Back Issues: Luke Cage — From hero for hire to Avenger
Netflix premieres its third Marvel-based series Friday with Luke Cage, who has escaped limbo in the comics to become a cornerstone of the Avengers.
Viewers met Cage in last year’s “Jessica Jones,” as the mysterious, super-strong love interest who found his own personal tragedy tied directly to the title character’s. This series will follow the bulletproof tough guy as he sets up shop in Harlem and runs afoul of a crime boss and crooked politician.
The comic book Cage debuted in 1972, with an origin that can stand toe-to-toe with some of the best. Framed as a drug dealer by childhood friend Willis “Diamondback” Stryker, Carl Lucas found a get-out-of-jail card that sure wasn’t free. He volunteered for an experimental treatment to increase a person’s healing abilities, but sabotage by a sadistic guard resulted in him emerging virtually indestructible and extremely strong.
He used his newfound abilities to escape from prison and make his way back to New York, where his girlfriend Reva was gunned down during an attempted hit on Stryker. Setting himself up as Luke Cage, hero for hire, he made ends meet helping people while doing his best to disrupt Stryker’s operations.
Eventually taking the name Power Man, Cage starred in his own title for 49 issues. With sales numbers struggling, Marvel combined his title with the also-floundering Iron Fist, creating a mash-up that produced some epically fun comics. (Iron Fist is getting his own Netflix series next year, before he, Cage and Jones join forces with Daredevil as “The Defenders.”)
The series ended on issue 125, with Cage accused of Iron Fist’s murder. He went underground for a while but was eventually cleared of the charges, since death proved a temporary condition for his partner. On his own and having shed the garish costume he wore in the ’70s and ’80s, Cage went back to work as a hero for hire in Chicago.
Cage had stepped away from superheroics when Iron Fist brought back the Heroes for Hire team with a larger roster. The former Power Man eventually rejoined, acting as a double agent for the villainous Master of the World. The series, and therefore the venture, didn’t last long, and Cage returned to comic book purgatory until writer Brian Michael Bendis plucked him out to serve as a supporting character and love interest for Jessica Jones in “Alias.”
Bendis’ star continued rising in the real world and when he took over the writing duties for the Avengers, he brought Cage along. Having served brief stints as a paid member of the Fantastic Four and the Defenders, Cage grew into the heart of the so-called New Avengers, taking the team underground in the wake of the superhero Civil War. He even led his own branch of Avengers while also acting as a parole officer of sorts for the Thunderbolts, a team of villains working to redeem themselves or at least shorten their sentences.
Cage and Jones had a daughter and got married, so he eventually returned to the Heroes for Hire well again as a way to support his family. But for-profit adventuring wasn’t what it used to be, so when the world faced a crisis while the front-line Avengers were off-planet, Cage became the centerpiece of another team that welcomed anyone who wanted to make a difference. In the title “Mighty Avengers,” he merged the two aspects of his heroic past and oversaw a team who helped the little guy and took on major menaces.
Caught up in massive Marvel events, the series briefly relaunched before the entire line got rebooted. Now, as Cage is set to debut to a whole new audience, he’s once again sharing top billing with Iron Fist in an ongoing series.
You know who liked Luke Cage before it was cool? Nicolas Cage. Born Nicolas Coppola, the Oscar-winning actor is a nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, but opted to use the surname of one of his favorite comic characters instead of his famous family moniker.