American lead." I can think of at least one other prime-time TV example, FOX's short-lived (and mostly terrible) M.A.N.T.I.S. from 1994-5, starring Carl Lumbly. Also Blade: The Series, if you count Blade as a superhero. There have been several Power Rangers seasons with black (though not necessarily American) actors in the leading Red Ranger role -- one of whom, Eka Darville, was in Jessica Jones. In animation, we've had Filmation's obscure Superstretch and Microwoman, the '80s syndicated series C.O.P.S. (borderline, since its lead character was voiced by a white actor and was just about the only black character in the very large cast), and by far the best example, Static Shock. And in movies, we've had Steel, Spawn, the Blade trilogy, Catwoman (I know, I know), and the original characters Meteor Man, Blankman, and Hancock.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Io9/Gizmodo spoiler-free review.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/marvel-s-luk...utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

 

[Reverend]

Those are pretty glowing reviews. Good to hear.



This review incorrectly states that this is "the first superhero property starring an African-American lead." I can think of at least one other prime-time TV example, FOX's short-lived (and mostly terrible) M.A.N.T.I.S. from 1994-5, starring Carl Lumbly. Also Blade: The Series, if you count Blade as a superhero. There have been several Power Rangers seasons with black (though not necessarily American) actors in the leading Red Ranger role -- one of whom, Eka Darville, was in Jessica Jones. In animation, we've had Filmation's obscure Superstretch and Microwoman, the '80s syndicated series C.O.P.S. (borderline, since its lead character was voiced by a white actor and was just about the only black character in the very large cast), and by far the best example, Static Shock. And in movies, we've had Steel, Spawn, the Blade trilogy, Catwoman (I know, I know), and the original characters Meteor Man, Blankman, and Hancock.

I don't want to read it for fear of spoilers or inadvertently forming preconceptions, but is it possible they meant the source material? I'm not sure but I was always under the impression that back in the 70's the Luke Cage books were a first in terms of a black character being the star of their own book (IIRC Black Panther showed up earlier in 'Fantastic Four', but didn't get his own book till after 'Heros for Hire' was published.)

Failing that, all of those examples are either terrible products, flat out obscure or not actually staring a black character. So I'd say it's a fair statement with only a modicum of hyperbole. If nothing else it's the first of the Marvel and indeed the modern crop of superhero properties to star a black man.

However you want to split that hair, it's still a significant milestone, not least because it actually looks *good*.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Sounds promising! I'm also going to avoid the reviews, but io9's headline "Marvel’s Luke Cage Is the Unapologetically Black Superhero Show I’ve Been Waiting For" made me smile.