From the moment I picked up an issue of Power Man and Iron Fist the character of Luke Cage was a favorite of mine. A simple man whose strong moral code often conflicted with his personal desires Luke couldn’t help but do good, and he was much smarter than he appeared despite a famously short fuse. Over the years not many characters in the Marvel Universe have undergone the amount of changes Luke has, but while his look has changed drastically the core of who he is has remained the same, so join me now looking back at the one and only Luke Cage…
The Other Catchphrase
Now it’s time to get ugly
The opening page of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. Most of his iconic costume from the 70’s & 80’s is here, save for 2 things, that chain belt of his for awhile was the size of a Buick, and something is wrong with the footwear. A little trivia, Luke wore that chain belt as a reminder of his time in jail
Issue #1, Page 3 features an imprisoned Luke with Comanche and Shades, 2 men whose history will always tie in deeply to Luke’sAnd with page 1 of Issue #3 we get the golden boots and all is right with the world
Yeah Baby!
One trick that’s always worked in comics is putting a new character in an established book to raise his Visibility. Check out Luke on this great cover from Amazing Spider-Man #123 by I believe John Romita Sr
Witness… The epic origin of the Power Man name!Now this picture doesn’t feature Luke but I just wanted to give you an idea of the villains he was facing back in his early days… Especially when they have a look, name and dialogue this freakin’ awesomeFor a short while late in his solo run they gave Luke a slightly different look. Less like a costume and not as cheesy this lasted about 3 issuesIn issue #48 Power Man and Iron Fist met for the very first time…
And THIS is what happened!
Luke as an 80’s arcade game is tremendousMy 2 favorite artists during the Power Man and Iron Fist years were Mark Bright and the man who drew this tremendous image from issue #81, Denys Cowan. His Luke was powerful, unique, menacing and absolutely awesomePlus in the same issue he gave us what I believe is the only time Power Man ever dressed up as a woman… That’s right folks, LUKE CAGE DRESSED UP AS A GIRL!
And here is issue #83, my all time favorite cover in the series. You can literally feel the rage and hurt in Luke, and all you need to know about his relationship to Fist is summed up in this brilliant Denys Cowan piece
Or just wearing… Honestly I have no idea what he’s wearing there, 80’s fashion?Here’s something you don’t see every day… Luke sporting a fine business suit…Or Luke in a snowsuit…In September of 1986 Power Man and Iron Fist was among the titles cancelled by Marvel to make room for the New Universe. In this last issue Fist is apparently killed and Luke Cage is on the run from the law again after being accused of his murder. On the final page Misty Knight and Luke have a tender moment as the 2 people who loved Iron Fist the most. In this final panel, as beautifully drawn by Mark Bright, we see the after effects on Luke, and this would remain the final image of him printed for yearsAfter a seemingly endless wait Luke fans finally got his return in 1991. The downside was it was only as a rather forgettable 8 page back up feature in Marvel Comics Presents #82 but… It led to a dramatic return in the 1992 series titled, simply, Cage, complete with a brand new look. Luke had doffed the Power Man name and the super hero costume associated with it for something more contemporary, but some subtle nods to his old outfit exist
Luke had returned as a seemingly darker and more self absorbed character who was afraid to let anyone in after what had happened with Iron Fist. Here though, we see a glimpse of a young Luke, and a hint as to what would shape the man to comeThe earliest artist on the Cage series was Dwayne Turner who now works as a storyboard artist for big budget video games and films such as God of War and Ender’s Game
When Luke cage and Iron Fist finally had their reunion it was, to say the least, combustible
One thing that was true in the Cage series much like his earlier Power Man run was you didn’t really want Luke madHere’s a look from near the end of Cage V1 that I thought was pretty cool
With Cage’s cancellation at Issue #20 the next time he was part of an ongoing regular series was teaming with his old friend Iron Fist and several other for a short run launched during the Heroes Reborn event. His costume, as designed by Pasqual Ferry is a new look on an old outfit, and one of many designs given during Heroes For Hire’s short run
Pasqual Ferry has become a highly successful artist here in 2014 but in 1997 he was still refining his craft. Here’s an example of Luke I like…
And here’s one I consider a highly questionable choice… I mean THIS is supposed to be Luke Cage?
Well I can appreciate Ferry trying something new I guess, and his Luke Cage transformed into one mean Gorilla was stupendousIn 2002 Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben gave us a brand new take on Luke Cage with a alternate universe version mature readers tale
I am a big fan of Corben’s art and this series was well recieved but I’m not a fan, it’s just not my Luke Cage
Perhaps the most important thing for Luke Cage in recent history is that superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis was a fan of the character made him a prominent member of The Avengers, as well as re-introducing Luke’s future wife Jessica JonesAnd they had a beautiful baby girl together Danielle Cage, named after Luke’s best friend Danny Rand aka Iron FistIn 2010 we had a pair of books. Marvel created a very cool series of Noir books with varying characters, this is a nicely done cover montage of the series starring Luke
Anothe Mini with Luke was New Avengers: Luke Cage. Not sure why, but I feel like the artist Eric Canete was paying tribute to someone else here…
Ah yes… There it is
And we’ve also had the emergence of a new Power Man. as Victor Alvarez has taken up the nameBut that’s not the end of Luke’s Journey, because like any megastar character he’s been immortalized in many other forms of media, like here with a cartoon version from Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with Fist and Scott Lang the Ant-ManOr in a video game version like in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. You could unlock different costumes for the character, once I did guess which one I played as!
Here’s a mighty nice Luke Cage as Power Man resin statue
And while I’m not a toy collector myself hats off to anyone with these action figures in their house
Here’a an awesome old school Marvel Mega Mega Magnet of Power Man from back in the day
And Luke got the much deserved Lego treatment here
And of course there’s some shirts, like this one which is truly epic
And this shirt, which I personally find even more epic
Of course people Cosplay as Luke, extremely nice job done on this oneAnd artists from all over the world draw him just as a tribute, like this rendering by the one and only Bruce Timm
But the wait is still on to see Luke make it to the silver screen, and with all due respect to many people’s choice Terry Crews…
I just can’t imagine anyone else in the role except Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Of course there’s no way I’ll ever get done the whole history of every appearance of a character around for 40 odd years, but here’s a montage my buddy Brett created for me of some of my other favorites Top Row – Age of Ultron (Earth-61112), Super Hero Squad cartoon and games (Earth-91119), Power Man: Ultimate Comics (Earth-1610), Larval Earth (Earth-8311) Middle Row – Earth X (Earth-9997), Power Fist: Legacy Virus merged with Warlock (Earth-8545), Luke Cage found the Hammer of Thor (Earth-88255), Mar-Vell did not Die (Earth-906) Bottom Row – Divergent Zombieverse (Earth-6195), Power Girl: Wonder Man & Power Man had female counterparts (Earth-34828), President Cage: Worldwide superhuman registration (Earth-8441), Marvel Knights Millennial Visions: America the Beautiful (Earth-8666)
