This entry was posted on 7/4/2006 10:54 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
7/5/06: Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #9 (May, 1973) Okay, we get it. Superman no longer represents the American way. Neither does Hollywood. We’ll honor a truly American comic-book movie next week. For now, though, let’s honor a comic book.
There’s
a detailed history of Luke Cage at the Marvel Comics site. All you really need to know is that Marvel wanted in on some
Shaft revenue back in 1972.
Luke Cage, Hero For Hire would continue the fine tradition of conservative thought in blaxploitation, starting with how good capitalist Cage uses his steel-hard skin for gainful employment as a bodyguard/detective/whatever.
That brings us to
Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #9. In the previous issue, Cage had been hired to track down men who turned out to be killer androids. It wasn’t until the final pages that we discovered Cage’s employer was
Fantastic Four nemesis Dr. Doom.
Cage then learned the depth of Doom’s villainy when his client skipped town without paying the bill.
The next issue opens with Cage fighting the Fantastic Four. With typical comic-book logic, he barges into the FF’s headquarters without making an appointment. Cage eventually explains that he needs to get to Doom’s homeland of Latveria. Naturally, Reed Richards loans Cage a rocket ship programmed to land outside of Doom’s castle. Richards says it’s because he admires Cage’s honesty, but he probably just likes the idea of screwing up Doom’s day.
Cage arrives in Latveria just in time to get caught up in a rebellion where more androids—backed by a scheming alien—are trying to depose Dr. Doom. All this intrigue kills a few pages and allows Cage to sneak into Doom’s castle. Then we get the classic scene where Cage finds Doom in his inner sanctum and demands, “Where’s my money, honey?”
It takes a while, but Cage gets paid. Doom refers to it as a “paltry $200,” but that’s what we expect from a dictator. Cage then sneaks out the back of the castle while the androids and Doom continue to do battle. “S’pose I should care about what’s goin’ down back there,” muses Cage, “but after both sides tried to lay me out, I couldn’t hustle up the energy.”
And that, folks, is a true hero. Don’t think of Cage as an anti-interventionist. Just think of him as a believer in truth, justice, and the American payday.
Make it your own: It’s easy to get cheap old copies of
Hero For Hire, but the best work—including issue #9—is anthologized in Vol. 1 of
The Essential Luke Cage, Power Man. (Cage became “Power Man” after stunts like Doom’s appearance couldn’t convince the kids that Cage was a real superhero.) Don’t bother with Marvel’s later attempts to reinvent Cage. They even replaced his metal headband with a doo-rag.
