All October long I will be exploring the context behind (using reader danjack's term) "meta-messages." A meta-message is where a comic book creator comments on/references the work of another comic book/comic book creator using the characters in their comic. Each time around, I'll give you the context behind one such "meta-message." Here is an archive of the past installments!

Today we examine an attempt by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie to explain away the classic "Where's my money, honey?" confrontation between Luke Cage and Doctor Doom.

As you know (or if you don't, then check this description of the story here), Steve Englehart once had an issue of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire where Luke Cage does some work for Doctor Doom only to be stiffed out of his $200 fee...

Angered, Cage travels all the way to Latveria to get his money...

Click on the link from before if you want to see more from that tale.

In any event, roughly fifteen years later, Dwayne McDuffie was working on Damage Control (the company that fixes messes caused by superhero fights) and decided to re-address's Doom's reputation as a deadbeat. McDuffie wished to correct this reputation...

And just in case you were wondering if this was just a coincidence, McDuffie actually posted a comment right here at Comics Should Be Good last year (in a discussion of the aforementioned "Where's my money, honey?" scene) stating:

My Damage Control story ” When Doom Defaults!” was a direct response to this one, which I hated as a child.