Marvel’s Luke Cage has superhuman strength and bulletproof, unbreakable skin, and that’s way too overpowered to be a “street-level” hero. What makes characters like Spider-Man and Daredevil “fun” is the fact that they are vigilantes who can be hurt; they can be shot or stabbed, and their friends worry about them because they aren’t indestructible. But when you have a character that’s indestructible, then all that danger goes away. Also normal thugs aren’t a threat to you.
The only thing keeping Luke Cage from approaching Thor/Superman levels of OP is that he doesn’t really have a movement power. At best he can run really fast or jump really far, but he’s too conscientious to go launching himself all over the city like the Hulk. If he landed on somebody (or their car or whatever) he’d feel pretty bad about it, so it’s not really an option unless he’s in the middle of nowhere.
leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Spider-Man once single-handedly humiliated the X-Men all by himself without breaking a sweat.
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Power has nothing to do with being a street hero. Spider-Man is your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man because he wants to, and because someone has to be.
Same with Luke Cage and Daredevil. All three have been members of the Avengers. They mostly stick to the streets because they’re needed there.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 day ago
I mean, the Avengers aren’t exactly picky about power levels.
leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
OK, let’s put it this way.
The street heroes the OP compares Cage to are Spider-Man and Daredevil.
We’ve already talked about Spider-Man. He’s stronger than most characters in the Marvel universe whose main power isn’t strength, has better mobility than most characters in the Marvel universe whose main power isn’t mobility, his spider sense makes it almost impossible to surprise him, when it comes to smarts he’s on the same league as Richards, Stark, or Pym, he’s got his own personal multiverse, and so on.
As for Daredevil? He’s a master ninja easily capable of winning against dozens of Hand goons at once, if we’re talking physical prowess. Cage would probably have a hard time with that, even with his invulnerability.
Not all powers have to be physical, though. One of his main antagonists is Mephisto himself. And he’s one of the few people on the whole Marvel universe who can resist the Purple Man’s control on willpower alone (the only other one that comes to mind is Victor von fucking Doom).
andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
You know, sometimes when the Avengers announce a new inductee I’m like, ‘Really?! You think that’s a good strategic addition?? This feels more like a popularity contest!’
Their choices kind of look to me more like a publisher’s idea of what will sell books & toys than a cooperative of gifted public servants. But I’m probably just being silly.