Luke Cage

Seeing as the show just came out I thought it was appropriate to do another post about one of my personal favorite lesser known characters in the Marvel universe. Luke Cage better known as Power Man at the time first appeared in June 1972 in the comic Luke Cage#1 Hero for hire he became very popular early for being one the first black superheroes in mainstream comic books. Initially Luke Cage wasn't portrayed as a goody two shoe superhero because he was initially involved in gangs and some thought he was promoting racial stereotypes, eventually the outrage died down and Cage later gained popularity among young african american's.

Luke Cage was born in Harlem, New York where as a kid he and his friend Willis Stryker were part of a gang to meet ends meet. Eventually Cage got tired of being apart of gangs and running from the law and quit which did not sit well with his friend Stryker. Months later Cage was framed by his old friend Stryker who had planted drugs in his apartment and had him arrested by the police. Cage was taken to jail where he was offered to be in an experiment for less jail time. Cage took the offer seeing it has his only way out. Off course with this being a comic book something went wrong during the experiment and Cage gained superpowers like super strength and invulnerable skin. Cage used his new powers to escape prison and went into hiding until an old friend of his convinced him to use his powers to make money allowing him to become a hero for hire.

Photo courtesy of http://marvel.com