Issue(s): Power Man #17
Cover Date: Feb 74
Title: "Rich man: Iron Man -- Power Man: Thief!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Billy Graham - Inker

Review/plot:
Power Man is tricked into invading Stark Industries and fighting Iron Man...

...so that a thief can steal an experimental suit of armor, but the main concern here is that Luke Cage decides to stop going by "Hero For Hire" and start calling himself "Power Man" in a bid to get better press.

He comes by the name by thinking to himself "Black Power, Man!", after rejecting 'Ace of Spades' as "too ethnic"!

Cage delivers some Shaft-like one-liners as he beats up Stark's security guards and the armored thief.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - Luke Cage changes his name (and his book's title) to Power Man.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Cage's decision to try and get a more super-hero like name is based on positive write ups in the Daily Bugle about Captain America's recent defeat of the Phoenix (Captain America #168) and Spider-Man's fight with the Vulture (Amazing Spider-Man #127-128). Both need to take place in the recent past so that it makes sense for newspaper articles to have been written about them (It's also worth noting that despite Cage's anger, it doesn't look like the article about Spider-Man is a favorable one). For Iron Man's placement, a caption says Tony Stark was "summoned back from Detroit on emergency business after his battle with the diabolical Dr. Spectrum".

References:

• Cage's girlfriend Claire discovered that Cage was an escaped convict in Hero For Hire #14.
  
• Iron Man fought Dr. Spectrum in Iron Man #66.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

According to Tony Isabella, Len Wein didn't believe Luke Cage had super-strength, resulting in some rather strange scenes showing Power Man getting thrown around by nobodies.

Foom #2 stated that "with #16, much of Cage's jivin' slang will be eliminated".