(This review may contain spoilers).
Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars. I did think Luke Cage sounded like an interesting character from what I read of him previously… but I was a bit disappointed not to see a whole lot of depth to what he was doing even in the second set of comics.
I did think it was good to get something of a feel for Luke’s past and although I did feel a lot of sympathy for him, I was confused about why he was persecuted by one of the prison guards.
It was good to see Luke’s friendship with Iron Fist and although the first set of comics don’t focus entirely on him, I did think he had some good one-liners. Plus, I thought it was really good how he had to face an enemy where his brute strength actually did very little.
The artwork in the first set of comics was more light-hearted than the second set, I felt, but it was a bit disappointing to see that both sets seemed to focus mainly on the fighting and less on the interactions between the characters. I did like seeing Danny with Joy, though, even though I hadn’t seen any of their previous interactions.
The second set of comics seemed to have a lot of potential and I did like seeing Luke with his wife and daughter. I had a lot of sympathy for Jess in not wanting to risk anything happening to her husband and for him to come home safely… at the same time, I could understand where Luke was coming from. It was nice to see a glimpse back into his past and that he wasn’t as cold-hearted as the ‘hero for hire’ background made him appear to be.
I was disappointed not to see more of Luke interacting with the other Avengers. It seemed like they weren’t a team in the same way they had been in the other Avengers issues I read.
I thought the artwork for the second set of comics fit quite well with the storyline, being quite a gritty arc. I thought it was interesting to see how Leodis was dragged into doing the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing. That’s something I would have liked to see dealt with more.
I don’t think I’ll actively look for more comic books focusing on Luke Cage… but I’d be happy to see him in future comic books.
Ink of Blood 