Ever since Netflix aired "Daredevil" in mid-2015, I have been craving more and more from the geniuses over at Marvel. And boy, they haven't disappointed!
When Jessica Jones aired in November, I was completely enthralled by the latest take on the heroes of Hell's Kitchen and more. She was tough, vulgar, and had a deepness to her that would put the Grand Canyon to shame. I must admit, I was skeptical before the show aired, doubting if Marvel could strike lightning twice in the small world that is Netflix. However, once I heard the casting news of Krysten Ritter and David Tennant as the lead characters Jones and Kilgrave aka the Purple Man respectively, I was immensely relieved. But when it comes to the new Luke Cage series, I find myself not even relieved by the casting decisions for the show.
The character of Luke Cage was introduced in the Jessica Jones series, performed by Mike Colter, and mainly played the thrilling part of a background character. While you could tell the writers were trying to set something up for him, including him in some great action packed sequences and giving him a bit of a backstory that will no doubt be the heavy conflict in his own series, it still didn't save this character from complete and utter mediocrity the second he hit the screen.
I knew I should have cared more for his character, I knew I should have rooted for him and Jones to be together, and I even knew I should have rooted for him in general, but I just couldn't. His "unbreakable skin" didn't amount to interesting character development in the scenes I saw him in, and in the famous fight scene between him and Jones, featuring a very "Doctory" scene on a stage thanks to Mr. Tennant, I even rooted for Jones to finish it so I didn't have to sit through another scene where he complained about his deep and dark life and talked in an even deeper voice.
While I haven't watched the show yet, it will premiere later in the month of September, I could be surprised like I was with Jessica Jones. However, at this point, I don't have much excitement towards this latest "marvel" to hit the small screen.
The trailers have yet to excite me, with the small exclusion of the amazing music choices Netflix continues to use in their trailers, and his development in the Marvel-verse has yet to be seen or predicted how on earth it could evolve from background/bodyguard character/eye candy to actual hero figure.
With the "Defenders" coming to Netflix so soon, it has yet to be seen how Mr. Cage will fit into it without being a glorified bodyguard, some may say the same about Jones but there is no doubt she will add the necessary bad cop to Daredevils slightly nicer one, so here's to hoping Marvel knows what they are doing, which they always do, and give this man a story worth telling.
