Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: July 2010
Cover Price: $2.99
Writer: Anthony Johnston
Artist: Sean Chen
A team-up between Power Man (aka Luke Cage) and Daredevil against some local street thugs takes a turn for the worse when the last criminal standing pulls a gun on “the Man Without Fear”. Cage jumps to the rescue by crushing the barrel of the gun with his bare hand – rendering it useless. Later, when the two heroes are discussing how the tussle escalated, Luke Cage seems to imply that Daredevil should be more cautious since he isn’t invulnerable. The notion of Cage giving him a warning irritates DD, so he challenges Power Man to a duel – the loser donates $1,000 to the winner’s charity of choice.
But, as is often the case with these hero vs hero battles, something happens that alters the “fairness” of the fight. Realistically, Marvel can’t publish a story where one hero actually beats another in a fair fight without getting the loser’s fans upset – so, the writer is often challenged to come up with a way around the notion of a “fair fight”. Not, that I was expecting anything different – but it would have been nice if the story managed to break that mold. Besides the expected non-decisive ending, the characterization was spot on and the art was good, too. If you’re looking for some nostalgic-inducing, just-plain-fun comics then this is for you!
On Ebay: Daredevil | Luke Cage
On AtomicAvenue: Daredevil | Cage