Aw, but Luke's reading about a Cap favorite: versus the Phoenix, who was Baron Zemo's son, from
Captain America #168! The Spidey headline in the
Bugle probably refers to
Amazing Spider-Man #127 or
#128; and all three of those were on racks a couple months before this issue! From 1973,
Luke Cage, Power Man #17, "Rich Man: Iron Man--Power Man: Thief!" Written by Len Wein, pencils by George Tuska, inks by Billy Graham. Cover by Gil Kane and Billy Graham.
Luke is irritated not so much by bad press as no press, and smashes a hole in another desk considering what could improve his
Q-rating: maybe a better name than "Hero for Hire," maybe? He doesn't have much time to consider it, as he's offered a job by Orville Smythe, on behalf of Stark Industries! The job is to test security, by trying to steal a new deep-space suit; but to keep things authentic, no one would know except them and Tony Stark himself. You already see where this is going, but the check in Luke's hands has too many zeroes in it for him to focus.
Luke of course ends up punching it out with Iron Man, eventually calling the fight for security: if he couldn't get it, who could? Iron Man's dismayed to hear about this 'test' set up by someone who didn't work for Stark Industries; and Luke realizes they've been had. Smythe steals the suit and an experimental "sky-skate" that looks like a jet-propelled minivan; but Luke gives chase and stops him: Smythe takes a pretty big fall, and I don't know if he survived or not. We
don't see him again, but is there anybody at Marvel named Smythe that isn't a bad guy? As typical for his stories at the time, Luke comes away from it possibly more in the hole than he started: Iron Man offers to reimburse him, minus damages...so many damages. And subplots continue as well, with Luke receiving a mysterious unmarked package, which is probably either a bomb or
Gwyneth Paltrow's head. Still, this would be the first issue with Luke using the name "Power Man," which, um, is kind of given away on the cover...and the title page...and the indica.
1 comment:
I’m guessing historically the name “Smythe” just lends itself to negativity/negative connotations. I’ve yet to ever come across someone named Smythe that wasn’t a total douche canoe, but I’m open to being proven wrong if even one example of a good person named Smythe exists in real life. I’m pretty sure there isn’t one in the world of fiction.
Luke’s definitely got a point, but to be fair he was still fairly early in his superhero career, so yeah, probably likely to make the headlines unless it was in a negative light. This also goes to show you how certain white writers relied HEAVILY on stereotypes and blaxploitation movies on how they wrote black characters, particularly their dialogue. I’m glad things have improved a lot since then.
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