Essential Luke Cage, Power Man, Vol. 1

Essential Luke Cage, Power Man #1

by Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart

Look out world, here he comes - Luke Cage, Hero for Hire - and bullets won't stop him The early adventures of comics' first and foremost black superstar of the seventies are collected for the first time in one volume as Power Man defends his home turf against the likes of Diamondback, Mace, Black Mariah, Dr. Doom, Senor Suerte, Chemistro, Lionfang, Steeplejack, Cottonmouth, and more Guest-starring the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Iron Man Collects Hero For Hire #1-#16 and Power Man #17-#27

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Fiction

544 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1975

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Sean Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Marvel's second black superhero is a far cry from the Black Panther, Luke Cage an ex con who received steel like skin and super strength in a medical experiment in prison, is a street wise dude,(yes some of the dialogue is pretty cringe worthy)who becomes 'hero for hire' amongst the night time denizons of mid 70's New York. It is rather good, there is good continuity between the stories and a nice cast of supporting characters which is the life abd soul of any good comic book.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this was very difficult to get through. To the point were I was nearly considering just giving up. I took it to read during my holiday but it couldn't keep my attention enough to keep reading, so I decided to just work through it in bits between other books.

It's better once it gets going. And my interest in it spiked again once I started watching the Netflix show. There's quite a bit of the early years that actually made it into the show. Mainly character names and types but not so much the designs.

[Rusty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was just about to post the same thing as the review before mine. This book is worth it just for the Dr. Doom story.

One of the greatest stories ever told.

Including The Bible.

Maybe better.

Probably better.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet Christmas!

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprints Hero for Hire #1-6 and Power Man #17-27. Luke Cage escapes prison after gaining bulletproof skin through an experiment and sets up a business to rent himself out as a hero. The whole "Hero for Hire" concept has never worked (which is brought up). Cage always seems to feel guilty and just does the hero thing regardless of what happens. The stories aren't bad but they get a little repetative.

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 15 issues or so really stand out. The art by George Tuska and Billy Graham ties the stories together. The storylines tie together in a a multi-issue epic called “Retribution.” Then things take a turn to the generic. A name change, writer change, Vince Colletta shows up as inker (which is never a good sign in the 70’s.) Things pick up in the next Essential volume.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet Christmas! The best black super-hero EVER.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great volume for nostalgia. The storytelling, however, often leaves something to be desired, and too many issues follow exactly the same dramatic arc.

In the 1970s, Marvel Comics introduced a number of black superheroes, such as The Falcon, Blade, Black Panther, and Brother Voodoo. Luke Cage, a.k.a. "Power Man," was perhaps the most obvious attempt to capitalize on the burgeoning blaxploitation wave in Hollywood. Created by a pair of white guys (Archie Goodwin and John Romita), Cage first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 eleven months after Shaft first appeared in theaters. Like John Shaft, who himself was created by a white writer, Luke Cage was a big, imposing black man who worked as a detective and general helper of the downtrodden. His powers were prosaic--super strength and indestructible skin--so the better stories in this volume are driven by gritty storylines and colorful Harlem villains with names like Cottonmouth, Diamondback, Señor Suerte, and Black Mariah, not universe-altering superheroics. The less-exciting stories are cookie cutter plots that could have featured any Marvel hero. (Interestingly, like Shaft, Luke Cage did not spend 24 hours a day in Harlem. Shaft's office was uptown, but he laid his head in Greenwich Village. Cage's adventures often took him to Harlem, but his office/home was above a grindhouse movie theater in Times Square.)

This volume collects the first 27 issues of Luke Cage's adventures, published from 1972 to 1975. Originally called Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, the name of the series changed to Luke Cage, Power Man with issue 17. This book is worth reading for comics fans, for historical value if nothing else.

[Lissibith · Rating 3 out of 5]

So if you're picking this book up nowadays hoping to encounter never-before-seen ideas and plots, you're going to be disappointed. As you might be able to guess from just how old the books in this collection are, you've seen most of this before by now. Even within the trade, you start to see the same storytelling notes coming up again and again, and at times you can skip entire issues and miss nothing of note.

But that being said, if you're in it for Luke Cage - as I was - this is a pretty fun volume. It especially seems to work when Cage is doing the stuff that he wants to do, following his own story arc rather than picking up the client of the week.

Though I was about at the point where if I saw one more fight in Cage's office that somehow didn't wreck the entire place I was just gonna be done. :)

[Eamonn Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sturdy book reprints, in dead black and white, issues #1 to 16 of Hero for Hire and 17 to 27 of Power Man. Although the title of this volume is 'Luke Cage- Power Man' our hero only took that name in issue #17 of the comic. Before that he was Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, which is better if you ask me. Being for hire and poor and black and an escaped convict is what makes him stand out from the crowd of middle-class suburban heroes like Spider-Man or rich, elitist ones like the Fantastic Four. Luke isn't a super scientist or a rich playboy, just a street smart dude who acquired some super strength and steel hard skin while being experimented on in prison. Obviously he was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted but he escaped when the opportunity came. This lack of faith in the judicial system would not go down well with Matt Murdock, Daredevil, but that's life.


Although he tangles with Doctor Doom at one point, amusing the evil King of Latveria by chasing him for a $200 dollar debt, Luke mostly deals with low life ghetto gangsters, as you would expect. These are: Diamond-Back, a knife throwing snake; Black Mariah, a sort of female Kingpin; Senor Muerte, an electrifying Hispanic gangster; Morgan, a black gangster who troubled Captain America and the Falcon, and Cotton-Mouth. There is also an ex-army nut called Mace trying to take over America and a few lesser oddball villains.


Every Marvel hero must have a private life and a love interest. Luke's friend is D.W. who runs the cinema over which he has his very basic office apartment and his love interest is Doctor Claire Temple who works in a charity clinic. Claire's boss is Doctor Noah Burstein who performed the experiments in prison that gave Luke his powers. Burstein's relationship with Cage is understandably strained.


The stories are by a variety of Marvel writers of the day. The series started strongly with Archie Goodwin and Steve Englehart then maybe dipped a bit in quality with Tony Isabella and Len Wein. George Tuska did a lot of the art, so no complaints there, inked by Billy Graham who also took over the pencils for a few issues. No complaints there either as Graham emulates Paul Gulacy nicely in one issue and Gene Colan pretty completely in another. A couple of later issues are pencilled by Ron Wilson, alas. Like Herb Trimpe, Wilson tries to emulate the power and glory of Jack Kirby's art with large, stocky figures filling the panels. It's not a bad look.

Hero for Hire/Power Man is not a first-rate Marvel title and lasted for fifty issues before being teamed up with Iron Fist in ‘Power Man and Iron Fist’. This book is essentially that, a good second rate superhero romp, enjoyable enough and good value for money too since it can be picked up second-hand for under ten pounds on the internet. A new copy is hard to get because, like many other Marvel Essential and DC Showcase tomes, it seems to have sold out at major online retailers. This is either a testament to their popularity or a sign of limited print runs.

[Jon B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I was reading this, I found my inner voice doing Luke Cage's words with a Mr. T accent on occasion...look, Luke Cage was a product of his time. Were his comics Blaxploitation? Yes, I think so, but Sweet Sister, when they were good, and when Billy Graham was involved in the artwork, they shined.

[Steven Heywood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical seventies mixed bag, a few "relevant" stories that look painfully hackneyed these days, a few fair ones and a lot that could have been written for nearly any of the Marvel comic stars of the time.

[MarieClaire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Offensive plots, costume, dialogue, violence against women....

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing earth-shaking other than he was a black superhero which was a big deal in the 1970s. Read it for the nostalgia and/or cheesy factor.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable! Great origin story, good supporting characters and I really liked the "Hero For Hire" premise.

[Ruddiyette Yisak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luke Cage is a superhero with grit and power! Though, I liked the way it began with a dramatic action scene, the plot did not engage me as much as it progressed.

[Tyler Marsolais · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much awesome ass kicking. Go Luke!

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

nothing like white people writing jive and Hispanic 70s lingo.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luke Cage. Originally just a Hero for Hire that became the “all-new, all-different” Power Man. First conceived and developed in the era that gave American popular culture the black-exploitation wave in cinema, Luke Cage was another attempt to cash in on the popular culture trend-of-the-day. This same mentality at Marvel also gave us the likes of Master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi, Iron Fist the Living Weapon and The Sons of the Tiger (although these were riding the similar popular culture wave of martial arts films). Luke Cage instead took to the streets and offered, in many ways, Marvel’s first attempt at tough-street-level action. There’s a lot of pandering to the expectations of blackploitation but Luke Cage still shines through as a remarkable and interesting character, with lots of potential. I do wish this volume had included Luke Cage’s appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #123 and his first meeting with the non-team from Defenders #17-19, just to round off his early appearances, but it’s nice to have these issues collected in one place.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't had this much fun reading '70s jive-fool smack talkin', bravado-tinged dialogue in ages. This title changed hands between all of the usual '70s workhorses, so for economy of space I'll let you surf the Internet if you're really dying to know who wrote or drew the issue (or you could click on the cover image, as most of the notables are listed there). I had never read this title but was always interested, and when I saw it in the $5 box at the Motor City Con in May I jumped at it.