# Luke Cage - new Netflix show

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 1, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324 "2016-10-01T00:35:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/41 "2016-10-04T00:53:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> What the hell happened during the hostage situation in Ep11? After Shades tells Diamondback about Claire escaping and Candice being a problem Diamondback tells him to “take care of it”. Next thing we see is Shades washing blood of his hands which leads him to find the hidden area in the kitchen, but Candice is still alive and unhurt. Who’s blood was he washing off?

The blood on Shades’ hands belonged to Damon Boone, the politician Diamondback murdered during the hostage situation. Shades pushed his body out the doors.

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/42 "2016-10-04T03:34:11Z")

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About halfway through and liking it well enough. But some things that bother me -

First, I get that you have sociopolitical messages you want to get out there. But dang, quit the contrived having the characters verbally lecture them to us. \*Show us \*by way of the characters’ actions and choices. Don’t repetitively hit us over the head with strained awkward and hard to believe pontifications.

Second, I find the overuse of Black stereotypes cringeworthy. Okay, this is not real Harlem so real current demographics need not apply. But really? Not _one_ long term present and strong father? (Okay, Misty mentions her strong and present father. One.) Is this the Black life in America as lifted from the mind of Trump? No fathers and all guns? Reality check: [Black fathers are involved with their kids.](https://thinkprogress.org/the-myth-of-the-absent-black-father-ecc4e961c2e8#.f5itlbdgy) They are there reading to them, eating meals with them, taking them where they need to go, helping them with their homework.

That said I’d love to see someone put together a reading list of authors, artists, and historical figures mentioned in the show! Many are new to my ignorant self. And yes a superhero who is Black, and participating in Black American culture, is great. I do wish we could progress tpast the point where his or her being Black is the main focus of who the character is and is instead just one aspect of a fully fleshed and believable character. (And yes, superheroes can be believable.)

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**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/43 "2016-10-04T08:52:09Z")

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> [@Orr\_G](#):
>
> The, erm, style choice of that one bad guy was very reminiscent of the old Power Man costume (I never read the comics back then, but I’ve seen stuff here and there, enough to notice the homage). I thought that was a nice touch.

I’m not sure who you mean, but if you’re referring to Diamondback… he [pretty much looked like Diamondback.](http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Willis_Stryker)

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/44 "2016-10-04T10:30:50Z")

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So I am up to Ep 11. These Judas bullets are now available to SWAT-type teams? Is that a thing in his storyline? That weapons are readily available that can pierce his skin?

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/45 "2016-10-04T10:33:33Z")

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In this particular version of the storyline, yes for some meanings of “readily available”. The key component is Chitauri metal; so far, the only source for that is the debris from The Incident (i.e., the big superhero fight in Manhattan).

In other particular versions… which one? There have always been people who could hurt him (not much of a story otherwise), some of them through technological means, but details vary.

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/46 "2016-10-04T10:46:38Z")

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Can we pretty, pretty please have a moratorium on having the canon names for important fictional events being vague stupid unspecific terms like The Incident? Like, it’s not like real life names for these things are super creative, but at least they have **some** character and specificity. 9/11 is just a date, but is at least specific, VJ-Day has character and is specific, Black January, Rape of Nanking, The Holocaust, The Great War. They’re not horribly creative, but they’re at least descriptive.

Nobody would settle on “the incident” for a grand alien invasion of New York. I could buy “the Invasion”, or \<the date it happened\>, or Avengers Day, but “the Incident” sounds like that time your toddler threw a temper tantrum at bring your daughter to work day and you’re too embarrassed to talk about it, not an event that altered the course of human history. I could **maybe** condone it being the name for the time Ultron lifted a city in the sky because that wasn’t quite as crazy as the previous one.

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**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/47 "2016-10-04T11:26:31Z")

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> [@DSeid](#):
>
> Second, I find the overuse of Black stereotypes cringeworthy. Okay, this is not real Harlem so real current demographics need not apply. But really? Not _one_ long term present and strong father? (Okay, Misty mentions her strong and present father. One.) Is this the Black life in America as lifted from the mind of Trump? No fathers and all guns? Reality check: [Black fathers are involved with their kids.](https://thinkprogress.org/the-myth-of-the-absent-black-father-ecc4e961c2e8#.f5itlbdgy) They are there reading to them, eating meals with them, taking them where they need to go, helping them with their homework.

Luke’s father was also present and strong, if very flawed. They were just estranged.  
In a sense, that also meant that Diamondback’s father was present and strong until his mother died.  
The main absent fathers were Mariah’s and Cottonmouth’s.

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**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/48 "2016-10-04T13:55:47Z")

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> [@Jragon](#):
>
> … but “the Incident” sounds like that time your toddler threw a temper tantrum at bring your daughter to work day and you’re too embarrassed to talk about it, not an event that altered the course of human history.

Henceforth, we shall refer to it as “The Noodle Incident”, then.

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**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/49 "2016-10-04T14:00:11Z")

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> [@Jragon](#):
>
> Can we pretty, pretty please have a moratorium on having the canon names for important fictional events being vague stupid unspecific terms like The Incident? Like, it’s not like real life names for these things are super creative, but at least they have **some** character and specificity. 9/11 is just a date, but is at least specific, VJ-Day has character and is specific, Black January, Rape of Nanking, The Holocaust, The Great War. They’re not horribly creative, but they’re at least descriptive.
> 
> Nobody would settle on “the incident” for a grand alien invasion of New York. I could buy “the Invasion”, or \<the date it happened\>, or Avengers Day, but “the Incident” sounds like that time your toddler threw a temper tantrum at bring your daughter to work day and you’re too embarrassed to talk about it, not an event that altered the course of human history. I could **maybe** condone it being the name for the time Ultron lifted a city in the sky because that wasn’t quite as crazy as the previous one.

They may not be allowed to. Remember, that guy hawking videos of The Incident goes out of his way to avoid saying “Iron Man” or “Captain America” or “the Hulk”. Same thing happened in JESSICA JONES, where she’d only ever mention ‘the green guy’ or ‘the flag-waver’.

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**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/50 "2016-10-04T15:55:32Z")

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> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> They may not be allowed to. Remember, that guy hawking videos of The Incident goes out of his way to avoid saying “Iron Man” or “Captain America” or “the Hulk”. Same thing happened in JESSICA JONES, where she’d only ever mention ‘the green guy’ or ‘the flag-waver’.

They did specifically say Captain America and Iron Man though. I finished this last night and while i enjoyed it a lot of the plot felt very contrived. Luke could have easily ended the Cottonmouth problem at any point, instead he resorted to beating up henchmen and not really doing anything about the boss several times. You don’t just go to the guys club, beat up a bunch of mooks and then just leave. Not after they killed Pops. Diamondback had Luke dead to rights several times also and did nothing about it. When he was about to finish him and gave the speech about how one Judas bullet had almost killed him and the next one was going to finish the job, AND THEN FIRED FROM THE HIP AND HIT HIM IN THE SHOULDER I actually went “Oh, come on!” out loud. That’s just bad writing, don’t put the hero in unwinnable situations and then have him get it out of it out of sheer luck/stupidity. This aren’t just minor annoyances, the whole plot revolved around dumb events that wouldn’t go down as presented.

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**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/51 "2016-10-04T18:52:41Z")

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I’m almost done, haven’t read the thread to avoid any spoilers.

So far it’s just okay, fairly mindless entertainment but not much depth or substance and too many plot holes. My first exposure to Netflix/Marvel comic series was Jessica Jones and I thought that was fantastic. I then watched Dare Devil and although I enjoyed it, it didn’t intrigue me nearly as much. The extended martial arts fight scenes just got tiresome after awhile. I also realized that having a super hero who is blind but can see better than anyone with eyes well… kinda takes away the suspense of a blind super hero. I’m finding in Luke Cage nothing I can particularly say is “horrible” but certainly nothing that is great either. I enjoy a super hero more basically grounded in our world vs. enormous super powers and tights type characters fighting space invaders. So that part of Luke Cage does appeal, as with Jessica Jones. But overall it is just leaving me a little “meh”.

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**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/52 "2016-10-04T20:02:21Z")

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I’m loving the club performers. Hope they come out with a soundtrack 🙂

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/53 "2016-10-05T02:00:47Z")

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> [@RikWriter](#):
>
> Luke’s father was also present and strong, if very flawed. They were just estranged.  
> In a sense, that also meant that Diamondback’s father was present and strong until his mother died.  
> The main absent fathers were Mariah’s and Cottonmouth’s.

Don’t know anything about Luke’s and Diamondback’s up to the point I’ve seen.

But Aisha’s dad got strung out so was no longer present - thus his ring so important. Heck the first ep has Luke saying it explicitly, something like “no fathers and too many guns” … Pop, who was an absent father, having his shop be the place for boys to be to see a Black man in uniform working, 'cause there dad’s are not there doing that. It’s a theme.

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**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/54 "2016-10-05T04:05:18Z")

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I demand my money back. We had two members of the Serpent Society but no Princess Python? What the _hell_ is wrong with these writers? I mean…we had a chance to have _Princess Python_ on TV and they didn’t _do_ it? Did they eat lead paint chips as babies?

I can only assume they’re all commies.

😉

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**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/55 "2016-10-05T04:06:08Z")

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> [@WotNot](#):
>
> I’m not sure who you mean, but if you’re referring to Diamondback… he [pretty much looked like Diamondback.](http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Willis_Stryker)

:smack:

Yeah, it does look quite a bit more like that than the old Power Man one I saw.

So were there any cute references or easter eggs on the show that weren’t just a product of my pattern recognition going on the fritz?

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**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/56 "2016-10-05T08:25:25Z")

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> [@Orr\_G](#):
>
> :smack:
> 
> Yeah, it does look quite a bit more like that than the old Power Man one I saw.
> 
> So were there any cute references or easter eggs on the show that weren’t just a product of my pattern recognition going on the fritz?

There _was_ a reference to Luke’s original comic costume: when he escaped from Seagate, he stole some clothes from a washing line, and then caught sight of his reflection wearing metal cuffs, a tiara, and a yellow silk blouse. “You look like a damn fool.”

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**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/57 "2016-10-05T08:53:22Z")

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> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> I saw Jessica Jones and I think he is as invulnerable as Superman. Not as strong, but literally impenetrable.
> 
> He has no Kryptonite, I think.

IIRC from the comics I read several decades ago, he was susceptible to almost every damaging thing BUT impact weapons. So he’s proof against bullets and knives, but he could be strangled, he could drown, he could be poisoned, etc. No idea whether it’s the same with this series, though.

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**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/58 "2016-10-05T09:05:00Z")

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> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Why do I feel like I’ve seen this before? I watched the pilot episode today, there were several scenes I could swear I’ve seen before.

I’ve only watched the first ep (can it really be called a pilot when the whole season is released at once?), but it seemed to contain the same lovemaking scene that JJ watched through a window in the first ep of her series. So that pretty much nails down that what we’ll see in LC is happening at the same time as what we saw in JJ.

If the events of the two series contradict each other, then that’s either pretty clumsy, or an intricate mystery whose solution may be revealed later.

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/59 "2016-10-05T09:13:41Z")

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> [@kiz](#):
>
> I’m loving the club performers. Hope they come out with a soundtrack 🙂

They have, but I don’t have the address here. I’m not sure if all tracks are currently available or only some. I’ll try and remember to post the links this afternoon.

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/luke-cage-new-netflix-show/767324/60 "2016-10-05T10:32:52Z")

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> [@TonySinclair](#):
>
> I’ve only watched the first ep (can it really be called a pilot when the whole season is released at once?), but it seemed to contain the same lovemaking scene that JJ watched through a window in the first ep of her series. So that pretty much nails down that what we’ll see in LC is happening at the same time as what we saw in JJ.

No, it takes part afterwards. Pops the barber refers to Jessica Jones as Luke’s rebound girlfriend in the first couple of episodes, for instance.

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