Issue(s): Power Man & Iron Fist #83
Cover Date: Jul 82
Title: "War without end!"
Credits:
Mary Jo Duffy - Writer
Denys Cowan - Penciler
Carl Potts & Joe Chidodo - Inker
Denny O'Neil - Editor

Review/plot:
Warhawk returns...

...and puts Iron Fist in the hospital.

Luke Cage hunts him down...

...and kicks the crap out of him.

It's worth noting that Luke and Danny aren't really equal partners; Luke is much more powerful than Danny. That comes across in a lot of Duffy's issues, but especially in this one.

This is pretty much the last we'll see of Warhawk.

Meanwhile, Noah is trying to set Luke up with Claire.

Noah also reveals that Warhawk was given his powers by Noah, through an earlier version of the process that made Luke Power Man, while Noah was an army doctor during Vietnam.

A letter in issue #87 points out that earlier Warhawk appearances had him referring to "The Agency" as the group that created him, but neither this issue or the response to the letter in issue #87 attempt to explain that.

The art in this issue is particularly sketchy.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• There's a brief recap of Cage's origin from Hero For Hire #1 during Warhawk's origin story.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Denys Cowan would become much more of a fan favorite with the Black Panther mini-series and DC's Question.

Is the statement by Luke in the last panel meant to be ambiguous?

It sure comes accross that way to me.

I don't get your comment about these two not being 'equal partners'. You can be equal and not have the same powers.

It's not that they don't have the same powers. Danny often has to be rescued by Luke, or has to hold his own fighting one guy while Luke takes care of his own opponent and then turns to help Danny beat his, etc.. Power Man is written to just be much more powerful than Iron Fist. In theory, Iron Fist's more specialized abilities should find occasions to work where Power Man's brute force doesn't, but in practice it rarely works out that way in the books. I don't have a problem with that, either; i'm just observing.

It may come across that way - and certainly does in most of the PMIF issues - but I don't really picture Luke as being more powerful than Danny.

He is just written as if he were, much as Wolverine is written as if he were a particularly powerful character despite objectively being in the lower end of the scale.

I guess someone who read little of the Iron Fist solo stories might feel differently, though.

I have to agree with Luis Dantas. Luke was just a tough guy with a whole lot of attitude. That was his appeal, he was 'Shaft' set to a comic book. But, when you objectively looked at his powers/abilities (compared to Spider Man or any X-Man), Luke was really not that impressive. Now, this vague, mystical 'Iron Fist' power had the potential to far outshine Luke's steel hard skin, depending on who was the artist du jour. That, plus having lots of money at his disposal, made Danny a fun foil for a poor, black superhero, IMHO. It's a step up from a Batman/Robin duo. They were equals in terms of their business relationship and their respect for each other.

Ideally Luke Cage should be very good on defense (since he's mostly invulnerable), but not so hot on offense: he can take out street thugs easily, but there should be a lot of even mid-tier supervillains he can't take down. Iron Fist should be the sword to Cage's shield. He should be able to damage things Cage can't.

It's OK for them to fight villains that one guy can handle alone, but the other can't. Ideally though, they should be fighting opponents whom neither can fight alone, and they need to be a team. Otherwise, why waste an entire issue on it? On the other hand, I wouldn't mind the brief appearance of various "jobbers" - low level villains without much fan appeal - that one or the other best in a few panels/pages while they set up the main plot.

this issue probably contributed a lot to IF being the junior partner to Power man. I like your sword and shield analogy, Chris. The Iron Fist of IF should be his one asset that he has over Cage. But here it is less powerful than Luke. Which is odd because IF has taken out Warhawk in the past with his good ole bad ass kung fu.

People probably forget, but as implied by the posters above, Cage wasn't that strong in the old days, I think the 80s strength chart had him at Spiderman's level, in the modern Bendis era he seems more like The Thing.

@OrangeDuke- According to the listings from the 1980's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Luke Cage/Power Man was able to lift (press) up to 3 tons. Spider-Man was noted as being able to lift (press) 10 tons. As an aside, in the earl.y days of the Fantastic Four, the Thing was "only" able to lift 5 tons. With his ongoing mutation, however, Ben's strength increased to the point where he hoist up to 85 tons.

@OrangeDuke- Please forgive my grammatical errors in my previous. As I write this I'm watching to see if the Titans can hang on to make the playoffs. Priorities, right?

Previous POST. I'll be back after the game!

Here's a link to part of the chart I was referring to, things changed more than I remember:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hHVSR-57jpA/UXHgrja53lI/AAAAAAAAD4A/SvW92CqvJxM/s1600/hvy+med.jpg

I'm not usually one to take part in "X is stronger than Y" debates but what on Zenn-La is the Silver Surfer doing in Spider-Man's strength category? He's Namor level, unless he powers himself up with cosmic energy and goes the full Hulk.

The chart is questionable, to be sure, but I only put it up to demonstrate the idea that at the time people though of Cage as a lower level strong guy. I doubt the actual comics support this actually, but I do think people thought he was weaken then than they seem to today.