As Marvel continues to have long-fiction coverage of some of their most intriguing characters, each written by an outstanding author, they finally are receiving the credit that this storied franchise so deserves. That being said, who better than the great S. A. Cosby to write the novelization of a Luke Cage “Power Man” story?

TRUTH TO POWER opens with a quote from James Baldwin: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” This just about sums up Luke Cage, who is as complex a figure as they come. He protects the denizens of Hell’s Kitchen and Upper Manhattan from criminals, drug dealers, pimps and various political power players, which has kept him busy for the past several decades. It also has produced possibly the most intense comic books I have ever read. Now Cosby has his chance to convert that to the big stage and hopefully gain an entirely new audience for this character.

"S. A. Cosby is clearly having fun with TRUTH TO POWER, and his love for both Luke Cage and Marvel is evident throughout the book."

It opens on a beautiful spring day in New York City. Luke witnesses two people jumping or being tossed from the window of a building in Harlem to meet instant death on the unforgiving pavement below. Shortly after, he is having a serious phone conversation with his occasional love and fellow Defenders teammate, Jessica Jones. But this is interrupted by a frantic call from Luke’s aunt down south, screaming that his cousin, Rashon, is dead. Luke drops everything and heads to Virginia.

For the uninitiated, Luke is Captain America without the hype. He also was given a super-serum that allowed him to grow to 6’6” and 425 pounds. His skin is impenetrable, even from bullets, and his strength is off the charts. The only thing that can beat him is his own conscience. That is at play here as he feels guilt over Rashon’s death. He had asked him to sneak into a suspicious mega-company that recently moved to the small Virginia town, employing most of its residents. Luke and his other cousin, Raymond (Rashon’s brother), seek out a guy named Tory, who allegedly was with Rashon on the night he died.

When Tory is nearly killed in an auto accident, Luke realizes that this company has way too much power, and their hands are in nearly everything. They probably caused the crash but also provided the prosthetic limb to make Tory whole again. The head of security for Pacific Vista Laboratories (PVL) has the coolest villain name I have heard in a while: Uriah Odium. No one is quite sure what they do, other than create really effective and expensive mechanical and medical devices. One of the wild rumors is that they are a front for the gray aliens.

Luke has a run-in with the sheriff’s department, which is overtly racist and clearly in PVL’s pocket. Not only does he need to find out who killed his cousin, he also is taking on the names of the other victims or missing citizens of the town, all of whom are connected to PVL. As he digs deeper, he uncovers more nasty business and conspiracies tying several powerful people and entities together to form a wall of evil that may be too much for him to take on alone. But our Hero for Hire never backed down before. So why start now?

S. A. Cosby is clearly having fun with TRUTH TO POWER, and his love for both Luke Cage and Marvel is evident throughout the book. There are conversations with Daredevil/Matt Murdock and references to Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Reed Richards and others. He even talks about how Doctor Doom once owed Luke $200. Cosby makes a really clever move by having Luke go to Virginia, which is Cosby’s home state. The result is a novel as hard-hitting as it is entertaining.