Uptown Villains Beware: Luke Cage is Harlem’s Hero

The Marvel series, featuring a Harlem-born superhero, debuts on Netflix tomorrow.

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Harlem has a new superhero, and he’s unbreakable.

“Luke Cage,” the latest offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuts on Netflix tomorrow, starring Mike Colter as the hero with shatterproof skin who was born and raised in the neighborhood he now defends.

The series was partly filmed in Harlem, featuring locations such as Lenox Avenue, Mount Olivet Baptist Church, Marcus Garvey Park and Jackie Robinson Park. A storefront on 119th Street and Lenox Avenue was transformed into a barbershop where Cage works, while a brownstone near Marcus Garvey Park became the exterior of politician Mariah Dillard’s home.

“Harlem is without a doubt a character in the show,” said Jason Farrar, locations manager for the series. “Every time a new director would come onto the show, we’d have the conversation, ‘What can we highlight in Harlem in this episode?’

“Harlem has got a particular look,” he said, citing its historic brownstones and broad avenues. “Lenox Avenue is the center of Luke’s world. It’s very classic Harlem – it’s the artery of Harlem.”

The biggest challenge for the “Luke Cage” crew was minimizing inconvenience to residents. Unlike other cities, New York lacks parking lots to store trucks and equipment, and streets are often clogged with cables, crew and, on occasion, police barricades.

Farrar said the production company made donations to various community organizations, including Mount Olivet Baptist Church.

“Filming helps us financially,” said the Rev. Dr. Charles Curtis, senior pastor at Mount Olivet. “And filming helps Harlem itself. It’s employment for some people who get sit-in roles.”

Mount Olivet is a magnet for film crews, said Curtis; it has appeared in episodes of the “Law & Order” franchise and in “American Gangster,” starring Denzel Washington. “They like the ambience and beauty,” Curtis said.

The show also shot scenes in Washington Heights: Broadway eatery La Dinastia was transformed into the Chinese restaurant Genghis Connie’s, which features heavily in trailers, while five blocks north, the United Palace of Cultural Arts became the Harlem Paradise club.

La Dinastia was primarily selected for its location, said manager Steven Chi. “They needed an old restaurant, and it was on the corner. It had good angles for filming,” he said.

The restaurant is the site of a thwarted robbery. Though Cage launches an ill-fated thief through the window, La Dinastia didn’t suffer. “They put in sugar glass,” Chi explained.

Filming took place over six days, but the crew took pains to minimize disruption. “When they took our sign down it broke, so they replaced it,” said Chi. “They’re wonderful people.”

Mike Fitelson, executive director of the United Palace, said filming took around a week. “They did some pretty spectacular stunts,” he said.

“‘Luke Cage’ was more intensive in altering the theater than most shoots,” Fitelson said, adding that operations at the Palace were suspended entirely during filming. “But booking a space is how we pay the bills.”

Fitelson relished the prospect of an uptown hero. “We always need stronger narratives about the issues concerning people in the neighborhood and that are resolved by people in the neighbourhood.”

“For our community residents to see themselves on screen in a positive light — that’s very cool,” he said.

“Just having a superhero from Harlem is definitely going to be a positive thing in itself,” said Nasri Zachariah, 42, program director of the Harlem International Film Festival. “It seems a conscious effort to refer to it as somewhere that breeds heroes and somewhere to be proud of.”

Trailers show an initially reluctant Cage embrace the mantel of Harlem’s defender. In one scene, he tears off a car door to double as a shield and battering ram; another shows a man’s fist crumpling against his unbreakable face. In one of the most talked-about shots, Cage sports a hoodie riddled with bullet holes, a reference to slain teenager Trayvon Martin; police shootings of black men is a prominent theme.

The superhero originated in the 1972 comic book “Luke Cage, Hero for Hire,” depicted as a once wrongfully imprisoned man who turns his superhuman strength and indestructible skin – the result of prison experimentation – to fighting crime. Cage was the first black hero to star in his or her own comic book; Black Panther, credited as the first superhero of color, initially appeared as a secondary character in the Fantastic Four.

Colter’s Luke Cage made his live-action debut in “Jessica Jones,” starring Krysten Ritter, which debuted last year on Netflix. In the series, Cage develops a complicated relationship with Jones.

Uptown, posters at subway and bus stops herald the show’s debut.

“We’ve got friends coming over to watch it,” said La Dinastia’s Steven Chi. “We’re very excited!”

But Rev. Curtis is withholding judgment. “I’m definitely going to watch it,” he said, “and if I’m dissatisfied, I know who to burn down here!”

(Photo by Emily Dixon)

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