With his mercenary group in place, Mace carried out plots such as assassinating superheroes, and using his own men as cannon fodder to try to rob Wall Street.Īs an expert marksman (with his left hand, obviously) and a skilled martial artist, Mace has proven to be a powerful and intelligent villain for Cage. Turning lemons into lemonade, Mace replaced his lost hand with a spiked metal mace, and formed his own private army with disgruntled ex-soldiers. However, since he wasn't supposed to be attacking the village in the first place, he was dishonorably discharged. During an assault on a village during the Vietnam War, Colonel Gideon Mace lost his right hand. Mace first appeared in "Luke Cage, Hero For Hire" #3 in 1972. He's Gideon Mace, and he's one of Cage's deadliest enemies. He's been one of Cage's most powerful enemies ever since. As if that wasn't enough, a freak accident in "Cage" #12 (1993) gave him the power to absorb energy to become Power Master. In "Power Man and Iron Fist" #67 (1981), Bushmaster used the same process that transformed Cage to make himself stronger than Power Man. In the process, they foiled Bushmaster's plans and sent him away to Seagate prison.īut Bushmaster wasn't done yet. When Iron Fist came to the aid of his girlfriend, he ended up forming a lifelong partnership with Cage. Unfortunately for him, Bushmaster didn't count on Knight's boyfriend being the martial arts superhero, Iron Fist. In order to stop her, Bushmaster kidnapped Cage's friends and threatened to kill them if Knight wasn't brought before him. When he moved his operation to New York, he came under investigation by the district attorney, Misty Knight (played by Simone Messick on the upcoming show). He quickly rose from the rank of enforcer to running his own European branch of the Maggia crime family. In "Iron Fist" #15 (1977), Cage clashed with the first Bushmaster, whose alter-ego, John McIver, was a powerful crime boss in the Caribbean. There have been two Bushmaster villains in the Marvel Universe, but we'll focus on the first one, since he's primarily Cage's enemy. With set photos showing Diamondback wearing a Robocop-like visor on the set of "Luke Cage," it's possible his character is being combined with Shades. With his new "outlook" on life, Shades returned again and and again, always willing to serve as a hired gun against Cage and other heroes. In "Power Man and Iron Fist" #98 (1983), Shades got an upgrade when ruthless businessman Ward Meachum gave him a visor that fires powerful optic blasts. Though Shades started out as a gang member with no special powers, he continued to be one of Cage's most persistent enemies. He quickly broke out of prison, however, and partnered with another ex-con named Comanche to become "Hoodlums for Hire," the criminal counterpart to Cage's heroic operation. He joined the deadly street gang, the Rivals, where his gang fights got him arrested and thrown into Seagate with Cage. Named after the designer sunglasses he's always wearing, Shades was born and raised in Cage's hometown, Harlem. The Guardians know the only hope is to call upon the legion of Green Lanterns, and they telepathically explain to Hal how to send out the distress call.Shades is another player from Cage's past who first appeared in " Luke Cage: Hero For Hire" #1. The lot of them ironically contained within the glowing power source that all Green Lanterns draw from. Our hero, Hal Jordan, who serves as planet Earth’s Green Lantern, is jailed alongside the Guardians. At the start of the issue, they are being held captive by the villainous Weaponers, a crew bent on domination. Oa is the homeworld of the Guardians of the Universe, the blue-skinned alien race that parcels out emerald power rings to worthy recruits across the galaxy. Although I couldn’t quite identify it at the time, the Green Lantern comic appealed to me because they suggested how much bigger these imaginative epics could get. That distinction was a major part of its appeal. Entitled “Battleground: Oa!,” the story had the sweep of space opera, which was markedly different from the comparable down-to-earth tales I favored from Marvel. Of those tattered publications, the one that had a story I couldn’t quite shake, that I kept returning to read again, was an issue of Green Lantern written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Joe Staton. I eventually saw the benefit of allowing myself to spread my reading between the two major publishers regaling youth with the exploits of costumed do-gooders, but for many years I had only the occasional stray DC Comics offering, usually coming to my by some indiscernible hand-me-down chain. When I went all in on superhero comics, I immediately set my allegiance with Marvel comics. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |