Luke Cage (MA). Creator: Cheo Hodari Coker. Starring: Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Simone Missick, Frankie Faison, Frank Whaley. 13 Episodes (Netflix)
During a recent online conversation about the latest publicised incident of 'blackface', one respondent posted a photo of an Aboriginal man, his face painted with white ochre, and added his own one-word caption: 'Whiteface'. In the context of the conversation, and in light of his later railing against the scourge of political correctness, his meaning was clear: Why is it okay for a black person to paint their face white, and not for a white person to paint their face black?
Aside from the inanity of equating an Aboriginal man in cultural attire with the appropriation by privileged citizens of minority identities 'for fun', the comment failed to appreciate the destructive history of blackface in marginalising or denigrating non-white performers. Representation of minority identities in popular entertainment is key to amplifying and dignifying those identities and their stories. Conversely, the lack of representation is a form of silencing.
It's why the charges of racism laid against Luke Cage, the latest fruit of the so-far excellent partnership between Marvel and Netflix, is so laughable. The series, featuring one of Marvel Comics' most enduring African-American superheroes (played here by Mike Colter), has been criticised in some quarters for its lack of white characters. Indeed Frank Whaley's sidekick to Simone Missick's detective Misty Knight is the only white semi-regular cast member.
Yet to whinge that a series about a black superhero, set in the famously African-American neighbourhood of Harlem, chooses to focus on African-American characters, beggars belief. Especially when you consider that Luke Cage arrives when Marvel and Netflix are already three series deep into their raft of interconnected series, following two series of the almost all-white Daredevil and one of the almost all-white Jessica Jones (where Colter's Cage was first seen).
Luke Cage (whose creator Cheo Hodari Coker is black) deals with race richly, and prominently. The opening credits sequence features two shots of a Malcolm X Blvd street sign, both establishing the Harlem locale and putting the great champion of black rights front and centre. Later Cage is seen reading Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man; another character namedrops #blacklivesmatter, bringing the embedded history of systemic injustice again black Americans up to the moment.
The real world resonance of all of this is clear, and deliberate. 'I will never get tired of seeing a bullet-proof black man,'