Luke Cage is more popular than ever before. In this way, he joins other comics legends that have been around for decades, but did not have widespread popularity until they had a successful movie or TV series. For instance, characters like Captain America and Iron Man were not hugely popular when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started. They were, frankly, the characters Marvel still had film rights to, as they had sold off the rights to the then most-popular characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.
However, once Iron Man and Captain America had their own major movies, they had more fans than ever. Once Luke Cage joined the prestigious roster of MCU heroes on Netflix, this once obscure hero for hire who was only beloved by hardcore comics geeks now had a worldwide following.
Much of the success of the character can be attributed to series star Mike Colter. It’s tough not to take one look at him and see that he is Luke Cage personified. His acting he captures the paradox of Luke. He is a completely gentle soul, who is also willing to fight you if you threaten anyone he cares about.
Colter as Cage makes a lot of sense. Luke Cage as a Netflix series (considering Netflix’s commitment to focusing on street-level heroes) makes a lot of sense. However, there is a lot about Luke Cage - as both a character and a series - that makes no sense at all!
Don’t believe us? Keep scrolling to read 20 Things That Make No Sense About Luke Cage!
How Could He Own a Bar?
When the first season of Luke Cage started, it’s clear that Luke is a man on the run. Because of this, he has to work odd jobs that pay him under the table in order to stay off the radar of law enforcement. This all makes sense, until you remember his appearance in the first season of Jessica Jones.
In that show, we first meet Luke Cage as a man who owns his own bar.
The process of applying for a business license and buying property would surely ping law enforcement more than just applying for a regular job, right?
Even if we accept that Luke found a way around all of this, it’s never clear why he couldn’t do it again when he moved back to Harlem!
His unwillingness to surrender
Generally speaking, Luke Cage’s motivations are pretty clear. It’s part of why he’s a great hero. His heart is in the right place and he’s always willing to do the right thing. However, there are still times when his actions are downright confusing, especially towards the end of the first season.
In the next to last episode, Luke is willing to run from the cops. At this point, they are armed with the special Judas bullets that can potentially end him, so he is genuinely risking his life. One episode later, he’s willing to just turn himself into the police.
All of a sudden, his fear of jail is gone, which is weird by itself.
Why risk his life by running if he’s willing to surrender?
He doesn’t lock Pop’s
During the series, it often seemed like Luke just couldn’t catch a break. Despite his commitment to doing good and fighting crime, he is successfully framed by Shades for the termination of Cottonmouth. However, why didn’t Luke simply lock up Pop’s barber shop and prevent this kind of thing?
Shades’ ability to frame Luke is because he could simply walk into Pop’s Barber Shop.
If he had been forced to break in, it might have been obvious to police that the evidence was planted.
Instead, we’re asked to believe that Luke wouldn’t lock the door, even after the shop was shot up before? As Luke Cage himself might say in reaction to this, “Sweet Christmas!”
Why Forgive Reva?
One of the more interesting bits of connective tissue between Luke Cage and Jessica Jones is the character of Reva. She was Luke Cage’s wife and previously helped Kilgrave discover more about his powers, before he forced Jessica to end her. Before that, she was part of the experiments that gave Luke Cage his powers.
Our big question is why did Luke forgive her?
She lied to him about her involvement in the most traumatic event of his life and gave him nothing more than an “I’ll explain later” that she never followed through on.
We get that Luke is a good guy, but it seems odd he would so readily forgive such a monumental betrayal of his trust.
Why Fear Jail?
Earlier, we talked about how it made no sense that Luke Cage would run from the cops in one episode and then surrender to them the next. However, this is all tied to a greater question. Why is Luke afraid of going to jail in the first place? He’s ready to risk actually losing his life from special Judas bullets, rather than going to a place where no one can hurt him?
It’s something that makes less sense the more you watch, too. We see that Luke has no fear of walking into a hail of bullets, but he doesn’t want to go to a place where, at worst, he’ll be attacked with a knife. It seems like his fear is entirely in his own head, which is out of place for the super-confident character.
The Hard Way
We see time and time again that Luke Cage is smart and savvy. However, he has a stubborn streak in that he often wants to do things the hard way, instead of the easy way. The biggest example of this is when he refuses to join Cottonmouth’s operation when he gets the chance.
Sometimes you have to put on your big boy pants and play the part of the villain to taken down.
Obviously, Luke opposes everything Cottonmouth represents. If he had taken the villain up on the offer, he might have been able to help destroy Cottonmouth’s operation from the inside. Instead, by openly opposing him, Luke sets off on a course that is much riskier for himself and literally everyone around him. Sure, surviving rockets makes for good TV, but he could have avoided this whole problem very easily!
Missed Opportunities
Luke Cage is a series in the great tradition of superhero stories. Unfortunately, that means that fans do a lot of shouting at their TV when he doesn’t do something he obviously should do. At the top of that list is that he squanders several opportunities to fight Cottonmouth when he has the chance.
We understand that Luke Cage doesn’t want to end Cottonmouth or anyone else. However, he has several times when he is alone with the villain where he could knock him out, capture him. Basically, anything to take a more direct path to beating this guy. It’s part of what makes the frame job of Luke Cage so weird later on. If he was going to actually eliminate Cottonmouth, he had countless previous opportunities to do so!
One Kick Man
After the great first season of Luke Cage, fans did not have to wait too long to see the character again. He starred in The Defenders, and we got to see him team up with fellow heroes and take on some new threats. The big threat was Elektra, who at one point is somehow able to knock Luke Cage out in a moment that is never really explained.
Sometimes all it takes is a swift kick to the temple to knock out the big guy.
Seriously. The guy who shrugs off everything from bullets to rockets was able to be taken out by a single kick from Elektra. He had previously been weakened by a special gas, but seemed to make a full recovery right before getting knocked out way too easily. While The Defenders was a show with many issues, little things like this really add up.
Claire Missed a Spot
Some of the things on our list of stuff that makes no sense about Luke Cage is more nitpicky than others. For instance, this next item concerns Luke’s recovery from being shot with the special Judas bullets. Unless something happens offscreen, it looks like our hero is only partially healed!
Specifically, when he is having the shrapnel from the bullets removed, only the shrapnel in his stomach is taken out. However, Luke was also shot in the shoulder, and this wound was seemingly never taken care of.
Maybe Luke just had his buddy Iron Fist punch it out of his shoulder later on.
Why isn’t he a hero for hire?
In the comics, Luke Cage has had many different names and titles. One of them is “Hero for Hire,” and it’s pretty self-explanatory. He would loan out his superhero services for cold, hard cash. This made him stand out from comic heroes such as Spider-Man. Why did the Luke Cage of the MCU never go this route?
We see that he struggles with money because his legal troubles keep him from getting a good job.
Instead, he is stuck with sketchy, low-wage jobs where he can get paid under the table.
Once he went public with his abilities, Luke should have charged money for his services. He’d be doing what he’s best at while still getting paid!
How Was He Framed?
Earlier, we talked about how absurd it was that Shades could frame Luke, simply because he refused to lock the barber shop. However, there’s a problem with that too. Diamondback’s frame job should never have worked at all! Its success hinges on Misty Knight being simultaneously really good and really bad at her job.
Misty is good enough to intuitively figure out a lot of things about the case, from Cottonmouth having multiple assailants to the witness being forced to make a false statement. However, one bit of flimsy evidence is enough to make her throw this all out and chase Luke, even after she sees Diamondback threatening to end him.
It’s downright frustrating waiting for Misty to actually be what we are told she is: a great detective.
What’s Dr. Burstein’s Deal?
The first season of the show really drew things out, but we eventually discover the source of Luke Cage’s powers. While he was at Seagate prison, he was a victim of Dr. Burstein’s experiments. These experiments gave Luke his unbreakable skin. But here’s the thing, we never find out why Burstein experimented on Luke or anyone else.
What’s your true motive Dr. Burstein? Are you just experimenting on people for fun?
Was Burstein the brains behind the operation, leading a “mad scientist” campaign of evil? Or was he forced to experiment by more powerful people? We never really figure this out, and not knowing his motivations also makes it that much more confusing when we see him experimenting on Diamondback. Ultimately, Burstein is at the core of Luke Cage’s story, yet this character is mostly a nonsensical plot device.
Seagate Shutdown?
We discover in Luke Cage’s first season that Seagate prison is a really shady place (and not just because Shades was there). This is where a wide array of human experimentation occurred that resulted in Luke Cage getting his powers. It’s also where powerful characters like Justin Hammer and The Mandarin are imprisoned. Our question, though: did Luke shut down the experiments?
By the end of the season, Luke is returned to Seagate. He doesn’t seem to stay that long, but we’re curious. Did he ever tell authorities about the experiments and have them shut down? Or did the absence of Burstein make these experiments go away for good?
It’s disconcerting to think the prison could be destroying more lives.
The Kilgrave Connection
As we mentioned before, Luke’s wife Reva seemed like she would be the main connective tissue between his series and Jessica Jones. Previously, we had seen that Reva was involved (under coercion) with the mind-controlling Kilgrave and helped him find out about the experiments that gave him his powers. Then, the villain forced Jessica Jones to end Reva.
We get to see Reva through some flashbacks in Luke Cage’s first season, but we never get to see what her Kilgrave connection was.
How (and why) did she find a jump drive about his past? Was she still actively working on human experimentation, even after Cage escaped Seagate? It seems her background is now mystery for the sake of mystery.
Where Are His Parents?
Luke Cage is a bit of a paradox in that we know both very much and very little about his background. For instance, we know about his stint in Seagate and his relationship with Reva. We even know a bit about his relationship with Diamondback. Somehow, we don’t definitively know anything about his parents.
This is doubly annoying and confusing because we get different accounts of his parents. For instance, Luke remembers his father as a distant man, while Diamondback remembers the father as someone who showed favoritism to Luke. It’d be good to see these parents ourselves, but the show never really touches on where they are or even if they are alive.
His Fight With Doctor Doom
As you may or may not know, Luke Cage the comic character was born out of the blaxploitation tropes. That meant that he had some pretty crazy comics moments, making the MCU Luke Cage look downright mild by comparison. Maybe the craziest moment was when he collected a debt from Doctor Doom.
The villain agreed to pay Luke Cage two hundred dollars to destroy some of his rogue robots.
Luke does it, but then Doom doesn’t pay him and heads back to Latveria. Luke Cage ends up borrowing a flying car from the Fantastic Four, joining a Latverian civil war, and risking his life to beat up Doom, all to get two hundred dollars. It also leads to his classic dialogue: “where’s my money, honey?”
He Sucks Toes?
One comic aspect of Luke Cage that MCU fans have only gotten an intense taste of is his partnership with Iron Fist. The two aren’t just occasional teammates, but genuine friends who watch each others’ backs in the comics. Luke likes to bust Iron Fist’s chops, though it sometimes gets pretty weird.
For instance, Iron Fist is all about meditating. It’s how his focuses his chi, and in that way, focuses his power. When someone asks Luke where Iron Fist is, though, Luke replied “Meditatin’. That’s like sucking your toes, only not as much fun.” It was intended to be a joke about how boring meditation is, but now we can’t stop thinking about Luke Cage sucking toes!
Loner or No?
Generally speaking, you won’t find too many similarities between Luke Cage and Batman. However, there is one big quality they have in common: they keep telling the world that they are loners.
A cursory glance at their history will tell you that this is not the case and Luke Cage has quite a bit of history.
He may think he’s all by himself, but he actually has some decent allies.
Luke Cage starts out seeing himself as a lone man out for himself—a “Hero for Hire” in a world of pro-bono do-gooders. However, it isn’t too long before the comic character has partnered with Iron Fist, gotten help from Claire Temple and Dr. Burstein (who plays a bigger role in the comics), married Jessica Jones, and joined teams like The Avengers and The Defenders. He’s not exactly a loner anymore!
Why Use That Codename?
Casual fans may have wondered why Luke Cage often just goes by his real name. Why doesn’t he have a superhero name? In truth, the comics character had a terrible superhero name for years, “Power Man.” The question isn’t why he stopped using it, but why he used it for so long in the first place.
The comics Cage actually had to defeat a villain named Erik Josten for the right to use the name “Power Man.” It’s weird enough he willingly took a villain’s name, but the name is also super generic. It would be a bit like Wolverine’s codename was “Claw Man” or maybe “Mutant Guy.”
Like other heroes with terrible codenames (such as Jean Grey as “Marvel Girl,” and Kitty Pryde, known sometimes as “Sprite”), he eventually just started using his real name.
Why Didn’t He Get a Movie?
Luke Cage the comic character was born from the era of blaxploitation movies. This was a time period that gave us such iconic characters as Shaft. You may wonder why a comic character based on a movie genre never got his own movie. This really doesn’t make sense, especially considering how long a film was in development!
It’s not too late for a Luke Cage movie to happen.
Plans for a Luke Cage film go all the way back to 2003. It was going to be a Columbia film, written by Ben Ramsey and directed by John Singleton. A number of stars were considered for the movie, including Tyrese Gibson and Idris Elba as candidates for Luke Cage and Terrence Howard as Diamondback. The movie never came together and Columbia had to surrender the rights back to Marvel ten years later, paving the way for the successful MCU series.
What else doesn’t make sense about Luke Cage? Let us know in the comments!
