Dakota North briefs the staff of the Chicago Spectator newspaper on the origin story and history of Luke Cage. The publisher wants his staff to center their reporting around Cage, who has opened a new Heroes for Hire business in Chicago. Elsewhere at the site of a workers’ strike, Cage is helping get a riot under control when he is attacked by a villain named Hardcore with an electrified chain. Hardcore and his crew try to get away in a van, but Cage leaps after them and breaks inside, where Hardcore uses an explosive chain against him and kicks him out of the van. Cage apprehends some of the thugs but Hardcore himself escapes.
