Product Description: Look out world, here he comes - Luke Cage, Hero for Hire - and bullets won't stop him! The early adventures of comics' first and foremost black superstar of the seventies are collected for the first time in one volume as Power Man defends his home turf against the likes of Diamondback, Mace, Black Mariah, Dr. Doom, Senor Suerte, Chemistro, Lionfang, Steeplejack, Cottonmouth, and more! Guest-starring the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Iron Man! Collects Hero For Hire #1-#16 and Power Man #17-#27
My Favorite Hero (or at least of the moment) I've been reading comics for over 30 years and have always been aware of Luke Cage but had never read much he was in. Sometime last fall I got a hold of several issues of Christopher Priest's excellent Black Panther series. I was hooked and ended up buying all 68 issues online. That led me to an intrest in Power Man. So I started with this collection, and have since aquired almost every issue he's been in in the last 30+ years (except for 5 or 6 cameo appereances). That said this volume collects his earliest work and some of his best. Having been a true DC fan all these years I was surprised at how down to earth these stories are. Marvel has always been the "smaller, more real earth" as shown very well in the recent JLA/Avengers crossover. But this series brought something that I had not really seen in comics before. A gritty, street level feel that took me into a darker place: Time's Square, New York City, circa the 70's. That said, know that I don't read any indepedent books, and the only Vertigo book I read is Fables. So maybe there is a lot of books out there like this, updated for today's age, but the super-hero spin made it more enjoyable for me.
Luke Cage is a man that is trying to do what is right and make a living at the same time. Who isn't? It's removed from the "Let's save the world because we have powers" vibe that pretty much defines the super-hero genre. Prison, drug dealers, gangsters, racism, and super villians all collide with the ease of an era gone by. Some of it is remarkably simple and fun, like Luke having to order new silk shirts from the dry cleaner because bullets keep shredding his old ones, even having to wear a yellow t-shirt once because he had ran out and the others were on order.
The supporting cast are real and believable. Dr. Clair Temple's romantic relationship with a falsely accused ex-con is rich with chemistry, his friendship with D.W. the young guy that runs the movie theatre were Cage lives is bright and fun. Dr. Noah Burnstein that man that gave Luke his powers by accident has a great relationship with him, one of debt, fear, and compassion. The stories stay mostly in NYC, except when he goes the the Fantastic Four so that he can borrow a plane to fly to Latervia for a confrontation with Dr. Doom who owes him 200 bucks!! He's real, funny, and out to make some money by using his situation to the best he knows how. A young man still growing up and trying to find his way in the world. The series eventually brings in Iron Fist around issue 48 and it suddenly becomes slightly crowded with all of his supporting cast taking up much of the book. Luke begins to feel like a guest star in his own book. But the original has some of the best stories of the run. Finally I thought I wouldn't like the black and white pages but actually got used to them and was "shocked" when I started reading the single issues that I bought and suddenly everything was in color. Overall 5 stars and a good time capsule of a great time in comics.
UNDERAPPRECIATED TITLE Luke Cage Hero for Hire/Powerman is one of the most underappreciated and undervalued comic titles of the 1970's Cage was one of the first black superheroes and the first "street" black hero. Now looking back we may in hindsight question a street black hero being written by a white guy (Archie Goodwin) but those were different times. Lucas Cage was framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison and agreed to be a guinea pig for experiments which gave him super strength and resistance to injury. He used his powers to break out of jail and clear his name and then became a kind of super hero mercenary for hire. The Title would change it's name to Luke Cage, Powerman with issue #17.
One of the best issues included in this book is Powerman #21 in which Cage battles the Original, Silver Age Powerman for the rights to the name and beats him decisively. Very good story. In general, however, Cage battleD very minor, often street type villains such as Black Mariah, Mace, Lion Fang, Cotton Mouth, etc. Although Dr. Doom did put in an appearance in issue #9. The art on the series was usually pretty good, better than most of the lower tier Marvel comics of the 1970's and the covers throughout were very good. I particularly like the cover to #26, a classic Gil Kane work.
Over the years Cage would have various group affiliations with super teams including the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Defenders and Heroes for Hire although he would never remain with one group for any length of time. The stories inside this book are simple, usually one issue stories, but they are really pretty good. I always liked Cage as a mid-level hero.
Mutha Trucka! Big Bad Luke Cage with his jive talking Ebonics and fresh flavour is a blast right out of the seventies....Really. I was very surprised at how good this essential really was. It handles 70's rascism issues well and is often very well written. After thirty years of reading Marvel comics I found out things about this character I never knew. - Luke Cage was a career criminal before he became Power Man! -There was a lot of history and back story long before the Power Man and Iron Fist stories! - There is quite a lot of seriously ancient marvel history dug up to establish continuity. - Power Man actually causes the deaths of a large ammount of villains or people he knows in these stories! This is one of the best of the "early" Marvel 70's comics that I've read. However be warned, there is a lot of repetition...here is an example: BAD GUY: "Ha Ha! Take that Power Man!" POWER MAN: "Jive Turkey, you may have knocked me down but Luke Cage don't ever stay down 'cos he gots STEEL SKIN!" BAD GUY: "My electro gun will finish you! BANG BANG" POWER MAN: "Honky, ain't nothing can penetrate my righteous black skin because I's the man with STEEL SKIN!" BAD GUY: "What's that boy? You got STEEL SKIN or sumtin'?"
And on and on through a multitude of variations along this theme. For a book that really does take a stand on the whole Black Power issue of the 70s it fails to get past the big issue of sexism which is hugely aparent in all these 70s Marvel comics. Take it with a grain of salt. I did. I love it for what it is...well written, unique and thoroughly enthralling.
Sweet Chistmas! That was one of Luke Cage's most famous lines...This is pure magic classic Marvel Comics of the seventies. I was hoping this series would go on without Iron Fist. I did like the Power Man Iron Fist team ups; however Luke Cage was better when he worked alone. This character would make an extrodinary TV series because he wouldn't require a super hero costume or super villians to make it contemporary. I only wish he caught on like Wolverine and Iron Fist did. This is one comic I wish was still being published as a monthly magazine!
I'm talkin' 'bout Cage! LUKE Cage! Let me get one thing out of the way first. I am a twenty year-old white guy living in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. I am among the least likely Americans who could actually get the point (ironic or otherwise) about the Blaxploitation era of the '70's. I mean I tried to watch Superfly once about a year ago (it was on AMC, I think), but I turned it off after about 40 minutes, feeling ashamed with mankind in general.
Thus when I entered my local comic shop two weeks ago and noticed the arrival of the Essential Luke Cage Volume 1, starring the comics world's poster boy for that era, I was a bit skeptical. I didn't think I could really get excited about such stories, but I was committed to the Essentials line and I wanted to pick up on the beginnings of the excellent tale that capped off the Essential Iron Fist (starring Cage's future partner) so I took it home. Did I learn to enjoy it after all? Just shut yo' mouth and I'll tell you.
The saga begins as Carl Lucas, a Harlem-raised street tough framed for drug possession and incarcerated, gets a chance at early parole by becoming a guinea pig in Dr. Burstein's medical experiment. During the process, a racist hick guard sabotages the machine hoping to kill Lucas but instead grants him superhuman strength and durability (whoops!). Lucas escapes, adopts the cover identity of Luke Cage and returns to the Big Apple to use his newfound powers to clear his name and clean up the mean streets (and make some scratch on the side) as a Hero for Hire.
Cage's adventures and adversaries seemed to walk the line between Silver Age Spider-Man and modern Daredevil. He goes up against costumed, gimmicky criminals like his former friend Diamondback (who has a snake outfit and wields trick-laden throwing knives), Lionfang and his mentally controlled predatory cats, Chemistro, the self-proclaimed Master of Alchemy (I sure hope he never says that around FF foe Diablo. That would be awkward), Steeplejack (who has retrofitted his construction-worker tools for warfare), the vigilante team of Discus and Stiletto (they're so fanatic they make the Punisher look congenial) and even the Circus of Crime (Who out there hasn't fought these guys? Even Howard the Duck fought them). In addition to that, he also fights gritty real-world street crime in the form of Senor Suerte (a swarthy illegal casino owner), the ruthless drug kingpin Cottonmouth (also snake-themed), and even a bitter Vietnam vet with a titanium morning star grafted in place of his missing hand (a blow from which I would imagine would be pretty painful to both parties). Also, for pure cheesy comic book glee, Cage uses his brute strength and well honed street fighting prowess to humble Dr. Doom (not many can say that, my friend).
Similar to Iron Fist, the series is an ongoing tale of one man's search for redemption and his true calling. Fortunately, these stories proved to be not nearly as campy, overdone, or tongue-in-cheek as I was expecting. Even though I wasn't particularly fond of "Power Man", the superhero name that Cage eventually chose for himself, I am still thankful that Marvel didn't feel the need to give him a name with the word "Black" in it (DC Comics, I'm looking at you!). Cage's well-known jive-talkin' was also never heavy-handed or played up for laughs and the main character and 70's urban atmosphere never seemed exploitative (even if all of the women Cage met had afros). Case in point: there is one scene toward the end in which Dr. Burstein dismisses a reporter doing an expose on black superheroes by saying he should be concentrating on a hero's sense of honor and not the color of his skin. Sometimes you can find profound messages even in comic books, folks.
In conclusion, what I had thought would be an embarrassing caricature ended up being a very compelling, well-developed post-Lee Marvel character, much like Ghost Rider or Wolverine. I invite all comic book fans to pick up this latest Essential volume. What more can I say about Luke Cage? He's one bad mutha!
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