“Marvel’s Luke Cage” was released by Netflix on September 30th. The 13-episode series focuses on the reluctant and indestructible superhero Luke Cage as he tries to protect the people of Harlem, New York. By day, Cage doubles as a maintenance worker at a Barber shop and a dishwasher at an up-and-coming club.
At night, Cage dons a tattered, bullet-holed jacket, turns the hood up and does what he can for the historic neighborhood.
Cage is a person of color. With that being said, he is fully aware of the awful stereotypes that weigh on his shoulders each day. He doesn’t let who society thinks he is define him. Cage completely aware of the odds against him, and puts his hood up anyway because a gun could never pose any kind of danger.
Cage is an exception.
He is an exception, not only because he is an unbreakable person, but because he’s black as well. In an age where people of color are being killed every day and videos on the news depict unarmed, defenseless people being shot at for the pigment of their skin, he is an exception.
If you fired a gun at Cage? He would catch that bullet mid-air and crush it in his hand as if it was a paper airplane.
Cage isn’t a newly formed superhero. He was first introduced by Marvel comics in 1972 and has even been a leader of the Avengers.
Nothing can pierce Cage’s skin or leave a mark. Bullets bounce off his body and trying to stab him with a knife leaves the once deadly weapon a shattered mess on the ground.
In the third episode of another Netflix original series, “Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” Cage turned on an electric hand saw and pressed it to his stomach. Not only did the hand saw fail to mar his skin, but the machine became a mangled, broken piece of junk.
“I’m not for hire, but you’ve got my word, ma’am. I’ve got you,” Cage said after saving his landlord and her husband from a mugging in their restaurant.
Cage has a superpower and he uses it for noble reasons.
On the outside, Cage isn’t so different from the rest of our attractive, rough childhood martyr superheroes of today. He saves innocent people, he puts what’s best for everyone else above himself, and he’s always trying to see the good in others.
However, Cage is unique.
He knows without a doubt he will survive that bullet, that he can brace for impact and come out completely unscathed.
Cage is a fantasy because he is what people of color want to be in the face of the terrible danger they’re being put through today. To have impenetrable skin and superhuman strength would make a huge difference in their problems, especially against police force.
Watch Luke Cage. Watch a bulletproof man become a savior because he is good, kind and struggling to become the superhero he never wanted to be.
Watch Cage because he is a fantasy and a beacon of hope for someone who will never be bulletproof, but can still be a hero by taking a stand for what’s right.
Email Shania Savastio at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
