Marvel's Luke Cage Season 2: Ranking Every Major Character From Worst To Best
At least no one's as bad as Diamondback.
Luke Cage season 2 has now arrived and, much like every recent season of a Marvel-Netflix show, it's received mixed reviews. For this writer's money, though, it was an improvement on season 1. Sure, it sagged in places but it didn't shoot itself in the foot like the debut run did with its terrible Diamondback arc.
Probably the biggest strength of this season is that it's very character-driven. Luke Cage's best suit isn't its deft plotting, so this run knows how to play to its strengths by spending lots of time exploring the various characters, their shifting loyalties and getting underneath their (sometimes bulletproof) skin to see what makes them tick. It may be a controversial opinion, but Luke Cage might have the best ensemble cast of any of the Marvel-Netflix shows.
In season 2, we have two crime bosses launching a turf war, a brace of estranged family members returning to complicate their loved one's lives, heroes who might not know when to stop and even a surprising number of crossover characters. Some didn't work as well as they should have done, while others were electric to watch.
13. Nandi Tyler
Much is said about how the Marvel-Netflix shows have to resort to a lot of padding to fill out their 13 episode seasons, something which typically results in whole sub-plots and even characters just being there to kill some time. Nandi Tyler is a prime example of this.
Introduced as an old childhood rival of Misty's who's now a fellow detective, it's transparent from the off that Nandi is going to cause trouble for Misty later in the season. In the middle of the run, some attempt is done to patch up their relationship, which makes you think that perhaps things won't go down as predictably as they first seemed.
In the end, though, Nandi's plotline snaps back to its original shape and she makes a deal with Bushmaster for him to take out Mariah. Her double-cross feels out of character for someone who had previously been depicted as a by-the-book cop and was ultimately a less-good repeat of Scarfe's arc from last season. Are any of Harlem's cops not crooked?