Luke Cage: From Hero to King of Harlem

Luke Cage (Netflix, 2016) is a series full of artistic, visual and musical representations that reflect the life of African Americans in Harlem. Those on the street and those who experience the vicissitudes of everyday life; those who come together as a community and raise their voices to demand change in the face of injustice. Luke Cage is the superhero who embodies all these characteristics, since he is the guardian of Harlem, and more than that: he is Harlem (it is no coincidence that in the opening credits the streets, avenues and monuments appear in Luke's skin).

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In contrast to Luke and the community, we have the gangster family that controls everything: the Stokes. In the first season, Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes sits in the king's chair. His image in front of rapper Biggie Smalls' portrait, where his crown seems to be over Cottonmouth's head, is iconic. Biggie Smalls' photo is a recurring symbol of power in the series; who's in charge, who's the king and watching from the heights of Harlem's Paradise.

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You like my Biggie photo? Me too. You know what draws your eye when you look at that? The crown. Wanna know why? Because everybody wants to be the king.

Under the shadow of Mama Mabel Stokes, Harlem's "Godmother," the lives of Cornell and her cousin Mariah were marked by violence, murder, rape, and the image of power dominating everything. "Family first" is the Stokes' motto; however, Mariah was raped by her uncle Pete as a child, and Cornell was murdered by Mariah when they were discussing this issue. Cottonmouth, full of resentment that he had been forced to kill his uncle Pete, who was the only one who supported his musical talent, assured his cousin that "she wanted it," unleashing Mariah's fury.

She assumes the position of leader with a low profile and relying on Shades, her lover (which is reflected in the painting Mariah chose to replace Biggie's photo, "Two Kings" by Basquiat).

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Progressively, Mariah went from being a corrupt politician to a lady of crime and became Luke Cage's real nemesis. She went to unsuspected extremes even for Shades, and overtook any rule of the street. She murdered innocent people and burned a person alive just to prove one point: who is in charge. She dared to break the family taboo, which was to deal with drugs. Mariah proves that she is a monster worse than Mama Mabel, and it is at this point when she decides to put the Biggie Smalls portrait back in place, finally accepting that she is a Stokes.

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For the second season, director Cheo Hodari Coker wanted to reflect in Mariah and Luke a duality like the one that exists between Batman and the Joker. Two sides of the same coin, one is responsible for the other and, as they face each other, they feed each other.

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Luke began his path as Harlem's hero after the murder of Pop, who saw in Luke the potential of a vigilante and gave the nickname "Power Man" to Cage. With the intention of respecting his memory and desires, our protagonist began to use his powers to help anyone in need in the community. He exposed Mariah's corruption and thwarted Cornell's arms smuggling, making him a target for the Stokes.

Unable to eliminate him (Luke's powerful "bulletproof" skin doesn't allow him to suffer any damage), gangsters find no way to get rid of the hero, no matter how often they try to damage his image.

However, at the end of the second season, Mariah Stokes finds a way to "destroy" him. Before being murdered by her daughter, Tilda Johnson, with the Beso de la Araña, decides to change the terms of her will when she is locked up in prison and names Luke Cage as heir to the club and all her assets, leaving her daughter only with Cornell's keyboard.

Mariah dies in Luke's arms, victim of the poison her daughter gave her, and our hero faces a crucial decision. Without "a retaining wall," that is, the figure of the Stokes, Harlem becomes chaos. The rest of the mafias try to take over the neighborhood and crime does its own everywhere. Ironically, Harlem's biggest criminals kept it safe from other criminals.

During this season, Luke has had an internal battle with himself. Impotence and frustration caused him to lose his temper and this pushed Claire out of his life. Being the hero of Harlem is a great responsibility that has fallen on his shoulders and it is problematic for a man with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin to have attacks of violence, especially violence directed at those he loves. "You are a grown-ass man, yes, but you can lift a Volkswagen over your head, so you have to be more careful than a normal man. If you lose your temper, you can cause a catastrophe," Bobby Fish wisely tells Luke.

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In this way, Mariah's inheritance is presented as a possible solution to his problems; a kind of pact with the devil. Although Luke has always stressed that "he doesn't want to own Harlem" and that "he doesn't have a price," owning Harlem's Paradise and having contact with other mafia groups allows him to control everything from the club "like a hawk" (or like a "dictator," says detective Misty Knight).

Finally, Luke makes the decision to be the new "crime lord" to control security in Harlem. This at the expense of Claire's love, his friendships and even his stay at Pop's barbershop. D-Dub tells him "If this is the path you are going to choose, Pop would have wanted you to stay away. This territory is Switzerland, and so it must remain," making it clear that if Luke was going to take the Stokes position, he would no longer be impartial and therefore no longer have a place in the barbershop.

The most emblematic scene of the whole season is a sequence that pays tribute to the last scene of The Godfather (1972), when detective Knight watches Luke being advised by his men, while the door slowly closes in front of her and she loses sight of the new "Godfather."

Mariah's way of destroying the hero of Harlem was to make him the king.

Biggie Smalls' photo is replaced by one of Muhammad Ali.

Rakim's "King's Paradise" plays in the background.

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