Luke Cage Noir (2009)

Marvel's Noir line drops Luke Cage into Prohibition-era Harlem, home after doing his time, and hands him a classic private-eye setup: a wealthy white man hires him to find out how his wife ended up murdered uptown. Mike Benson and Adam Glass write it as straight period crime over four issues, and Shawn Martinbrough's gloomy art does much of the scene-setting. The flaws are real. Each issue ends on a shock, which makes the read bumpy, and the attempt at period slang grates more than it convinces. Even so, it is the closest thing here to a pure hardboiled novel with a Marvel name on it, and readers who like Chester Himes-style Harlem crime will get the most from it.