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Luke Cage has bulletproof skin and super strength, but all he wants is to keep his head down. A prison fugitive living in Harlem under a fake name, he sweeps the floor at Pop's barbershop, run by a neighborhood fixture, and washes dishes at Harlem's Paradise, the club owned by Cornell Stokes, aka Cottonmouth. Cornell runs local crime, and his cousin, Councilwoman Mariah Dillard, uses the dirty money to fuel her political career.
Everything changes when some kids rob one of Cornell's gun deals. One of his men, Tone, opens fire inside the barbershop and kills Pop. Luke decides to act. He hits Cornell's stash houses, rips doors off, shrugs off bullets, and chokes off the boss's money. Detective Misty Knight works the case and grows suspicious of him. Crooked cop Rafael Scarfe, who was on Cornell's payroll, is shot by his own boss and dies after giving up what he knows, but the evidence is thrown out in court.
Midway through the season comes the big twist. During a fight about their family's past, Mariah kills Cornell. With help from Shades, a cold and calculating criminal, she sets things up to frame Luke. At the same time, the real villain arrives: Willis Stryker, aka Diamondback. He was Luke's childhood friend and betrayed him, sending him to prison. Stryker reveals that they're half brothers, sons of the same father, and he brings Judas bullets, built with alien tech, that can pierce Luke's skin.
Stryker shoots Luke, who nearly dies. Claire Temple, the nurse who has patched up other heroes in the city, takes Luke back to the prison lab where he got his powers, and the doctor who changed him saves his life. Flashbacks show how Carl Lucas, his real name, became a test subject and escaped. Back in Harlem, Luke faces the police, a suspicious neighborhood, and Stryker, who takes hostages at the club and spreads chaos.
In the end, Stryker puts on a suit that boosts his strength, and the two fight in the middle of the street in front of the whole neighborhood. The suit fails and Luke wins. But winning doesn't clear his record. Mariah is arrested, but the witness who could convict her is killed, so she walks free and keeps the club with Shades at her side. Federal agents show up with Carl Lucas's file, and Luke turns himself in to go back to prison. He promises Claire and Misty that he'll be back.