Luke Cage #166 review: Enter the circus of the Ringmaster
By Alex Widen
Luke Cage just wanted the peace of the open road. Yet what he gets is center stage with the Ringmaster!
Luke Cage #116
Writer: David Walker
Artist: Guillermo Sanna
Colorist: Marcio Menyz
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As part of the Marvel Legacy editorial push, this is yet another series which gets a new set of issue numbers. All of the previous volumes and mini-series have been combined to this. While this often seems like a publicity gimmick, it works out for Walker’s Luke Cage. He has a flair for taking elements from the hero’s past or backstory and putting a new modern spin on them. In the last arc, it was learning the ugliness of his mentor. Here, it’s a return to prison thanks to the Ringmaster! It consequently proves to be a most harrowing trip back to a past Luke would rather forget!
Image by Marvel Comics
Luke Cage had traveled to Louisiana for what he thought was the funeral of Dr. Noah Burstein. Yet the only thing that died was his respect for the man. His old mentor turned out to be a manipulator who wound up in the center of a web of corruption and organized crime. Reeling from this more than he’d admit, Luke Cage has settled on a road trip to sooth his spirit. Rather than take a flight or a transporter back to New York, Luke has settled on just taking a drive along the highway.
Image by Marvel Comics
It Seems Like the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same!
Yet this isn’t just any part of America, it’s the deep south. And while much has changed since the 1960s, certain things remain the same. Louisiana has an ugly history in that regard, and Luke saw firsthand that experimentation on men of color still exists. His road trip only took him to the next state over — Mississippi — and already there’s trouble. Once within range of a prison, Luke Cage finds himself in a place too many people have been — under the sights of a bigoted highway cop.
Image by Marvel Comics
The cop isn’t crudely nasty nor overly violent, but he doesn’t have to be. The horror is in the casual disregard and normalized prejudice that he speaks with. It seems like Cage was pulled over for one of the oldest ruses in the book — “driving while black.” Yet his Avengers I.D. card does more than getting him out of a jam. It puts him in the sights of the figure who appears to be controlling an entire town in Northern Mississippi. Can’t Luke get some scrambled eggs without running into nonsense?
Image by Marvel Comics
The answer to that question is no. As soon as Cage arrives at “Rock’s Diner,” all eyes are on him. He is an out-of-towner, yet also the only man of color in the restaurant. Yet the parallel isn’t just on racism. There is an element of strangeness in the air. The waitress recognizes Cage and immediately lays out some exposition. Like most small southern towns in fiction, there is a bizarre evil afoot. She doesn’t know what it is, but it centers on the prison and has claimed her husband.
Image by Marvel Comics
This Town Doesn’t Need Jugglers to Be a Circus!
Immediately after reaching out to Cage, an entire SWAT team arrives. This “evil” has eyes everywhere, and didn’t take kindly to the potential intervention of a stranger. Yet is also parallels the very real circumstances involving police being called to “investigate” persons or communities of color for flimsy or even nonexistent reasons. The police are supposed to be agents of authority over chaos, yet what happens when the police become agents of chaos? A diner gets wrecked!
Image by Marvel Comics
Luke Cage finds himself under attack. Thankfully, unlike too many men in his position, his bulletproof skin and super strength allow him to mop the floor with creeps while displaying a superior vocabulary. Unfortunately, these troopers have come prepared, and soon overwhelm Cage with a gas “designed to stop the Hulk.” And it quickly turns out that Luke Cage is face to face with one of the Hulk’s oldest enemies. Maynard Tibolt, a.k.a. the Ringmaster, is back in center ring!
Image by Marvel Comics
The Ringmaster was created by the legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1962’s Incredible Hulk #3. His gimmick often involved teaming up with his “Circus of Crime” and using a circus as a front to hypnotize and rob audiences. He’s proven capable of hypnotizing a slew of superheroes, from the Hulk to Spider-Man to even Nick Fury, yet often is undone rather quickly. He was retroactively made the son of a Nazi agent whose gimmick he adopted, and that twist may consequently be tied to this plot.
Image by Marvel Comics
Not Even Luke Cage Is Immune to the System!
While the troopers and police officers around this town may be brainwashed by Ringmaster, his plot acts as a metaphor for institutionalized racism. Being involved with fascism as a family affair, he may have some of those undertones himself. And while Ringmaster has always involved mesmerizing people, he’s hardly the most powerful Marvel villain with such talent. His powers are entirely artificial (albeit grafted to his eyes). He may not have needed to push many of these men far.
Image by Marvel Comics
The element of Luke’s past which this arc seeks to play with is his time as a convict. Power Man’s origin involves being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, in part because he fit the stereotype of a young black man from a “rough” neighborhood, where he was plagued by a racist warden. The angle of Luke returning to prison had been hinted at for months. Yet it would have been too much for his countless noble deeds and acts with the Avengers to have simply been forgotten.
Image by Marvel Comics
Therefore, using the Ringmaster is a great way for Walker to make the plot work without shattering belief. Luke is trapped within a web of mind control that Ringmaster has set around town, and become a victim himself. While he may think he’s trapped in a jail, it’s all a part of Ringmaster’s scheme. Like most villains, Ringmaster doesn’t buy that a random appearance by a superhero is coincidence, and gets proactive. Therefore, it looks like Luke’ll have to escape again!
Image by Marvel Comics
Yet Another Thought Provoking Tale!
Guillermo Sanna takes over on art from Nelson Blake II. His style is a bit different, yet fitting for an arc such as this. He’s able to capture the more subtle scenes of small-town horror quite well, from the creepy diner to the bullying cop. Yet he’s at his best when Ringmaster is introduced. This allows him to draw some mind-bending effects, which are most impressive. Marcio Menyz continues on color duties, mixing up the palette quite well. Hence, Ringmaster has rarely looked scarier!
Image by Marvel Comics
What makes David Walker a terrific writer is his ability to mix the boldness of addressing uneasy topics with the imagination to mingle them seamlessly into comic book universes. He never allows his message to overwhelm the story, nor does he lecture from a soapbox. People who want to read a plot where Luke Cage fights Ringmaster will get that, and it works from a Marvel Universe standpoint. Yet beneath is a timely and well-crafted tale about the terror of institutionalized racism.
Image by Marvel Comics
Next: Luke Cage comes face to face with Noah Burstein in #5!
Much like many real life figures of color, it seems like there are always those eager to tear them down or “put them in their place.” Bigots, after all, always see their side as blameless and “the other” as irredeemable if they’re not in servitude. Showing Luke Cage face this struggle in a manner in which it makes sense for a superhero of his stature to face it is bold. It is a great way to keep Cage relevant and innovative to readers. As a result, this remains a series worth reading!