by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief
It’s Week One of Marvel’s latest crossover: GANG WAR! This week we start the Gang War with ASM: First Strike, Luke Cage: Gang War #1, and Spider-Woman #1 and this event will continue across seven titles, 26 issues in all, all the way into March 2024.
For those of you old heads like me, here’s a bit of an update for ya to get started. Maybe most critical to this Gang War crossover: Last year in the Daredevil crossover “Devil’s Reign”, Kingpin Wilson Fisk was ousted from being Mayor of NYC (I know, right?) by none other than Power Man himself, Mayor Luke Cage, but not before Kingpin established Fisk’s Law, aka the Anti-Vigilante Act which basically made super-hero vigilantes illegal while Fisk put super villains on the city payroll as a new roster of dark Thunderbolts to do his bidding and legally take down super heroes. It was a good story that weirdly led to Kingpin currently being on the side of the angels, sorta, as he’s teamed up with the X-Men and all of Marvel’s mutants (most all of their lives and stories are crumbling in the current “Fall of X” storyline) because his wife Typhoid Mary is a mutant, and if Wilson Fisk is anything good at all, it’s that’s he’s adamantly a loyal and devoted husband.
So since Kingpin has been away, Hammerhead has become the de facto chairman of the current NYC crime factions and he of course wants more territory and he’s going to get it by using the old, tired, but apparently still effective “set your opponents against each other by tricking them into thinking they’re already attacking each other” plan.
Oh, also germane to this crossover is that recently Elektra has taken up the mantle of Daredevil. Matt’s still alive, still sort of Daredevil, and the two of them got married while powering up to fight Frank Castle, the demon-possessed powered-up Punisher who due to the finale of that story clearly won’t be returning soon himself. Matt probably won’t join us much if at all for Gang War, as he’s been pretty foggy (heh) in his new magically-gained identity as a priest who works at an orphanage.
And finally: Shang-Chi is one of the crime lords, so one of the books crossing over is Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu: Gang War.
All of this leads us to now…
Official Description:
Luke Cage defeated Wilson Fisk to become Mayor of New York. But Fisk left behind the Anti-Vigilante Act: a law that labels super heroes as vigilantes. Luke has sworn to uphold the law even though, deep down, he misses the days when he was just a Hero for Hire.
Creative Team:
Writer: Rodney Barnes
Artist: Ramón F. Bachs
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Cover: Caanan White
Mayor Luke Cage can hold a press conference and people will at least pretend to show him the respect due the Mayor of New York City, but outside the niceties and parliamentary procedure that goes along with such events, Luke seems to be more caged than ever. Are the police still influenced by Fisk, or are they just terrible because Luke is black? Seriously, Luke shows up to help the police with a bank robbery and the police sergeant draws down on MAYOR POWER MAN? That is some painfully glaring privilege right there. “Ain’t this a @#$%” indeed, Luke.
Also what’s up with J. Jonah Jameson? Since when is he once again against super heroes?
Over the course of this Gang War issue that seems to be conspicuously lacking any gang war, we learn the nature of who is doing crime that the police can’t handle and the nature of their arsenal. We also see Luke meeting up with Danny Rand (the OG Iron Fist and Luke’s long-time partner, now powered down) and getting a bespoke costume that is somehow the worst outfit our dude has ever rocked. By the end, the writer Rodney Barnes has succeeded in getting us riled up with righteous indignation on Luke’s behalf and Luke himself seems to be starting up what may be the new counter-gang team that Spidey was referring to at the end of First Strike.
Where do we go from here? Heroes for Hire? Marvel Knights 2024?
Next: Spider-Woman #1!
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Luke Cage: Gang War #1 – 3/5 good starts toward justice.
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