My Heroes: Sweet Christmas!

Here we are folks. I've officially been doing this for an entire year. Since I started with a My Heroes series of articles spotlighting black heroes, let's do that in honor of that first post from February 4th, 2012. As such, I'll be spotlighting Luke Cage, Hero for Hire.

The Yellow Unbuttoned Shirt of Justice!

The man formerly known as Carl Lucas started his superheroic origin that that most classic of heroic journey settings: a Georgia prison. Seagate Prison to be exact, where super scientist Dr. Noah Burstein gets Cage to volunteer for weird genetic experimentation. He agrees, and proceeds to be immersed in a large vat. A prison guard named Rackham (who blames Cage for getting him demoted) tries to kill our soon-to-be superhero by messing with the controls of the experiment thanks to Burstein forgetting that dangerous experiments being done on humans need to be, you know, carefully observed. Thankfully, the vat of chemicals grants Luke super strength and invulnerability, instead of killing him or turning him into the Joker.

It did give him a love of yellow, though

Using his powers to escape Seagate, Carl Lucas proceeded to do several things:

• Visit the grave of the woman he loved and swear to avenge her death at the hands of Diamond Back (his former partner in crime and reason for his imprisonment)
• Change his name to Luke Cage (he was going to go with Carl Coppola, but he changed his mind)
• Started up Hero For Hire because, well, he was broke and really couldn't get a job since he was a prison escapee
• And have a terrible taste in costumes. 

"Hokey", isn't even the half of it, Carl.

And so Luke Cage (aka Power Man) was born! Starting a new life which would lead him to  a life of adventure, a bromance with Danny Rand, marriage to Jessica Drew, having a kid and joining the Avengers. That's pretty impressive for a punk kid from Harlem.

I was first introduced to Luke Cage thanks to my obsession with toys. Specifically, the Marvel Legends series, which Cage was in the "Mojo Series" wave of. I still own the reprint of issue one that came with the figure. From that I could ascertain two things:

1. Luke had a massive chip on his shoulder. His anger is reasonable, but he sometimes can read as a man with severe rage issues. Or a stereotypical angry black man. Which leads me to...
2. Cage (as a concept, anyway) was obviously born of a desire to cash in on the blacksploitation craze of the '70's. Strangely fitting then, that he and Iron Fist would become best friends (Danny himself being a blatant cash in on the Kung Fu craze of the same decade.

Above all else, I'd like to think of Cage as the working man's superhero. Neither super soldier, super scientist nor billionaire genius playboy,  Luke came from humble beginning to becoming a premiere superhero in the Marvel Universe. He's a cynical guy to be sure, but never the less a man who's loyal to anyone he would willingly call his friends. To his enemies, he's a formidable opponent and a man willing to whup your ass ten ways from Sunday. And for all the jokes I can make about his seventies togs, I kind of like his hokey costume. It's more memorable than the street clothes he prefers in the modern era. So take a bow Carl Lucas. You've earned it.