8 Most Notable Luke Cage Weaknesses, Ranked

Luke Cage, also known as Power Man, is a New York-based superhero and one of the coolest characters in Marvel Comics. A young boy raised on the streets of New York eventually became a volunteer for the secret experiment cell similar to Super-Soldier Serum in the Seagate Prison. Luke Cage started his vigilante career as a member of Heroes for Hire and Defenders, where he met other superheroes like Iron Fist and Jessica Jones, whom he married.

Luke Cage became part of the major superhero groups like Avengers, Fantastic Four, and others, but even the indestructible Power Man has some weaknesses that prevent him from being the strongest Earth superhero. We will list eight weaknesses that affect the Power Man and explain each.

8. Being a human

Luke Cage is a powerful man whose raw power and fighting skills make him a formidable opponent to anyone (at least on Earth). After undergoing a Super-Soldier experiment in prison, Luke Cage gained superhuman physiology, most notably, a Nigh-Invulnerability, which makes his body hard as titanium steel. However, despite those enhancements, Luke Cage is still a human who needs food, water, and air.

This might be silly, but Luke Cage being human among aliens and beings that don’t need that much to survive makes him vulnerable in the grand scheme of things. He almost drowned in one of the older comic book runs, which wasn’t a pleasant experience for the Power Man. Moreover, Luke Cage has weak spots on his body, and those are mostly including his eyes, nose, and mouth.

7. Lasers/really hot weapons

This weakness is connected to the fact that Luke Cage is a human. Despite exceptional healing factors and invulnerability, he is vulnerable to extreme heat, mostly the weapons that hold that kind of force.

Lasers first come to mind, and if they are high-powered, the natural openings in his skin will let through the intense heat that will harm his internal organs. The lasers are mostly needed when Cage needs a procedure or operation, but a superpowered laser weapon that is shot this way can hurt the Power Man.

6. Vulnerable mind

This weakness might be a bit controversial since Luke Cage is a man of honor who strictly follows his code. However, even the most willed and strong characters can fumble under the preassure. If attacked by the strong telepath, Luke Cage could be easily exposed and controlled. Unfortunately for the Power Man, he doesn’t have a resistant enough mind to oppose that danger, as Hulk can do in most cases.

However, Cage is a driven man who always puts others first, and sometimes that weakness can be incredibly useful for the Earth’s strongest superheroes and their fights against evil.

5. Family

We love seeing Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and their daughter Danielle have a happy and peaceful life, but the members of the Defenders and Avengers are always the target of the most notorious enemies. Whenever enemies want to hurt Cage, they target his family, especially his daughter Danielle – one of the more notable examples is during the ‘Secret Invasion’ storyline, which saw the Skrull-Jarvis kidnapping Danielle from her parents and taking her into space.

Danielle was eventually saved, but seeing Luke Cage and Jessica Jones devastated after their daughter’s disappearance, showed that despite giving him strength, the Cage-Jones family could be fatal for both superheroes. Thankfully, Danielle is babysat by Squirrel Girl, Marvel Comics’ one of the most powerful superheroes in the universe, so she is very safe.

4. Radiation

Extreme radiation exposure can kill many beings in the universe, including Luke Cage. We saw his death firsthand in the ‘Age of Ultron’ storyline from 2013 when the Earth’s superheroes fight against the mighty Ultron and mind-controlled Vision. During the fight, which saw the death of She-Hulk, Luke Cage is assaulted by the Ultron Drones, who overpower him and ultimately kill him with a nuclear blast that levels the whole Manhattan area.

That whole comic book run was quite good, so definitely check it out.

3. Internal organs

This is one of the biggest weaknesses of Luke Cage. Even though he was powered by the variation of the Super-Soldier Serum, even the mighty Power Man could not withstand blows to his internal organs.

Surprisingly, despite the titanium steeliness of his skin that conventional materials just cannot impale, it did happen that the vulnerable area of his skin led to almost fatal blows to his internal organs. The Serum didn’t enhance his whole body, making his physiology seem like a lava cake – the surface is hard, but the insides are gooey.

2. Thick skin/near-unbreakable flesh

Luke Cage’s incredibly invulnerable skin is his double-edged sword – he withstands the blows that could kill most beings, but when he needs saving, Cage needs special tools for medical treatment.

We already mentioned the special lasers used in the surgery treatments of the Power Man, but sometimes esteemed medics, in most cases Dr. Claire Temple, need special materials to puncture the hard skin and fix the internal organs of the Power Man.

1. Adamantium

Of course, the special materials that we already mentioned in the previous section include one of the most powerful materials in the Marvel Universe, Adamantium. Most notably, Wolverine’s skeleton is injected with adamantium, which reinforces his whole physiology, and it is so powerful that the member of X-Men injured the Mad Titan Thanos in the epic fight.

Adamantium is so dense and strong that it can easily damage other objects, including Luke Cage’s steel skin. I cannot recall when the adamantium weapon hurt Cage, but if Thanos and Hulk can be hurt by weapons enhanced with this material, even Luke Cage cannot withstand the force of it.

With everything said, it might be difficult to injure Luke Cage, but it’s not impossible. Nevertheless, this doesn’t make him any less powerful than other physically imposing superheroes; it only gives writers more to work with coming up with new stories.

What are your thoughts on the character? Let us know in the comments below!