Luke Cage
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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 mainstream African-American character to receive his own comic book series (the honor of being first goes to Dell Comics' Lobo), which was Marvel's entry into the 1970s blaxploitation trend. He first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972).
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History
Image:Luke Cage1.jpg Carl Lucas was a street tough who was framed and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. While in prison, he was routinely abused and humiliated by a racist guard named, Rackham. After some years in prison, Lucas was approached by Dr. Noah Bernstein and given the opportunity to undergo a dangerous scientific experiment that would, if successful, make him immune to disease and give him some regeneration ability. He accepted but, the experiment was sabotaged by the newly fired Rackham. The tank holding Lucas exploded and the side effects of this mishap caused him to gain superstrength and "steelhard skin". With his new found powers, he escaped. After receiving a cash reward for stopping a robbery at a diner, he was inspired to start a mercenary business of sorts, where he would do good deeds for others for a small fee. Now calling himself "Luke Cage" he set up his "Hero for Hire" business out of the old Gem theater in Times Square. Cage would later clear his name of all criminal charges and make the name "Luke Cage" his legal name ,although, some close friends still call him, Lucas. 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 #50 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 (now known as Christopher Priest), starting from issue #111 (November 1984).
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 revival in the form of a miniseries also called Cage, written by Brian Azzarello 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 brought back from obscurity by writer Brian Michael Bendis, who made Cage a major supporting character in the Marvel MAX series Alias, and then a cast member of the new series The Pulse, both of which feature retired superheroine Jessica Jones, now pregnant with Cage's child. More recently he was present at the breakout at the supervillain prison 'The Raft', and became a founding member of the relaunched Avengers under Bendis' pen.
Ultimate Marvel
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, and his power has seemingly increased by an order of magnitude since his original transformation. Cage could originally lift about 3 tons but, over the years (and due to several more experiments on him) his strength has increased to the 25 ton range.
This same experiment has fortified the various tissues of Cage's body, granting him a high degree of resistance to injury. Cage's skin is harder than titanium and can resist high caliber bullets, puncture wounds, corrosives, and extreme temperatures and pressures without sustaining damage. Even though Cage is practically invulnerable to conventional weaponry, it is possible to injure him with a high powered medical laser or adamantium weapons. The same experiment that granted him his great strength and durability, has also slightly increased his ability to heal. As a side-effect of the fortified tissue of his body, the density of that tissue is greater than an ordinary human.
Luke Cage is an exceptional street fighter and was a gifted athlete before he became superhumanly endowed. He is also an experienced detective and can speak several languages.
Trivia
- American actor Nicolas Cage, born Nicholas Coppola, took his stage name from Luke Cage in order to prevent being immediately associated with his famous movie director uncle, Francis Ford Coppola.
- American metal band Powerman 5000 takes its name from Power Man.
- Marvel is expected to release the Luke Cage movie in 2006 with Tyrese Gibson as the title character.
External links
- MDP: Luke Cage - Marvel Database Project
- Moon Stomper: Powermanfr:Power Man