Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #8-9

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #8-9

Originally released in 1973

Written by Steve Englehart

Art by George Tuska

I chose this issue to find out the origin behind a panel that I was familiar with through memes, and was surprised when the first issue of the storyline had a content warning.  Older comics have had their issues with race and cultures, as I'm well aware - some stories set in Japan (during World War 2), China, or Vietnam (during the Cold War) could be so racist towards Asian cultures that some of them can't be published today.  However, I was hoping that a comic starring a black protagonist could avoid that.

Looking into it, it seems like the issue was that a minor character used a Yiddish term for black people that, seemingly unbeknownst to the writer, was considered a racial slur. (it wasn't intended that way going by context)  It's an important lesson to learn from this issue - languages can be tricky, and connotations can be difficult to pick up on if you don't speak the language.

The story itself starts off relatively straightforward - an anonymous man offers to pay Luke Cage $200 a day in order to track down some men who stole technology from their employer and fled to the Beford-Stuyvesant ghetto.  Tracking them down, he discovers that these men are actually robots, and he traces the phone number that he was given to discover that it belongs to an embassy.

The embassy turns out to be the Latverian embassy, which is run by someone who is determined to be the most dramatic person in any room that he is in...

This is seemingly Luke Cage's first encounter with the broader superhero world.  I'm not sure if the first seven issues weren't treated as though they were part of the broader Marvel universe, and once it was clear that they had a hit on their hands, Luke and his supporting cast were folded into the Marvel universe, or if someone like Spider-Man had appeared in an earlier issue.  Still, from Doom's comments, it seems like Luke had managed to avoid crossing paths with any of the known superheroes or supervillains until now.

It's interesting to see how these sorts of shared universes develop - the Eternals started out as being in its own universe, where gods and alien invasions were unheard of and characters like the Hulk were fictional, before they were eventually inserted into the main Marvel universe as though they were always there and just in hiding.  Likewise, characters like Shazam and Blue Beetle were originally in separate universes from the "main" DC universe (with the companies that DC bought out getting their own separate universes in DC's multiverse) before Crisis On Infinite Earths brought them together in the same universe.

Luke Cage finds the robots and destroys them, completing his job in a day because he may be a loose cannon, but he gets results.  However, when he returns to the Latverian embassy, he finds that Doctor Doom has left the country, seemingly without paying the bill. (I'm pretty sure it was later established that one of the embassy employees pocketed the money and claimed that Doom didn't pay it, since Doom's generally honourable enough to pay his debts)

The first issue, outside of the presence of robots, is relatively grounded.  It's the second issue where things get utterly ridiculous.  It opens with Luke Cage barging into the Baxter Building, beating up the Fantastic Four so he can get one of their rockets to go to Latveria (once they find out what he wants, they give it to him)

After crashing in Latveria, Luke Cage is chased by Doom's forces before being saved by a group of robots who are rebelling against Doom.  These robots are led by an alien known as the Faceless One - why this alien is leading a group of robots, or why it wants to overthrow Doom and take control of Latveria, is unclear, but Luke takes all of this in stride.

With the help of the robots, Luke makes his way to Doctor Doom's throne room, and I swear that the following panels are completely unedited. (unlike the panels that make their way around the internet with Moon Knight calling Dracula a nerd and demanding that Dracula pay him money)

This whole page is so absurd that it becomes hilarious.

And to cap it all off...

So to recap, Luke Cage broke into the Baxter Building in order to take one of their rockets, flew to Latveria, got involved in a revolution led by an alien, and beat up Doctor Doom, all over a matter of $200. Two hundred dollars in 1973 is roughly equivalent to $1450 now, but it still seems utterly insane, and it's great.  Luke even saves Doom from being assassinated - partially because he can't stand by and let someone be murdered, and partially because Doom still owes him $200.

Doom lets Luke leave the country, and the issue ends with Luke returning to the Baxter Building, leaving without telling the Fantastic Four what happened, much to Ben's annoyance.  With issue 8 starting with a warning about the content, I was concerned that there'd be overt racism involved in the writing, but thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. (though I'm not the most well-informed on the subject, so it's possible that I missed out on some of it)  Still, it's a learning experience about using material from other languages and cultures, and the risks that come with those decisions. (it's also an important lesson about paying people what you owe them)