Issue(s): Power Man & Iron Fist #51, Power Man and Iron Fist #52, Power Man and Iron Fist #53
Cover Date: Jun-Oct 78
Title: "A night on the town" / "A nod is as good as a wink to a dead super-hero...!" / "Death-plunge!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Ed Hannigan - Script on #52
Michael Zeck / Sal Buscema - Penciler
Ernie Chan / Ricardo Villamonte / Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
While Luke gives Danny a tour of the city he grew up in, they become wrapped up in a plot of Nightshade's, who is using robots to consolidate power in the ghetto.

Nightshade is a bio-chemist, but like all Marvel bio-chemists, she's very good at building evil robots as well.

The crime boss Morgan shows up as well. He attacks Joy Meachum thinking she might have something to do with the robot attacks. Iron Fist prevents the attack, and Morgan reasons that the Meachums probably didn't have anything to do with the robots anyway. Iron Fist uses the opportunity to force a reconciliation with Joy.

Misty goes undercover (as a prostitute again) to infiltrate Nightshade's gang, but she gets caught. Cage gets defeated fighting a stronger model of Nightshade's robots as well.

Luke and Misty are trapped in a car and run into the Hudson River. They do manage to escape, but Misty gets sick from being in the river. Luke and Danny team-up to defeat Nightshade and her bots. There's a good scene at the end where Nightshade blinds the heroes but Iron Fist is able to take her out anyway because he has the Blindfighting proficiency.

This isn't a great follow-up for Nightshade. In her Cap appearance, she was interesting because she was a genius with a child-like mentality. In this story, she's a lot more of a typical scheming villain.

Here's a rare interaction between D.A. Blake Tower and Luke Cage, of interest due to Tower's treatment of Cage in the final issue of this series.

In issue #51, Luke brings flowers to the woman, Harmony, that he met at the party last issue.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - formative Power Man/Iron Fist story

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Issue #51 has the Heroes For Hire talking to a lot of informants, most of which were seen in Power Man #18 (no footnote), and also Big Ben Donovan.
  

• When first punched by one of Nightshade's robots, Luke thinks that he hasn't been hit that hard since he fought Bushmaster in Power Man #49.
  
• Joy Meachum has hated Iron Fist since he was involved in her father's death in Marvel Premiere #18
  
• Iron Fist learns to defeat Nightshade's bigger robots using "the test of one" which he apparently learned in Marvel Premiere #15, although i don't really remember it.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

although shes a good character, I kinda wish Nightshade wouldnt have appeared after the first cap story. it was a spectacular suicide.

The robots were called "Cybernauts", also the name of recurring villains in the 1960s Avengers and 1970s New Avengers British TV shows.

The title of #52 is a reference to an early 1970s album by the rock band Faces, then featuring Rod Stewart.

The letters column in #53 states that the plot thread with Alan Cavanaugh, the red-haired IRA guy, will not be picked up again.

Mike Zeck was announced as the permanent replacement for Byrne, but evidently that didn't happen.

FOOM#19 announced a possible crossover with this title and Ms. Marvel, but Claremont's leaving probably nixed that.

Actually, Harmony first appeared at Jeryn's party in #50.

Thanks, Matthew. The MCP doesn't list here as appearing there but i agree it's her. I've added a scan of her and listed her as a character on that entry.

Just read these again. Good issues with fun pacing. would have been interesting to see Clairmont on this series further, even if robots in the ghetto didnt really work.

the robot that Nightshade develops is named RU Rossum, and is a homage to the novel by Czech writer, Karel Capek, RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots), a sci-fi work which invented the word "robot" into the global lexicon.

So Nightshade was surprisingly well read in sci-fi for a scientist.

This being the Marvel Universe, maybe that stuff just *is* science. This a universe where Dracula and Frankenstein are nonfiction.