Power Man (1974) #37 VF (8.0) Luke Cage Hero for Hire

Power Man (1974) #37 VF (8.0)
Luke Cage Hero for Hire

1st appearance of Luke Cage as Power Man

"Rich Man: Iron Man--Power Man: Thief!"

Angry that other super-heroes get all the headlines, while he doesn't get so much as a mention, Luke Cage decides that perhaps he should adopt a super-hero name to put him in the same field as Captain America and Spider-Man. That day Luke is approached by a gentleman named Orville Smythe, who claims to be an employee of Stark Industries who has come to hire him to test out the security in place at the Stark Industries building. Cage is instructed to try to break into Stark Industries and steal an experimental suit of armor built for deep-space exploration.

Luke agrees to the job and starts by breaking into Stark Industries. Luke is able to deal with most of the of the security in place until Iron Man enters and battles Luke one on one. During their fight, Luke learns from Iron Man that Orville Smythe is not an employee of Stark Industries. Realizing that he's been tricked, Luke teams up with Iron Man in tracking down Orville, who has succeeded in stealing the armor and a ship to escape in. Chasing after Smythe in the ship, he confronts his foe. During the fight, Orville is accidentally kicked out of the ship and plummets to his death. After, Luke returns the ship to Stark Industries where he bids Iron Man farewell, and tells him to address him under his new name: Power Man.

issue : # 17 cover date : Feb '74 cover price : $0.20 current value : $50.00 searched : 16864 owned : 262 pages : 32