After a few months of being a Civil War II tie-in, Power Man and Iron Fist #10 has become a stone cold crime comic and a healthy helping of sub-plots. Luke Cage and Danny Rand (Fresh out of jail.) have put some former Ryker’s inmates to work for Heroes for Hire while trying to find out who created the software that got them there in the first place while enlisting almost every superhero in the Marvel Universe. (This gives Sanford Greene an opportunity to strut his stuff and put his mark on a variety of characters, including Thor, Miles Morales, and Kamala Khan.) But the arc from David Walker, Greene, and skilled colorist Lee Loughridge is really about setting up several groups of criminals, who think they can be the new kingpin of Harlem and eventually all of New York City, including Black Mariah, Tombstone, and Black Cat (who has been playing this game in a bunch of titles like Hellcat and Silk.)

Even though it’s filled to the brim with quirkiness, like criminals who filed their teeth as part of the Fang Gang or Luke Cage continuing to make “fiddle faddle” his new catchphrase, Power Man and Iron Fist #10 is all about community involvement and responsibility. Luke and Danny were partially responsible for the big Ryker’s breakout so they are making it their goal to catch the escaped inmates and help out those who weren’t really guilty by giving them employment through Heroes for Hire. They even call in some “outside contractors”, the aforementioned group of Marvel superheroes, and it is nice to see heroes working together for a common cause after all the mostly pointless Civil War II terribleness. But bad guys can team up too, and this issue is about supervillains, like Cottonmouth, Tombstone, and Black Mariah learning from past screw-ups to get organized and run the town. (And Black Cat calling out Pirahna on his garbage sexism is a triumphant moment even if she’s a criminal.)

With his ability to match color to mood and add a little punch to flashbacks, Lee Loughridge is one of the best colorists in comics. And he nails the “almost got ‘im” feel of Black Mariah, Cottonmouth, Piranha, and Tombstone’s failed attempt at a crime syndicate with his back-in-the-day sepia color palette that evokes an old yearbook or a rerun of a blaxploitation movie on a fuzzy local TV station. And yellow is his go-to color in the present day scenes and pairs well with Greene’s split screen panel layouts and Walker’s quick banter as Power Man and Iron Fist put Riggs and Murtaugh to shame as a well-oiled buddy action comedy machine.

Power Man and Iron Fist #10 is mostly setup for more intriguing events down the road thanks to a powerful cliffhanger, but its sense of humor, social responsibility, and idiosyncratic art and coloring style is still firmly intact. It hits that right sweet spot between crime comic and buddy comedy, and Sanford Greene continues to draw bodies of all shapes, sizes, and skin colors kicking ass, telling jokes, or being menacing in the villains’ cases in his Bronze Age meets animation art style.

Story: David F. Walker Art: Sanford Greene Colors: Lee Loughridge
Story: 7.5 Art: 8 Overall: 7.7 Recommendation: Read

Marvel Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review