Synopsis:
Luke Cage plays detective and super hero when he uncovers a conspiracy turning vulnerable Americans into unwitting pawns of a madman.
New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby (King of Ashes) writes an original crime novel starring Harlem’s unbreakable hero for the Marvel Crime thriller series for adult audiences.
With advanced cybernetics showing up in the possession of low-level criminals, Luke Cage is hired to investigate a factory manufacturing medical devices in rural Virginia. Leaving Jessica Jones during a delicate moment in their relationship, he makes plans to travel south but is devastated to learn that a cousin who scoped out the plant for him has been found dead. The police report states it was an accident. But Luke has long known that official words are just words.
Fueled by guilt and vengeance, Luke arrives in Virginia and promises his aunt he’ll get to the bottom of things. But danger lurks in every living room, barroom, and country road of Majestic, and the local sheriff’s barely concealed prejudices are ready to boil to the surface. Even ordinary people seem to have no qualms about testing their might against the hero from New York City.
As Luke uncovers a conspiracy reaching to the county line and beyond, an persistent evil begins to take hold of the town, leaving Luke to hope that his unbreakable skin will protect him long enough to protect others and bring an end to the hate threatening to engulf the nation.
Truth to Power continues the Marvel Crime series that began with Lisa Jewell’s Breaking the Dark and Alex Segura’s Enemy of My Enemy. Bringing fans into a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, Marvel Crime novels build on one another but can be enjoyed as stand-alone works and will thrill even those new to the Marvel Universe.
Review:
Do you like Marvel?
Do you like the Netflix Marvel series from 2015-19?
Do you like the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning?
Do you like Jack Reacher?
Wait…what?
So, I was a big fan of the Netflix Marvel shows (I even have a little bit of a soft spot for Iron Fist – sue me). Of course, Daredevil was peak Marvel on television and even the more recent Disney+ version has struggled to replicate the success, but there is still a lot to like from all those “street-level” Marvel properties. In the last couple years, Hyperion Avenue (an imprint of Disney) has put out Marvel Crime novels featuring Jessica Jones (Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell), Daredevil (Enemy of My Enemy by Alex Segura) and now, Truth to Power by S.A. Cosby featuring Luke Cage.
So what’s that about Jack Reacher?
Well…as I read Cosby’s take on Luke Cage, it felt familiar in a way. A good way…in that I’ve read most of Lee Child’s series and the version of Luke Cage that we get here feels a lot like Reacher. Cosby’s story takes Cage out of Hell’s Kitchen and down to Virginia where he has family connections, but is technically a super-powered outsider. He gets into a bar fight, is momentarily arrested by the (corrupt) sheriff, and has to virtually take on the bad guys single-handedly. If you say, I’ve read that Jack Reacher book before, I’m there with you.
But that’s where the Marvel magic comes in. Can Reacher punch through the floor of a school bus that he’s trapped in while it’s sunk on the bottom of the river? Can Reacher flick an office desk with his fingers and have it fly 10 feet to the opposite wall? Is Jack Reacher’s skin impenetrable to all but adamantium or vibranium?
Cosby paints the story in familiar ways, taking Luke Cage physically away from his support system of Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock. He’d had a cousin of his taking a look at a shady factory in town and then the cousin ends up killed under mysterious circumstances. So Cage comes to town almost in a Reacher-type role. He still has phone calls and contacts with his friends back in New York, but there’s no team-up to take down the nefarious corporation in rural Virginia.
And since it’s Virginia – a state very much in the American South that traces an ugly history back to it being were the capital of the Confederacy was in the 1860’s, there are more than a few drops of racism directed towards Luke Cage, his family, and associates. And the initial death of Luke’s cousin and some others he discovers when he arrives on scene evoke a sense of Jim Crow-era lynchings. Cosby knows what he’s doing here, dripping a little Black Horror into his Luke Cage novel with uncomfortable, but good effect.
I really enjoyed S.A. Cosby’s Truth to Power, and getting to see Luke Cage outside of the confines of Hell’s Kitchen. If you love the street-level Marvel heroes, you definitely need to pick this one up.
Thank you to Hyperion Avenue for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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