Luke Cage

Luke Cage
File:Luke Cage1.jpg Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #1
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972)
Created by	Archie Goodwin George Tuska
In-story information
Alter ego	Carl Lucas
Team affiliations	New Avengers, Heroes for Hire, Fantastic Four, The Defenders
Notable aliases	Power Man
Abilities	Superhuman strength and endurance, unbreakable skin

Luke Cage, a.k.a. Power Man (birth name Carl Lucas), is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He was the first African-American character to receive his own comic book series, which was Marvel's entry into the 1970s blaxploitation trend. He first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972).

Character history

Luke Cage was a street tough who was framed and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. While in prison, he was given the opportunity to undergo dangerous scientific experiments that would, if successful, grant him superhuman strength and endurance. He accepted, broke out of jail, and cleared his name. He then started a mercenary business of sorts, where he would do good deeds for others for a small fee. Cage was a typical superhero who displayed many qualities bordering on minstrel-esque; one particular characteristic of Cage's that remains infamous is his catchphrase, "Sweet Christmas!"

Hero for Hire later changed its name to Power Man, with Cage adopting that name. Later, the series was suffering from low sales and merged with the equally low-selling series, Iron Fist, in which Cage and Iron Fist teamed up and founded a new Heroes for Hire agency. The merged series, Power Man and Iron Fist, retained Power Man's numbering, and lasted from #66 to #125, when it and several other low-selling comics were cancelled to make way for Marvel's "New Universe" line of comics. Power Man and Iron Fist also featured the first time Cage was written by a black writer, Jim Owsley.

Cage returned in the comic book industry's "boom period" in the early 1990s, when he starred in the short-lived series Cage, and later resurfaced as one of the principal players of the new Heroes for Hire series; a later Cage revival in 2001 featured a controversial "mature readers" version of Cage under Marvel's MAX imprint, in which Cage displayed a thuggish persona that many fans considered stereotyped and possibly racist.

Cage was then revitalized by writer Brian Michael Bendis, who made Cage a major supporting character in the Marvel MAX series Alias, and is a member of the cast of the new series The Pulse, both of which feature retired superheroine Jessica Jones, now pregnant with Cage's child.

Luke Cage recently joined the Avengers. His team-mates include Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), the Sentry, and a mysterious new character named Ronin.

A different version of Luke Cage appears in the Ultimate Marvel universe as a member of the Defenders. In this universe, the Defenders consist of several people who want to be superheroes but have no useful superpowers. This version of Cage does not possess superhuman strength or any other apparent powers. He also has a different personality than the canonical Cage.

Powers and abilities

Luke Cage possesses superhuman strength, endurance, and resistance to injury as a result of his participation in dangerous, and highly controversial, experiments while in prison. In the begining, Luke Cage had sufficient strength to lift (press) 3 tons over his head. His power has seemingly increased since then, possibly in the 25-ton range. The experiment also fortified Cage's cellular structure and grants him extremely dense, and durable, skin, bone and muscle tissue. The same procedure has caused his injuries to heal at 1/3 the time it would take an ordinary human.

Luke Cage is an exceptional street fighter and was a gifted athlete before he became superhumanly endowed.

Trivia

• American actor Nicolas Cage, born Nicholas Coppola, took his stage name from Power Man in order to prevent being immediately associated with his famous uncle, Francis Ford Coppola.
• American metal band Powerman 5000 takes its name from Power Man.
• Marvel is expected to release a movie about Power Man in 2006 with Jamie Foxx as the title character.