Synopsis & Review by RachelGrey Thanks!
Synopsis: Harlem: Luke Cage stares down at his baby daughter. He is then interrupted by Iron Man’s voice, who asks if Cage is listening. Annoyed, Cage tells Tony “I heard you.” Iron Man, standing with Ms. Marvel, repeats himself and asks Luke if he’s made a decision. He wants to know if both he and his wife, Jessica Jones, will sign the Superhuman Registration Act. Iron Man warns them they’ll be criminals again if they don’t sign it and the government is willing to forget Luke’s criminal history if he signs. Jessica chimes in and asks about her. She has powers, but she doesn’t want to use them and has no plans to, and she certainly doesn’t want to work for the government. Iron Man, searching for an answer, just tells her they’ll deal with that when they come to it. Ms. Marvel begs Jessica to sign up but Jessica angrily tells her friend to stop. Luke warns Tony and Carol they’ll selling out and are trying to make the world something it isn’t. Iron Man asks Cage to just answer if he’ll sign or not. Cage says they’ll find out at midnight. Iron Man warns his fellow Avenger the police will come after him. Cage asks “Is it Mississippi in the 1950s now?” Iron Man yells for Cage to stop perverting everything into racism, but Cage fires back at Tony, telling him to stop perverting the ideas they stand for. The two sides argue some more until Iron Man and Ms. Marvel, disappointed they could not change Luke or Jessica’s mind.

Jessica tells Luke they need to leave the country. Cage agrees, but says he won’t be joining them. Luke says he won’t let his daughter grow up knowing her father “buckled to the man” and he’ll stand up for what he believes in. Outside, Luke looks at his daughter says goodbye, telling her “Don’t take $%#@ off of nobody”. Jessica tries to convince her husband to come again, but Cage firmly says he’s staying. The two then kiss and part ways. Luke walks back to his house when a child from the neighborhood asks what’s he’s going to do. Cage says he’s going to sit in his house and not bother anyone, which is perfectly legal.

Later: Cage sits in his house as the clock strikes midnight. Instantly, SHIELD shows up and asks Cage to come out. Cage agrees as he throws his couch through his door and into the capekillers. Cage fights through the horde of troops, who tell him he’s under arrest for violating the SHRA. Cage continues to fight as the troops rain shots upon him. Cage begins to tire as the troops inform him they shot him with as genetic paralyzer. Suddenly, help arrives in the form of Cage’s neighbors, who throw anything they can find and shoot back with their own guns. The troops try to control the crowd, when a red object flies through them. It’s Captain America’s shield! Everyone looks up to see Cap with The Falcon and Daredevil! The three fight and are soon joined by a reinvigorated Cage. The three easily beat the capekillers and then steal one of the unit’s tanks. The four radio the SHIELD helicarrier and tell Maria Hill “The revolution is coming”.

Niagara Duty: Jessica Jones walks into a store and asks for soymilk for her baby. The news then comes on and recounts SHIELD fighting former Avenger Luke cage. Jessica closes her eyes and prepares for the worst. But the news is good. The station reports that Cage got away with the help of Captain America and “Super Hero Rebels” in a tank, which was found dumped a mile from the scene. Jessica perks up and happily says; “Now we’re talking.”

Review: While this issue was a step up from the last one, it still holds many problems. First off, I am no fan of Luke Cage. I think his powers are boring and his attitude is very stereotypical. Plus, he needs a costume. And his stereotypical attitude shines here by comparing things to slavery and racism. When I read the beginning I really rolled my eyes at that part. It really wasn’t necessary. While it does show biased harm to the super human minority, comparing it to “Mississippi in the 1950s” was a little too far. Bendis seems to write street level characters, such as Daredevil and Cage, better and it does show here. But Bendis’ work with Cage really leaves a lot to be desired. While he occasionally shows some layers to his character, it often gets overshadowed by stereotypical racial related content. It almost seems like the real characterization of Cage is hiding behind this forced stereotyping. This is really a problem surrounding many characters of different races, but it shines on Cage since he gets more attention being in New Avengers than say, The Falcon. I understand the writers are really trying to help people embrace different races, but I think the way the writing comes off sometimes hurts the cause more than helps.

Really, a lot of the wording in the beginning with Cage and Iron Man sounds all profound and fancy, but it really does mean much or add any substance evidence to either side. There are a lot of accusations of twisting things and such, but there’s little, if any explanation and we’re left with a lot of dramatic dialogue that sounds like a lot more deep than it really is.

But the big point comes from Jessica Jones. She’s a superhuman. But she has no will to use her powers. So why should she have to sign up? Now this has some problems because the ruling for this is different. In the Marvel Universe, it has been shown that SHIELD is forcing people to work for them (ie. Wonder Man in Frontline) and it has been stated that every hero must sign up and work for SHIELD. However, editor Tom Brevoort has stated that heroes aren’t forced to work and use their powers if they don’t want to. But they have to register. Now these are too very different things and mean very different things to the Pro side’s cause. As is, I personally have to go with what’s been done in the Marvel Universe and disregard what Brevoort has said. Forcing those who don’t want to use their powers is not right.

The other good part comes from Cage when he says he’s just going to sit on his couch and do nothing. It really makes the Pro side seem like the bad guys. However, remember that Cage did tell Iron Man that he wasn’t going to sign it and wasn’t really nice about it as well as saying he was totally against it. As such, the SHIELD troops might have had more reason to be there then it at first seems. Looking back at this issue, it’s also funny to see Daredevil here. Looking at the interactions between Cage and “Daredevil” it becomes very apparent that Iron Fist was the one masquerading as Daredevil while Murdock was in jail.

Leinil Francis Yu handles the art on this one. While not bad, it too has some problems. First, many of the scenes make it look like this wasn’t Yu’s best work. Second, Yu’s style shows that he does vicious well. This is apparent from Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk and from his work on Venom in relation to the Thunderbolts. Once the fight ensues and he’s drawing angry Cage, it all looks great. But some of the other scenes just don’t work to Yu’s advantages. For this reason, I am hesitant to be excited for his run as regular artist on New Avengers come issue #27. I think there are other books he’d be better suited to. Also, a nitpick I have is that he drew Cap’s shield chipping. Cap’s shield is made from an indestructible vibranium/steel alloy. They only way to damage it is by affecting it on a molecular level. It does not chip from hitting soldiers.

Two issues into this Disassembled arc and two misses in my mind. Neither really adds much to Civil War and just show the formation of the Anti side so far. There’s not too much of interest happening here or much that’s really important. But this issue does have some really good moments, which last issue lacked. But overall, the issues are just not as strong as they should be from a book with such high popularity and sales.