http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/arts/television/review-marvels-luke-cage-a-hero-for-harlem.html 2016-09-29 22:38:44 Review: ‘Marvel’s Luke Cage,’ a Hero for Harlem The neighborhood is a vivid presence in this new Netflix series, which stars Mike Colter as a literally bulletproof threat to a crime boss. === In the connected series of movies and television shows known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which occupies an inordinate amount of territory in our popular culture, there’s a quiet corner that belongs to Netflix. The Netflix-Marvel series, focusing on a mostly second-tier group of heroes — so far Daredevil, Jessica Jones and, beginning on Friday, Luke Cage — have been a laboratory in turning comic books into live-action TV without the noisy battles and tag-team group heroics of Marvel mainstays like the Avengers, X-Men and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “Marvel’s Luke Cage” But what’s most distinctive about the series is the way it puts race — and specifically pride in Harlem, where the show takes place — at the center of the story. It’s not just that Cage (Mike Colter of “The Good Wife”) is engaged in a battle for the neighborhood’s soul with Cottonmouth (Mahershala Ali, “House of Cards”), a local crime boss. That’s a plot we’ve seen plenty of times. It’s the steady drumbeat of visual and spoken references to Harlem’s history and culture, which depending on your taste can come off as an inspiring refrain or as facile name-dropping. The occasional reference to a Beyoncé or Denzel is lost among the citations of past and present neighborhood figures, from Langston Hughes and Billy Strayhorn to Percy Sutton, Geoffrey Canada and ASAP Rocky. A corrupt politician’s self-serving development plan is called the New Harlem Renaissance. The camera has a habit of catching the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building on 125th Street, with its striding statue of Powell. Dapper Dan, the This approach has a couple of effects, beyond the unusual (for the superhero genre) and welcome element of diversity. The selling of Harlem as a literary-artistic wonderland is distracting in what’s basically a straightforward, middling-quality comic-book adaptation about a reluctant hero taking on gangsters and crooked politicians. And it often feels like the cultural lessons are getting in the way of the genre fun. There’s more conversation than action, and the talk has a tendency to slide into debate, about vigilantism or competing ideas of Harlem or visions of the solitary black hero. (Cage is a There’s plenty to like about “Luke Cage,” including the gorgeous Harlem locations; good work in supporting roles by Alfre Woodard and Ron Cephas Jones; and lively performances by musicians like Raphael Saadiq, Charles Bradley and