Luke Cage

Lucas Cage, born Carl Lucas and also known as Power Man, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska, Roy Thomas, and John Romita Sr. in 1972, he was the first African-American superhero by Marvel Comics to be the main character in his own series. Stories featuring Luke Cage often relate to issues of race and class. His origin invokes criticism of police brutality and the prison system in the United States, and his 1970s stories focus on his efforts to support himself as a businessman. His creators were initially inspired by Blaxploitation cinema and subsequently by the Black Power movement. The character was intensely masculine and sexualized in his 20th century appearances, but these aspects were tempered as Cage's focus shifted to his life as a husband and father. Cage was introduced in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972). His series was renamed Power Man with issue #17 (1974) and then Power Man and Iron Fist with issue #50 (1978), when Iron Fist became his costar. The series ended after issue #125 (1986), and he then briefly starred in the series Cage (1992). The character was generally neglected and received little commercial success or broad popularity in the 1990s. However, writer Brian Michael Bendis redesigned Cage for Alias (2001), and the character then appeared in another series titled Cage (2002) under the Max imprint. In 2004, Bendis incorporated Cage into the Avengers. He wrote Cage as a main character in New Avengers (2004–2010), The Pulse (2004), The Mighty Avengers (2013–2015), and The Defenders (2017–2018). Other series featuring Luke Cage have been published, such as Luke Cage: Noir (2009), a new volume of Power Man and Iron Fist (2016), the comedic series CAGE! (2016), and Luke Cage: Gang...