With Netflix’s Iron Fist series debuting today, we thought it would be appropriate to take a look at the Luke Cage & Iron Fist team from the beginning.

Luke Cage debuted in the first issue of his self-titled series in June 1972. The character was conceived as a “black” Captain America set in New York’s inner city. Luke Cage confronted gangs, drugs, and youth crime that was a reflection of 1970’s New York. As Marvel’s attempt to reach out to different audiences, Luke Cage was heavily based on the film Shaft (1971) and carried many of the well-intentioned stereotypes of the “blaxploitation” genre. Created by writer Archie Goodwin and artists John Romita Sr. and George Tuska, Luke Cage was the first mainstream black super-hero to receive his own comic (Luke Cage was preceded by Marvel’s Black Panther, and DC’s John Stewart Green Lantern).

Marvel continued to follow cinema trends with the creation of Iron Fist by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in Marvel Premiere #15 (May/1974). Iron Fist was based on a concept by Thomas after watching a Kung Fu movie that featured a segment called the “Ceremony of the Iron Fist” and combined this with the origin of Amazing Man from the 1940’s. After his initial debut, Iron Fist began to appear in the black and white Marvel magazine, Deadly Fists of Kung Fu, which firmly set the character amongst the Kung-Fu phenomenon. He received his self-titled series in Nov. 1975, which ran for only 15 issues before cancellation.

By the late 1970’s both Luke Cage and Iron Fist were failing titles, so they were combined into a single series “Power Man and Iron Fist” beginning with issue 50 of Luke Cage’s series, after their first meeting in Power Man # 48 (Dec. 1977). The pairing was welcomed by fans and saw a continued run until issue #125 in 1986, which saw Iron Fist’s death.

Later revived in the 1990’s, the Luke Cage and Iron Fist team has evolved through several series. Most recently, Luke Cage and Iron Fist appear in the Sanford Greene and David Walker 2016 series.

The Netflix Iron Fist series aims to merge Iron Fist’s mystical elements with more character driven and reality based heroes that have become the hallmark of the Netflix’s Marvel series. It will be interesting to see how these elements come together and how these will contribute to the Defenders series to debut later this year.

Joshua H. Stulman

Owner, Brooklyncomicshop.com