OLD COMICS WEDNESDAY: LUKE CAGE & THE DEFENDERS!
The world of Marvel's live-action Netflix universe gets a little bit more complete this week with the premiere of Luke Cage - September 30th! The bulletproof Power Man will bring Netflix one step closer to their city ensemble, venturing into a world already populated by Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, Elektra, Kingpin, Purple Man and more!

Throughout September we've been featuring Luke Cage in Friday Night Fights, and this Old Comics Wednesday we're casting an even wider net to get ready for what's ahead! Iron Fist is the next Netflix series to look out for in 2017, before the heroes converge in The Defenders!

By hitting the covers below you'll be transported to a variety of classic featured fights starring the heroes and villains of Netflix! If you want even more, you can follow links in each throwback - or dive into the Issue Index for a complete catalogue! We've got one more Luke Cage spotlight left in September - be here to witness as the Hero for Hire becomes the ultimate Avengers villain!

HERO OF THE WEEK: GENERAL ZOD (DC)
Real Name: Dru-Zod
First Appearance: Adventure Comics #283 (April, 1961)
Fight Club Ranking: #189

Featured Fights:
- vs SUPERMAN: Action Comics #846 (Feb 2007)

In recent weeks we've been talking about additions [Ghost Rider] and subtractions [Hawkman] made to the major comic book universes. Today's Hero of the Week comes with a little bit of both: General Zod making an ominous return to the DC Universe in the pages of Suicide Squad #2!

Comic Book Resources reported on the return a couple of weeks back, breaking their story into two major headlines. The first was simply Zod's return from The Phantom Zone. Surprising -- only in the sense that you don't usually expect to see a major Superman villain make a return in Suicide Squad!

It strikes me as a premise that sits quite well with the Hollywood conscious Squad, whose film incarnation was formed to counter the threat of a rogue Superman. General Zod certainly fits that bill quite well, both as a similarly powered Kryptonian with destructive urges -- and as a character whose most convincing history comes from cinema, not comics.

For many, Terrence Stamp's commanding presence in 1980 sequel Superman II is the definitive vision of General Zod. 2013's Man of Steel suffered for the choice to repeat the villain in the first DC Extended Universe film, played unenviably to conclusion by a committed Michael Shannon.

Comics have struggled to match the charisma of Stamp's performance, too. Attempts to make something significant of Zod have gone wrong with overwrought stories about a New Krypton, or the invention of similarly named facsimiles hailing from Russia and other misguided sources.  Bizarre and confounding errors for what amounts to a fairly straight forward idea: An evil Superman!

The appetite for "Evil Superman" stories is always there. It's the schoolyard question of who would win in a fight -- minus the tether of knowing that Superman will never callously fling his opponent into the sun.

That intrigue has fuelled a heckuva lot of awkward, lazy attempts to reenergize Superman in a mainstream context. The ill fated New 52 Superman spent as much time causing problems as he did fighting them - even becoming Doomsday! Other parallel versions, like the evil Regime Superman found in Injustice: Gods Among Us, go a long way to showing just how unsatisfying the concept is when the sole goal is to make Superman the bad guy. Unconvincing and shallow, it rings false and quickly becomes uninteresting.

General Zod is an evil version of Superman you can get behind! He's the militant sun-powered menace who would create an army to forge a Regime of power through conquest! He scratches a completely different itch than Bizarro, but has more star power and untapped potential than other equivalents. Ergo, Zod sounds like a terrific addition to the on-going saga of the DCU to me!

Which makes what happened in the second big story of Suicide Squad #2 a little disappointing...

Zod's arrival comes with the apparent incineration of Captain Boomerang, leaving only a pair of smouldering boots after a blast of heat vision.

Honestly, I find it difficult to believe there isn't some sort of twist coming to explain the 'shock' moment away. I wouldn't be all together surprised to learn the good Captain is perfectly fine in the next issue. It's just not a good time for these types of fake-outs - and an even worse time for a genuine, frivolous extermination! He was our Hero of the Week only a month ago!

With any luck it'll all work out in the end, but I'd really love to see DC Comics retiring these kinds of cheap tricks. We discussed the diminishing returns of cheapening death in our Hawkman HOTW. The message of today's entry, and last week's, is the joy of accumulating strong characters into the living, breathing superhero universe. Here's hoping General Zod can exceed all expectations, instead of living down to ultimately meaningless sound and fury.

<< Hero of the Week 10/03: Luke Cage      [Home]      Hero of the Week 09/19: Ghost Rider >>

PURPLE MAN versus LUKE CAGE

Breakout! Part Three (Marvel)
Where: New Avengers #3 When: March 2005
Why: Brian Michael Bendis How: David Finch

The Story So Far...
When the mental state of Scarlet Witch began to deteriorate, the ensuing chaos ripped the Avengers apart from the inside out! In the wake of their worst defeat ever, Earth's mightiest heroes disassembled - leaving a hole in the heroic fabric that keeps villainy at bay.

When Electro is hired to stage a breakout at the high-tech SHIELD prison, The Raft, he plunges the city of Manhattan into darkness and frees eighty-seven of the most dangerous super-criminals held under lock and key on the island!

Fate conspires to bring together a new team of Avengers to thwart the breakout! Former Spider-Woman Jessica Drew is on the island as an Agent of SHIELD, while Luke Cage was accompanying Daredevil in his civilian identity of blind lawyer Matt Murdock.

When the breakout begins, the trio leaps into a fight for their lives! Joined by Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-man - the heroes begin to turn the tide against the escaping horde! One villain stands calmly among the rest, though, and he's about to use his powers of manipulation to turn Luke Cage against them all! Beware The Purple Man!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Luke Cage 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Purple Man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Luke Cage 2 (Average)
Stamina: Luke Cage 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Luke Cage 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Draw 1 (None)


It's not often Luke Cage is an underdog in a battle of wills, but when his enemy is attacking his very senses -- bulletproof skin can't help him!

Zebediah Killgrave is the villain known as the Purple Man: A Croatian spy accidentally exposed to a compound that turned his skin purple, and granted him the ability to emit a strange pheromone.

The Purple Man's intangible chemical secretion gives him total influence over a human subject - forcing them to obey his every command! So potent is the pheromone, and Killgrave's control over it, that he can target an individual in a crowd -- or marshal complete control over the entire mob!

Among Killgrave's grandest stunts: Subtly influencing most of the population of Manhattan in a plot involving X-Man. Uniquely strong-willed individuals have been shown to resist his influence, such as Dr. Doom and arch-nemesis Daredevil. The ion-powered Wonder Man was also immune to his pheromones.

Purple Man's most infamous and heinous deed was maintaining domination over the young heroine Jewel. He forced to live a degrading nightmare as his personal slave, until she was sent to destroy Daredevil and mistakenly attacked Scarlet Witch and The Avengers. The ensuing battle left her in a coma.

Jewel is better known as private investigator Jessica Jones - future wife to Luke Cage! A personal connection that gives The Purple Man an added psychological weapon to use against the super-strong Power Man!

If it comes down to a battle of brawn, Purple Man doesn't stand a chance against Cage! Unfortunately, Killgrave's weapon can strike from a distance - ending the fight before it even begins!

As much as Cage is made of tough stuff, meditative mental training and finesse have never been his thing [eg; Power Man & Iron Fist #66]. He may be able to shake Purple Man's influence off, but at close range he could be vulnerable! The emotional raw nerve of Purple Man's past with Jessica Jones could work for him, but for a master manipulator like Killgrave, it's still a risky proposition!

Worse still - this fight takes place during a mass breakout at The Raft! Which means Killgrave has a small army of super-villains to call upon, many of whom are likely willing and able to do the dirty work for him without manipulation!

Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-man, Jessica Drew and Matt Murdock are also on The Raft island, but with several villains for every hero, Cage probably won't be able to rely on his fellow heroes! Does that spell doom for Cage? Let's cut the jibber jabber and get the hell on with it!

The Math: Luke Cage Ranking: Luke Cage (#9)

What Went Down...
A flood of inmates spills across Ryker's Island, fleeing The Vault for the salvation of freedom! A small group of heroes does their best to stem the tide. Amidst the chaos - a lone figure calmly surveys the darkened field: The Purple Man!

Fate would have it that the nearest hero is Luke Cage. With torn shirt and unconscious criminal in hand, he spots his violet observer. He's too close. It's too late. The Purple Man has him!

Cold and calm, Killgrave asks Luke Cage to kill the other heroes on the island, and then himself. It's the kind of confident request a man with the power to control others can make with impunity.

The heathen villain cites a high power's love as the source of his unlikely circumstance. A path from the Hell of imprisonment and Cage to greet him - contradictions to his lack of belief. The taunting logic of a sick man.

Cage turns in the direction of the ragtag group of heroes trying to stop the madness. His eyes go blank, but focus returns when Purple Man threatens his wife Jessica Jones, and their unborn baby. Killgrave has overplayed his hand!

The tables turn as Cage informs his would-be puppet master of the drugs The Raft employs to retard his dangerous powers. Drugs still limiting the effect of the pheromones that could otherwise control him. Purple Man's eyes go wide as the reality of the situation sinks in. Then it comes.

Cage unloads with a violent left cross that sends blood, teeth and Killgrave's apple flying through the air!

The rage of a loving husband and doting father surges through a fist as strong as steel! A vengeful right fired like a missile that hits Killgrave before he can even drop from the last one!

Incensed by vile acts of the past and the promise of future threats, Cage is unforgiving! He hits The Purple Man again and again and again!

Blood spatters, and Purple Man's face begins to swell and deform around the damage. Cage clutches the collar of his prison uniform to keep him close enough to take the beating.

A red glove catches Cage's flexing bicep before it rains down another punishing blow -- Captain America! "Enough", he says, calling the hero back through the fog of his rage. Cage relents with a thanks, leaving Killgrave to collapse.

The Hammer...
An emotionally charged episode occurring within the anarchy of The Raft breakout. With no uncertainty: Luke Cage emerges victorious!

The Purple Man and his threats obviously refer back to landmark 2003 issues of Alias, which revealed the secret history behind Jessica Jones' final days as super-heroine Jewel. That story is the basis for much of the recent live-action Netflix series Aka; Jessica Jones, which adapts the exploration of psychic violation as one of its principle plot lines.

It's heavy subject matter for an otherwise frivolous Avengers reboot, but the specifics are left unsaid in New Avengers, consistent with the darker Alias story only through the inference of those who would know it. For me, that's a tasteful balance between creating a consistent reality between the characters, and depicting the type of evil that defines a hero.

History will probably see these comics as products of a post-9/11 attitude. Darker than today. More calloused to the harsh realities of villainy, and intent on staring them down without flinching. I don't have a problem with the content or the style, but boy am I glad we did get back to being able to have fun - eventually!

It's interesting to look back on the New Avengers with ten years distance.

Bendis and Marvel editorial denied they were "JLA-ing" the Avengers with their revamp line-up. The all-star additions of traditional hold-out Spider-man and Wolverine made that denial seem particularly absurd, but to be fair, it was never a "Big Seven" mentality.

The Sentry may've been a suitable Superman stand-in, but he never escaped his status as an interloper in the Marvel Universe. Spider-Woman was an oddball choice pulled from the mothballs of Bendis' dreams, later revealed to be Skrull  long con: Queen Veranke. The less said about late arriving, fumbled gimmick Ronin (originally depicted as exo-skeletoned "Bubble Boy") - the better!

All in all, it was a far cry from the JLA! Which only became more true when Avengers pillars Captain America and Iron Man were used to split the team a year later in Civil War! Which actually went a long way to establishing a real identity for the New Avengers, who flitted between modern flavour, and aimless mish-mash before rebranding as urban rebels.

In all of this rejiggering, Luke Cage emerged from the New Avengers as a stand-out find! Where the revamp of '92 had failed to instill iconic qualities in the character and his adventures, opting for a non-descript solo action hero [eg; Cage #3]; New Avengers thrust Cage into the heart of the Marvel Universe as a means of further building an identity. With Jessica Jones, the self-serving Hero for Hire developed into a hero juggling lofty aspirations and domestic priorities.

Cage had been an odd fit in the original New Avengers line-up - another seventies spawned Bendis project, begun in the pages of Daredevil and Alias. He was much less left of field than Spider-Woman, having at least maintained relevance in books like the late nineties Heroes for Hire reboot, and the Marvel Knights team-up book. Nobody could've guessed he would organically grow into a viable leader of the team, though.

After the death of Captain America; Luke Cage did indeed become the leader of the Secret Avengers - a team that included Spider-man, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist and Hawkeye. A stand-out player in the Marvel Universe that we're now able to celebrate throughout the month of September!

Luke Cage is the latest live-action Netflix series, starring Mike Colter as the man with the unbreakable skin! If you haven't seen trailers yet, I strongly suggest you seek them out! The series goes live September 30th.

We've got one more stop on the Luke Cage express before September ends! We've seen him fighting alone and fighting with a team, in the next Friday Night Fights battle we see him fighting like we've never seen before!

If you'd like to see the entire Purple Man fight and the formation of the original New Avengers, be encouraged to take use the Amazon purchase link provided! Doing so helps keep the wars infinite!

You can also find many more battles featuring Power Man and friends by following links throughout this entry, or by checking out the Issue Index Archive! There you'll find hundreds of past battles!

Winner: Luke Cage
#9 (--) Luke Cage
#806 (new) Purple Man

HERO OF THE WEEK: GHOST RIDER (Marvel)
Real Name: Robbie Reyes
First Appearance: All-New Ghost Rider #1 (May, 2014)
Fight Club Ranking: #DNR

Featured Fights:
- Yet To Be Featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths.

Who knew we'd ever have an Agents of SHIELD inspired Hero of the Week? Truth be told, I probably would've guessed the series would be cancelled before we came back for the 10th Anniversary of the blog. Lo and behold, they've survived long enough to inject a much needed point of interest from the comics: Ghost Rider!

Of course, it isn't the iconic Ghost Rider you know from decades of comics since the seventies. It isn't even his high-profile nineties successor, the Spirit of Vengeance: Dan Ketch. No. This is "All-New" Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes - a Los Angeles mechanic back from the dead to get behind the wheel of a blazing Charger from Hell! Yahoo featured a first look of the TV version and it looks pretty good!

As you may've gathered, I think Agents of SHIELD is some of the most tedious of the unremarkable superhero TV shows we have on our screens right now. Which leaves me reticent about how well the character will be realized when he comes to screens later this year.

We've been talking about death and replacement heroes in various Hero of the Week entries this year [Captain America, Dr. Doom, Hulk, Hawkman], often with a critical view of modern attitude. So it's nice to be able to finally talk about All-New Ghost Rider -- one of the most exciting new superhero series of the past few years!

Where other replacement heroes have struggled with the shadow of their iconic predecessors, or the been there/done that of other temporary replacements -- the newest Ghost Rider has blazed a trail with a vivid sense of individual identity. All-New Ghost Rider doesn't concern itself with matters of legacy. This is a brand new spirit of vengeance with no real awareness of Johnny Blaze or the Ghost Riders who've come before him! (At least, not initially!)

A sense of identity is there in almost every aspect of the character's initial appearances: Robbie Reyes is steeped in the world of LA street racing - familiar to the mainstream through the Fast and Furious films, if nothing else. He abhors the gang violence that makes life dangerous for he and his family. A combination of these two elements combusts to create his death and rebirth as the newest Ghost Rider! Even his transformation comes with an added twist! This Ghost Rider is possessed by the spirit that inhabited his dodge charger - Eli Morrow, who is also his dead uncle! Eli's dark influence is a literal presence Robbie struggles with as he uses his powers.

The material has all the right components to build a compelling new character without the baggage of his lineage, but perhaps the greatest weapon in the All New Ghost Rider's arsenal is visual identity!

Artist Tradd Moore and colorists Val Staples [above] did wonders launching the first arc of All-New Ghost Rider with a look unlike any other superhero book going! Hellfire whips and swirls around the page as if it were leaping off to singe your eyebrows! Reality need not apply - it's too mundane! In this book, the haunted Dodge Charger lives and breathes fire as it tag teams with the Ghost Rider -- whose skull design is a flaming machine head a little like Ghost Rider 2099, but all its own!

How will all of this fit into Agents of SHIELD? That was a question I was asking myself when rumors first started swirling. I'd forgotten that Kyle MacLachlan appeared previously as one of the rare notable villains from the comics - Calvin Zabo, aka; Mr. Hyde! Hyde just happens to be tied to the gang involved in Robbie's origin story, and is the arch-nemesis that ingratiates him so well!

Will the Ghost Rider/Mr. Hyde rivalry play out on the small screen? It's hard to imagine it will - and if it does, it certainly won't be with the visual verve of the comics. Sadly, that level of excitement is worlds apart from anything superhero TV is doing right now. That seems unlikely to change.

Fortunately, we've got the All-New Ghost Rider comics of past and future to enjoy. Which is something you can bet we'll be doing during Friday Night Fights in the near future! Until then, feel encouraged to check out the Issue Index for more flaming skulls and fisticuffs!

<< Hero of the Week 09/26: General Zod      [Home]      Hero of the Week 09/12: Hawkman >>

LUKE CAGE versus THE UNTOUCHABLES

Bad Debts (Marvel)
Where: Cage #3 When: June 1992
Why: Marc McLaurin How: Dwayne Turner

The Story So Far...
Having been wrongly accused of the murder of his best friend Iron Fist: Luke Cage is officially exonerated when the authentic article reemerges alive and well - the victim of an elaborate identity theft!

Stepping out of the shadows with a new look, new attitude, and new life as Hero for Hire in Chicago - Cage is dropping the "Power Man" name and going solo!

The price of one death may have been lifted from Cage's mighty shoulders, but the spectre of another will haunt him in the form of another double! The son of late villain Bushmaster has hired a mercenary to wage war on Cage! The result is a team of Untouchables led by Hardcore, who descend upon Dakota North in an effort to steal sensitive information she's learned about Cage's past.

Too bad for The Untouchables that Cage is wise to their plans and is about to take the fight to them!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Luke Cage 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Tombstone 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Luke Cage 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Nitro 6 (Mass Destruction)


Be still, my beating heart! What we have here is a good old fashioned dream match! Why is it a dream match? Because for several years these guys were stomping on opposite sides of the mean streets, but they didn't butt unbreakable heads until '92! They're the perfect enemies - and here's why:

Luke Cage is the self-marketed Hero for Hire also known as Power Man!

Growing up in Harlem, Cage's family and friends knew him as Carl Lucas. When he joined The Rivals gang as a young man, Lucas was tempted into a world of crime -- eventually leading to a frame-up that sent him to Seagate Prison!

In prison, Lucas became a subject for super-soldier experiments on inmates. When the process was tampered with, he accidentally gained super-human strength, and skin as strong as steel! He used his powers to escape prison and forged a new identity for himself, choosing to fight crime - for the right price!

The Untouchables are: Tombstone, Nitro & Kickback.

Tombstone is career criminal Lonnie Lincoln. Like Cage, he was born and raised on the streets of Harlem. As an albino, he was ostracized as a child and took to using his physical strength to dominate others. This eventually led him to street fighting, petty crime, and a career as a hitman.

Lincoln cultivated an intimidating persona as Tombstone, filing his teeth and nails into points. He accidentally gained super-human strength when Daily Bugle reporter Robbie Robertson exposed him to experimental gas in an Osborn Chemical facility! The incident also granted him incredible durability!

Even before gaining increased strength, Tombstone has been a regular nemesis for Spider-man [eg; Spectacular Spider-man #142]. We've also seen him go toe-to-toe with Daredevil for a win and a loss, and take on Iron Man and The Avengers as one of the short-lived Sinister Twelve [Marvel Knights: Spider-man #11]!

This is the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths debut for both Nitro and Kickback. We don't have any example data, but the auto-exploding powers of Nitro were responsible for the tragedy in Stamford that kicked off the Avengers' Civil War!

As an eventual member of the New Avengers, we've seen Cage develop as a serious heavyweight! He's battled the likes of: Juggernaut [Thunderbolts #150], The Hood [New Avengers #54], Ms. Marvel [Civil War #3], The Hand [New Avengers #27], and even symbiote possessed Avengers [New Avengers #36]! On the streets, the mutant Unus the Untouchable proved difficult to defeat thanks to his forcefield protection [Power Man & Iron Fist #90]. None of The Untouchables wields any such barrier, despite the name.

Cage is running solo at this point, even though Iron Fist had made a recent and miraculous return from the dead. That means it's three-on-one and that could potentially be a problem!

If Cage can break the fight down, he definitely stands a better chance. Nitro's ability to expel a full body explosion is dangerous, but Cage's unbreakable skin should be able to handle it. Kickback might negotiate a tactical advantage with his time travel powers, but his ability to follow through is limited.

Tombstone is basically Cage's equal - the shadow-self that makes this such a perfect, scintillating dream match. That said, Cage's peak strength usually trends higher than Tombstone's, a high 5 with occasional tendencies to drift tower a low 6, by our measure. We saw that in the Juggernaut fight.

The Untouchables haven't been a unit for long, and are working for mercenary rates. That team instability could be exactly what Cage needs to exploit, enduring long enough to pick them off one by one.

The Math: Nitro Ranking: Luke Cage (#12)

What Went Down...
Tipped off to know all wasn't right at the Chicago branch of North Investigations -- the man called Cage launches into the building! He catches hostage Teague as he explodes through the window, knocking Tombstone off balance!

Time traveller Kickback has already seen the fight three minutes into the future, arriving in our present to watch himself and the other Untouchables surround Cage! Tombstone talks business, but Nitro chooses a more offensively minded strategy -- charging up his powers for a strategically directed explosion!

Cage uses his unbreakable skin to shield Teague from the blast. He eats a boot to the face from Kickback, who appears suddenly having time shifted to avoid the explosion. He teleports away as quickly as he appeared - leaving Cage to swing at empty air!

Tombstone rushes Cage, taking him off his feet with a charging tackle!

The chalk-skinned hitman notes the innate similarities between he and Cage. Thick skin and business acumen aren't enough to compel the Hero for Hire to bond with his foe. He hammers home the differences with a one-two combo of a right hook and uppercut!

The mighty blows rock Tombstone, but he remains on his feet! Nitro calls for him to drop down to give a clear shot, but Cage uses the distraction to grab Tombstone by his feet and send him hurtling into Nitro!

Nitro is floored, but rock-hard Tombstone recovers instantly! He squares off with Cage, lamenting his hopes for a business-like resolution. He charges at the Hero for Hire once again -- more than happy to call upon his days as a street fighter!

The two super-tough combatants smash through the North Investigations exterior wall! Bricks crumble and shatter as they spill onto the street outside - Cage using their momentum to get the upper hand!

An unexpected player arrives on the scene by van: The Punisher! Tombstone tries to tell Cage he's the "Mr. Big" bankrolling The Untouchables, so Cage picks Tombstone up and runs him into the grill of the oncoming vehicle!

The sudden impact throw Punisher face-first into the dashboard! He takes the brunt a lot harder than the bulletproof duo he smashed into.

Cage shakes down Tombstone, demanding the truth about the team. Tombstone gives up the real plan: to gather sensitive information on Cage uncovered by Dakota North! He  also warns that Nitro may be mentally unstable and a danger to the investigator, who may still be inside. This prompts Cage to take his victory and run as Tombstone laughs!

The Hammer...
Nitro does indeed lose his cool, believing Tombstone and Kickback have turned against him. He explodes - destroying the North Investigations building before Cage can get back inside. Cage has no way of knowing Dakota North is safe with Kickback, casting his victory in a grim afterglow as The Punisher arrives.

In a curious twist, Punisher thinks his former acquaintance is actually working with Tombstone. A cliffhanger to be resolved in the next issue - and a future installment of Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, I'm sure!

As you may've already gathered, I was pretty excited about getting around to this issue! I've always been a sucker for Tombstone, as I'm sure I've gushed in the past. There's just something fantastic about the simplicity of the character. A granite faced hitman with aspirations for pin stripe suits and working his way up the criminal ranks.

I've often thought about the perfect match Tombstone presents for Cage, whose history before The Avengers was on the streets. I like that Marc McLaurin's script calls their similarities out, even as it highlights the differences. Yes, they're both rock-hard, super-strong guns for hire - but Cage is no hitman!

Tombstone has had one or two more run-ins with Cage since this initial meeting, but sadly, the chemistry hasn't quite produced a new arch-villain scenario. I live in hope that the option is still there, with history to build upon, though!

It's worth noting that "Cage" was specifically the moniker of choice, at this time. He was still a hero for hire, but gone was the "Power Man" handle, soon to be appropriated by another - a villain. A thorough relaunch of a dormant character.

The silver tiara, yellow silk shirt, and chain belt were gone as well. The seventies-tinged remnants of kung fu and blacksploitation fads weren't looking so cool by the late eighties. Cage had toiled in obscurity for a few years by the early nineties, running from the cancellation of Power Man & Iron Fist in 1988, which told the story of Danny Rand's apparent death.

At a glance, there wasn't a lot to tell you this was the same character when Cage launched in 1992. I always appreciated the classic Power Man look, so it surprised me to see him wearing black and red, even if I could appreciate the aim to match a modern style. He shared an aesthetic with a handful of street level characters of the time. Beneath the surface, it was the same character with the same history. The kind of reboot you can appreciate.

The tragic irony of relaunching when they did is simply that Tarantino and anime would bring blaxploitation and kung fu back into style in a major way! Both characters were tailor made to ride the wave of millennium trends, but Marvel struggled to fully capitalize on any kind of relaunch. They're arguably only just getting to the peak now, with a stylish new comic series by David Walker and Stanford Greene, and the character's live-action debut in Jessica Jones.

September 30th marks the release of Luke Cage on Netflix - the first time the character will star in his own TV series! Here on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, we're celebrating that fact by dedicating a month's worth of Friday Night Fights to the man with the bulletproof skin!

If that wasn't exciting enough, today's feature fight comes with unforseen repercussions! Long time readers know every battle on The Comic Book Fight Club contributes to an on-going record. With this win, Luke Cage becomes the first hero in a long time to upend the Top 10 rankings!

Rising to #9, Cage leapfrogs two heroes with whom he has close ties: Daredevil becomes the new guardian at #10, while The Thing is shockingly pushed out out of the Top 10 to #11! Check out all the rankings changes at the bottom of this post! As of 2016, all feature fights end with rankings updates.

If you'd like to get the full experience of today's feature battle, you can use Amazon purchase links provided to pick up a collected edition!

If you want to see more Luke Cage, Punisher or other featured characters, use the character links dispersed throughout this post. Or, jump straight to your favourite battles from legend or obscurity using the Issue Index Archive!

Stay tuned as Cage Month continues with a grudge match that changed his life forever!

Winner: Cage
#9 (+3) Luke Cage
#65 (--) Punisher [+1 Assist]
#362 (-1) Tombstone
#804 (new) Kickback
#805 (new) Nitro

OLD COMICS WEDNESDAY: BATMAN DAY!
By decree of DC Comics and the fans of the world: Saturday, September 17th is Batman Day!

Batman is one of the world's most recognized pop culture icons - and he's also one of the most frequently featured heroes right here on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths! Which means this Old Comics Wednesday we've got all of your Batman Day needs covered with a massive selection of classic Bat battles and obscure Batman Day treats!

By hitting the covers below you'll be transported back through some of The Caped Crusader's best battles with: The Joker, Bane, Catwoman, Superman, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Hush, Captain America, Hawkman, Amazo, Victor Zsasz and more! Plus: Adventures featuring Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Martian Manhunter, Stephanie Brown and other classic allies! It's a Batmiracle!

If unwrapping your Batman Day presents has still left you craving more from the hammers of justice, you can light the Bat Signal and find even more features by searching the Issue Index!

HERO OF THE WEEK: HAWKMAN (DC)
Real Name: Carter Hall (aka; Katar Hol)
First Appearance: Flash Comics #1 (January, 1940)
Fight Club Ranking: #29

Featured Fights:
- vs SUPERMAN: Justice League of America #200 (Mar 1982)
- vs SUPERMAN & BATMAN: Superman/Batman #4 (Jan 2004)
- vs MATTER MASTER: Hawkman #23 (Mar 2004)
- vs DEATHSTROKE: Identity Crisis #3 (Oct 2004)
- vs ST. ROCH: Hawkman #31 (Oct 2004)
- vs MORGAUTH: JSA Strange Adventures #1 (Oct 2004)
- vs SOLOMON GRUNDY: Hawkman #33 (Dec 2004)
- vs ELONGATED MAN & SUE DIBNY: Blackest Night #1 (Sep 2009)

Oh, boy... When I came back for the site's 10th anniversary, I kinda made a pledge to myself that I was going to focus on the things I love about comics. Not in a single-minded, sycophantic way. Just as an exercise in embracing and surrounding myself in good, instead of wasting "oxygen" on bad.

That's why, when the world was anticipating the theatrical release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earlier this year, I was taking the opportunity to talk about Hawkman and Captain Marvel! A couple of fun comic book fights we never got around to, featuring a two of the great characters!

For this week's HOTW, I've got a foot firmly planted on both side of the appreciation line thanks to DC's announcement of a series coming in October: The Death of Hawkman.

Comic Book Resources reported on the ominous switcheroo, which substituted the series' original solicited title of "Hawkman and Adam Strange: Out of Time" for the now blunt declaration. Good, because I'm always glad to see Hawkman having new adventures in print. Bad, because the circus of death in mainstream comics has been spinning for so long -- I'm completely sick of it!

Of course, this hyper-active revolving door of life and death has conditioned readers to expect fatality to be constant - and completely meaningless. I'm not sure that Hawkman actually will perish in this new story, beginning October 2nd. The title smacks of a bombastic 1950s serial - threatening the viewer with what amounts to a peril filled cliffhanger, rather than a macabre sales pitch.

DC (and Marvel)'s constant dance of actual death(s) hasn't just eroded the creative credibility of the matter, but has also been persistent enough to make a business of selling me - the reader - what isn't and won't be there for the foreseeable future. Which is an absurdity that false perils never suffered from, even if they eventually present their own frustration!

It's been tough to embrace Hawkman fully in his return to the spotlight during The New 52. The work done by Geoff Johns in the mid-2000s to restore the character seemed swiftly undone -- replaced with a fresh batch of inconsistencies and needless complication. New readers won't know the character was as good as exiled in the late nineties, editorially deemed 'too hard' after similarly contradicting relaunches. This all goes a long way to diminishing the value of the character enough to make the chopping block an unfortunately plausible end, at least until the next relaunch.

Then again, in salvaging the character, [Geoff] Johns did wonders with the concept of reincarnation. A detail that's become an unfortunate repeating motif in lesser hands - an excuse to swing the executioner's axe, as much as anything. Two prominent "deaths" came as recently as 2009 via Blackest Night #1 and the Final Crisis mini-series. Granted, the former was presented as a story about death, with a view to restoring many of the recently deceased. The lesser of evils, as it were.

I don't think much of the Adam Strange design featured in promo art for The Death of Hawkman. I'm enticed by the lingering presence of Despero as a likely antagonist. I just hope it isn't more pointless, self-defeating crap meant to grab attention with no long term vision. I want to spend my time thinking about the good.

If you prefer seeing Hawkman fight and fly amongst the living, I encourage you to check out some of the links featured at the top. You can find more living characters in action via the Issue Index!

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