History
Little is detailed about Cage’s life before the zombie plague arrived on Earth-2149, however it can be presumed that it followed much the same path as Earth-616 counterpart.
Cage was at Avengers Mansion when the Ash tried to blast his way into the mansion. He, and the other Avengers greeted the intruder. Cage grabbed him and demanded an explanation. The man began ranting about an Army of the Dead, and began to get a little hot under the collar before the Scarlet Witch spirited him away.[1]
When they got reports of purple lightning and the Sentry attacking people downtown, the Avengers set off. When they arrived to tackle Sentry, they were quickly overpowered, bitten and infected with the zombie contagion. They then turned their attention on the general populace. [citation needed]
Cage, and the rest of the Avengers continued their rampage until their appetite was sated, at which point their minds cleared a little, and they decided to go back to Avengers Towers to work out how to beat this thing. Unfortunately, by the time they arrive back, the hunger had taken hold once more and they consumed Jarvis. After this snack they were still hungry, and so sent out an “Avengers Assemble” message, and waited…
When Beast and Reed Richards found a sizeable stash of meat in Latveria and the surrounding area, Cage and a huge horde of zombies headed off to lay siege to Castle Doomstadt. Unable to gain access to the fortress, presumably, Luke got held up by the risen Deadite Legion, and at some point returned to New York.
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In New York, Cage, Spider-Man, and a group of other assorted zombified Super-Heroes caught Reed Richards of Earth-1610 as he was lost in the ruined city. Reed got away when Magneto dropped hundreds of cars on the massed zombie horde. In the rubble of the destroyed Baxter Building, Luke and a group of zombies confronted a remaining Magneto. Magnus escaped once more, but they caught up with him once again when the Wasp snuck up behind him and bit his neck. Immobilized, Magneto was quickly torn apart by the gathered super-zombies.
Power Cosmic
Cage spotted Silver Surfer in the sky, and their minds were quickly driven back to food. The Silver Surfer was attacked by most of the Zombies, though none of them seemed to be able to hurt him until the Hulk bit the Silver Surfer’s head off. Cage and a few of the others managed to get some of the Herald’s flesh, and somehow became imbued with the Power Cosmic.
The newly Power Cosmic zombies decided to see if their necrotized compatriots tasted any better ‘cooked’ and so the blasted them. Cage managed to make a meal of Dr. Strange. But, just as they decided that they still tasted horrible Galactus appeared to devour the planet. The zombies tried to take the devourer of worlds, but were quickly overpowered. Cage took a blast from Galactus, losing the left side of his torso, so they decided to make a tactical withdrawal.
They others decided to try to combine their Power Cosmic into one beam by building a kind of gun. After constructing it from Vibranium from Wakanda, they dragged it out to confront Galactus. But as they set it up, they saw a group of zombified super-villains attacking the space god. Though he didn't go down immediately, it only took a couple of shots to fell the devourer of worlds. Then it fell to the two groups of zombies to fight over the remains. Cage took down Stilt-Man.
Galactus started to get up again, but the zombies fell on him before he could recover completely. As they finished off the world devourer, out of nowhere the dead bodies of the Fantastic Four flopped onto the street, followed closely by Doctor Doom. The zombies spotted him, and attacked.[2]
After travelling through the cosmos, devouring planets as they went, the Zombie Galacti arrived at the Skrull home planet. During the journey, it appeared that Cage and Iron Man had developed some kind of bickering relationship, though the tension was quickly broken when Spiderman collided face first with a force field.
Wolverine ripped through the defensive field with his claws, and the Galacti squeezed through. Like many of the civilisations before, the Skrulls tried to defend themselves by firing missiles at them, but the zombified heroes destroyed them easily with the Power Cosmic. They commented that they were quite weak, as travelling though the barren spaces in between systems, they sustained themselves by feeding off the Power Cosmic, but now needed to recharge.
On reaching the planet surface Tony and Luke first came across some kind of bug, and they attacked that, then turned to gorge on the Skrull populace. Hulk said that he was still hungry, and Cage reminded him that he was a zombie; that he would always be hungry. Hulk obviously didn’t take kindly to this over-simplification, and punched Cage far into the sky, who eventually came down through the Skrull Command Centre wall, and was met by the sight of not only several Skrulls, but also a Skrull Fantastic Four and the new Fantastic Four.
Cage began eating the Skrull military, when Thing smashed down a piece of the ceiling, while Storm used a hurricane to blast it at the zombified hero. The debris was easily deflected by a force field put up by Cage.
With Cage and the new Fantastic Four facing each other, Black Panther unmasked for him, and Luke recognised his old friend. He told the Wakandan that they had wondered where he had gone. Luke was also confused to see Johnny, and Ben seemingly cured. In a moment of genius, Cage realised that T’Challa couldn’t have gotten this far out, and if Banner, Stark, and Richards couldn’t find a cure, nobody could. Meaning, they must be extradimensional. Cage then demanded their teleportation device.
Both the Fantastic Four and the Skrull Fantastic Four attacked Cage, and after a brief battle, he followed them to a Skrull escape ship. In order for the others to escape the Skrull Fantastic Four turned and attacked Cage once more.
Defeating and infecting the Skrull Fantastic Four, Cage finally rejoined the rest of the Zombie Galacti, where they quickly returned to bickering and arguing. Stark lost his temper and tried to blast Cage with a bolt of Power Cosmic, but it had no effect on a similarly powered being. Luke simply walked up to Stark and punches him high through the air.
With Ironman now absent, Cage took opportunity of the peace and quiet to tell the others of his discovery of a possible way to get to another Earth. Cage blasted a zombified Skrull Torch as he tried to sneak up on the New Fantastic FourF. They confront the New Fantastic Four in a crashed Skrull ship, and demanded that they hand over the Transdimensional device that they had been using, the Zombie Galacti got into an argument about what they had become again, and the Fantastic Four used the distraction to escape.
Wolverine decided instead to search the Skrull ship for any injured Skrulls to snack on, but only came across Thanos, and his mistress Death. They offered the Zombies a reward for their destruction; an end to their undeadness, though Spider-Man discovered that they were far from what they seem. As the projections of Thanos and Death disappeared, the two Skrulls beneath begged for their lives.
With the last of the Skrulls eaten, the Zombie Galacti decided to explore the Galactus element to their powers, and began to consume the planet, eventually leaving themselves floating in space. Cage then commented on how filling the devouring of a planet was for him.[3]
40 Years Later
At the edge of the known universe, Cage and the other Zombie Galacti were joined by Thanos (killed soon after by the Hulk), Firelord, Gladiator, and Dark Phoenix. At some point in the previous forty years, Luke had reverted to his original tattered costume, and obtained an alien replacement arm.
It seems that they consumed most of the universe, and so decided to make their way back to Earth in order to rebuild the teleportation device originally built by Tony Stark. During their travels, Cage and Spider-Man conversed on how, given how long it had been since they fed, the hunger was beginning to fade. Along the way, Ego was consumed. Back in Earth, Giant-Man decided to make a breeding camp in the settlement New Wakanda, which was led by a zombified Black Panther. Luke Cage sided with Spider-Man after he denounced Pym's plans and turned on him, realizing that Parker was right in the Hunger's gradual fading.
The zombies fought against each other, but a force field was activated, separating the good zombies, including Cage, and humans from the bad ones, but the Gladiator was trapped inside and killed while Bruce Banner was unconscious and Luke Cage broke in half. Cage later received robotic implants replacing his missing legs before his allies realized the bad zombies would return looking for the teleportation device.
Wasp, Spider-Man, Cage, Hawkeye, and Black Panther were waiting for them, lying to them about offering the machine if the zombies left them, and the humans, alone. Once the force field was disabled to make the "trade", the Good Zombies attacked the bad ones and they fought once again, and the force field was reactivated.
Meanwhile, inside, Bruce gained his consciousness back and tried to eat Reynolds at the security room with the lever of the force field. The fright caused him to push the lever accidentally and disable the force field, so the bad zombies decided to consume the rest of the humans and get the machine but the hunger fade away. Banner turned into Hulk and started eating again. All the zombies tried to stop him, but Iron Man, Phoenix, Firelord, and Hawkeye were killed in the process.
Reynolds though the Wasp was dead, and he was in love with her, so he offered the Hulk to eat him and spare the others. After eating Reynolds, Hulk changed back into Banner and he was voluntarily killed by the remaining zombies before he could become the Hulk again. Weeks later, Malcom Cortez, who hated all of them and their kind, tricked the remaining zombies, using Reed's machine to send all of them to Earth-Z.[4]
Earth Z
Luke was one of the surviving zombies and was transported to Earth-Z, and was leading the Shiar Impeiral Guard in an attempt to stop the zombie Avengers of that dimension from spreading the infection. Sadly, it failed, and he was killed. His brain was used as a trophy in Avengers Tower.[5]Attributes
Powers
Abilities
Notes
- Cage wore his costume from his 70s Power Man days.
- It is peculiar how Cage was infected seeing as how he had unbreakable skin.
Trivia
- When Marvel Zombies writer Robert Kirkman was pitching ideas for the series, he originally planned a non-infected Luke Cage fighting zombies to be the protagonist of the book. This idea was scrapped later on when the zombified version of Luke Cage appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four #22.[6]
See Also
- 24 appearance(s) of Lucas Cage (Earth-2149)
- 3 minor appearance(s) of Lucas Cage (Earth-2149)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Lucas Cage (Earth-2149)
- 18 image(s) of Lucas Cage (Earth-2149)
- 1 victim(s) killed by Lucas Cage (Earth-2149)
Links and References
References
- ↑ Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness #1
- ↑ Marvel Zombies #1–5
- ↑ Black Panther (Vol. 4) #27–30
- ↑ [[Marvel Zombies 2 1-5|[[Marvel Zombies 2 #1|Marvel Zombies 2 1]]-5]]
- ↑ Marvel Zombies Return #5
- ↑ Cronin, Brian (5 February 2016) Comic Book Legends Revealed #561 Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on 5 February 2016.