I’ve been reading comics a long time. I remember reading a good bit of the original run of Power Man and Iron Fist. I’ve always enjoyed the pair, and their odd friendship. The new title has been enjoyable, and I’m happy they are back together. The current issue is a really fine piece of writing.
“Manifest” is the seventh Luke Cage episode. It starts off with an amusing scene of Zip trying to do a gun deal. Cage walks up, and everyone runs off to his, “Do I even have to say it?” Zip makes an ominous comment and then runs off after his clients while Luke makes short work of the guns.
“Suckas Need Bodyguards,” the sixth episode of Luke Cage, opens with a nice bit of a crossover. There are a lot of divided opinions over Luke’s recent actions, and they are being discussed on “Trish Talks.” That’s the radio talk show hosted by Trish Walker, best friend of Jessica Jones and a big part of her series, as was Luke in Season One. With this much public comment about Luke, I do wonder how long it will be until SHIELD comes knocking about Registration for the Sokovia Accords. A lot of the scenery under this is Luke jogging through the streets. Even supers need to work on their cardio, I guess.
I’ve enjoyed all the Netflix series so far. I can’t point even a bad episode of any of them. But I have to say that “Just To Get A Rep” might be the best of all of them so far. It was an impressive piece of writing and acting. There was some action, but what was much more striking was the clash of ideas that took up the end of the episode.
The fourth episode of Luke Cage, “Step Into The Arena,” jumps back and forth between the present and the major portions of his origin. The present isn’t looking so good, since last episode ended with Cottonmouth launching a rocket attack on Genghis Connie’s with Connie and Luke inside. I’m guessing Cottonmouth doesn’t believe in the concept of overkill. They do make the title work on two different levels, which is a nice job.
The third episode of Luke Cage is called, “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” and it’s a good follow up to the tragedy near the end of “Code of The Streets.” It starts off with a big firefight and people fleeing the Crispus Attaks building. After a couch goes sailing out one of the upper floor windows, Cage strolls out, hood up, carrying a large duffel bag. Then we get text of “Earlier That Day” to explain what we’re seeing and how Cage got here.
The second episode of Luke Cage starts with a trick I’m really starting to get tired of. It’s a situation that’s presented, and then we work our way back to that point. It can be a nice plot device, and it’s even done decently here, but I really think they could have done the story without it. Countering that, they include something I’m hugely in favor of. The infamous N-word gets used, in my humble opinion, far too often in movies and tv. Luke gives a mini-lecture against it, and he’s the second character in this series to do that. I wholeheartedly approve.
With Luke Cage starting off on Netflix, I thought this would be a good time to go over some of the major characters and their comic book counterparts. As with most comic book characters who have been around a while, some of the histories are a bit complicated
With two seasons of Daredevil out, and one of Jessica Jones, the Netflix corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe moves on to Luke Cage, third of the original four announced series. I’ve enjoyed Luke in most of his comic incarnations, and thought Mike Colter did a great job on the Jessica Jones series, so I was happy to see him stand up as the star here. I really enjoyed the opening episode.
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