Luke Cage character breakdown!

Luke Cage:  Has become one of my favorite characters.  He debuted in 1972 in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire, but was retitled to Power Man for issue #17.  Luke was one of the first anti-heroes in the Marvel.  The first concept for Cage was as a super hero who would do good things only if he was paid for it.  The running gag became that he would be offered a certain amount of money for a heroic act, only to deny it for the sake of "justice being served".  He gained his popular in the 70's within the Blaxploitation genre of comics.  Once the popularity of the genre faded, Cage became unable to hold a solo series and was teamed with another hero in with a declining popularity genre, the master martial artist, Iron Fist.  The two would go on to team up for a decent run from 1978 to 1986.

The 90's would see an upgrade for Luke Cage along with a new solo series titled simply CAGE.  Gone was the old uniform of yellow shirt, metallic headband, dark pants, and the old Blaxploitation catch phrase "Sweet Christmas!”  Luke's popularity grew and he would go on to appear with and then lead such teams as The Thunderbolts and The New Avengers.  From there he would be handed the reigns of a brand new Avengers team from Captain America.

Luke Cage has maintained his "street level" reputation all while gaining more respect and quite a reputation within the superhero community.  What I like the most about the use of all these characters is that they all "grew up" together in the comic books.  Power Man and Iron Fist was one of the first comic books I ever read, he frequently teamed up with Daredevil even before they were both Avengers, AND he's married to Jessica Jones!

His powers include superhuman strength and stamina, as well as unbreakable skin.  He gained these abilities during an experiment in cellular regeneration, a second experiment would grant him the enhanced strength and stamina and a sped up healing factor.  Luke Cage is an exceptional street fighter and was a gifted athlete before receiving superhuman abilities. He has also studied martial arts under Iron Fist's instruction, learning how to couple leverage with his strength in order to increase his combat effectiveness against more powerful opponents.

Luke Cage will be played by Mike Colter.

Up next:  Iron Fist!