Warning! Minor spoilers for Heroes Reborn: American Knights #1
A sneak peak for the latest installment in Marvel Comics’ ambitious dive into multiversal storytelling, Heroes Reborn, shows an alternate version of Luke Cage pursuing a brutal version of Daredevil. In this universe, Luke Cage isn’t a bulletproof vigilante in New York, but a police commissioner in Washington, D.C. The upcoming one-shot depicts Cage as a seemingly corrupt cop, willing to do anything it takes to track down the unsanctioned crime fighter.
In the preview for Heroes Reborn: American Knights #1 by Paul Grist with art by Chris Allen and Marc Deering, fans are introduced to this universe’s version of Washington, D.C. where the police force is run by Commissioner Luke Cage and his Squadron Supreme. Under Cage’s command, the squadron has cleaned up the area of most crime and illegal activity, but the few who slip through the cracks of the justice system are left to the mercy of a new currently nameless anti-hero, a vigilante similar to Daredevil. While Luke Cage and Daredevil regularly work together in the 616 timeline, their Heroes Reborn counterparts couldn’t be further from allies.
On the first page of the preview images posted by Monkeys Fighting Robots, fans are shown the extent of this nameless hero’s brutality as he is depicted attacking someone who is clearly about to commit a heinous crime against two civilians walking along the street. The Daredevil doppelgänger lunges at the would-be attacker with two baseball bats, one in each hand, with the following panel showing the potential criminal screaming out in agony, his fate yet to be determined. Luke Cage, knowing of the bat-wielding menace and working to get the vigilante off the streets for good, decides he needs some information from a well-known criminal named Ritchie, and the commissioner uses questionable interrogation methods.
Luke Cage has his officers grab Ritchie from the streets, an illegal arrest as the man hasn’t specifically done anything to be arrested for. Ritchie is thrown in a cell where Luke Cage has been waiting for him. Cage corners Ritchie, cracks his knuckles, and tells him that no one will believe the ex-con in regards to what is about to happen to him in that cell if he doesn’t give Cage the information he is after. The preview ends before fans are given the exact reason for Cage’s actions or how close he is to finding and potentially stopping this version’s Daredevil.
Heroes Reborn: American Knights is teased as being a play on the classic Marvel Knights comic banner, offering darker and more intense books with alternate versions of Marvel Knights’ alums Luke Cage and Daredevil. Under Cage’s iron fist, the age of vigilantes is over and Luke is seemingly willing to bend the rules he has been charged with upholding to see that none of them remain. Heroes Reborn’s Daredevil has shown how brutal he can be to uphold his version of justice, and now fans will have the chance to bear witness to just how far Luke Cage will go to do the same. Heroes Reborn: American Nights will be available June 2nd.
