Luke Cage: Man of Steel

“Sometimes if you want Justice, You have to get it yourself.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytkjQvSk2VA&w=560&h=315]
Well this looks fantastic.
The first full trailer for Luke Cage has been unleashed by Marvel and Netflix, and it looks like it gives us a pretty good taste of what’s in store on September 30th.

Rosario Dawson is seemingly central to the initial plot, with Cage repaying the favour for her cameo in Jessica Jones with a much bigger role here.

We get a hint of the gangsters that Cage will be directly vying against as he tries to protect Harlem, and also the reveal that we will be seeing Cage’s backstory in some form. The metal wristbands and headband in his origin story are a nice little shoutout to the costume in the comics as well.

And what I love most is all the Superman imagery going on here. Stopping the moving car out of nowhere is classic heroism, and the shot of Cage’s unbreakable face being punched by a very squishy human is very reminiscent of some great scenes in both Superman Returns and even Batman v Superman.
Even more than that, as a series, Luke Cage seems to actually be about heroism and doing the right thing for other people.
Daredevil is a fantastic series, with excellent performances by it’s villainous cast, but is mostly about self loathing and good old Catholic guilt.
Jessica Jones is an astounding noir mystery, with a mainstream depiction of the personal story about abuse survivors (admittedly wrapped in superhero tropes)

This seems to be about a much more social form of justice. Not only is the show heavily using the aesthetic theming of Harlem, but it also appears to be directly addressing the idea of heroism in the community. Cage being admonished by a detective (I’m guessing Simone Missick’s Misty Knight) as to the fact that  “You might be Bulletproof, but Harlem ain’t” is an excellent hook to base the series themes upon.
Cage is out to find out what reason he has these powers for. The scene where he offers his word to the restaraunt owners was exactly what I wanted to see from the street level heroism of the Netflix Marvel Series.

Honestly, this looks different enough from everything we’ve seen so far that I’m excited more than ever.