That Cage is one bad mother...

In issue 38 of Luke Cage, Power Man, Bill Mantlo devotes a hefty chunk of pages to our man throwing down with a superpowered punk named Chemistro. Luke eventually wins not due to his superstrength or unbreakable skin, but because of pure willpower. He refuses to be taken down by some chump in a costume just because the dude has total control over physical matter.

That's sheer awesome in and of itself, but what happens next is even cooler. Chemistro surrenders and agrees to cooperate with Cage's investigation of criminal mastermind Big Brother.

"Don't you ever mess with Luke Cage again! Dig??"

Holy crap, that's awesome! Not only does Cage threaten to kill this mofo, he waits until it's clear the fight is over and then wallops the poor schmuck one more time. Just to make the point that nobody messes with Luke Cage and gets away with it.

This issue has everything that makes me a Power Man fan. And then the big reveal at the end of the issue freaked me out:

Man, I gots to get me issue 39.