Luke Cage

hattan, New York City, New York

Citizenship:
American

Gender:
Male

Race:
Human, mutate

Known Relatives:
James Lucas (father), Esther Lucas (mother, deceased), Joanne Lucas (stepmother), James Lucas Jr. (brother, deceased), (Jessica Jones, wife) Danielle Cage, (daughter)

Marital Status:
Married

Occupation:
Adventurer, vigilante, Bar owner (formerly), Bodyguard (formerly)

Education:
High school dropout, self educated in many areas

Affiliation:
Defenders, partner of Iron Fist in the Heroes for Hire, New Avengers, Thunderbolts, Dark Avengers, Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights, Secret Defenders, Secret Avengers

Identity:
Public

Reality:
Earth 616

Carl Lucas, the man that would one day be known as "Luke Cage" was born and raised on the streets of the New York district of Harlem. Lucas spent his youth causing trouble on the streets with his friends Willis Stryker and Reva Connors. He eventually joined a gang called The Rivals along with his best friend Stryker. He fought the rival gang the Diablos and committed various petty thefts, often on behalf of deformed crimelord Sonny Caputo a.k.a. Lucas was in and out of juvenile homes throughout his teens. He dreamed of becoming a major New York racketeer until he finally realized how his actions were hurting his family. He sought to better himself as an adult, finding legitimate employment. Meanwhile, Stryker rose through the ranks of crime, but the two men remained friends. Eventually Stryker's activities came to the attention of the Maggia (a.k.a. the Syndicate). He was badly attacked in a mob hit, but Lucas there to save him. After that Reva ended their relationship and turned to Lucas for comfort. This created a rift between the two former friends and Stryker believed Lucas was the cause of the break-up. Stryker planted he**in stolen from Cottonmouth's organization in Lucas' place and tipped off the cops. Lucas was arrested and sentenced to prison; he attempted to get revenge by contacting the Maggia, only for the group's attempt on Stryker's life to go awry - Stryker survived, while Reva was killed in the process. After that Lucas lost contact with his family due to the resentment of his brother James, Jr., who intercepted his brother's letters to their father and eventually led each to believe the other was dead. While in prison, Lucas was consumed with hatred and rage by his friends betrayal and the supposed loss of his father. He spent his time getting into brawls along with various escape attempts. Because of this he was transferred to Seagate Prison, one of the toughest facilities off the coast of the State of Georgia. On his first day he became target of one racist and sadistic prison guard; Albert "Billy Bob" Rackham. His brutality toward Lucas was the reason he was later demoted, which made him hate the inmate even more. During his tenure Carl would watch news about a certain royal (whom said jailbird had unknowingly met prior to his imprisonment) revealing the traditionalistically hidden society he hailed from to the wider world at large. Hearing tell of this, Luke came to admire the only black king whom was lord of his own marvelous metropolis; no matter how much cruller Rackham became to him in response. Dr. Noah Burstein came to the prison to carry out secret medical research and recruited Lucas as a volunteer. He was secretly working on experimental cell regeneration based on a variant of the Super-Soldier process. He had previously used to empower Warhawk. He immersed Lucas in the "Electro-Biochemical System", a device that contained an electrical field conducted by an organic chemical compound. When he left equipment unattended, Rackham tampered with the controls, hoping to kill Lucas. However, the treatment was accelerated past its intended purpose causing mutagenic change throughout Lucas' body, fortifying his cells giving him superhuman strength and durability. Lucas used his new-found powers to escape the prison and make his way back to Harlem. A chance encounter with criminals inspired him to use his new powers for profit. Still a wanted man, he adopted the alias "Luke Cage". Now that he had powers, he decided to don a distinctive costume, and start a new career as a "Hero for Hire". He would help anyone who could meet his price. He found an office above Times Square's Gem Theater, which was owned by film student D.W. Griffith's family. Dr. Burstein also relocated to New York and opened the Storefront Clinic, assisted by Dr. Claire Temple. He first met Claire after he was attacked by hitmen hired by his old friend Stryker. When she rushed to help him she was shocked to find that he wasn't injured by the attack, but insisted on having her colleague look at his bruises. At the clinic he met old friend Dr. Burnstein. When Burnstein was attacked by the syndicate looking to convince them into paying a protection fee, Claire suggested that they take up Luke's services. Claire was kidnapped and Luke tracked her to the perpetrators lair, where he was surprised to find that it was his old friend and betrayer Stryker. The two former friends fought. During the fight Stryker fell through a skylight and was blown up by one of his own trick switchblades, ruining any hope Luke had that Stryker could clear his name. Luke was next hired by veteran Owen Ridgely who had learned about Col. Gideon Mace, an embittered veteran who planned revenge on the US government. Mace enlisted disgruntled veterans, to paralyze Manhattan for a day to distract the cops. However this was a decoy as he planned to attack and rob Wall Street. Ridgely was murdered by Mace's men so he hunted down Mace and attacked his hideout, but when Mace tried to flee in a helicopter, Luke caused it to crash into the Hudson River. After a ghostly attack at the Gem Theater in the middle of the night, Luke was confronted by Daily Bugle reporter Phil Fox who was interested in doing a piece about Cage. He refused but that only furthered Fox's interest in the Hero for Hire. Luke was next hired by Jasper Brunt to investigate the "Phantom of 45th Street". In investigating, Luke learned that the Phantom was really Armand Lorning, the son of Brunt's former business partner. The two men fought but they fell out the window to their deaths. Luke had an appointment with a man named Frank Jenks in the upper balcony of the Gem Theater. Luke arrived to find two thugs beating on Jenks. He managed to fight off the attackers but not before Jenks was stabbed. Luke went to the lobby to call Jenks' wife to inform her of his death and then placed a call to the police. Returning to the balcony, Luke was shocked to learn that Jenks' body had already been taken away by an ambulance. Luke made a vow to Jenks' wife to find his body. Jenks' body had been taken by members of the Rat Pack, a group of criminals who use fake ambulances to rob dead people, working for Black Mariah, an obese crime lord. Luke tracked the ambulance back to a warehouse on 17th street. He noticed an ambulance pull out of the warehouse but once the driver spotted Luke he turned around and quickly drove back inside. Suspicious, Luke went in after him, fully expecting an ambush. His suspicions were confirmed when he was attacked by Mariah's men. Luke pretended to get knocked out and was dragged before Black Mariah herself. Luke sprung back into action and beat up his captors. Mariah attempted to shoot him but the bullets bounced off Luke's unbreakable skin. Mariah tried a different tactic and lunged at Luke, using her weight and enormous size to her advantage. Reluctant to hit a woman, Luke braced himself against a wall and let Mariah run into it. Thinking herself bested, Mariah tried to flee on a speedboat. Luke jumped from a gantry and landed on the boat, capsizing it and leaving Mariah floating in the water. She was later arrested. Doctor Doom the ruler of Latveria, hired Luke to defeat a bunch of rogue Doombots who have disguised themselves as African-American New Yorkers. Luke took the job and destroyed the Doombots with ease. However Doom skipped town without paying his $200 fee, Luke borrowed the Fantastic Four's jet, flew to Latveria, and beat the living hell out of Doom until he paid him his fee. After he was paid he left Doom in peace and returned to the States. During a mission in which Orville Smythe duped him into stealing an experimental starsuit from Stark International, Cage followed the example of his new peers and took the codename of Power Man. He also fought with Steeplejack. Shortly afterward, Luke Cage began associating with the loose-knit super-team the Defenders, alongside whom he battled the Wrecking Crew and the Sons of the Serpent. Called to assist the Defenders against the Plantman, Cage began to complain that his participation in their group was interfering with his paying work. Wealthy Defenders member Nighthawk solved this problem by placing Power Man on retainer, giving Luke a steady paycheck for his Defenders activities. For some time thereafter, Power Man served as a core member of the Defenders. But soon Cage felt out of place in the often-bizarre exploits of the Defenders and eventually resigned. Returning to his office after a recent battle, Luke found a package waiting for him. Inside were two live, venomous snakes. Luke easily defeated them, tied them both together, and tossed them aside. entered the office, attracted by the commotion, and informed Luke that he had visitors. Two large men walked in and introduced themselves as Mike and Ike. The duo noticed that Luke had received their boss's gift and wondered if Luke would appreciate his offer as well. Luke grew annoyed and grabbed Mike, demanding who they were working for. After a brief fight, Luke threatened to shove the two snakes down Mike's throat if he didn't give up his boss' name. Getting the answers he needed, Luke traveled to the Midtown office of drug kingpin Cottonmouth. Cottonmouth explained that he had sent the snakes as a test to see if Luke was worthy of a position in his organization's hierarchy. Luke, suspicious that the he**in used to frame him and send him to prion came from Cottonmouth's organization, accepted the job, reasoning that he would have a better chance at clearing his name if he was on the inside. For his fist mission, Luke was sent to retrieve a shipment of he**in that was stolen by Boss Morgan's gang. Luke succeeded and was fully welcomed into Cottonmouth's organization. Over the following days, Cottonmouth's diminutive assistant Mr. Slick showed Luke the ins and outs of the operation. During this time, Luke hoped to find records of Cottonmouth's dealings that could clear his name but to no avail. Growing increasingly frustrated by his lack of progress, Luke resolved to call the cops, figuring that maybe they could find the records or at the very least shut the operation down. Cottonmouth learned of Luke's betrayal and attacked him. During the fight, Mr. Slick was accidentally knocked out the window and plummeted thirty five stories to his death. Distraught, Cottonmouth surrendered. Luke demanded Cottonmouth show him his records, a request Cottonmouth laughed at. Cottonmouth told Luke that Mr. Slick, who had a photographic memory, was his records. Luke knocked Cottonmouth out and called the police to have him arrested. When the Thing temporarily lost his superhuman powers, Cage was hired to replace him in the Fantastic Four, but his tenure proved brief after the Puppet Master took control of him to fight his new teammates. Having obtained proof of Cage's innocence in his original drug charges, the criminal Bushmaster abducted Burstein and Temple. Bushmaster used their safety and his hope of acquittal to blackmail Cage into abducting Detective Misty Knight, who humiliated Bushmaster in an earlier encounter. Cage's efforts led to a fight with Knight's boyfriend, the martial artist Iron Fist. Upon learning of Cage's situation, Iron Fist and Knight helped him defeat Bushmaster and rescue his friends. Cleared of criminal charges, Power Man legally changed his name to "Lucas Cage". He briefly worked for Misty Knight and Colleen Wing's detective agency, Nightwing Restorations, but soon elected to join Iron Fist in a two-man team, Heroes for Hire, founded by attorney Jeryn Hogarth and staffed by administrative wunderkind Jennie Royce. Although the streetwise Power Man and the unworldly Iron Fist seem to have little in common, they soon become the best of friends. Power Man and Iron Fist achieved great success with Heroes for Hire, earning an international reputation and fighting a wide variety of criminals. During this time, Luke briefly dated New York socialite and model Harmony Young. After a day of working as a Hero for Hire, Luke went out to go on a date with Misty Knight but she did not show up. Luke went to the police station and after getting the information out of a criminal, discovered that Misty and other heroes around the city were disappearing. Luke went to her apartment, but was accidentally attacked by Cyclops and then intentionally attacked by a group of former foes. Luke escaped this group but was then caught off guard, knocked unconscious, and brought to a mysterious island. However, Luke woke up and escaped just before getting there and swam to the island. He was chased by his kidnappers Mr. Lion and Mr. Tiger, who pursued him through the jungle and eventually caught Luke again after he fell unconscious after smelling some hallucinogenic flowers. Professor Soos revealed himself as the man behind this and the heroes had been kidnapped for the purposes of fighting in a tournament to find a person skilled enough to fight the professor himself. Only Luke successfully defeated the professor's creations and as a "reward" faced Professor Soos himself. Professor Soos was initially winning, however, Luke knocked out Soos. Cage also befriended Jessica Jones, a.k.a. Knightress, a young woman whose super-strength and unconventional style matched his own. Downfall of Heroes for Hire began when the mysterious government agency S.M.I.L.E. manipulated Power Man and Iron Fist into the employment of Consolidated Conglomerates, Inc., which eventually framed Cage for the apparent murder of Iron Fist, causing Cage to become a fugitive. A fugitive again, Cage broke contact with his New York friends and relocated to Chicago, but, with Hogarth's help, he was cleared of criminal charges when Iron Fist turned up alive. While staying in Chicago, Cage abandoned his Power Man guise and began operating as the plainclothes Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. During his stay, he befriended Detective Dakota North and fought Bushmasters son Cruz, saving Burstein's wife Emma. During his fight with the Bushmasters, Cage's powers were augmented further by exposure to the Power Man virus. While Cage tried to locate his surviving family members with the aid of Dakota North, his brother kept moving his father around to keep Cage away from them. James, Jr., was eventually recruited by the criminal Corporation, whose power-enhancing scientist Doctor Karl Malus mutated him into the superhuman Coldfire. As Coldfire, James, Jr., hoped to be a match for his brother, who he regarded as a threat. Though James, Jr. worked with the Corporation quite willingly, Malus had James, Sr. held hostage as extra insurance of Coldfire's cooperation. When Cage learned the Corporation was holding his family, he invaded their headquarters and battled Coldfire. The brothers ultimately joined forces to rescue their father from Malus, and Coldfire sacrificed himself to destroy the Corporation's headquarters. Cage returned to New York and, deciding his heart was no longer in superheroics, became co-owner of the Gem Theater with his friend D.W. Griffith. Even an invitation from Iron Fist to join a new and expanded Heroes for Hire failed to interest him; yet when the Master of the World tried to recruit Cage as a spy within Iron Fist's team, destroying Cage's theater in the process, a curious Cage played along. Cage joined Heroes for Hire and served with them for some time while reporting to the Master. Cage began to sympathize with the more benevolent aspects of the Master's goals, but in the end, Cage could neither betray Iron Fist nor reconcile himself to the tremendous loss of life the Master's plans of conquest will entail, and he helped Heroes for Hire destroy the Master of the World's plans. Cage remained with the group thereafter, and dated a fellow member, the She-Hulk. When the Stark-Fujikawa Corporation bought out Heroes for Hire, Cage and Ant-Man were fired because of their prison records, and the rest of the team quit in protest. Deciding that a return to basics was in order, he re-established his Hero for Hire activities and soon learned that, despite his international fame, he was almost forgotten on the streets where he originally made his reputation. He invested his money in a bar and set about ridding his immediate neighborhood of criminal elements, deciding that the business of world-saving was best left to others. After a sexual encounter with a drunken Jessica Jones, now a private investigator, Cage's life was briefly thrown into disarray by Jones' reaction to the incident. The two made peace while working as bodyguards for Matt Murdock. Cage extended emotional support to Jones when she was forced to revisit past abuses by the villainous Purple Man, and Cage's feelings for her grew. After Jones revealed that she was pregnant from their tryst, she and Cage moved in together Soon afterward, Jones became a superhuman consultant with the Daily Bugle. After she was attacked by the Green Goblin during a Bugle investigation, Cage, helped by Spider-Man, deliberately attacked Norman Osborn in order to provoke him into revealing he was the Goblin. At some point after this, Nick Fury asked Cage for a favor. He and a number of other super heroes including: Spider-Man, Daredevil, Wolverine, Captain America, and the Black Widow were asked to travel to Latveria to help Fury overthrow the government of Lucia von Bardas, whom be discovered to be financing a number of technologically-based super-criminals in the United States. Recognizing the potential terrorist ramifications of such an act, Fury decided to eliminate the threat despite being told to leave it alone by the American President. Unbeknownst to the assembled heroes, Fury planned to make an example of von Bardas and brought down Castle Doom onto the city below, killing an untold number of people. Knowing that the superheroes could never condone such an action, he had the previous two days' activities erased from their minds. On the year anniversary of their attack on Latveria, Cage and Jessica Jones came home to their Harlem apartment to find von Bardas, who survived their attack, though now horribly disfigured, there waiting for him. She then blasted Cage with a concentrated energy beam which leveled his entire apartment as an act of revenge. Both Cage and Jones survived the blast, though Cage sustained a great deal of damage to his internal organs and lay in a coma. This was further compounded by the fact that Cage's unbreakable skin made it impossible for doctors to operate on him. Realizing that the attack on Cage was possibly a retaliation for their Secret War in Latveria, Fury visited Cage in hospital. Captain America also arrived and got into an argument with Fury, having regained his memories about their actions in Latveria some months previously. The two men and Danny Rand then took the unconscious Cage and removed him from the hospital to ensure his safety from further acts of retribution. When Jessica returned to Cage's hospital room, she found it empty and the hospital was under heavy attack. Jessica spent the next several days searching for her boyfriend with the help of Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich. They finally found him at the Night Nurse's medical clinic, a place where super heroes can secretly go to receive medical attention. Rand brought Cage there after Fury told him to bring his friend someplace safe. Nick Fury then appeared to both a now-conscious Cage and Jessica and apologized for messing up their lives. He vowed that he would no longer interfere with them, or anyone else, and told them that they were good people. Cage was recruited by Captain America into a new incarnation of the Avengers after a massive prison break on Ryker's Island and proving himself to Cap. Jessica and Cage are now the parents of a daughter and have gotten married. At the start of the Civil War Luke sent both Jessica and his daughter to Canada to avoid registration, though he himself refused to leave. S.H.I.E.L.D. forces came to arrest him at the stroke of midnight despite not having used his powers since the Act went into effect. He fought his way to safety with the help of Captain America, the Falcon, and Iron Fist (posing as Daredevil), and was a dedicated member of Captain America's "Secret Avengers" until Cap's surrender to U.S. authorities. After the events of the superhuman Civil War, Jessica returned with their baby from Canada due to horrific death of their good friend Captain America. Luke Cage and Spider-Man rounded up some of the remaining unregistered superhumans; Iron Fist (Daniel Rand), Spider-Woman (who was really the Skrull queen Veranke), Wolverine, and Doctor Strange to form a new team of New Avengers. Taking refugee in Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Cage tasked the New Avengers with opposing the numerous escapees from the Raft prison while uncovering and exposing the truth behind the Raft breakout, the corruption in S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, the Civil War, and finding the connection between each of them. Cage and his comrades were often opposed by authorities and the Mighty Avengers for operating as illegal, unregistered superhumans. These actions caused him to develop a strong sense of caution, and even distrust when associating with registered super heroes such as Falcon. He initially found great difficulty trusting Clint Barton (formerly Hawkeye) for wanting to join the New Avengers' cause due to the former costumed crime fighter's original ties to the founding Avengers and why he wanted to work with a group of strangers instead of his friends. Doctor Strange however, proved to Cage Barton's loyalty and trustworthiness causing Cage to accept him as teammate and a friend. Cage proved to be an effective field leader, but was sometimes confronted with difficult situations that required additional tactical knowledge to determine the course of action. The New Avengers rescue mission in Japan and the time misplaced Invaders are two examples of this. He and Jessica eventually named their newborn daughter "Danielle" after his best friend Daniel Rand, whom they also declared as her godfather. Danielle and Jessica are, and continue to be, Cage's inspiration to his super-heroic activities.