Luke Cage Premiere Recap: Meet The New King Of Harlem

The superhero series developed by Cheo Hodari Coker exists in the same Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Avengers movies; but are more closely tied to fellow Netflix Originals Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Because we're so excited about the show, we're going to recap each episode every hour as we go through and watch; and needless to say, spoilers for Marvel's Luke Cage past this point! With the exception of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) graduating from the movies to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., each subsequent main character has been introduced in their own series, versus having a pre-existing back-story. The potentially invulnerable, super strong part-time bartender first showed up as a major supporting character in Marvel and Netflix's previous series, Jessica Jones. Because of the events of that series -- which included Cage's girlfriend Jessica shooting him in the face to break him from a villain's mind-control ("I still get headaches," notes Cage in this premiere episode) -- More than that, it's Cage's "with great power comes great responsibility" Spider-Man moment, as he lets a kid with a gun walk away from him without a word; and later that choice leads to multiple deaths... [...] Cage's realization it's time to put on his hoodie, and get to work. [...] other than a surprisingly hands-on sex scene, some hair sweeping (literally sweeping, because Cage is bald), and a killer action sequence at the end (please have someone punch Luke and break their hand in slow motion every episode, thanks)... Where the movies have struggled to deliver nuanced villains beyond Tom Hiddleston's Loki; Fisk's tragic backstory and Kilgrave's malevolent innocence of his misdeeds made for compelling, complex performances that stood toe to toe with their heroic opposites. In the first episode, an arms deal with a rival gang goes South when the aforementioned kid ends up killing nearly everyone involved and stealing a large sack of money