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Luke Cage
Wrongly convicted of a crime he didn't commit, Luke Cage submitted to a strange experiment to win his freedom from prison. He emerged with rock-hard skin, superhuman strength and a thirst for vengeance. Sidetracked by a brush with heroism, Cage cashed in on his newfound powers. Years later, he continues to fight the good fight...for the right price. He is Luke Cage: Hero for Hire!

Real name: Luke Cage (legally changed; his full given name is Carl Lucas) 
Occupation: Hero for hire 
Group affiliation: Heroes for Hire Inc. 
Base of operations: New York City 
First appearance: Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (1972) 

Height: 6'6" 
Weight: 425 lbs. 
Eye color: Brown 
Hair color: Black 

Powers: Luke Cage possesses superhuman strength, dense muscle and bone tissue, and steel-hard skin. His recovery time from injury or trauma is about one-third that of a normal human. 

Weapons: None 

History: The man who would come to call himself Luke Cage grew up in Harlem, often committing petty thefts with friend Willis Stryker. As the two matured, Cage took odd jobs in legitimate fields of employment, while Stryker turned to crime as a profession. The young men differed on another matter, as well: They had become rivals for the affections of Reva Connors. Stryker, whose ill-gotten wealth cast him as a more able suitor than his childhood friend, was badly beaten in a mob hit. Only Cage's intervention saved his life. Connors and Cage developed a deep friendship while Stryker was recovering, often meeting during hospital visits. Insanely jealous, Stryker planted two kilograms of heroin in Cage's apartment and tipped off police. Following a raid, Cage was arrested and incarcerated. A few days later, Connors was killed in a mob hit targeting Stryker. From prison, Cage swore vengeance against his former friend. Consumed with rage, he frequently engaged in brawls and attempted to escape. Cage's reprehensible behavior landed him in Seagate, a maximum-security prison in Georgia. There, he was taunted and beaten constantly by racist correctional officer Albert Rackham. 

While serving out his sentence, Cage was approached by research psychologist Dr. Noah Berstien. After hearing his story, Berstien promised to do what he could to secure Cage's parole if he participated in an experiment. Although suspicious at first, Cage agreed. In Berstien's absence, Rackham relieved the guard on duty and ignorantly operated the machine's controls. He hoped to maim or kill Cage; instead, Rackham unintentionally advanced the experiment beyond its design, inducing a body-wide mutagenic effect that enhanced Cage's body tissue and strength. Cage freed himself and knocked Rackham unconscious. Thinking he had killed the guard, he fled. When the authorities discovered Cage's bullet-riddled shirt, they assumed he had been swept out to sea. A free man, Cage returned to New York to exact revenge on Stryker. On one of Cage's first nights back, he foiled a robbery at a diner. When the owner offered him cash as a reward, Cage was inspired to put his newfound powers to use for profit. Subsequently, he established himself as Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. 

To promote his business, Cage routinely sought out and fought mob collection agents. Following each brawl, he would hand out business cards to onlookers. After he found and defeated Stryker, who had assumed the underworld identity of Diamondback, Cage's enterprise began to turn a sufficient profit. Frustrated by the lack of publicity his exploits garnered in comparison to the adventures of New York's other crimefighters, Cage adopted the super-heroic moniker "Power Man." 

Several years later, the European crime lord known as Bushmaster coerced Cage into kidnapping private investigator Misty Knight in exchange for the life of Dr. Berstien and his friend, Claire Temple, whom he held captive. As further incentive, Bushmaster had acquired videotape of Stryker planting the heroin in Cage's apartment. Hoping to clear his name, Cage found himself locked in battle with Knight's friend: the martial-arts master called Iron Fist. Learning of his predicament, Knight and Iron Fist elected to help Cage. Following Bushmaster's defeat, the videotaped evidence was presented to the court. Finally, Cage was acquitted of the crime that had dogged him for years. Although their backgrounds and temperaments were diametrically opposed, Cage and Iron Fist formed a new Heroes for Hire agency and soon became close friends. 

For years, Power Man and Iron Fist were in high demand as special bodyguards and private detectives. Following the seeming deaths of most of Earth's heroes at the hands of the sentient psionic menace known as Onslaught, the duo decided to expand the membership of Heroes for Hire. The agency merged with Oracle Inc. -- the corporation owned by Prince Namor, the Atlantean Sub-Mariner -- to protect the world from danger...for a price. The World War II-era Human Torch, Jim Hammond, lined up the jobs; Iron Fist acted as field commander. The team rarely collected its fee, however, and eventually disbanded when Namor saw fit to diffuse Oracle Inc.

Marvel Boy
His spacecraft shot down, the Kree teen named Noh-Varr awoke alone on a strange and hostile world: ours. Now, the genetically enhanced alien wages a one-man war on the society that so callously destroyed his life!

Real name: Noh-Varr
Occupation: Self-proclaimed progenitor of a new, Earth-based Kree Empire; former ensign on the extra-dimensional Kree schooner Marvel; believed by the U.S. government to be a dimension-spanning star-god with a legitimate grievance and a divinely prophesied mandate to "upgrade" our civilization 
Group affiliation: 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt 
Base of operations: The Marvel, a Kree dimension-schooner marooned 700 feet below New York City's Times Square 
First appearance: Marvel Boy #1 (2000) 


Height: 5'10 
Weight: 165 lbs.
Eyes: Black
Hair: White 

Powers: Genome-boosted with insect traits, Marvel Boy possesses enhanced reflexes, speed, strength and stamina. Submicrotech nanobots enable Noh-Varr to reroute pain sensations, and nano-technology provides him with the ability to control his body's growth by thought. 

Weapons: Marvel Boy's only companion on Earth is the We-Plex Supreme Intelligence System, standard on all Kree diplomatic vessels. The Plex is a programmable Piezoplasm housing the accumulated wisdombase of the entire Kree race, accessed via Multiple Personality Complex interface. It is dedicated to the protection and survival of the Kree Gencore.

History: Noh-Varr was an ensign assigned to the dimension-hopping 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt, whose members were genome-boosted with insect traits. Adrift among the immense rainbow of realities that is Macrospace, Noh-Varr and his crewmates aboard the damaged dimension-schooner Marvel arrived at this reality's Earth via a dimensional flume. Viewing the Marvel and her crew as resources to be exploited, the ruthless Dr. Midas ordered the ship shot down. 

A multi-trillionaire, Midas sought to acquire the dimension-schooner's advanced technology as a means of achieving mutagenic transformation through cosmic radiation, in essence duplicating the origin of the legendary super-team known as the Fantastic Four. The Marvel's sole survivor, Noh-Varr was taken prisoner by the Midas Foundation -- to be dissected and catalogued, along with his ship's remains. As Midas' technicians and scientists studied samples procured from Noh-Varr, they discovered him to be a living weapon. 

Noh-Varr made good his escape from the Foundation's New Jersey research facility, retrieving the Marvel's remains and going to ground in the sewers under New York City's Times Square. Eager to avenge his crewmates, Noh-Varr declared war on Earth -- razing several city blocks simply to swear at humanity in skyscraper-size letters, and dispatching a squadron of S.H.I.E.L.D. super-soldiers. Before he could further pursue his vendetta against humanity, he was forced by Kree-Vann Directive Big Red to neutralize Hexus, the Living Corporation -- a world-ravaging virus from the Sunken Galaxy inadvertently let loose from the Marvel by Midas. 

Doggedly pursued by both Midas and S.H.I.E.L.D., Noh-Varr befriended the femme fatale called Oubliette, the Exterminatrix ... his adversary's own daughter. Together, the two battled Midas' mindless Un-Entity as a S.H.I.E.L.D. detachment led by the multi-trillionaire boarded the Marvel. Disabling Plex, Midas finally gained access to the dimension-schooner's cosmic-radiation engine chamber, and set out to shatter his mortal body in favor of a higher form. He emerged with the combined elemental powers of the Fantastic Four: super-adaptive, super-fluid flame, air, mass and thought. As Marvel Boy lay near death, the first casualty of Cosmic Man, Oubliette flattened her father beneath the floorboards of reality with the decapitated head of Midas' Un-Entity. But a weakened Marvel Boy was apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. and imprisoned in the Cube -- the ultimate, inescapable prison, home to 400 of the most deranged and uncontrollable super-psychopaths is existence ... and marked by Marvel Boy as the capital city of the new Kree Empire!

Punisher
When his family was killed in the crossfire of a Mafia shootout, Frank Castle put his military training to use -- waging a one-man war on crime. As the Punisher, Castle reinvented himself as the merciless scourge of the underworld. The mere mention of his name causes criminals everywhere to cringe in fear, because they all know the Punisher plays for keeps -- and someday, he may come gunning for them!

Real name: Frank Castle (born Castiglione) 
Occupation: Former U.S. Marine turned professional vigilante 
Group affiliation: None 
Base of operations: Mobile 
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #129 (1974) 

Height: 6' 
Weight: 200 lbs. 
Eye color: Blue 
Hair color: Black 

Powers: A seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skill, the Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a man his age, height and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. A former U.S. Marine captain with a distinguished combat record who has undergone SEAL (Sea Air Land), UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) and LRPA (Long Range Patrol) training, Frank Castle is well-versed in the arts of warfare and hand-to-hand combat. 

Weapons: The Punisher employs an exhaustive arsenal of portable weaponry. His firearms of choice include a Vietnam-era M16 automatic rifle in .223 caliber; a Sterling Mark 69mm, 34-round, clip-fed, semiautomatic rifle converted to automatic; a 14-round, 9mm Browning Llama automatic pistol; a government-issue, .45 caliber automatic frame re-chambered for 9mm ammunition with a replaceable barrel for conversion to .223 caliber; and a 4-shot derringer in .223 caliber. Thus, he need carry only two types of ammunition.

History: Frank Castle was an ideal soldier. A decorated captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he fought to make the world a safer place for his wife and young children. For heroism in the line of duty, he was recognized twice with Bronze and Silver stars, and four times with the Purple Heart. But circumstance would twist Castle's military acumen, giving birth to an unreasoning engine of destruction. While on leave, he took his wife and two children to Central Park for a picnic. There, his family happened upon a gangland killing. Seeking to eliminate all witnesses, the mobsters murdered Castle's wife and children. The super-soldier had survived armed combat only to be shot in the park, unable to protect his loved ones. 

Castle lived, but was traumatized severely by his family's murder and dropped out of sight for several months. He was baptized in a new understanding: Society was fiction. The scene and the enemy had changed, but the war never ended. When the former Marine resurfaced, he had adapted his fighting skills to wage a one-man war on crime -- rooting out evil in every corner of the city, taking no prisoners. Outfitted in a battlesuit bearing a large death's head and equipped with enough weaponry to arm an entire battalion, Castle sought out and executed criminals he believed to be associated with the gangsters who had killed his wife and children.

The Punisher has alternately clashed and cooperated with the wisecracking web-slinger known as Spider-Man; his agenda alienated another costumed crimefighter, the blind adventurer called Daredevil, who disapproves of his violent, often lethal methods. The Man Without Fear has gone so far as to recruit a loose-knit team of street-level heroes -- including the Black Widow, Moon Knight and Shang Chi -- to pursue the Punisher and bring him to justice. Castle has served time for his brutal slayings, but even managed to carry on his crusade against the criminal element within the prison itself. 

While incarcerated on Ryker's Island, the Punisher was poisoned with mind-altering chemicals on the orders of the criminal gangleader Jigsaw, whose face had been horribly damaged when Castle hurled him through a window. The drugs had a delayed, cumulative effect -- slowly driving the Punisher mad. Following his escape from prison, he took to terrorizing minor criminals, such as litterbugs and jaywalkers. Subsequently, Castle underwent detoxification and returned to some semblance of sanity. 

The Punisher resumed his never-ending war on crime, seeking shelter in a small apartment building while targeting the powerful Gnucci crime family. The Punisher threw matriarch Ma Gnucci into a bear pit, igniting an all-out war with her organization. The mangled Ma dispatched operative after operative against the man responsible for her loss of all four limbs, but even the seemingly indestructible powerhouse known as the Russian proved less than equal to the task. The attacks finally ended when the Punisher torched the Gnucci mansion and punted Ma's limbless body into the fire. He celebrated his victory by ridding the city of three copycat vigilantes: the Elite, Mr. Payback and the Holy.

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