The Marvel Noir series came out in trades while I was working at a book store and with my love of Film Noir, I had to check them out.  While I enjoyed reading most of them, I wasn’t blown away at the time.  I do remember that one of my favorites was Luke Cage Noir.  Unlike the Spider-Man Noir series, which was much more of a Pulp Adventure comic than Film Noir or Hard Boiled.  More The Shadow or The Spider than Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe.  But Luke Cage captured the vibe much more.  

Written by Mike Benson & Adam Glass, and drawn by Shawn Martinbrough, it places Luke Cage in Prohibition era Harlem, a place haunted by racism, crime, and even the ghosts of the First World War.  The story is very grounded, with an interesting take on Cage’s role as “Power Man.”  It’s also packed with some great era slang.  The art is nice, and occasionally plays with some Film Noir framing and imagery that I appreciated.

Having recently watched Sinners, which then prompted me to finally watch 1986’s Crossroads, and then give 1987’s Angel Heart a re-watch, this book actually played right into where my head was at, which was great.  It absolutely makes sense that this book didn’t have a sequel, but I’d have loved to see Benson, Glass & Martinbrough partner up again to do something along similar lines (for Image, maybe?). 

I hadn’t read any of these since they first came out.  Luke Cage Noir was very cool, and I’m definitely going to hold onto it.  I’ve already gone on to re-read Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face, which I didn’t realize until the end was actually Volume 2 of that series.  It’s fine.  Definitely more Pulp than Noir.  Very grim, though, and dealing with some pretty rough subjects.  I’m not going to bother writing a full review for that one, though.  I’ve still got copies of Daredevil, Punisher, and Iron Man to re-read.  I remember nothing about them, except that I don’t think I was really thrilled with any of them.  We’ll see. 

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