Marvel has announced via Fast Company that Luke Cage and Danny Rand will be gracing the comic page together once again in Power Man and Iron Fist. The original “Heroes For Hire” will be brought back to basics by the creative team of David F. Walker (Cyborg, Shaft) and Sanford Greene (Runaways) in early 2016.
With the Luke Cage Netflix series ramping up production, and Iron Fist’s in the not too distant future, All New All Different Marvel is the perfect time to bring this classic duo back together. The creative team of Walker and Greene appear to be up to the challenge of bringing Luke and Danny into the forefront of the audience’s thoughts, as the opportunity to work on a Luke Cage and Iron Fist comic is something both Walker and Greene have waited a long time for.
As Walker told Fast Company:
“About a year ago or so, [Marvel editor] Axel Alonso asked me to list all the characters that I wanted to work with the most,” Walker told Fast Company. “He said, ‘Don’t be limited—go as big as you want.’ At the very top of that list were Luke Cage and Danny Rand, and I put in parentheses after their names: ‘as a team.’ Because this was something that I’d wanted to see for years and years. That particular duo, they’re so iconic. As a writer, you love interesting characters, and those two characters are so fun to delve into. They are the ultimate bromantic couple.”
Then Greene would later add:
“Growing up as an African-American kid, you identify with these characters. Luke was one of those characters that impacted me. And it was always a dream project to get to work on him. It was the cherry on top to find out it would be Iron Fist as well.”
Not to be lost in the shuffle of the announcement is that Power Man and Iron Fist creators David F. Walker, and Sanford Greene are another high profile black creative team working on another of the highest profile black characters at Marvel. Today’s news comes off the heels of the announcemeant that MacArthur Genius Award Recipient Ta-Neshi Coates would be writing Black Panther with industry stalwart Brian Stelfreeze providing the art. Diversity remains an important issue, but to see Marvel go out and attract talented minority creators to bring iconic minority characters to the page is a positive step in the right direction.
Power Man and Iron Fist are back, and it will be exciting to see what this talented creative team has in store for readers. Stay tuned to The Marvel Report for all the new information leading up to the series as 2016 draws nearer,
ABOUT LUKE CAGE AND IRON FIST: Luke Cage is one of the most popular African-American characters in comics. He debuted in Luke Cage: Hero For Hire in 1972. After a 49 issue run, and with the book earmarked for cancellation Marvel added Iron Fist to the title. The original Power Man and Iron Fist kicked off with issue 50, and ran until issue 125 in 1986. Despite multiple attempts at reinventing the character through the 1990s, it wasn’t until Brian Michael Bendis took the reins of the character that he turned into one of the most popular Avengers of the past decade with his wife Jessica always by his side (. He was most recently seen as the team leader in Mighty Avengers. He is known for his unbreakable skin, his devotion to friends and family, being husband to Jessica Jones, and being both a Hero For Hire and one half of Power Man and Iron Fist
Danny Rand, better known as Iron Fist, debuted in the pages of Marvel Premiere #18 in 1974. He had his own solo series for 15 issues when he made the jump over to share Cage’s book. Rand receives his powers as The Iron Fist of the mystical city of K’un L’un. He is also a skilled martial artist, and inherited The Rand Corporation from his father. Following the end of the original Power Man and Iron Fist, several attempts to garner interest in the character fell flat (including a new Heroes For Hire in 1997). It wasn’t until Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja unleashed The Immortal Iron Fist in 2007 that the character was elevated. From there he joined Luke Cage in the Avengers, and writer/artist Kaare Andrews recently finished a 12 issue series called Iron Fist: The Living Weapon. He is well known for his money, his sense of humor, being a Hero For Hire, and being one half of Power Man and Iron Fist.