LUKE CAGE - "Always Forward! Never Forget Who You Are!" (2016)

It's a Saturday Night souped up and four to the floor Special featuring Marvel Superhero "Luke Cage!" I had stopped reading comics by the 1970's, an evil habit I picked back up in the 80's, kind of like smoking! Bottom line is I missed the whole "Luke Cage" era, choosing more to watch films by Jean Renoir and Douglas Sirk!

So, how true these stories are to the originals is something I know nothing about, but if the original Luke Cage was a cool as the current Luke Cage, then I just might start reading comics again!

I'm enjoying watching "Luke Cage," and Mike Colter is fantastic in the lead role. The rest of the cast is dynamic, especially the female leads, good and bad. I don't especially like Theo Rossi in the role of Shades, mostly because he seems like he's still basically the same character that he was in "Sons Of Anarchy." What I do like about "Luke Cage" a lot is the music, not the score so much, but all of the musical performances in the club are excellent, and weave in and out of the story seamlessly!

Here are just a couple of the musical highlights! I wish I had the songs for you to go with the pictures, but I don't!

The first episode includes this cool number called "Good Man" performed by Raphael Saadiq.

The second episode has this awesome performance by Faith Evans of a song called "Mesmerized," and mesmerizing it is indeed!

Episode 3 included this super tight and funky tune by Charles Bradley titled
"Ain't It A Sin."

I was reading on IMDB, trying to figure out what was going on with season two when I read where some person wrote that they thought the show was good, but there was too much music! Wow, I couldn't disagree with that any stronger than Luke Cage! Too much music? Are you kidding?

I could watch this season two, episode one with the truly artful blues of Gary Clark Jr. all day long! Gary performs a couple of  songs, and this one titled "Bright Lights" is as devastating as one of Luke Cage's punches. It kills it that bad!

The first Luke Cage comic "Hero For Hire"came out in June of 1972 for 16 issues, but he wasn't the first of the black superheroes! 

In 1974, Luke returned as Power Man, and then in 1978, he teamed up with Iron Fist until 1981. Luke eventually became one of The Avengers!

After various reincarnations, in 2015, Marvel decided to give it what they called a second chance!

Meanwhile, while all that marvelous action was going on, in April of 1977, DC decided to come out with their own black superhero "Black Lightning" who has also got a TV series on Netflix as of this year! I'm hoping it's as good as Luke's!

But the real first comic black superhero was named "The Black Panther." His first appearance was in July of 1966 in issue number 52 of "The Fantastic Four!" This appearance pre-dated the origin of the sociopolitical group called the Black Panthers by a couple of months! When violence started being associated with the Black Panthers, Stan Lee tried changing "The Black Panther" to "The Black Leopard" to avoid any problems, but it didn't fly, so they went back with "The Black Panther!"

Issue # 5 of "Jungle Action" featured The Black Panther, and after that it turned into one continuous Black Panther story from issues 6 through 24 titled "Jungle Action Featuring The Black Panther!"

In 2010, The Black Panther Returned once again, and in February 2018 "Black Panther" returned to the big screen!

Me, I'm sticking with Luke Cage! The world could use a few more heroes super or not, like him! For right now, Gary Clark Jr. will just have to do, and I don't have a problem with that!
TURN IT UP DAMMIT!!!