A Nod Is as Good as a Wink to a Dead Superhero...!

POWER MAN AND IRON FIST — Issue No. 52, May 1978

Book: Power Man and Iron Fist

Issue No.: 52

Published: May 16, 1978

Title: “A Nod Is as Good as a Wink to a Dead Superhero...!”

Cover Price: 35¢

Format: Original paper copy

It’s not a rule, but Marvel superheroes generally have hyphenated names while DC heroes have non-hyphenated names. To quote some obvious examples, Marvel has Spider-Man and Ant-Man while DC has Superman and Batman. Given that trend, it would make sense for Power Man (AKA Luke Cage) to be Power-Man, but he usually goes hyphen-less. I say usually because the top-of-page-one title of this book reads, “Stan Lee Presents: Power-Man and Iron Fist.” Of course, he is Power Man with no hyphen on the cover and everywhere else in the book, so I guess whoever did the lettering for the top-of-page-one title didn’t get the memo.

This issue continues the story of Power Man and Iron Fist trying to get to the bottom of who is building the killer androids that have been raising heck in Harlem. The story is basically split in two, with Iron Fist running down one lead, and then Power Man running down another. Iron Fist’s section of the book is filled with plenty of kung fu fighting, plus the resolution of an old beef between him and a woman named Joy Meachum. Meachum had unfairly blamed Iron Fist for her father’s death, but the two manage to get that matter cleared up.

Then Power Man does some hard-boiled sleuthing and finds the android maker, a woman called Nightshade. Aside from building evil automatons, she has captured Power Man’s pal Misty Knight. Power Man beats up a bunch of androids, but then Nightshade sends some bigger, badder robots after him, and they manage to knock Power Man out cold. The story ends on a literal cliffhanger, with Power Man and Misty Knight trapped in a car that’s been thrown off a cliff by Nightshade’s androids and is plummeting toward the river far below.

This book continues to be a fun superhero/blaxploitation mashup, thanks to Chris Claremont’s verbose writing (verbose is a compliment when it comes to Claremont) and dynamic layouts from penciler Mike Zeck.

Next time — I’ll look at another Claremont book, X-Men!