Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 232. Who is Luke Cage in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 232. Who is Luke Cage in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:10
  Hello. Hello Marvel fans, comic geeks,
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  and all the nerds in between. My name is Megan and I am with
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  vigilante vibes clearly, and I am here with another character
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  breakdown today and it's someone I cannot believe we have not
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  talked about yet. We are going to talk about Luke
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  Cage. Luke Cage first appeared in
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  Here's For Hire Number One in 1972 and was created by Archie
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  Goodwin, John Romita senior and George Tuska.
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  Carl Lucas, who the world would eventually know as Luke Cage,
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  was born and raised in Harlem, New York.
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  His mom was Esther and his dad, James Lucas Senior, was a
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  retired NYPD detective. As a kid, Carl ran the streets
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  with his best friend Willis Stryker and a girl named Reeva
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  Connors. He and Stryker joined a gang
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  called the Rivals, fought another gang called the Diablos,
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  and pulled Petty crimes for a crooked crime boss named Sonny
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  Caputo AKA Hammer. Carl bounced in and out of
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  juvenile detention and used to dream about becoming a big time
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  crime Lord until he started realizing how much he was
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  hurting his family. Eventually he tried to
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  straighten out. He even backed off of a robbery
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  job that involved a foreign Prince after an argument with
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  Stryker, which weirdly ended on decent terms after a scuffle
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  over a fake nickname. It was.
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  It was petty I guess. Carl chose to go legit and found
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  honest work. Meanwhile Stryker kept climbing
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  the criminal ladder. But they stayed friends.
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  Oddly enough, that fell apart pretty fast.
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  Striker got on the wrong side of the Magia and was nearly killed
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  in a mop hit. Carl saved him.
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  But when Reva broke up with Stryker and turned to Carl for
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  comfort, Striker blamed Carl for everything.
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  I know I'm saying Carl a lot. It is Luke Cage but his real
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  name is Carl. But we haven't gotten to the
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  Luke Cage part yet, so trying not to make it weird.
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  In revenge, Stryker planted heroin on Carl's apartment and
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  tipped off the cops. Carl was arrested and sent to
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  prison. He tried to retaliate by sicking
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  the Maggio on Stryker, but the hit went wrong.
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  Stryker lived and Reva died instead.
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  To make matters worse, Carl's brother, James Junior
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  intercepted letters between Carl and their dad, making each
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  believe the other was dead. Carl lost his family while
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  sitting behind bars. Prison hardened him.
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  Angry and bitter, he got into constant fights and tried to
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  escape more than once, which got him transferred to Seagate
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  Prison off of the Georgia coast. One of the worst facilities
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  around there, a racist guard named Billy Bob Brackham, which
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  would be his name, made him a personal target.
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  Around that time, Doctor Noah Bernstein arrived to run secret
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  experiments based on a variation of the Super soldier process.
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  Carl volunteered. Bernstein put him in the Electro
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  biochemical system, but Rackham sabotaged it, hoping to kill him
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  instead. The procedure supercharged
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  Carl's body, boosting his strength and making his skin
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  nearly unbreakable. Carl used his powers to break
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  out of prison and head back to Harlem.
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  After a run in with some criminals, he realized that he
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  can make money with these abilities still wanted by the
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  law. He changed his name to Luke Cage
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  and opened up a shop as a hero for hire, hence the name.
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  Helping anyone who could pay his fee.
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  He set up an office above the Gem Theater in Times Square,
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  owned by the family of DW Griffith.
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  Doctor Bernstein moved to New York to opening a storefront
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  clinic with Doctor Claire Temple.
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  Not long after, Stryker, now calling himself Diamondback,
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  sent Hitman after Luke. Not long after, Striker, now
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  calling himself Diamondback, sent Hitman after Luke.
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  Claire helped Luke after the attack, shocked that the bullets
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  could not Pierce his skin. Eventually, Luke tracked Striker
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  down. They fought, and Striker died in
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  an explosion caused by one of his own trick blades, taking any
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  chance of clearing Luke's name with him.
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  Luke kept taking jobs though. He stopped a revenge plot by
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  Colonel Gideon Mace, dealt with mobsters using fake ambulances
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  to rob corpses for crime boss Black Mariah, and even went
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  after Doctor Doom, who stiffed him a $200 payment after hiring
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  him to destroy rogue Doombots. Luke literally flew to La Veria
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  and beat the money out of Doom, which I respect.
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  He's a business owner. What are you?
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  What are you going to do? At one point he took on the code
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  name Power Man and teamed up with the Defenders, though he
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  eventually left because their weird cosmic level problems
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  interfered with his his paying gigs.
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  He later went undercover in Cottonmouth's drug operation,
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  hoping to find proof that he could clear his original
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  conviction. He shut the whole thing down but
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  learned the records died with a henchman who had photographic
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  memory, which I don't. Even if he had photographic
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  memory, I don't know how that would hold up in court because
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  like, I could say I have photographic memory, so I don't
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  know. These are things that keep me up
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  at night. He briefly replaced the thing in
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  the Fantastic Four. Got blackmailed into fighting
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  Iron Fist while trying to save Bernstein and Claire from the
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  Bushmaster and eventually had his name legally cleared.
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  After that, he teamed up with Iron Fist for real, forming
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  Heroes for Hire. They became a successful duo
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  best friends despite being complete opposites, which is
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  they always make the best of friends.
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  Things went sideways again when a shady agency manipulated
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  events to frame Luke for Iron Fist supposed murder.
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  Luke became a fugitive yet again, moved to Chicago, ditched
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  the Power Man name for a while, and later had his powers boosted
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  even further by exposure to the Power Man virus.
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  While searching for his family, he learned his brother James
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  Junior had been mutated into the Super powered coal fire by a
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  criminal group called the Corporation.
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  The brothers fought and then teamed up to rescue their
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  father. James Junior sacrificed himself
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  to destroy the Corporation's headquarters.
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  Back in New York, Luke tried to slow down Co owning the Gem
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  Theater, but he kept getting pulled back in, rejoining Heroes
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  for hire dating She Hulk and later restarting his heroes for
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  Hire work solo. He invested in a bar and focused
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  on cleaning up his neighborhood instead of saving the world.
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  Then came Jessica Jones, after a complicated one night stand
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  turned serious, she revealed she was pregnant with his child.
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  They moved in together. Luke supported her through
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  trauma involving the Purple Man and later attacked Norman
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  Osborne to expose him as a Green Goblin after Jessica was
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  injured. And I want it to be said that
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  Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are one of the best couples in
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  comics. Also, if you want to know more
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  about Jessica Jones, just check out my channel because I have a
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  breakdown of her too. Nick Fury later recruited Luke
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  and other heroes for a secret mission to overthrow Latvia's
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  ruler. Fury destroyed Castle Doom and
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  wiped the hero's memories. A year later, the surviving
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  ruler, Lucia von Bardis, attacked Luke and Jessica in
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  revenge, blasting Luke into a coma.
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  His unbreakable skin made surgery nearly impossible.
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  He was secretly moved to safety by Captain America and Iron
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  Fist. Eventually he recovered and Fury
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  apologized. Luke proved himself to Captain
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  America and joined the New Avengers.
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  During the Civil War, he refused to register and sent Jessica and
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  their daughter to Canada for safety while he fought alongside
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  Caps Secret Avengers. After Caps death, Luke helped
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  form a new underground Avengers team.
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  He became a strong field leader and though often clashed with
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  authorities. He and Jessica named their
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  daughter Danielle after Danny Rand who is Iron Fist who became
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  her godfather, which is adorable.
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  So cute. Through skull invasions,
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  kidnappings including his own daughters, deals with Norman
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  Osbourne, heart stopping surgeries involving bombs
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  literally placed on his chest, and government crackdowns, Luke
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  kept fighting and he fought every day.
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  After Osborne fell, Tony Stark sold him Avengers Mansion for
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  $1.00 borrowed from Iron Fist, letting Luke run his own
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  independent Avengers team. He even ran the Thunderbolts
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  program, giving criminals a shot at redemption.
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  Because he'd been there, he'd stepped back briefly to focus on
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  family reform. The Mighty Avengers dealt with
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  Hydra's takeover of America and fought in battles involving dark
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  forest domes and criminal wars. Eventually, when Mayor Wilson
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  Fisk weaponized anti vigilante laws and manipulated the city
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  using the Purple Man's powers, Luke ran for mayor himself.
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  He won as mayor of New York. Luke Cage still fought when he
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  had to, sometimes literally breaking the anti vigilante act
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  in public to save lives. He worked to repeal corrupt
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  laws, battled crime syndicates during a citywide gang wars, and
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  eventually helped restore the right of heroes to operate
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  freely. From Harlem St.
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  Kid and wrongfully imprisoned ex-con to bulletproof hero for
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  hire to Avenger to husband to father to Mayor of New York
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  City, Luke Cage built his life the hard way.
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  Every step earned. So yeah, that's Luke Cage.
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  I love Luke Cage as a character and I'm really excited to see
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  Mike Coulter at some point. Bring him back.
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  I really think with Daredevil Born Again season 2 coming and
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  it seems like they're pulling from the Dark Rain storyline
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  where you know, Wilson Fisk uses the anti vigilante laws and he's
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  the mayor and all that which is in the comics is where Luke Cage
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  becomes mayor. Wouldn't this be the perfect
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  time to break bring Luke Cage in?
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  We're getting Jessica Jones too. But also if you're watching this
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  after season 2 and none of this happens, I'm very sorry.
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  So like always I have some comics for you to check out to
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  get to know Luke Cage even better, starting with Heroes for
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  Hire, Brian Michael Bendis's New Avengers, Power Man, and Luke
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  Cage City of Fire. So with that being said, I hope
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  you enjoyed this episode. I hope you learned a little bit
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  about Luke Cage and if you have any characters you want me to
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  break down let me know in the comments and I will get to work
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  on it. So with that being said, have a
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  marvelous day.