Luke Cage | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972) |
Created by | |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Lucas Cage (legally changed from Carl Lucas)[1][2] |
Species | Human mutate |
Team affiliations | |
Partnerships | |
Notable aliases | Power Man |
Abilities |
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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).
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.