“Luke Cage: Hero For Hire” #1
(Marvel Comics, 1972)
Written by Archie Goodwin
Drawn by George Tuska
Greetings from the Wasteland!
I often think the greatest trick a comic writer can pull, aside from creating a new and exciting character, is to re-create an old character, make them viable in today’s market and more importantly, in their own comic universe. One such character is Luke Cage, Power Man.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that Cage hasn’t always been a presence in the Marvel U since his creation in the 70’s. He’s made appearances fighting alongside the Defenders and was even a member of the Fantastic Four while the Thing was momentarily in-between form, but aside from the stint with Iron Fist, with whom he is now inextricably tied, he was always a minor character. Then the Civil War struck the Marvel U. Everyone has their opinions on such world-changing arcs, and any lover of comics has their own ideas of how it should have turned out. But the fact remains that such arcs provide writers with the chance to expand and reanimate characters who were largely overlooked. Cage is a perfect example, and took a great leadership role with the New Avengers and has continued to be a major player, as well as a physical powerhouse, in the Marvel Universe.
But of course with every new interpretation, there is an opportunity to go back through the stacks and look at the origin story. I present Luke Cage: Hero For Hire #1, the origin story of our favorite chain-belted strongman.
“Lucas” is imprisoned in Seagate, a “mini Alcatraz”, framed by his best friend over a woman, and spends the first half of the book claiming his innocence and being beat by the prison guards. Especially one named, nicely enough, Quirt. He isolates himself, something common to the character until he later meets Danny Rand, and is selected by the prison doctor for an experimental treatment. He agrees to be a guinea pig in exchange for leniency with the parole board. The experiment is supposed to stimulate cell regeneration, and Lucas is locked into some sort of iron lung type contraption filled with liquid. As the process ramps up Quirt enters the room and pushes some buttons, spins a few dials, and the process goes farther than it was supposed to. Power Man is born and smashes his way out of the container. He realizes his own strength then and smashes his way out of prison, bent on revenge. At one point guards open fire on him and he realizes that his skin has become nearly invulnerable as well.
Once on the mainland, he slowly heads to New York, and almost accidentally stops a crime, for which he is rewarded. He takes the name Luke Cage, a tribute to his time in prison. The idea is born and he gets a costume, yellow, high-collared shirt and chain-belt, upside-down tiara thing, and foils crimes, leaving cards with “Luke Cage: Hero for Hire” on them. On the last page we see that the friend who framed him, Stryker, has also spent the intervening years busily, and has become the costumed criminal known as Diamondback.
The art is typical of the 70’s. Tuska was no dabbler. His credits include Captain Marvel, Crime Does Not Pay, and Iron Man. It looks like a 70’s book. The first page is a full illustration; Cage in the center surrounded by images of a policeman and a beautiful woman, a crime and cards and dice. It is taking the whole story and plotting it out in a single page, with the anguished hero at the center.
This comic is rife with racial stereotypes, especially in the dialogue. It reads like a combination of Good Times and Sanford and Son. Instead of delving into the meanings behind this I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that here we have a African-American ex-con being written by two white guys from the east coast. Could it be viewed as a redemptive story? Of course. Could it also be seen as racist? Certainly. But art is always in the eye of the beholder. I read it like a time capsule, knowing that it isn’t politically correct but loving it because it is the creation of a favorite character, no matter the stumbling way it may have been done.
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Follow Brad Gischia on Twitter: @comicwasteland
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