Update, November 24, 2021:
Ho Che Anderson announced on Instagram that the series (which had been delayed to December 29) has been canceled. “No easy way to say this,” he wrote. “I got the word ‘Luke Cage’ got cancelled this morning, one month away from its premiere. The scripts are all written. The first issue is done and is a thing of absolute beauty. Issues 2 and 3 are deep into production. Covers have been drawn. People have gotten excited, and with good reason as far as I’m concerned. I remain as proud of this as any work I’ve ever done. Maybe someday it will be seen. But as of today this comic is dead in the water. If you want answers I am not the man to ask. My heart is broken. I’m taking a social media break to lick my wounds. Somewhere god is having a chuckle. Enjoy it.”
Original story is as follows:
The story will see Harlem’s bulletproof hero investigating the murder of a Black man by a police officer, and “a shadowy rogue group named the Regulators [who] are terrorizing ordinary citizens in New York City.” Cage will team-up with Elektra (in her current guise as Daredevil) against Mayor Wilson Fisk, who is planning to use the Regulators “to tighten his grip on the city.”
Anderson said, “I can’t express how excited I am to be doing a project with Marvel, and about the level of talent they’ve lined up to work on it with me. I have been given the freedom to explore a subject I’m so passionate about through the lens of characters I’ve loved since I was a kid, and I fully intend to work overtime to make sure the results are worthy of the trust I’ve been granted. Fortunately, the heavy lifting will be accomplished by my incredible collaborators who’ll make me look better than I am!”
This will be the first Luke Cage comic since “Luke Cage: Everyman,” Anthony Del Col and Jahnoy Lindsay’s digital-first miniseries from 2018 (the same year the character’s Netflix series was canceled.) This is also Anderson’s second project at Marvel, after this year’s anthology “Marvel’s Voices: Legacy.” The British-born Canadian cartoonist and novelist (who was named by his parents after North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, and Che Guevara), is best known for his 1993 biography of Martin Luther King Jr., “King,” as well as the 1996 Milestone series “Wise Son: The White Wolf,” 2005’s horror tale “Scream Queen,” and 2018’s religious sci-fi story “Godhead.”
“Luke Cage: City of Fire” #1 will be released in October.
