374 LUKE CAGE
Movement. While fi ghting a super villain, Cage remarks, “Chalk it up to Black Power,
Man.” In the next panel he thinks to himself: “Black Power, Man? Power Man? Hey,
kind’a like the sound a that” (emphasis in original).
As of issue #50 Luke Cage, Power Man became Power Man and Iron Fist. Iron Fist
was Danny Rand, a wealthy Caucasian 1970s superhero inspired by kung fu fi lms. Th e
two work together as “Heroes for Hire” but most of their work is pro bono. Heroes for
Hire occupies an offi ce near Knightwing Restorations, Ltd., a detective agency founded
by African American female detective Misty Knight and Asian American female mar-
tial artist Colleen Wing. At the time, Iron Fist’s book had been cancelled, Luke Cage,
Power Man sales had declined, and Misty Knight and Colleen Wing had had appeared
in several martial arts themed titles. Combining characters from multiple books with
similar themes (in this case Blaxploitation, Detective, and Kung Fu) was an economic
and narrative decision. Th roughout its run, Power Man and Iron Fist painted an optimis-
tic picture of race and gender relations. Cage, Knight, Rand, and Wing were depicted as
confi dants, friends, professional peers and occasionally rivals. Knightwing Restorations,
Ltd. frequently partnered with Heroes for Hire. Rand and Knight became an inter-
racial couple. Th e last issue of Power Man and Iron Fist #125, published in 1986, ended
the series with Luke Cage framed for the apparent death of Iron Fist.
During the 1990s, Cage had a relatively low profi le, consisting of guest appearances
and two short-lived series. Costumes based on urban fashion replaced his disco inspired
attire. He was cleared of murder charges in Cage (1992–93) after it was revealed in
the pages of Namor (1990–95) that Iron Fist was alive. Cage and Iron Fist reunited in
Heroes for Hire (1997–99), this time as part of a larger team as opposed to a duo.
Cage’s next two notable appearances were the Cage miniseries (2001), written by
Brian Azzarello, and guest appearances in Alias (2001–4), written by Brian Michael
Bendis. Alias and Cage were part of Marvel’s Max line, a mature readers line featuring
extreme violence and sexual content. Th e Cage miniseries featured a Luke Cage mod-
eled after then hip-hop sensation Fifty Cent. At the time, hip-hop was identifi ed as cool,
urban, and “black” but with a cross-cultural appeal. Th e story opens with Cage in a strip
club sporting a goatee, jeans, vest (with no shirt underneath), sunglasses, gold chain,
and black skullcap. A woman approaches him to catch her daughter’s killers. What fol-
lows is a gritty urban tale in which a jaded Cage fi ghts crime bosses, corrupt cops, and
gang bangers for control of the streets. He later had multiple guest appearances in Alias,
a comic book featuring Jessica Jones, a white female former superhero turned private in-
vestigator. Cage and Jones’s fi rst appearance together is a drunken sexual encounter. In
the last issue of Alias, Jones tells Cage that she is pregnant with his baby. Cage asks her
if she wants to keep the child. Jones says “very, very, very much.” Cage smiles. He replies
in the last panel, “Alright then. New Chapter.”
Hip-hop garnered heavy criticism in the mid-1990s through the early-2000s for
depicting negative racial stereotypes, misogyny, materialism, and violence. As such, a
hip-hop-inspired Cage was subject to the same critiques. Still, this movement away
from Blaxploitation references in favor of hip-hop in the context of mature readers
