I think Luke Cage has come a long, long, long way since the character's blaxsploitation roots. And the portrayal of his developing relationship, marriage, and establishment as one of the few positive father figures in modern comics has been a joy to see. The modern Luke Cage is a family man, a mentor, and a respected hero.

Speaking of Milestone, if you read Icon, the character of Buck Wild is a great take-down of the old, tokenized Luke Cage (as well as other black comic characters in a similar vein), and yet in the end Icon defends the character:

EDIT: Man. I miss Dwayne McDuffie.

@jointron33: WE found a sensitive white knight feminist.

@madeinbangladesh: I don't think he is replying, man... Besides kinda odd to dig up such old thread O.o

@fodigg: I need to pick up the Icon series. I also miss Dwayne McDuffie.

Especially when his last post was 10 months ago.

It's so, so good.

@vance_astro: the reality bro is that Luke cage actually was an inherently racist character, so were characters like black panther (who was the personification of the black panther movement and ideologies)...

I understand that he's from the "hood", it doesn't mean he had to be a product of it. I know PLENTY of educate well-spoken black men from the "hood" (Bronx, queens, Brooklyn; etc).

Let me guess being an intelligent well-rounded black man WITHOUT a criminal record makes you an Uncle Tom right???

^walt Disney logic right there, google "dumbo, Jim Crow if you don't think so^

And furthermore why did he have to be from the hood to begin with? Why is every black character from the hood or Africa?

And him being unjustly incarcerated blatantly screamed "angry black man". As far as the marrying a white woman thing, there has alway been the "get you a white girl" steriotype in "urban" (black) communities, and given the nature of their relationship, yes it's seems racial portrayed to a degree...

Even his powers, bulletproof (you know so the homies don't bust a cap in him?), super strength (you know because he has jailhouse muscules). I am NOT saying all heroes with these abilities are racially motivated; but given Luke's background? C'mon bruh

It's like marvel pays Tyler perry to design their black characters, because almost ALL of them:

-have been through the system

-are in some way from Africa

-are hyper masculine and "overly-black"

-are loud, busty, ghetto divas

-have in some way been victimized by drugs

And this is just for African Americans, haven't even mentioned Hispanics and Latinos, or homosexuals

....however

I respect marvel because unlike DC (who is almost flagrantly racist at times), does try to evolve and diversify their characters...

Like cage WAS a racist character, an obviously racist one at that which nobody here can deny seriously speaking...

But marvel DID redevelop him to try to shake those stigmas (as best they could), even taking somewhat of a captain America approach with him....

And currently they're diversifying a lot of characters in the MU (Thor, capt America, ms marvel; etc)...

We shouldn't deny he was a racist character, but we shouldn't dwell on it either

The OP was pretty funny.

@v_scarlotte_rose: black panther is not black. He is african, black is the un potlitically correct way of say arfrican AMERICAN. and i have nothing wrong with interacial marriage, but i do find it sad how black panther and storm got a divorce when she was in the wrong but she goes with logan afterwards. Like this guys is a couple centries old. Lol. And he is a midget. Lmao. But i hate the hair cur he gave her too

Fight the power!

@thebigg said:

The Black Panther's weren't racist so how would Black Panther be racist by being the personification of them? Luke Cage's early depiction is only racist depending on how you look at it. Yea he is based on a character of the blaxploitation era but those were the only heroes that black people had in the 70's which is when Cage was created.

So Marvel can't have any characters from the hood that are a product of their environment? Cage is one of VERY few characters that fit those standards and MOST of them are from the hood. I think Marvel is well aware that every black person from the Hood doesn't fit the same archetype as Cage.

No, because that would make ME an Uncle Tom, don't know where you got that these could even POSSIBLY be my thoughts.

This is like asking why Excalibur had to be from Europe...

If anything him being unjustly incarcerated was just comics being realistic about the NYPD's treatment of blacks. I don't know what you see as racial in Cage & Jessica's relationship, but you are ignoring the fact that so far he's been a better husband than & father than most heroes in the Marvel Universe.

I can't speak for his creation. I don't know what went into the process of giving him powers. I don't know what powers you thought were going to develop out of a variation of the Super Soldier Serum but unless anyone has a quote or some incite from Archie Goodwin, we're just speculating.

You don't even read comics do you? This isn't even accurate.

1. As far as going through the system goes, it depends on what period of the characters life we are talking about. Before or After they become a superhero. AFTER, almost every superhero has been jailed or the police have attempted to arrest them. BEFORE, there aren't many black superheroes beside Cage that I can think of that have been to jail. Batwing hasn't, Blue Marvel hasn't, Bumblebee, Cyborg, Black Panther, Night Thrasher, Green Lantern\John Stewart, Black Lightning, Falcon etc. either never went to jail or didn't go to jail until they were superheroes.

2.ALL BLACK PEOPLE ARE IN SOME WAY FROM AFRICA!

3.Hyper-Masculine or "Overly-Black" what does that even mean? MOST male Superheroes are "hyper-masculine" so this is a pointless criticism. By "overly-black" do you mean an exaggeration of "blackness" because if so that AGAIN doesn't apply to very many black characters.

4.Name 1. All the black female leads I can think of are nothing like that accept maybe Misty Knight who is basically based on Pam Grier's Foxy Brown so it makes sense she would have been like that back when she was created, but she's nothing like that now so I don't know who you're talking about.

5.Again, Name 1. I can't think of any.

I'm sure you'll reach on that too...

I just did.

Why does everyone say the Mandarin is racist, but this guy is totally okay?

@amazingwebhead said:

Do people STILL say the depiction of the Mandarin is racist? He pretty much looks like Tony Stark now.

• A few
• Yeah, especially in the Lego Marvel game

@thetimestreamer: I don't know if someone replyad you, but Milestone was a licensing company working for DC Comics. The Milestone division create a whole universe of "Black Heroes". There was comics for african or afro-american readers, mostly with black heroes and adventures in Africa terrirtory [more ore less, in Italy we receive nearly none of them, so I have not so much info]. As a "DC Sub-universe", Milestone/DC have some crossover, and after New52, Milestone close and some character became DC "Regular" [i.e. Static Shock]. However, being "comics for black reader", many oppose the concept and their production, in the '90 :)

Anyway, I Luke Cage is one of my favoured heroes, wich as a great evolution from the '70s to Today :)

I think it makes him badass that he's that way.

Here's what I gotta say. As a black dude, I don't see Luke Cage being offensive as of today. Back then, yeah I could see his character being racially offensive. But Luke's character has evolved over the decades.

For people to be offended that Luke is from the hood and the way he speaks, that's like denying the fact that there are blacks who are from the hood or speaks in slang. I'm not saying that all of us do, but there are those who do. If I'm not mistaken, even Static spoke in slang in the Milestone Comics ( which went away because of low sales and was an imprint from DC anyway). There are different types of black people just like there are with whites, gays, etc. To me, this shows that anybody, no matter where you from, how you act or speak, can be a hero.

Now for Luke and Jessica, who the hell cares. People get knocked up , it happens. And aren't there interracial relationships in the world today ? So why can't comics show that ? And for some who believes it's only Marvel that some people are saying that it's only Marvel who put their black superheroes in interracial relationships. 1, what about Storm and Black Panther or Isaiah Bradley and his wife ? 2, Static gets married to Freida in a possible future (Milestone Forever), Thunder (Black Lightning's daughter) is going out with Grace Choi, Mr.Terrific and Power Girl. And 3, it's not just black superheroes. Batman (Jezebel Jet, Talia al Ghul), Iron Fist and Misty Knight, Ryan Choi and Giganta, etc.

Lastly, Luke Cage is not Marvel's main black hero. It's Black Panther to me and I don't even have to explain that.

While i'll agree he is a tad too stereotypical, this thread is a bit overkill -_-

I think the Netflix series will close the door on this conversation.Luke has evolved but he still needs some work.

@jointron33: I agree with you 100 percent. I think Cage can easily be categorized as a cliche; for this reason, his character needs to be fleshed out more. Having this opinion does not mean a person is against all forms of interracial dating, and it does not mean that they are racist either.

@bostonreba: I think his marriage to Jessica was handled poorly and I think both characters have suffered from it. Cage needs a writer like Al Ewing to flush him out like Netflix did. A mixture of the Netflix background with comic Cage's charisma could be dope.

Are you against the marriage? I see no issue with any form of interracial dating.