Luke Cage’s Road to His Own Netflix Series: A Brief History

In some respects, Cage was a super-powered version of Shaft, with both characters looking for a new direction after getting in trouble with the law.

Stryker blamed Cage for prompting his girlfriend to break up with him, though she really did it because Cage chose to leave his deadly life of crime behind and Stryker didn’t.

Netflix's New 'Luke Cage' Trailer Shows Harlem's Hero Running the Streets (Video)

To stem the tide, Marvel paired him up with Iron Fist, another ’70s hero designed to capitalize on the popularity of martial arts movies and who, incidentally, is also getting a Netflix series soon.

While the team-up helped buoy for a while, Luke Cage’s comic book run finally came to an end in 1986 with Iron Fist being killed off and Cage falsely accused of murdering him.

In the first issue of the new series, Cage burned his old costume and moved to Chicago, where he confronted his estranged brother and helped The Punisher battle drug dealers.

Cage has been trying to fill the empty hole in his life with meaningless sexual encounters, but upon meeting a fellow meta-human in Jessica, he finally begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Eventually, Cage tracked down the bus driver he thought drunkenly struck and killed his wife.

“Luke Cage” will see the bulletproof hero continue his struggle with heartbreak and betrayal while fighting crime on the streets of Harlem as a neighborhood hero who just happens to work two menial jobs to make ends meet.

While Mike Colter‘s portrayal of the character will be different from the Luke Cage of the ’70s, expect the show’s atmosphere and music to call back to the blaxploitation era, as well as touch upon the struggle between legacy and gentrification that Harlem faces today.