The first season of Marvel's Luke Cage arrived on Netflix this weekend. In this spoiler-free review, Helen O'Hara offers her thoughts on the Harlem superhero

The Marvel/Netflix collaboration has so far proved darker and grittier than the comics giant’s big-screen outings, focusing on street-level do-gooders instead of giant ships hovering over vulnerable cities. Whatever these shows lose in their effects budget, they gain in character focus and a surprising seriousness of purpose for something that began as a comic.

Yet, as it turns out, it’s a seriousness that these characters can generally justify. After Daredevil and Jessica Jones it’s the turn of Luke Cage (Mike Colter), previously introduced as a supporting character in Jones – and at least on the basis of the first half of the season, this may be Marvel and Netflix’s best effort to date.