With the Luke Cage series hitting Netflix this weekend, it seems an appropriate time to give a little background on the character. Almost a year ago, right around the time Jessica Jones premiered, Kylan gave us a pretty extensive history of Luke Cage (and why he loves the character). So if you really want to delve into that history, you should go read that blog post (it’s right here). But today we’re doing the “quick and dirty” version.

First appearing in 1972, Luke Cage had what is now the stereotypical story line of “convicted for a crime he didn’t commit”. After an explosion leaves him with superhuman strength and durability, he decides to use his powers for profit and becomes a hero for hire. Eventually, Luke teams up with kung fu hero Danny Rand, becoming the team of Power Man and Iron Fist. (Yes, there’s an Iron Fist show coming up too… we’ll talk about it soon.)

Luke’s main love interest is Jessica Jones (but you already know this because you watched her series on Netflix, right?). This is one of the few longstanding relationships in the entire comicbook universe. In the comics (a new run of Power Man and Iron Fist started earlier this year), Luke and Jessica are married and have a baby daughter. They are one of the only “stable” superhero couples around!

So what will we see in the Luke Cage series? As with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, it’s set in New York, but the focus is more on Harlem than Hell’s Kitchen. Of course, there will be plenty of danger and lots of fighting, hand to hand and otherwise (Luke is bulletproof, after all). As to continuity, some events take place in parallel to the second season of Daredevil, which flowed after season one of Jessica Jones. Because these shows are connected, you’ll get small nods to and clues for the plots along the way. It’s not entirely necessary to have watched the others before binging Luke Cage, but we’d definitely recommend it.