Luke Cage: Step in the Arena

 "I'm kind of strong..."

Wow. I'm on record as saying, several times, that superhero origin stories often disappoint. I'm not familiar with the no doubt very '70s original from the comics, but this was superb. Perhaps we had something of a textbook prison drama with, as the esteemed Mr Zimmerman once put it, "an innocent man in a living hell", complete with overt Deep South racism, illicit gladiator fighting, an evil governor you love to hate, lots of exercise equipment, violence, and a doomed best friend. 

Thje sheer number of cliches is a strength here, though, not a weakness. Sometimes a cliche can provide a short cut to allow you to whiz through lots of events at pace, which happens here. This is absolutely in tune with the thoughtful mood of the series while also being absolutely a superhero origin story. Best of all, we get a glimpse of Luke dressed, briefly, in a version of his proper Power Man costume until he catches himself in a mirror and remarks that he looks like a "damn fool".

We even get links to Jessica Jones as Luke first meets Reva in flashback, although not all is revealed- we still know not how or why Carl Lucas was originally framed in the first place. But this is a massive and superb episode, framed by brief sequences in the present day as Luke helps Connie to escape from the rubble. 

Surely Misty has to be wondering what Luke's secret is?