Marvel reveals plans for a big Luke Cage 50th anniversary

Luke Cage: City of Fire #2 variant cover (Image credit: Rahzzah (Marvel Comics))

2022 will be the fiftieth anniversary of Marvel Comics' Luke Cage, and the company has big plans for the one-time Power Man.

The festivities kick-off two days early with the first issue of the Luke Cage: City of Fire limited series by writer Ho Che Anderson, and that'll be followed up in January 2022 with the Luke Cage: City of Fire #2 - which we have the first look at.

Luke Cage: City of Fire #1 primary cover (Image credit: Taurin Clarke (Marvel Comics))

Luke Cage: City of Fire #2 will be drawn by Ray Anthony-Height, creator of the Midnight Tiger series and artist on Marvel books such as Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, and X-Men: Blue.

"Luke Cage, Kingpin, Daredevil, and Elektra have been icons in my life as far back as I can remember but never did I imagine I'd ever get the opportunity to play a small role in shaping one of their adventures and contributing to their history. Yet suddenly here I am," Anderson tells Newsarama.

"The first time I wrote the names 'Luke Cage' and 'Kingpin/Wilson Fisk' in a script I broke out into a giant grin, I thought, are you kidding me?!" the writer continues. "These are some of the best toys in the business and I'm honored and excited to get to play with them, and in the character Jo Rockhead, to get to make my own contribution to the Marvel universe."

We have the first look at Jo Rockhead, who will be introduced as a villain in Luke Cage: City of Fire, designed by Farid Karami (who also draws the first issue).

Newsarama has confirmed that Luke Cage: City of Fire will be a tie-in to the concurrent Devil's Reign event, which pits NYC mayor Kingpin against Daredevil and any other vigilante that stands with him. In this Luke Cage series, the hero will be protecting his city against a group of crooked cops calling themselves the Regulators, who are out to terrorize his neighborhood at the order of Kingpin.

The three-issue series is anticipated to conclude in February 2022, with a collected edition of Luke Cage: City on Fire on April 19, 2022.

Marvel will also be publishing the first Luke Cage omnibus in 2022, collecting the first 16 issues of the original Luke Cage, Hero for Hire series, as well as the next 31 issues that were published under the new book title, Power Man. These issues were previously collected in three Marvel Masterworks volumes published from 2015 to 2019.

Look for more on Marvel's fiftieth-anniversary plans for Luke Cage here at Newsarama.

Luke Cage ranks high on our list of black superheroes who changed the face of comic books.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)