Luke Cage as a character
is a study of many tropes that come up when examining black masculinity. The creators of the character, Archie Goodwin and John Romita Sr., originally took the very obvious issues of unjust targeting, imprisonment and persecution as their orientation to the character. Today those issues are still just as important but have been examined with great scrutiny and opened up to expose many more layers needing discussion. It does leave creators of speculative fiction to think about what tropes are over used and which are still viable and important to explore for audiences. How do these stereotypes change or get more complicated over time? Creators of new content have to be aware of the boring danger of beating a topic to death. The genre of comic books is based on broad themes that get all but personified in one character or another. When one guy holds them all it blocks the game. Think Superman having every power imaginable.
The popular media of the 1970's catered to the public's increasing desire for justice and fairness in their choice to develop this character. The turbulent times of the 1960's Civil Rights movement, the anti war movement and new awareness and distrust for power brokers in government and industry was at the forefront of Americans' consciousness and consequently American media and literary culture. From Sesame Street to prime time television there was an acknowledgment of the changing popular opinions in entertainment.
The depth to which they delved into the complexity of the black male identity was perhaps equal to their ability to grasp the nuances and write material that would not alienate their core audience, thus the corniness of Cage.
They no doubt took their lead from films later labeled "black exploitation". They created icons from the romanticized stereotypes that held both the danger that would intrigue viewers and readers and lent those characters the modern "right to be hostile" as Flava Flav put it. They presented characters that were more 3dimensional and complex even though much of the writing was still bad.
The modern manifestation of Cage in comics and now on television takes liberty in the scope of the issues and reflects all the rawness of the contemporary conflicts that play out on the news and on social media never mind in fiction. So we have a Luke on Netflix dealing with nearly all of the tropes that black men face instead of just a few. He still bears some of the same criticisms seeing as the genre is by nature far fetched fantasy. The power fantasy corniness is however for many forgivable in light of the constant barrage of imagery of black men being disempowered.
Here are some over-played issues that come to mind that we see all packed into one character:
Son of a preacher
What is it about a black man spouting scripture that puts people at ease?
Righteously indignant
Of course we have the right to be hostile, our people are being...
Stereotyped as a thug 
The criminalization agenda has been well documented (thank you Ava Duvernay!)
Falsely accused of a crime
It just follows naturally.
Sex object
His potency is laced with fear. The big black stud who will take your woman is used over and over.
Idealized physical form
His super power is actually just an extension of who he already was. This makes him all the more believable for better or worse.
Physically durable as if to take punishment
We see him shot, stabbed, buried alive, hit by vehicles, suffer, suffer, suffer... Just like so many real life men we know. He survives to suffer more. His power is his reason to take more punishment.
Torn between community and society
He like many of us wants better for his people but is locked into fighting them instead of the power structures holding them back. What does this teach us?
It should be noted that many of these tropes play out over and over in Hollywood with male characters of several backgrounds. The allure of the magical negro seems to pluck at the heartstrings and collective conscience for some more than that of the most brooding white male.
The examination of these conflicts begs the question of what else is left for building blocks of black male characters whose identity and story revolves around their experiences as black men. What other salient questions can be asked? What important misconceptions can be delved into? What enduring personal and social conflicts will be enduring and appealing to a wide audience as we move forward to the next few decades? This is the stuff of afrofuturism and black speculative fiction.
There are stories being written right now and books sitting on shelves at this moments that go into these territories. Without the aid and platform of Marvel and Netflix how will we see them survive to evolve the way Luke Cage has?
