Luke Cage is having one hell of a year. Back in February, he reunited with his old friend Danny Rand in the pages of Marvel Comics for the excellent series ‘Power Man and Iron Fist’ from David Walker and Sanford Greene. Then Mike Colter will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to reprise his role as Cage from ‘Jessica Jones’ to star in his very own Netflix show in September. But later in the fall, True Believers will be transported back to the over-the-top world of the 1970s where the unbreakable hero first walked the streets of the Marvel U courtesy of the person behind ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’, ‘Samurai Jack’, and ‘Hotel Transylvania’.
The House of Ideas often brings in people from other artistic mediums to work with their heroes. From musicians like Max Bemis and Gerard Way to the ‘Agent Carter’ showrunners to MacArthur Genius and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates to former WWE Champion CM Punk, many people have the chance to tell stories with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But back in 2007, Marvel announced that award-winning animator Genndy Tartakovsky would be working on a limited series titled ‘CAGE!’. However, he got so caught up in storyboarding ‘Iron Man 2’, creating the cult favorite animated series ‘Sym-Bionic Titan’, and the failed ‘Popeye’ reboot that his editorial contact left the publisher and the project fell to the wayside.
Although when Tartakovsky was doing press for ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ last year, he revealed that he still had the nearly-completed comic in his possession. That’s when Marvel SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort got in touch with him to finish what he started. But what was that exactly? Check out the first preview page below, followed by the official synopsis of the story:
Welcome to the mean streets of New York City – shoes are big, bottoms are belled and crime is rampant! But in the heart of the city, the world’s hardest-working, smack-talking, chain-wearing, tiara-sporting super hero is hitting the streets hard and hitting the bad guys harder. This Hero for Hire is on the case, and his rates are reasonable! He’s Luke Cage, and he’ll save your behind. Dig it!
After checking out this artwork, there’s really only one more thing to say about the upcoming comic: Sweet Christmas! But if there’s anything else that you’d like to say about ‘CAGE!’ ahead of it’s October release, feel free to sound off in the comment section.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
