What can I say about the second season of Luke Cage that I haven't covered already with other Marvel Netflix efforts? It's about three episodes too long, it wastes the potential set up by the first season and it's clear the writers were more interested in making a Crime Drama than a Superhero programme. And it's a real shame, as the first season of Luke Cage was a big deal, full of big ideas and it had a big impact, so that the second doesn't really take many risks or try and do much more than round off plots left hanging is truly disappointing. The overriding 'theme' of the season is the fate and soul of Harlem, and who will be the new king, but honestly, it really should have been about getting the Heroes for Hire together. And I'm not just saying that because I am a big comics nerd, the best parts of this season of Luke Cage are the team-ups and hints that something like the Heroes for Hire are coming.
The new villain for the season is Bushmaster, sadly not the guy who's half-snake, a member of the Yardis criminal gang out of Jamaica, and whilst this adds an interesting element of a new Colonial perspective of Blackness, that the decision was made to have him be almost as strong and tough as Luke really undercuts the conflict. There are some really smart scenes where ordinary criminals try clever ideas to get around Luke's invulnerability, and because the power is so straightforward, the fights look great on-screen. But whenever Bushmaster turns up, it's just two guys punching each other again. Not that a low-powered beat up can't be fun to watch, the fight with Misty Knight and Coleen Wing and some drunks in a bar is one of the better in the season, and feels like a lead-in to more, but it isn't. Similarly, the episode where Iron Fist turns up to help is probably the best Danny has been outside of The Defenders, but it's just the one and nothing else happens. I know that with budgets and contracts and all, Heroes for Hire was unlikely to happen, but it just seems as if it would have been much better than this.
Even musically, the second season of Luke Cage pales to the first. Yes, there is still plenty of great African American music, but not much in the way of Jamaican genres, and the cleverness is gone. Remember how the first season coded Hip-Hop as "bad" until Luke takes down a drug den with "Bring da Rukus" blasting? Yeah, none of that here, just some kind of mixtape of Black music that really doesn't feel thought-out. Given the distance of time that I now have from the Marvel Netflix experiment, I'm wondering if the team behind Luke Cage already suspected that the writing was on the wall and that there would be no third season? The set-up of Luke as the new crime boss of Harlem has some merit, but feels forced compared to the sheer joy of the Heroes for Hire segments. Again, I'm not all that sad to see the back of this series, as it didn't seem to be going anywhere that I want to follow, and the first season remains "in amber" for me to enjoy whenever I feel the need. Just one more of these to go, now.
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