Fast Links
The real reason behind 2021’s cancellation of the Luke Cage: City of Fire miniseries is finally coming to light. The Marvel micro-series is from writer Ho Che Anderson and each issue would have featured a different artist. However, the series was abruptly pulled in 2021. While many blamed consequences of the pandemic for the cancellation, that isn’t the case.
Luke Cage: City of Fire Cancellation
In a new interview (thanks comicbook.com), Andersen revealed that Marvel pulled the plug on the series to protect the writer. Specifically, to protect them from “right-wing nuts” who may have had an issue with the series’ story. Drawing inspiration from real-world events, Luke Cage: City of Fire featured the Power Man taking on a new job. He is hired by the mother of a murdered Black man to protect the murderer, a police officer. As Andersen puts it, “It is essentially what would happen if the mother of George Floyd hired Luke Cage to protect Derek Chauvin, her son’s murder”.
However, while Marvel was on board with the story, even expanding it into three issues, they would eventually pull the plug. According to Andersen, they sat them down and said, “We’re cancelling this book. We’re afraid that the subject matter is going to be damaging for you. We don’t want you to be attacked by right-wing nuts.”
The Real Reason?
Of course, Andersen never feared such an attack as they crafted the story. In fact, they initially brushed Marvel’s concerns off. However, looking back, Andersen sees that “there were probably some other issues with their higher-ups who said, “No, this is going to affect our bottom line. We don’t want the story out there”.
Whatever the reason, Luke Cage: City of Fire never made it into the hands of the public. While Andersen was able to repurpose the work for its own creation, it did give the writer a bit of a wobble: “It really threw me off…it made me question my involvement in comics and storytelling.”