That's would be so cool and I would be very much interested in what you have to say about Daniel Rand and Luke Cage - they are some of my favorite Marvel Characters and Hero for Hire is one of my favorite titles too.

Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1, published in June of 1972 at a flat cover price of 20 cents


Summary: The story opens rather ominously on a seafront correctional facility called "Seagate", lovingly referred to as "Little Alcatraz" by it's inmates. What's more is that, like every other prison-style "road to redemption" film of the time, the guards are incredibly corrupt and often let out their frustrations on inmates; none moreso than Lucas, a man who was wrongly framed for the murder of the woman he loved. While prison often drains what little humanity is left in the monster, Lucas stays strong, even when the odds are completely against him. This all changes when the new Warden arrives and decides that the current crop of guards must go, even letting Lucas have his way with one of them in "The Hole" before he says good-bye.

Lucas is later approached by a correctional physician and given the chance for a possible parole if he willingly volunteers for an experiment that could be a great benefit to the country. However, in the process, one of the guards gets his revenge on Lucas by sabotaging the experiment. Somehow, Lucas survives and beats the guard to a pulp before using his new super-human abilities to escape. Now on the outside and believed dead as he attempted to flea from Seagate, he tries to resume a normal life the best that he can until he crosses paths with a would be crook and stops him. The store owner is elated and proceeds to offer Lucas some reward money, which he then uses to promote himself and his new business venture as the titular "Hero For Hire"

Closing Thoughts: Decent first issue, but nothing entirely too special. Mostly just lays the groundwork for Lucas and his former friend turned mafia goon Will Stryker. There were some obviousl parallels between Lucas and another by-product of experimentation, Steve Rogers, that I found interesting. IDK, we'll just have to see where this goes. Not to sound harsh, but the cover is probably more intriguing than the actual story itself

Rating: 3.5/5

I love origin stories. They're very often the most interesting part in super-hero movies, and it's also the case for many comics!

Both of these comics were pretty good in all their '70s zaniness!

Thank you. I owned a hand-me down copy of Power Man & Iron Fist #73 growing up and I've always been in love with those characters. Over time I've grown up and matured slightly, and since most of my literary work is influenced by bits and pieces of that chaotic mess of a  world that Danny and Luke inhabit, I thought I owed it to myself to try and rediscover them in an entirely new light

Agreed

I'm not entirely clear on it either. Danny was apparently in Deadly Hands Of Kung-Fu, but nothing was obviously cannon (or it was just straight up reprints) or they would have collected it somewhere. IDK, I've never been particularly interested in Shang-Chi as a character, so I really never bothered to read it

To quote "Nature Boy" Ric Flair of all people, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man" , which I interpret as "To take down something, you have to become it if you hope to ever beat it at it's own game"

Second person narration is always kind of weird and jarring to read, which is probably why it isn't used all that often, let alone in comics

Shang-Chi appeared a little earlier than Iron Fist : Special Marvel Edition #15, December 1973, vs Marvel Premiere #15, May 1974. Both were riding the Kung Fu craze of the '70s.

I discovered Iron Fist much later than Shang-Chi, and my first impression was that marvel wanted to develop a Kung Fu-type character that would be more super-heroicky. (Iron Fist and his cast of characters being owned entirely by Marvel might have helped too). Chi certainly sounded more authentic, what with his more mundane adversaries and his wearing pyjamas instead of a costume with a mask.