It kind of feels as though Luke Cage was mishandled in a big way since he had a lot of potential and he’s a fairly easy character to create since his powers are invulnerability and super strength, which aren’t as hard as rock-like skin, flames, invisibility, or stretchy arms and legs. In fact it does sound as though there was a plan in place to make Luke Cage a big hit after the 1989 version of Batman, but things just didn’t work out that way. For a long time Marvel movies were just horrible since the effects were cheesy, they looked ridiculous, and DC was able to take its movies and make something that was absolutely great since people wer entertained in a big way. The fact that Luke Cage wasn’t used in this manner is kind of easy to lament since he would have been one of the simplest heroes to bring to the audience, let alone he might have made Marvel a heap of money by being featured as one of the first successful heroes on the screen. That moment wouldn’t come until around 1998 when Blade was seen to hit the screen with Wesley Snipes. At that point Marvel was starting to surge forward, but Blade turned out to be the best thing they had going up until the X-Men movies hit, then eventually the MCU came to be and things have been rolling since.
Luke Cage is a hero that was brought up and enjoyed by the fans and should still have a lot of life left in the story to do something with, but whether or not he’ll be seen in the phases to come is hard to say, but it would be nice to see him come back and do something that could contribute to the cinematic experience. It’s not too hard to think of why he wasn’t included in the first place since at the end of the 80s a lot of people didn’t have a lot of faith in Marvel when it came to their live-action productions. They hadn’t put up anything that could contend with DC at that point and the effects that were attempted were just horrible. Now though it’s going to be interesting to see if Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and even Iron Fist have a place in the MCU at this point, especially with so many other heroes being introduced and pushed in a way that will make it difficult to really accept that many heroes all at once. One thing that can be said for Infinity War and Endgame, among many other things, is that they built up the MCU before that final clash, meaning that each hero had their time in the spotlight. It can be argued that Luke Cage and the others had this as well, just not on the big screen.
There were plenty of Easter eggs that could be seen in the Netflix shows and in the movies, but the two never connected in a big way for one reason or another. It was also seen that eventually the Defenders would team up, but that would be short-lived for one reason or another, which is surprising since they had enemies they could fight, they were a decent hero team, and they had a lot of promise. Of course, the way the the heroes were introduced it could have been that someone at the top felt that they didn’t work together in a cohesive unit like the Avengers, and it wasn’t worth it to for the issue any longer. It didn’t help that Iron Fist was kind of a flop from the start, or that Jessica Jones and Daredevil would eventually fold, along with Luke Cage. There’s a lot of potential there, but at this point the hero might be a little too overshadowed by the rest of the MCU, since it’s fair to say that Luke Cage, despite being immensely strong and durable, might be a minor player at some point since a lot of people want to see the more powerful and more complicated characters at this point. That’s not to say that he doesn’t need to be brought out at all, but it’s likely as of now that he’s going to be someone that might pop in and out unless he’s given his own movie, which could happen as far as anyone knows.
In terms of power, Luke Cage is far outclassed once things take a turn towards the upper echelons of superpowers since even someone like Wolverine could give him a great deal of trouble, especially if Iron Fist can get Cage’s attention with this glowing punch. To say that he belongs in the MCU is practical, but to state that he’s bound to be a huge presence moving forward feels a bit too optimistic.
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