Luke Cage,
Hero for Hire

5-16, 26

Luke Cage was created as Marvel's response to blaxploitation movies, but since his creator was the wonderful Archie Goodwin, he was far more than Marvelsploitation. I followed Archie and tried to maintain his standards - just as I did on VAMPIRELLA, THE HULK, and JUSTICE.

The original idea was that Luke had super-strength but would only used it for cash - a HERO FOR HIRE. It was a unique approach, but as soon as I left, the title was changed to POWERMAN.

The artist mostly closely associated with the book was Billy Graham. Billy didn't do all the pencils - George Tuska often filled in - but he usually did at least the inks, and he helped me plot, so that by the end it was pretty much a co-production.

The actor Nicholas Cage (né Coppola) took his stage name from this comic.

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Collection: contains 7I
ICollection: 14-16I
ICollection: includes 5-16, 26I

COMICS


NOTES:

6: Second half scripted by Gerry Conway.

8-9: The most infamous storyline. Cage is hired as a cat's-paw by Doctor Doom, who refuses to pay when Cage goes against his instructions. But Cage's street cred depends on never getting stiffed, so he follows the Doctor to Latveria. Their differing power levels and motivations made this a unique story (and too unique for some).

14-16: A nice little Englehart-Graham serial. Tony Isabella ended up writing the dialogue with Billy for the last half of it. (My credit's missing in #16.)

26: While doing the regular book I did a fill-in, which was used ten issues after I officially left.