Luke Cage

[JasonPratt]

I'm not against a Power Man show, but why call it "Luke Cage", and...

Because "Power Man" sounds like it belongs on the Saturday morning cartoons

LIKE DAREDEVIL!  :D And like Iron Fist, sort of.

JJ has a reason not to have a nickname that is inherently bound up in her backstory: she did, as "Jewel" (I think, can't recall for sure), but that got ruined when {spoilers spoilers} happened. She isn't that kind of person anymore and doesn't really want to be either. (I haven't watched the show so I don't know if she ever had a superhero identity there. Given where the MCU is overall, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't, which makes sense enough.)

Setting up the Defenders as street heroes isn't an inherent reason for Power Man to have a show all to himself as "Luke Cage". But then again, I get the impression Luke hasn't worked as "Power Man" per se in the comics and related media (like Spiderman: Web of Shadows) for a while.

Diversity isn't the worst reason in the world, I agree, but that's an external reason for him to headline a show by himself. The creative challenge of making a viable Luke Cage show is also not the worst reason in the world, but also an external reason. It also makes sense to use a fairly cheap superhero concept.

But since I can already foresee the probable riposte, I'll forestall that by admitting that when we're talking about fictional realities every reason for doing them is an 'external' reason.   ::) O:-) So I should adjust my thinking around on that for better perspective. Just because a traditionally team-player guy doesn't seem exciting to me in a solo story, doesn't mean it can't work, much less that other people wouldn't appreciate it a lot more than I do. Maybe a "Cloak" mini-series would work, too, as an artistic attempt.

[bayonetbrant]

They were spinning Luke off of JJ, which is fine in the way they're setting up the backstory for the street heroes.

It's going to be interesting to see when / if / how they roll out Hellcat.

[JasonPratt]

Since they're spinning "Iron Fist" as the last Defender, evidently Hellcat won't be joining up anytime soon (despite her character being introduced in JJ).

Also, as I quipped over in the "Iron Fist" thread: they're calling that show "Iron Fist" instead of "Danny Rand".  ::)

[JasonPratt]

Turns out, there's a perfectly canonical reason why the series devs went with "Luke Cage" -- because "Power Man" was a later development, coined by Cage to make his persona more marketable as a "hero for hire".

This is a pretty big piece of Marvel canon I never even knew about. Every day, I grow more geeky. 

My favorite part: how Cage (possibly also the writers) came up with the new nickname. How can Cage bust down a door? "Chalk it up to the black power, man!" He liked the sound of it after the fight, and partially inspired by Tony Stark (whom he was teaming with) using "Iron Man", added the moniker.

[Tpek]

I read the original series run's (Luke Cage Hero for Hire) collection (via Comixology) after watching the show.
He's always been one of the cooler heroes out there.