'Jessica Jones' star Mike Colter a powerhouse as Luke Cage

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

Mike Colter has nicely been indoctrinated into the world of being a Marvel superhero and not actually getting to talk about it.

“I wish I could tell you what I was doing right now,” Colter says with a laugh, calling in from the secretive New York City set of Marvel’s Luke Cage. “It doesn’t make any sense, and no one should be doing it, but that’s the job.”

Fans will have to wait a while for his solo series, but pop culture gets its introduction to Colter’s super-strong bar owner with impenetrable skin and mysterious past in Marvel’s Jessica Jones, streaming on Netflix. Bald and plenty massive, Luke Cage can easily handle himself in a fight, but he's just a pair of brawling fists: There’s been some tragedy in his life, and he can be sort of a romantic guy, as folks can see in Luke’s relationship with hard-nosed private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter).

In this darker corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with sex, booze and violence, there aren’t any guys in armored outfits or patriotic togs. Jessica Jones’ uniform is a hoodie, and Luke’s is an olive-colored shirt and jeans.

“You’re not always walking around using superpowers, and you’re street level. You don’t wear costumes, which is cool. I’m so happy not to wear a costume, I can’t tell you,” Colter says.

Luke Cage, aka Power Man in Marvel Comics lore, first appeared as a comic book hero for hire in 1972 at the height of “blaxploitation” cinema. He's hung around comic pages ever since as a member of the Avengers and frequent partner of martial arts do-gooder Iron Fist, another character slated to get his own Netflix show after Luke, Jessica and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil. (All four are slated to team up in The Defenders down the line.)

Jessica Jones and the upcoming Cage series pay homage to those comic roots — for example, “Sweet Christmas!” is still Luke’s signature catchphrase — “but it’s a very fine line between bringing these things that comic book fans really, really want and also bringing in a modern-day twist,” says Colter, who “had no clue” about the character before reading for Jessica Jones.

“We’re going to bring in fans who are interested in seeing a good story about a superhero who’s trying to save part of New York,” he says.

Jessica Jones executive producer Melissa Rosenberg says Colter’s physicality matched the character perfectly, “but also he manages to say a great deal with very few words. This is someone who conveys strength and power but also a very subtle vulnerability, which is very hard to find.”

According to Ritter, she and Colter went through several chemistry tests before either won their part, but the actress didn’t realize how special the coupling was until she saw some scenes during post-production dubbing sessions.

“We get along really well, we pick on each other, we laugh,” Ritter says, “but even bigger than that, we’re on this journey together.

“He was really supportive when I was doing Jessica Jones, and now he’s doing Luke Cage, and we text all the time, and we’ll be doing Defenders together. I feel like we’re on this ride together.”

Looks like there is a new watering hole in Hell's Kitchen. https://t.co/LtQWSe0ZtJ — Daredevil (@Daredevil) November 17, 2015

Colter admires Ritter’s work ethic and figures these Marvel gigs are the toughest they’ve ever had.

“It really kicked her butt, and Luke Cage is kicking my butt, and it’s one of those things where you just don’t know how much work there is involved until you get into it,” says Colter, who shares Ritter's utter distaste for cold weather.

Jessica Jones began filming in New York in February, “and we’re California people now, and both of us were like, ‘We don’t want any part of winter.’ ”

A South Carolina native, Colter has had parts in movies (Million Dollar Baby, Zero Dark Thirty), TV shows (Blue Bloods, American Horror Story) and even video games (Halo), but he’s probably best known as scene-stealing drug kingpin Lemond Bishop on CBS’ The Good Wife.

Signing on for Luke Cage, a role that not only guaranteed to play significant roles in three Netflix series but could also end up in Marvel movies (if, say, the Avengers need a super-dude from Harlem), was admittedly a “double-edged sword” for Colter.

“As an actor, you want consistency and some security, but at the same time, I didn’t know what I was getting into,” he says. “I couldn’t necessarily tell exactly where the character was going — there’s a lot of trust involved in Marvel’s plan for the character. Once you sign on, if you don’t like it, you’re there. In some ways you’re going, ‘Yeah!’ and in other ways, you’re like, ‘OK, we’ll see.’ ”

So far, so good, Colter reports. Though he wasn’t necessarily wanting his own show, the actor likes being the one who sets a good tone on the Luke Cage set.

“If you’re not enjoying your work, what’s the point?” Colter says. “We’re doing something really fun, we’re playing make-believe, and we’re all getting to do something that we wanted to do when we were little kids. So why make it hard?”