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Luke Cage will lend his strength to the team of young super heroes in training as part of the regular cast of Ultimate Spider-Man!

When the show premieres during the Marvel Universe block on Disney XD on April 1, fans will meet a teenaged Cage�a.k.a. Power Man�as Spidey joins up with a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. trainees that also includes Iron Fist, White Tiger, and one more hero.

And with writer Brian Michael Bendis, who has long written Cage�s adventures in the comics, acting as Consulting Producer on the series, fans may be tempted to accuse him of playing favorites. Power Man from Ultimate Spider-Man.

�There are some people who are more familiar with my work, who are going to think that I shoehorned Luke Cage into yet another project,� admits Bendis. �I completely understand why that may seem to be the case, but Luke was on the team before I was on the team. As far as this cartoon went, it was something that the guys had put together before I had joined on.

�But it is fun to write him as a teenager, and I do sort of write him with the knowledge of the man he�s going to become. That�s kind of the way I wrote the Peter Parker in Ultimate Spider-Man for many years. You�re writing the teenager who you know will one day become the Peter Parker we know and love. This is the Luke that will eventually become Luke Cage.�

�He�s a little more carefree,� adds Head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb. �While he�s got street smarts, he doesn�t have the same troubled past as the adult Luke has.�

Both Bendis and Loeb see many of Cage�s core characteristics reflected in the Power Man we�ll meet in �Ultimate Spider-Man,� ensuring he remains the same character.

�What we like about the Ultimate Spider-Man Luke Cage is that he�s still instilled with his fierce sense of loyalty and family,� comments Loeb. �It�s an important theme to the new series and Luke embodies that well.�

�I find him to be a very noble character,� remarks Bendis. �That is not a word he would use to describe himself, which I think is the definition of nobility. He�s the one that�s the least neurotic about his heroism. [For him], that�s what you do--you get super powers, and you do the right thing. There�s something very cool about that. He�s kind of like the rock of the team, just by the nature of him standing still, feet firmly on the ground, the others bouncing off of him. It�s a nice chemistry.�

Fans will know that Power Man and Iron Fist have a long history as a crime-fighting duo in the comics, and their interactions in �Ultimate Spider-Man� will pay tribute to that partnership.

�If there�s anything not broken in comics, it�s the dynamic between Iron Fist and Power Man,� elaborates Bendis. �They�re like the Laverne and Shirley of comics. They�re the Odd Couple. They�re fantastic together. And that dynamic only gets more interesting with the connection of the other three teammates. No matter what happens on the team, these two are good.�

�They are best of friends--much like in the comics--but as teenagers we can see the less-than-responsible side of these heroes as well,� promises Loeb.