Power Man #28-31 (1975-1976): 1st Piranha Jones

Don McGregor could write Marvel’s black characters.  He proved that with his work on Jungle Action, and this is probably as good as Cage’s first solo book ever got.  It’s not that these are great comics, it’s that they’re great Power Man comics. This book was usually in the low-to-below average range.

Luke is hired the Adonis Chemical Corporation to track down an employee who is suspected of industrial espionage. When he finally tracks him down, the employee is killed.  Cage figures out that the guy was actually a whistleblower who knew that Adonis was shipping experimental gasses through the ‘hood, so Cage gets mad and takes them down.

Issue #28, McGregor’s first, introduces the faulty soda machine gag, which is used well into the 1980s.  It was cute little sequences like this that defined the fan-favorite book, Power Man and Iron Fist, which was an excellent 1980s comic.  One of the best. Pencils by George Tuska.

Issue #30 introduces Piranha Jones to the Luke Cage Pantheon. He has sharp teeth. He’s up top of this post. Created by Rich Buckler and Arvell Jones. Buckler and Sal Buscema created #31.

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