CREDIT: Marvel Comics
Rating: 4.5/5 – I’m Definitely Digging This Take on Cage!
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
With the newest Marvel Netflix series Luke Cage now able to be binge watched, it makes sense for Marvel to capitalize on his popularity and release some new books and series. Although we do have Power Man and Iron Fist which I’ve really been enjoying, Marvel’s released the newest and definitely more offbeat series starring the impervious hero simply titled Cage! Cage! is written and drawn by Genndy Tartakovsky who has a long history in animation that includes creating some huge hits like Dexter’s Labratory and Samurai Jack, as well as directing the Hotel Transylvania movies. This is a pretty big win for Marvel and it’s great seeing him work on Luke Cage.
To start with what should be the obvious, this is nothing like the show. It takes place in 1977 and sees the character in his “of the time” signature yellow shirt and tiara, which of course isn’t such a signature look anymore. It embraces the times of Cage’s introduction and in the opening scene has the hero taking down a gang of rollerskating bank robbers. The story at no time takes itself seriously, but at the same time includes some serious threats that show up towards the latter part of the issue. Although there isn’t laugh out loud humor, there’s plenty of action and adventure with some tongue-in-cheek nods to the 70s that made me smile.
This book is all sorts of fun and if you’re a fan of Tartakovsky and his art style you should like this book. There’s almost no pattern to Tartakovsky’s panel layouts and that’s when he decided to use panels! There’s a few pages at the beginning of this issue where Cage is standing outside of the panels punching and kicking bank robbers residing inside the panels. This gives Cage a huge presence within the book that combined with Cage’s animated facial features and exaggerated body language all add to this book’s fantastic style.
This story is outside of current Marvel continuity, but that doesn’t mean you should let this one pass you by. Think of it as standalone and not mired in current Marvel continuity with all the Civil Wars and crossovers. Tartakovsky is a wonderful talent doing a fun and retro take on a character that is getting his well deserved time in the limelight. It is a nod to a simpler time in comics that some people just may not ‘get’, but if you do, I think you’ll definitely Dig It!
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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