I sat on the old worn out leather couch in the living room staring at the TV screen in front. The very same activity I had been doing for the last six hours and it had taken those six hours to pass to finally have to realisation that Luke Cage, the recently released Marvel/Netflix series was indeed just as cartoonish as the comic book the series was inspired by.
I continued to sit, I continued to watch, but I was no longer passively viewing Luke Cage trash about in a bath full of boiling acid. Cage was struggling as a crazy obsessive scientist (who experimented on prison inmates in secrecy.) and a nurse fought over keeping him submerged in the bath. Both the scientist and the nurse were wearing rubber aprons and black rubber gloves stopping short of the unnecessary goggles and wild grey hair. As I witnessed this event I could do nothing but question my girlfriend about what was happening. She confirmed that this was wack.
These images could only remind me of the 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, like Harvey Birdman, as if to say that if one of the villains was to remove their face as if it was a mask I wouldn't be surprised. This weird tone (at least for the Marvel/Netflix series like, Jessica Jones and Daredevil,) is particularly evident when an angry Cottonmouth, who is sick of his goon failing, pulls out a rocket launcher from behind a ledge as if from nowhere to shoot Luke Cage in the building across the street.
These weirdly cartoonish scenes are not rare in the series either. The second villain in the series, Diamondback - the half-brother of Luke Cage - whose whole plan involves making a super suit to mimic Cage's super strength, punch people and then tell everyone that he's Luke Cage. My favourite scene involves Diamondback killing a person then walking away shouting "I'm Luke Cage", I'm not mocking this, I really did love this scene but all it needed was for Diamondback to be wearing a Luke Cage face mask (see the Hanna-Babera comment above). All of that and his comic-esque suit he utilises later to fist-fight Cage.
And...
I love it. I enjoy the weirdly cartoonish moments like when Cage actually wears his 60s-70s comic accurate costume. The only true grittiness in the series comes from the unnecessarily brutal hand-to-hand violence and cursing. Which is totally understandable after coming out of the dark realistic world portrayed in Jessica Jones and Daredevil but I think this series would have really benefitted from a little more lightening up. A little more fun, and an embrace of the kookiness would've fit really well the overall mood that the series was going for, the mood that is totally realised in the final fight scene with Cage and his half-brother Diamondback. A broader tone would bring accent the community build in Luke Cage.
So I relax back into the folds of the couch as I consume more and more hours of television, I let the yellowed themed adventures of Powerman override any responsibilities I had for the weekend. And as always I'll do so with a bag of Tostitos in one hand and a bowl of salsa, mild and well refrigerated if only to ensure the moment of quiet contemplation of the toilet the next day.
- Antony.