Luke Cage, season two is finally here and it’s awesome! Harlem’s hero is hitting the streets and keeping the city he loves as safe as he can. Taking place after the events of the Defenders, Luke Cage finds himself back in Harlem. He’s made his headquarters and base of operations at Pop’s Barbershop and is looking to create a safer Harlem for all of its residents. What could possibly go wrong?
The returning cast for season 2 have found their groove in this season. For the fans of Marvel’s street level heroes, there are a lot of treats for you if you keep a sharp eye out for them. For the fans of old school blaxspoitation movies, this is the series for you as each and every blaxspoitation trope is hit as if there was a checklist used during production.
Mike Colter shines as he returns as Luke Cage. He’s settled down with his girlfriend, Night Nurse, Claire Temple who is played by Rosario Dawson. Also returning this season are Alfre Woodard as Black Mariah, Theo Rossi as Shades and Simone Missik as Mercedes “Misty” Knight. Again, the returning cast were amazing this season and the writers did their thing with the continued character development of the returning characters. Everyone is older, sometimes wiser and yet they all have room to improve as people.
The standout performance this season in Luke Cage, however, is from Mustafa Shakir. Shakir plays the major villain, Bushmaster. Bushmaster is a Jamaican crime lord who has his eyes on revenge and getting justice for the wrongs that fell upon his family. Bushmaster is clever, charismatic and practical and he can also hold his own in a fight against the bulletproof Luke Cage.
There are several themes that are explored in this season of Luke Cage. Family issues are at the head of all of those themes, however the others are not to be out shined. If it seems that Marvel has lately been putting out content filled with father issues, then you are not wrong. A lot of this season deals with the sins of the father and how to reconcile those issues. Luke Cage, Bushmaster and Black Mariah all deal with their respective family issues in various ways throughout this season and it is pretty awesome at how it is shown on screen.
This season also brings back the political commentary from season 1 of Luke Cage, which is also important to see as the reason Luke Cage as a character existed was in part due to political commentary. In each episode, 13 total, there’s at least a few scenes dedicated to real life issues interwoven within the Harlem that exists in the MCU.
There are also several surprises and revelations this season that will really get the fans of the comics out of their seats. There’s even one episode that in my opinion completely changes how a certain character was misused in his own series.
In the finale, which was filmed beautifully, the ultimate theme of the entire season was revealed. In order to change the world, you must change yourself. This was definitely one of the stronger season 2s of the Netflix Marvel series and I can not wait until season 3 is here. Go to Netflix right now and watch Luke Cage Season 2.
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