‘Luke Cage’ Season 2 Spoilers: New Villains Have Marvel Comics Origins

“Luke Cage” Season 2 will continue to draw inspiration from the comics. Marvel Television announced that Mustafa Shakir and Gabrielle Dennis have joined the cast of the Netflix drama as John McIver and Tilda Johnson, respectively. However, comic book fans will know them by different names.

Though “Luke Cage” viewers will know him as John, Marvel Comics readers might remember him as Bushmaster. He grew up in the Carribean and fell into a life of crime. He rose through the ranks of local gangs and eventually became a powerful crime boss with the Maggia, a powerful international crime syndicate.

Bushmaster had plenty of run-ins with characters who have already been introduced on the show. Misty Knight once faked a relationship with him in an effort to take him down. Unfortunately, her plan didn’t work out, and Bushmaster ended up hiring Luke to bring Misty back to him for revenge.

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Of course, Power Man wouldn’t voluntarily do that, so Bushmaster took Claire Temple and Dr. Noah Burstein hostage. Bushmaster wanted to have powers like Luke’s, so he ordered Burnstein to experiment on him. Bushmaster’s plan failed, and he ended up paralyzed in the process.

TV shows will always differ from the comics, but it sounds like John will be just as evil as Bushmaster. In “Luke Cage” Season 2, John will be “a natural leader, brimming with charisma, whose mission is focused on Harlem and vengeance,” according to Marvel’s press release.

Meanwhile, Tilda will be portrayed on the Netflix show as “a brilliant, holistic doctor with a complicated history in Harlem where, as much as she tries to stay far from trouble, it seems to always find her.”

In the comics, Tilda went by Nightshade. She grew up in Harlem and was a natural when it came to science. She knew all about genetics, cybernetics and physics before she was even 18. However, she used her knowledge for evil.

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She was taken under the wing of Yellow Claw, who wanted to turn prison inmates into deadly weapons. Nightshade had figured out how to turn convicts into werewolves, but they were no match for Captain America.

While “Luke Cage” can (and likely will) change the plotlines from the comics, it’s worth noting that both of these characters have ties to prison-related stories in the Marvel source material. Nightshade wanted to utilize the prisoners while Bushmaster wanted the experiments that Luke had undergone while he was incarcerated. That seems a little too convenient to be a coincidence.

Though the new villains will certainly cause trouble, Luke still has to worry about old enemies. Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) and Shades (Theo Rossi) will be back in Season 2. Luke (Mike Colter) will have help from his friends Claire (Rosario Dawson) and Misty (Simone Missick) to fight all the bad guys.

Viewers won’t have to wait until “Luke Cage” Season 2 to see Luke again. Mike Colter’s bulletproof character will return in “The Defenders,” which will pick up where “Luke Cage” Season 1 left off — with Luke back at Seagate Prison.

“The Defenders” premieres Aug. 18. “Luke Cage” Season 2 does not have a premiere date yet.