The long-awaited omnibus of Luke Cage’s original adventures (known as Power Man back then) arrives on June 1 to give fans new and old a look at the first African-American super hero to headline in his own series.
The Luke Cage Omnibus collects Cage’s superhero crossed with blaxploitation film hero aesthetic, detailing his origin and first appearances of Cottonmouth, Diamond Back, Claire Temple, and Bill Foster as Giant-Man.
Cage’s rogues gallery from the early days is just as wild as you would expect (even giving Shang-Chi: The Master of Kung-Fu a run for his money) with villains such as Gideon Mace, the Phantom of 42nd Street, Black Mariah, Senor Muerte, Chemistro, Lion-Fang, Big Ben, SteepleJack, Stilleto, X, Cockroach Hamilton, Mr. Fish, Piranha Jones, Spear, Wildfire, Thunderbolt, and Goldbug. Cage also finds time to battle Doctor Doom, the Circus of Crime, Zzzax, and the original Avengers villain Power Man for the rights to the name.
The omnibus collects Luke Cage #1-47 and Luke Cage Annual #1. The sub-title would change from “Hero for Hire” to “Powerman’ starting with 1974’s issue #17 and the collection ends right before Danny Rand and Cage would form one of the most famous duos in Marvel Comics history (and hopefully we will see the first Power Man and Iron Fist omnibus edition soon).
Bronze Age stalwarts such as Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Tony Isabella, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, Don McGregor, Frank Robbins, Marv Wolfman, Roger Slifer, and Chris Claremont, George Tuska, Ron Wilson, George Perez, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema, Bob Brown, Lee Elias, Billy Graham, Paul Reinman, Frank McLaughlin, Vince Colletta, Dave Hunt, Fred Kida, Al McWilliams, Arv Jones, Keith Pollard, Frank Springer, A. Bradford, Jim Mooney, Klaus Janson, Frank Giacoia, Tom Palmer, Alex Nino, and Bob Smith provide the scripts and art for this classic collection.
The Luke Cage Omnibus arrives with a suggested retail price of $125.00 for 1008 pages of punk-slapping action.
The omnibus is also available with a new cover by Phil Noto or the direct market variant cover by John Romita Sr. (which also graced the very first issue of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire back in 1972). Check out both covers below and keep checking back with Conskipper for all of your classic comic news.
