In June of 1972 Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 was released. Luke Cage, born Carl Lucas and once called Power Man, is a Marvel Comics superhero. Created by writer Archie Goodwin and artist John Romita, Sr. Cage was the first the Black Hero to star in his own on-going title.
Born and raised in New York City‘s Harlem neighborhood, Carl Lucas spent his youth in a gang called the Bloods. With his friend Willis Stryker, he fought the rival gang the Diablos and committed petty thefts, until he finally realized how his actions were hurting his family; he sought to better himself as an adult, finding legitimate employment. Meanwhile, Stryker rose through the ranks of crime, but the two men remained friends. When Stryker’s was badly beaten in a mob hit, saved only by Lucas’s intervention. Stryker’s girlfriend, Reva Connors, broke up with him in fear of his violent work, she sought solace from Lucas. Convinced that Lucas was responsible for the breakup, Stryker planted heroin in Lucas’s apartment and tipped off the police. Lucas was arrested and sent to prison. In prison, Lucas was consumed by rage over Stryker’s betrayal. In prison Cage was a volunteer (in exchange for a parole) for experimental cell regeneration based on a variant of the Super-Soldier process. A sadistic guard sabotaged the experiment’s controls, hoping to maim or kill Lucas. Lucas’s treatment was accelerated past its intent, inducing body-wide enhancement that gave him superhuman strength and durability. He used his new power to escape Seagate and made his way back to New York, where a chance encounter with criminals inspired him to use his new powers for profit.
Adopting the alias Luke Cage and donning a distinctive costume, he launched a career as a Hero for Hire, helping anyone who could meet his price. Although Cage seemed to have little in common with most of New York’s other superhumans, an ill-conceived attempt to collect a fee from a reneging Doctor Doom led him to befriend the Fantastic Four (Hero for Hire #9, 1973). Cage followed the example of his new peers and took the codename of Power Man. Throughtout the years he has team up with fellow street-level heroes such as Iron Fist, Spider-Man and Daredevil to save the world from Doctor Doom or protect a neighborhood from gangs. He’s done it all.
Cage started out as a response to the Blaxplotation craze of the 70′s. 35 years later Cage is a father, a friend and an Avenger. Not bad for a kid from Harlem…….
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Posted under Comics
This post was written by Lobo on June 11, 2007
