Netflix debuts latest Marvel superhero series with 'Luke Cage'

With “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones,” Netflix proved that an avid Marvel Comics fan base would enthusiastically support a pay model for such series. This week, the streaming service hopes to make it a hat trick with “Marvel's Luke Cage.”

Dropping Friday, Sept. 30, with 13 first-season episodes, the action/adventure series stars Mike Colter in the title role of an ex-convict imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, who develops superhuman strength and unbreakable skin thanks to an experiment gone awry. He tries to rebuild his life in the Harlem section of New York but is soon pulled out of the shadows to confront his past and fight a battle for the heart of his city.

One of his chief targets is Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali), a nightclub owner and crime boss who uses his legitimate business dealings as a front for his nefarious activities. Another is Shades Alvarez (Theo Rossi), a street-smart criminal with ties to Cage's past.

Seeking to clean up Harlem's criminal element is Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard), a local politician whose life is thrown into turmoil by the actions of Cage and Stokes; Misty Knight (Simone Missick), a police detective with a strong sense of justice; and Rafael Scarfe (Frank Whaley), Knight's hard-nosed partner and mentor.

Luke Cage first appeared in a Marvel Comics comic book in the early '70s, but showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker told a recent gathering of TV critics that updating the African-American character for 2016 wasn't difficult.

“Luke Cage came out in 1972, the year I was born, and also, you know, within the era of 'Shaft' and 'Super Fly,'” he says. “So the character was always Marvel Universe's reaction to, to a certain extent, blaxploitation.”

Blaxploitation, he said, was really the chance for African-American characters to fight, swagger and get the girl - much like John Wayne or Steve McQueen.

“The thing that I think is going to surprise people,” Coker continues, “is that you're going to come in thinking it's serious, and it's fun. ... I mean, we kind of go back and forth, and there's so much emotional depth to all of these characters.”

For his part, Colter, who added 30 pounds of muscle to play the 6-foot-6-inch, 425-pound Cage, hopes to project a positive image of black superheroes and culture.

“We're just trying to tell a story about a superhero who's going through the same kind of changes that other superheroes, who are not black, go through,” he says. “But because we are in small numbers, and there's not as many of us, we're kind of looked at differently ... But we're just trying to tell a unique story. And I think we've done so.”