Luke Cage’s Netflix series was grittier and more realistic than Brian Azarello’s Luke Cage series for Marvel’s Max imprint.
Despite being one of Marvel’s best Black superheroes, Luke Cage is sadly fairly short on iconic comic books. The hero of Harlem didn’t have many contemporary solo stories, and most of his works were written and published in the Bronze Age. He ultimately had a very gory focus in a Marvel comic from the early 2000s, and the outcome was quite different from the mainstream Marvel Universe.
With good reason, Brian Azzarello, Richard Corben, and Jose Villarrubia’s Cage were published under the Marvel MAX banner. The book was a very “mature” rendition of Luke Cage’s classic tales since it was gritty, grounded, yet also outrageous. The end result transformed the bulletproof man into the supreme voice of the streets, making it much darker than the Netflix series about the hero.
Cage by Brian Azzarello Is Not Based on Marvel Tropes
Luke Cage is hired to investigate the death of a young local girl, according to the plot of the Marvel MAX Cage series. Cage quickly found himself caught in the heart of a fight between three factions, with her murder serving as only a footnote. Cage uses both brute force and cunning to turn his opponents against one another and in his favor. The ensuing brawls don’t contain many aspects typical of comic books, but it’s better for it.
To fit the realistic environment, everything in the Marvel Universe is exaggerated or even made more extreme, including Spider-regular Man’s adversaries. In this universe, mob boss Hammerhead has a more realistic cranial malformation, whereas Tombstone, another street-level bad guy, has a cartoonish take on a gangster from the 2000s. With his bulletproof status being played with at the conclusion of the story, Luke Cage’s own abilities are even reduced. He is portrayed as a nearly roguish outlaw who scarcely wanted to be bothered by a distraught mother as he took in the sights at a neighborhood “girls’ club.” The book is a sort of logical outgrowth of the character’s goals in the old-school comics and television series.
Compared to Netflix’s Luke Cage Series, Marvel MAX Achieved Grittiness Better.
In order to capitalize on the 1970s blaxploitation film craze, Luke Cage was developed. African Americans, namely their life in urban environments, were the subject of the first significant movement in the cinema, which was called blaxploitation. The typical suspects in the stories were pimps, hustlers, and gangsters. Over time, other media had to soften Luke Cage and his brand since their inherent rawness made them less than ideal for families. This was particularly true after his inevitable entrance into the MCU.
The Netflix Luke Cage series, which felt bland despite being a TV-MA show, could possibly be compared to this. Luke Cage as portrayed by Mike Colter was noticeably more upright and “corny” than he was in his origins, which contributed to the issue. The character of Cage as a man of the streets, as he has always been in Marvel MAX, didn’t have such a problem. Even if he might not have been portrayed in the same manner as Spider-Man or Captain America, this Cage was nevertheless a hero. Azzarello was allowed to build Luke Cage into what he was always supposed to be because there was no larger Marvel Universe or MCU to connect to.
