Cage [Hardcover]

Brian Azzarello (Author), Richard Corben (Author), Jose Villarrubia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2002

Investigating the murder of a teenage girl, Cage suddenly learns that a three-way gang war is underway for control of the turf he calls home. And what better way to disrupt the stalemate than offering his services to the highest bidder?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eisner Award-winning writer Azzarello (100 Bullets) and the legendary underground and erotic comics artist Corben (Vic and Blood) have been tapped to revamp Marvel's 1970s black superhero Luke Cage for the age of hip-hop. They have transformed Cage-who's bullet-proof, according to urban myth-from a disco-shirt-wearing "hero for hire" into a brooding, ex-con, gangsta antihero. A young black girl is accidentally killed in a shootout between drug-dealing gangs in Harlem, and her devastated mom offers Cage her savings to find the killers. Cage engages the usual low-life information sources (e.g., basketball-playing street thugs, a ghetto barmaid, a crooked cop, a scumbag politician and a Mafia boss) as the plot grows more confusing with each page. The creators solve that problem by adding a generous helping of vividly illustrated violent bloodletting. Cage is caught in a somewhat mystifying struggle (apparently politicians are after ghetto real estate) that serves as a prelude to a stupendous shootout. Azzarello offers a serviceable albeit incomprehensible plot that's basically about confrontation and the anticipation of confrontation. But the blighted urban malaise of Corben's illustrations and Villarrubia's moody saturated color somehow manage to bring this weary, over-the-top crime melodrama to life.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics; First Edition edition (December 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785109668
• ISBN-13: 978-0785109662
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 7.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Azzarello has done much better, March 7, 2004

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cage (Paperback)

100 Bullets writer Brian Azzarello was handed the task of revamping Marvel's Luke Cage AKA Power Man, Hero for Hire; a 70's super hero into the modern day and slapping the book with Marvel's MAX title (basically the equivalent to an R-rated movie). While the art by Richard Corben is superb, Azzarello's writing is a surprising disappointment. Cage has been turned from a just trying to do the right thing reluctant hero into a gangsta thug just trying to get paid. He's not much caring about the job he has accepted (avenging the death of a slain girl) and comes off more like a gangster rapper than a super hero. Brian Michael Bendis, who has given Luke Cage a great characterization in Alias and Daredevil, should have been the scribe here, and even though Azzarello is a superb writer in his own right, Cage just comes off as pointless. All in all, Cage is a very disappointing read.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Superb art compromised by a horrible story, August 28, 2003

By 

Babytoxie (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cage (Hardcover)

I was really looking forward to the return/revamp of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire. Maybe now we'd get a more serious take on a character that was tailor-made for social commentary. I mean, come on: a "hero in the hood" who provides his services to anyone who can afford it... why WOULDN'T there be some good potential here? Unfortunately, writer Brian Azzarello coasts through this story, giving us an unimpressive Cage who is basically just another thug; albeit, a bullet-proof one. In order to get offically "grim and gritty", Azzarello fills this tired tale with attitude, bullets, blood, the Mafia, gangstas, nudity, sex, and more oddball characters than a Quentin Tarrantino movie (not a good thing), apparently hoping that this sensory overload will distract the reader from the fact that the storyline is rarely coherent. What begins with Cage's half-hearted investigation into the accidental death of a child turns first into a turf war, and then into a story of personal validation for Cage. So what about the child? What about the child's mother? Mr. Azzarello, was there a point to this story? Was there any closure intended? The only good aspect of this book is the artwork of the great Richard Corben. This guy has got to demand better material from the publisher. He's one of the masters of comic art, doing work for BOTH Marvel and DC, yet he gets garbage like this. GIVE THIS MAN THE RESPECT HE DESERVES!!!

In closure, the art may make this book look tempting, but don't bother with it. You'll be glad you didn't!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the CAGE of Old, September 27, 2003

By 

Hassan Galadari (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cage (Paperback)

Luke Cage is a comic book character that has a big influence in a lot of different mediums. To name just one of them, actor Nicolas Cage (whose real neame is Nicolas Coppola) changed his last name to Cage after the comic book here. That example just goes a long way to show that the character has been a power in a menagerie of things.

Cage as he is now, however, is never like that when he was first introduced all those years back. While he was that colorful character with his yellow shirt and going by the moniker of Power Man, he comes on as a man who's just a thug for hire. Not the Hero for Hire that he was first known to be. Now he's more of a 50 Cent, than a Luke Cage. A hero that was known for his dignity, strength and integrity.

The story introduces us to this "new" Cage as he accepts work to avenge the death of a woman's kid. He does so very reluctantly even though the woman gives him all the money that she has and which she saved to get her Child to college. Not only does he rap at her that the money is too little. He accepts it without looking back! Now I can understand a man has to live and pay the bills. I just won't accept that the guy should be called a hero for doing just a measly act like that.

I don't know where does Marvel draw the line of making its characters "real". But writer Brian Azzarello just screws up more as the comic book continues. The story is incoherent and not very smooth in terms of transition from one part to another. While the art was simply short of magnificent, the story just lagged with how Cage tries to bring all things to work his way and get all the cash while he's at it. Azzarello just continues to kill the story with each passing caption. The character in his new rendition has cameo appearances in both Daredevil and Alias, both of which written by Brian Bendis, but none shows the weasel, P.I.M.P. character that Azzarello tries to make him be.

The story is very stereotypical in showing African Americans as people in the hood out to get some. Cage was never about that. Cagem, the Falcon the Black Panther were Black comic book characters that people looked up to. Cage, it seems, has fallen from grace. I wonder whether Nic Cage will think of changing his name soon.