It’s a bad day for Luke Cage in Luke Cage, Hero For Hire. Issue #16 starts Cage fighting Shades and Comanche, two thugs who know his checkered patch. And why are they named that? Because they respectively dress like a stereotypical Native American and wear sunglasses.
Cage has to begrudgingly help out these two criminals, as they can help him clear his girlfriend who has been charged with murder and is kidnapped by the real murderer. And he also has to stop this blade wielding, v-necked outfit wearing bounty hunter named Stilleto, who wants to put him back in jail. What plagues this story is that there is so much stuff going on.
The ending literally comes to a crash, with the real murderer getting hit by a car, Cage’s girlfriend getting charges dropped, and Shades and Comanche not only going back to jail but not blowing Cage’s cover, since he saved them from Stilleto. They wind up going back to jail but are perfectly cool with that. And the issue ends teasing a brawl with Iron Man in the next issue.
Simply put, there was just way too much stuff going on in this issue. What I did like was the art by the late Billy Graham. I’m not talking about the televangelist or the self-proclaimed “superstar” of WWF fame.
Ridiculously Awesome 