9. Luke Cage

Photo: Myles Aronowitz/Netflix

Born Carl Lucas in Harlem, Cage spent his youth involved with street gangs. After seeing how his racketeering was hurting his family, he stopped. Later on, he volunteered for an experiment on cell regeneration where it would eventually go wrong and instead of killing him, would make him inhumanely strong. So, he adopted the alias Luke Cage and became a Hero for Hire, opening an office in Times Square‘s fictional Gem Theater.

Cage’s character was created in 1972 by Archie Goodwin and John Romita Sr., making his first appearance in Luke Cage Hero For Hire #1. As one of the many superheroes in New York, Cage came to know the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and Jessica Jones. You can see him on the new Netflix series Jessica Jones.