This Lethal Weapon In 'Luke Cage' Plays An Important Role In The Show
It has been a couple of years since the first season of Luke Cage debuted on Netflix, so it is totally understandable if you need a bit of a refresher on the important details as you get started on the newly-released Season 2. Most pressingly, a Judas bullet plays a big part in the premiere episode, and it will be confusing for anyone who does not remember what the unique weapon can do from Season 1. So, what is a Judas bullet in Luke Cage? Here's what you need to know about the powerful piece of artillery.
Spoiler alert: This post will discuss plot details only from the premiere episode of Luke Cage Season 2. As the new season of Luke Cage begins, Luke is reveling in his newfound hero status in Harlem, but his enemies are also regrouping and growing in scary new ways. In particular, the criminally-connected, shady politician Mariah Dillard is rounding up a whole posse of mob bosses as potential business partners for her firearms empire. When Luke catches wind of Mariah's meeting, he crashes her club and sees the three men that Mariah is considering working with. There's the drug-smuggling furniture salesman, Arturo Rey, the Jamaican gang leader, Nigel, and a recently-incarcerated gambling kingpin who goes by the name Cockroach. Luke decides to go after Arturo first and is met with an explosive surprise.
When Luke Cage arrives at the backlot of Arturo Rey's furniture store to investigate one of his freight trucks, he quickly realized that it was all a set-up, and Arturo had rigged the truck to explode with Luke inside. But of course, Luke has survived much worse than an exploding truck, and comes out of the fire unharmed. However, Arturo is prepared for this — as Luke walks towards him, Arturo pulls out a gun and fires. No big deal, right? I mean, Luke Cage is the bulletproof man! But shockingly, Luke looks like he is actually hurt by Arturo's bullet. Luckily, he is then able to recover and scare Arturo off.
The bullet that Arturo Rey used is a Judas bullet, which is a weapon that became pretty prominent in Season 1 of Luke Cage. Shades is actually the one who first introduced the Judas bullet, which was made of an alien metal and the only known substance that can pierce Luke Cage's skin. Although it is not fully explained in Season 1, there is a lot of fan speculation that the Judas bullets are made of vibranium, a substance that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe know very well, since it makes up Captain America's shield, Black Panther's suit, and the entire country of Wakanda.
In the first season, Cottonmouth, Diamondback, and Mariah Dillard used Judas bullets to shoot Luke Cage a couple times, but he was able to remove the shrapnel and survive. However, in the new season, Luke Cage has somehow developed a resistance to even the Judas bullets, which he is proud to show off to the world by dabbing in a bystander's video footage of the shooting and then tauntingly dropping the shrapnel from the Judas bullet on Mariah's desk.
Since the Judas bullet basically served as Luke Cage's Kryponite throughout Season 1, it will be exciting to see how the villains will try to bring him down now that the only thing they that could hurt Luke no longer injures him at all. The possibility that the bullets are made of vibranium also helps to deepen the connection between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Marvel Netflix Universe, which is something that may continue to grow in this new season as well.
