Luke Cage

Luke Cage
Luke Cage as depicted in New Avengers vol. 2 #1 (June 2010).
Art by Stuart Immonen.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceLuke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972)
Created by
In-story information
Alter egoLucas Cage (legally changed from Carl Lucas)[1][2]
SpeciesHuman mutate
Team affiliations
Partnerships
Notable aliasesPower Man
Abilities
  • Superhuman strength, stamina, and durability
  • Regenerative healing factor
  • Nigh-invulnerability
  • Skilled hand-to-hand combatant

Lucas "Luke" Cage, born Carl Lucas and also known as Power Man, is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska, Roy Thomas, and John Romita Sr., the character first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972).[3] He is one of the earliest black superheroes to be featured as the protagonist and title character of a Marvel comic book.[4]

Created during the height of the blaxploitation genre, Luke Cage had been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and gained the powers of superhuman strength and unbreakable skin after being subjected voluntarily to an experimental procedure. Once freed, he becomes a "hero for hire" and has forty-nine issues of solo adventures (comic title renamed to Luke Cage, Power Man with issue #17). In issue #50, Cage teams up with fellow superhero Iron Fist as part of a crime-fighting duo in the renamed title Power Man and Iron Fist. He later marries the super-powered private investigator Jessica Jones, with whom he has a daughter. In 2005, writer Brian Michael Bendis added Luke Cage to the lineup of the New Avengers, and he has since appeared in various Avengers titles, becoming leader of a group of reformed supervillains called the Thunderbolts, and eventually becoming the Mayor of New York City at the conclusion of the 2021–2022 crossover event "Devil's Reign", succeeding the Kingpin.

The character has been substantially adapted from the comics into various forms of media. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Mike Colter portrayed the character in the Netflix television series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), Luke Cage (2016–2018), and The Defenders (2017).

  1. ^ Power Man #50
  2. ^ Marvel Legacy: The 1970s Handbook
  3. ^ Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972) at the Grand Comics Database. Retrieved on February 14, 2018. "Out of Hell -- A Hero! / Luke Cage / comic story / 23 pages / Script: Roy Thomas; John Romita; Archie Goodwin."
  4. ^ Child, Ben (September 30, 2016). "A bulletproof black man: Luke Cage is the superhero America needs now". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on September 30, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2016. He was the first black superhero to get his own comic book. Now, Luke Cage is the first black superhero with his own TV show.

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