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Marvel Masterworks: Luke Cage #3
Marvel Masterworks: Luke Cage, Power Man, Vol. 3
Luke Cage defends the streets of New York City and even takes the fight to the outer boroughs in this Marvel Masterworks volume completing his solo adventures. Hell face menaces as tough as Moses Magnum, as bizarre as the Mace and as infuriating as the Gem Theaters always unpredictable vending machine. Its all set against the gritty streets of 1970s Times Square, a location as colourful as anything any of Marvels minds have ever conjured up. Cage will also face an all-new and amped-up Chemistro; the Spear, who seeks to settle a score with the man who made Luke Cage bulletproof; and an adversary as unstoppable as death itself: the IRS. Collecting: Power Man (1974) 32-47, Annual (1976) 1
308 pages, Hardcover
First published February 13, 2019
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About the author
Marv Wolfman
2,307 books306 followersMarvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 7, 2019
While there are some moments of greatness in this collection (and the first meeting of Power Man and Iron Fist is unmissable) it suffers badly from the creative team changing every couple of issues. Marvel really didn’t know what to do with this title.
April 18, 2024
Power Man #32 - Frank Robbins has never been a favorite of mine, but his art doesn’t taken anything away from the story from Don MacGregor on just how ugly racism came get in the story from which this volume gets its title.
Power Man #33-35 - These next few issues from McGregor and Robbins, with some last minute assists from Marv Wolfman and Marie Severin on the final chapter, are a memorable epic that puts Cage against a pair of brothers who are out to get revenge on one of Cage’s friends. It also picks up some threads left dangling from #32 and illustrates the ramifications of the collateral damage that superhero fights in NYC invariably cause. A hard hitting story that is weakened by silly art. The final issue by Severin does a lot to make up for much of the early chapters, but it can only do so much.
Power Man Annual #1 - Chris Claremont, Lee Elias and Dave Hunt serve up this epic from Luke Cage’s first (and only) double-sized Annual. This case take sour Hero For Hire to Japan in a sequel to the events from Giant-Size Spider-Man #4. It’s pretty good, although it feels very cliché for Claremont, but it didn’t seem that way back at the time it first came out.
Power Man #36 is not included as it reprints the story from Hero for Hire #12 (see Luke Cage Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Retribution for that particular issue).
Power Man #37-40 - Another typical Power Man story from this era. Dumb villains, doing dumb things, for dumb reasons. Just dumb. Wolfman, with some scripting help from Bill Mantlo, gives us a story that meanders nonsensically in one direction and then in another. It’s centered around two rival crime bosses vying for control of Manhattan, except neither is at all believable or effective and the whole story ignores the presence of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. So it just feels contrived and silly. Art is serviceably delivered by Ron Wilson, Bob Brown and Elias (who’ll thankfully be sticking around until #46). Not the worst Power Man story arc, but certainly not the best either.
Power Man #41-46 - Wolfman and Elias keep this six-issue arc moving pretty quickly. And there’s a lot happening. Similar to previous four-issue arc, we have Luke facing off against a series of evolving threats. Opening the sequence is Goldbug trying to steal a shipment of gold, this is hampered by the presence of Thunderbolt who eventually gets through to Luke that he’s just rating to help him and not help Goldbug. This leads into Luke deciding to leave town, heading for Chicago, to escape the IRS. But on the way he finds himself entangled with the return of Gideon Mace and his threat to blow up Chicago with a cobalt bomb. It wraps up in wild search through the city for the bomb as Luke runs back and forth into and out of people’s lives saving those he can. It’s a pretty thin wrap up for what is otherwise a pretty good yarn.
Power Man #47 - This one wraps up Luke’s adventures in Chicago, and it’s by Claremont and Tuska. Here the Hulk villain, Zzzax, is on hand to give Luke a really rough time of it. Not one of Power Man’s better adventures.
Power Man #33-35 - These next few issues from McGregor and Robbins, with some last minute assists from Marv Wolfman and Marie Severin on the final chapter, are a memorable epic that puts Cage against a pair of brothers who are out to get revenge on one of Cage’s friends. It also picks up some threads left dangling from #32 and illustrates the ramifications of the collateral damage that superhero fights in NYC invariably cause. A hard hitting story that is weakened by silly art. The final issue by Severin does a lot to make up for much of the early chapters, but it can only do so much.
Power Man Annual #1 - Chris Claremont, Lee Elias and Dave Hunt serve up this epic from Luke Cage’s first (and only) double-sized Annual. This case take sour Hero For Hire to Japan in a sequel to the events from Giant-Size Spider-Man #4. It’s pretty good, although it feels very cliché for Claremont, but it didn’t seem that way back at the time it first came out.
Power Man #36 is not included as it reprints the story from Hero for Hire #12 (see Luke Cage Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Retribution for that particular issue).
Power Man #37-40 - Another typical Power Man story from this era. Dumb villains, doing dumb things, for dumb reasons. Just dumb. Wolfman, with some scripting help from Bill Mantlo, gives us a story that meanders nonsensically in one direction and then in another. It’s centered around two rival crime bosses vying for control of Manhattan, except neither is at all believable or effective and the whole story ignores the presence of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. So it just feels contrived and silly. Art is serviceably delivered by Ron Wilson, Bob Brown and Elias (who’ll thankfully be sticking around until #46). Not the worst Power Man story arc, but certainly not the best either.
Power Man #41-46 - Wolfman and Elias keep this six-issue arc moving pretty quickly. And there’s a lot happening. Similar to previous four-issue arc, we have Luke facing off against a series of evolving threats. Opening the sequence is Goldbug trying to steal a shipment of gold, this is hampered by the presence of Thunderbolt who eventually gets through to Luke that he’s just rating to help him and not help Goldbug. This leads into Luke deciding to leave town, heading for Chicago, to escape the IRS. But on the way he finds himself entangled with the return of Gideon Mace and his threat to blow up Chicago with a cobalt bomb. It wraps up in wild search through the city for the bomb as Luke runs back and forth into and out of people’s lives saving those he can. It’s a pretty thin wrap up for what is otherwise a pretty good yarn.
Power Man #47 - This one wraps up Luke’s adventures in Chicago, and it’s by Claremont and Tuska. Here the Hulk villain, Zzzax, is on hand to give Luke a really rough time of it. Not one of Power Man’s better adventures.
June 14, 2022
Again, A bit dated and Luke Cage has changed in the newer comics, but still some great storytelling and great villains.
August 8, 2020
Really liked this volume a lot more than the last for a few reasons. First, we have some really great art by Frank Robbins, Ron Wilson, and Lee Elias. After the initial three issues written by Don McGregor there is a slight dip in the writing. Too many situations where Luke Cage gets himself into trouble with some villain and then does the exact same thing again (because he never quits) and then gets captured again by the same bad guy. His solution to most things is hit the other guy even harder until he succeeds. To me, this makes some of the situations feel redundant. But it does pick up with Luke falling out of an airplane and surviving by sliding down the side of a mountain, escaping quicksand by smashing through a subway tunnel, and bungling every job he gets hired for. I mean, seriously, he can't even use a soda machine correctly. He's kinda sad, but in a fun way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews