How a Marvel Writer Was Tricked Into Using a Slur In a Luke Cage Issue

Welcome to the 886th installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. This time, our second legend is about how Steve Englehart was once tricked into working in a Jewish slur towards Black people into an issue of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire.

The start of the 1970s was a fascinating period for Marvel Comics, as Stan Lee was wrapping up his time as being directly involved in the scripting of the comic books (as he was promoted to Publisher) and Lee's successor as Editor-in-Chief, Roy Thomas, naturally had to devote more time to his new editorial duties, so he couldn't write quite as much as he had in the past. Coupled with an increased production of titles led to Marvel needing to hire a great deal of new writing talent for its expanding line of comic books.

This led to a number of young White men getting their breaks at Marvel, from Gerry Conway to Steve Gerber to Len Wein to Marv Wolfman to Steve Englehart. These guys were almost all in their early 20s (or even late teens), and their fresh approach to the comic book industry led to some bold and innovative comic book stories. At the same time, though, these were, of course, still very young guys, and as a result, didn't necessarily always have as much life experience as some veteran Marvel writers, and in one memorable incidents, Steve Englehart's youthful ignorance was taken advantage of by the artist he was working with on Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, with the result being an ethnic slur appearing in the comic.

How Steve Englehart and George Tuska had conflicts together on Hero for Hire

Luke Cage fights Black Mariah on the cover of Hero for Hire #5

As you may or may not know, writers like Steve Englehart started working at Marvel working in the "Marvel Method," which is what you call it when a writer comes up with a plot (sometimes with the help of the artist), gives it to the artist, and the artist then draws the pages on his own, deciding how to interpret the plot on his own, and then the writer scripts the finished pages. Different writers had different levels of detail in their plot, and Englehart, like a number of the younger writers, was more on the detailed side of things.

This, though, led to a bit of a conflict when he was working with veteran artist George Tuska on Luke Cage, Hero for Hire (Englehart took over the series from original writer Archie Goodwin with its fifth issue). The book was intended to be drawn by Black artist, Billy Graham, but since Graham couldn't maintain the penciling deadlines of the series, Tuska became the penciler and Graham inked the book. Graham inked it heavily, so it still had a real Graham feel to the pencils more so than other Tuska-penciled series.

In any event, Englehart noted to Sean Howe for Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, that Tuska would frequently ignore some of Englehart's plots, especially the subplots, because Tuska would tell him, "I didn’t feel like drawing that." Therefore, Englehart and Tuska were not exactly on the best footing when they worked on January 1973's Hero for Hire #8 (by Englehart, Tuska and Graham), which opened with Cage upset about having been attacked by some crooks a few issues earlier. An ostentatious man approaches Cage to hire him, but then Cage is distracted by spying one of the guys who attacked him, and Cage chases after the bad guy...

Luke Cage fights against a crook who tries to stab him

Naturally, this fight caused a bit of a ruckus in the alleys of New York City, and so Englehart wrote in a bit where a Jewish couple is disturbed by the fight, leading to the wife yelling out at Cage and the bad guy. This was a frequent trope in Englehart's Cage comic books, as he liked the idea of trying to humanize Cage's exploits by showing them firmly within the setup of a New York City where people aren't interested in superheroes if it disturbs their lunch. However, this couple led to a bit of a problem for Englehart.

How Tuska "tricked" Englehart into using an ethnic slur in a Luke Cage issue

Englehart told Howe that Tuska gave him sample Yiddish for the couple to use in the sequence, and thus Tuska

tricked him into referring to Luke Cage as a nice “schvartze” boy. Englehart didn’t realize that schvartze was a derogatory Yiddish term for a black person. An awkward apology appeared three issues later. “What can I tell you?” Englehart shrugs. “I’m from Indiana.”

A Jewish couple sees Luke Cage fighting some bad guys, an inadvertent slur is used

In the letter column for Hero for Hire #11, Englehart posted an apology, stating:

In issue #8, there appeared a Yiddish word which I, in my non-Jewish ignorance, didn't realize could be considered insulting. Several irate readers have quickly taken me to task for that little piece of deathless dialogue - and now that I know my mistake, I want to quickly apologize for having written it, rather than wait for the letters page referring to that issue next month. Sorry, people...it won't happen again - STAINLESS STEVE

Amusingly enough, the ostentatious guy that was trying to hire Luke Cage found him later and successfuly cut a deal with Cage, for $200 a day, to find some guys. It turned out that these were robots lost by Doctor Doom. So Cage was working for Doctor Doom! And at the end of the issue, Doom leaves New York City and stiffs Cage for his payment, which leads to one of the craziest Luke Cage stories ever.