Marvel's Luke Cage is a man of few words, but he means what he says. He can be funny when he wants to be. He's indomitable, yet has a soft spot for those in need. He's impenetrable like Superman. Somehow, he's even more righteous and compassionate than Captain America (who's endearingly described as the “old white dude with the shield” in Netflix's Luke Cage). He's a bulletproof Black man who hates guns — and he's Marvel's first TV-movie Black protagonist. Yes, Luke Cage, which hits Netflix today, is an origin story for one of Marvel's coolest superheroes, but showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker accomplished something more than that. Luke Cage is a story about what it means to be a Black man in America today. Just the image of a bulletproof Black man in a hoodie is especially evocative against the current political climate — and that was Coker's intent. In fact, that particular image came up in early discussions between Coker and series star Mike Colter. “It made sense to me that Luke Cage would wear a hoodie,” Colter told MTV News.

“He's trying to hide his face, and be incognito, but it's also symbolic because of Trayvon Martin. We talked about that specifically, what that would mean to people and the feelings it would evoke in viewers. Irregardless of the entertainment value, what this show says politically resonates profoundly.” Created in 1972, Luke Cage has always been culturally significant. On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, Marvel Comics created a Black male superhero whose primary superhuman ability is that he's bulletproof. He didn't have a Vibranium steel shield or a mystical hammer. He didn't have super speed or heat vision. But a bullet could do no harm to him. The timeliness of that isn't lost on Colter. Here's a bulletproof Black man, singlehandedly battling crooked cops and government corruption, at a time when new footage of policemen shooting unarmed Black men and women goes viral daily. “We definitely felt like we were in the middle of something important, especially after they moved Luke Cage from the fourth Marvel installment to the third,” Colter said.

“We wanted to be part of that conversation. A lot of things were happening that people were up in arms about, and rightly so, so it was time to have this kind of character step forward.” On paper, Luke Cage seems like the perfect superhero. He's strong — really, really strong. hoodie til kvinderHis skin is impenetrable. cube hoodie race pilotHe's kind, though not always nice. white mage hoodie for saleHe's a man of strong convictions. gmu hoodiesHe hates guns and strong language. black sjsu hoodieIn fact, when a kid calls him the n-word in Pop's barber shop, he shuts it down: “I'm not tired enough to ever let nobody call me that word.” where can i get a xanax hoodie

(Luke's deep-seated aversion to that word was another thing Colter fought for; “It was important for him not to be someone who used that word casually,” the actor said, “I felt like he was better than that.”) He's a hero in every sense of the word — if only Luke actually wanted to be one.yukari hoodie “It's an inconvenience for Luke,” Colter said. “He's trying to live his life. He doesn't understand the advantages of being a hero; for him, it's just in the way. He's not sure what to make of it. If it were up to him, he'd just get rid of these powers, and live a normal life. The expectation of what people want from him is what gets to him. He doesn't know what to do. The expectation is what's overwhelming for him. People want things from him, and he's a loner. He stays to himself, and so him being the one who's tasked with helping the community, it's a bit much for him.” Though Luke Cage puts the Black male experience front and center, it treats its Black women as equals.

Alfre Woodard's Mariah Dillard is every bit as dangerous as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali); and Simone Missick's Misty Knight is every bit the hero Luke is — perhaps even more so because she doesn't possess the same extraordinary abilities. She relies on her instincts and a strong sense of justice. “Cheo did a really amazing job in how he cast the women on the show,” Missick told MTV News. “When you look at the police precinct, the people who are in power are Black women. That's something we've never seen on television. To be part of a project where I play the first black superheroine in the history of Marvel and to be surrounded by all of these other strong, Black female characters, you feel like you're part of something that's innovative and you're on the brink of something important.” “When you see these representations, it's not being touted as diverse,” she added. “This is just the world that Cheo's created — and this is the real world that we live in.

You hope that other shows will take that note.” To call Luke Cage diverse would be missing the point. Coker has created a rich, complex world that mirrors the Harlem streets upon which it's set — a vibrant place full of beauty, life, violence, community, and pain. A place where men can be reborn, heroes rise, and roses stem from the concrete.It's a box office hit, but N.W.A.'s former manager Jerry Heller and CEO of Death Row Records Marion 'Suge' Knight have both come out against how they were portrayed in Straight Outta Compton.Opening up on the promotional trail for the film on Friday in Sydney, Ice Cube told Daily Mail Australia that he feels both men were depicted accurately, and was particularly unsurprised that Heller felt dissatisfied.'I don't expect him to start telling the truth now, so I expected him to say that,' Ice Cube, 46, laughed as he sat alongside his son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., 24, who takes on his character in the film. 'I don't expect him to start telling the truth now': Ice Cube told Daily Mail Australia on Friday in Sydney that he was not surprised N.W.A.'s former manager Jerry Heller slammed Straight Outta Compton.

Pictured here with his son O'Shea Jackson Jr. in Sydney, who plays him in the movie'We were totally fair with Jerry,' he added.'I don't have any axe to grind with that guy at all. He was actually a champion for the group when he came to us against outside forces but I just didn't like how he dealt with us internally.'And that was my problem with it, it was strictly business.'He's just mad because he ended up in a rap song,' Ice Cube laughed, speaking about his tune No Vaseline that dissed the former manager after he left the group N.W.A. when he felt Heller was not paying him fairly. Not the villains: N.W.A.'s former manager Jerry Heller (L) and CEO of Death Row Records Marion 'Suge' Knight (R) have both come out against how they were portrayed in Straight Outta Compton 'I don't have any axe to grind': Ice Cube said he has no bitter feelings towards Heller and he feels that he depicted correctly in the filmThe film has also been slammed as 'exaggerated and silly' by the lawyer representing Suge Knight, but Ice Cube is unperturbed by those claims either.'Is he ever happy?'

O'Shea Jackson Jr asked.'We heard facts and things from people who were there, so we think we are accurate,' Ice Cube said.Suge Knight is known for his notorious temper and is currently unable to see the film because he is awaiting trial on murder and attempted murder charges after allegedly running over two men on the set of a Straight Outta Compton promotional video. 'Me and Suge always be cool': Ice Cube said he's not worried about igniting the temper of Suge Knight whose lawyer slammed the film as 'exaggerated and silly' As he is now: Marion 'Suge' Knight is awaiting trial on a murder charge after an alleged hit and run in a Compton car park, following an argument related to the making of Straight Outta Compton The real thing: NWA, posing with rappers The D.O.C.. Standing from left to right: Laylaw, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre and The D.O.C.; Seated left to right Ice Cube, Eazy-E and MC Ren Movie version: NWA as portrayed in Straight Outts Compton, with Dj Yella played by Neil Brown Jr;

MC ren played by Aldis Hodge; Dr. Dre played by Corey Hawkins; Eazy-E, played by Jason Mitchell; and Ice Cube, played by his son O'Shea Jackson Jr.But Ice Cube is not at all concerned about igniting Knight's anger, saying that he gets on with the 50-year-old.'I'm not worried, you know, me and Suge always be cool. We always going to be cool,' Ice Cube told Daily Mail Australia.Attorney Thomas Mesereau, who represents Knight, told The Wrap Universal's N.W.A biopic falsely portrays the fallen hip-hop mogul as a troublemaker who uses violence to get ahead in business.He said: 'I'm sure he wouldn't like it because a lot of it is exaggerated and silly and ridiculous. Friends: The unlikely duo of Jerry Heller, the middle-aged, Jewish manager and Easy-E, the drug-dealer from the streets of Compton, helped create NWA. They were photographed together in  Hawaii in 1989 In the hit film: Jason Mitchell pictured left as Eazy-E and Paul Giamatti pictured right as N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller in the movie'A lot of the media does not realize how many good things he did for people, particularly in his community…

He financed athletic facilities in schools, he gave money to the homeless, money to people in need.''He's a good person, and this will come out in due time,' the attorney said.Heller claims in 'Ruthless: A Memoir' that he was not to blame for the backstabbing which ended the group he called 'The Black Beatles'.Instead, he pointed the finger at the group's producer Dr Dre and accused him of 'betraying' the group's founder and owner Eazy-E.Heller claims that Dre set up E to get blackmailed into freeing him from his contract in a deceit that puts to shame the respectable producer he is today who sold his Beats headphones to Apple for $700 million. Unfair: Attorney Thomas Mesereau, who represents Knight, told The Wrap Universal's N.W.A biopic falsely portrays the fallen hip-hop mogul as a troublemaker who uses violence to get ahead in business. Pictured here with the late Tupac Shakur'I didn't have that level of understanding of the human animal. I guess that even after three decades I had spent in the rough-and-tumble music business, in a corner of my soul I was naïve,' Heller said.