Stories featuring Luke Cage often relate to issues of race and class. His origin invokes criticism of police brutality and the prison system in the United States, and his s stories focus on his efforts to support himself as a businessman. His creators were initially inspired by Blaxploitation cinema and subsequently by the Black Power movement.
The character was intensely masculine and sexualized in his 20th century appearances, but these aspects were tempered as Cage's focus shifted to his life as a husband and father.
Cage was introduced in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire 1 June ; he was the first Black superhero to star in his own regular title. The series ended after issue , and he then briefly starred in the miniseries Cage The character was generally neglected and received little commercial sucess or broad popularity in the s.
However, writer Brian Michael Bendis redesigned Cage for Alias , and the character then appeared in another series titled Cage under the Max imprint. In , Bendis incorporated Cage into the Avengers. Carl Lucas gained superhuman strength and unbreakable skin after being the subject of an experiment while in prison. Having been falsely imprisoned, he uses his powers to escape and starts a business as the Hero for Hire under the name Luke Cage. He then teams up with Iron Fist and clears his name.
Cage runs in the New York mayoral election against Wilson Fisk and is elected mayor. His archenemy is Diamondback , a career criminal and Cage's friend-turned-enemy who caused him to be wrongfully arrested. When developing Cage's abilities, Thomas was inspired by the novel Gladiator In the novel, the character Hugo Danner discovers he is bulletproof after examining where he is struck by machine gun fire during World War I.
