Milestone!

I don't usually step out on The Great Escape. After all, I've been buying comics there for the past 41 years. And I've sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to The Zone. (Long story, but the short version is that the owner and his workers like to talk trash about people, including references to pedophelia and liberal usage of foul language.) But every once in awhile I stop in at The Destination if I'm looking for something that The Great Escape was out of. 

And last Friday TGE had no copies of Dejah Thoris vs. John Carter with the cover I wanted (I know, I know). And since I was going right past The Zone, heading down Shelbyville Road, I thought I'd stop in and see if they perhaps had a copy.

A quick scan showed me that they didn't. 

So I did a long scan. And as I was long-scanning, lo and behold, I saw Icon & Rocket: Season One #1. 

Oh, my. 

In the back of my mind I knew that Milestone was re-booting at some point, but I didn't know that they already had feet on the ground. 

There were three different covers, too. I went for the cardstock variant by Reina Koyano. (I usually don't go for the extra buck version, but I thought this image evoked the classic Icon look that I love.) And then I started looking hard at every book on the shelves. Surely there was a Hardware up, too, right? Well, no. But there was a Static: Season One #1. When I went to pay for these beauties, I checked with the owner just to make sure that I hadn't missed anything, and he told me that Hardware was due out next week. Which actually means in two days, so you know what to do.

I can't tell you how good it is to see Milestone back on the stands. For one thing, from the get-go (1993) to the get-gone (1997)...and through a go or two at revivals (some crossover stuff, a mini-series in 2010, Static Shock cartoon show, etc.)...Milestone focused on Black heroes and Black creators. Not exclusively, but predominantly. And in the White White World of mainstream comic books, that was something sorely needed. (Even when Marvel and DC made attempts to do Black heroes, they almost always fucked it up by (1) having them depicted by White guys and (2) nailing them down with racist bullshit.) 

I just did a little check up on the new Icon and Static books.

Icon & Rocket 

Written by Reginald Hudlin  & Leon Chills

Pencils by Doug Braithwaite

Inks by Andrew Currie and Scott Hanna

Colors by Brad Anderson

Static

Written by Vita Ayala

Breakdowns by ChrisCross

Finished Art by Nikolas Draper-Ivey

Don't know why they couldn't find a Black inker or colorist for Icon & Rocket...but at least the main stuff is by Black artists. 

Of course, the proof is always in the pudding, so what's in this pudding?

Well. 

I'm sorry to say that Icon & Rocket was not much of a thrill. It's really just a re-do of the 1993 Icon #1. It's updated slightly...but not much. And the key plot pivot is pretty ridiculous. One of the kids who breaks into pre-Icon Icon's house comes back the next day and guilt trips him into becoming a superhero and making her his sidekick. I really didn't get much of a feel for Reginald Hudlin/Leon Chills's writing here...since they were really just plagiarizing Dwayne McDuffie...and the art just seemed okay to me. 

I'm definitely going to come back for more. In fact, it's going to be hard to dislodge me from this book, since (1) I've been waiting for Milestone to come back for a very long time now and (2) although I did buy a lot of Milestone books back in the day...including complete runs of some titles...I have often regretted not buying every issue they produced, and have been pulling issues I missed out of the back bins at Half-Price Books for years now. 

But really...this could have been a whole lot better. Shit, they take Icon from crash landing in a field of sugar cane to The Present in 5 pages / 25 panels. A Black man (well, he turns into a Black baby before he's found) crash landing into a slave plantation in the mid 1800s. And we don't get any of that story. Seriously, that should have been the first five year arc, minimum. Maybe then it would have made some sense when the reclusive millionaire decides to become a superhero because a girl who broke into his house tells him he oughtta. 

And Static?

Well, I'll confess that I am not familiar with the 1993 #1 issue, so it's possible that Vita Ayala did the same thing that I was unhappy with in Icon & Rocket, but I don't think so. For one thing, the writing is so bright, so MODern, that I can't imagine Vita being anything but original, even if she did incorporate elements of the first go-round. This was actually an exciting story to read...and did a superb job of evoking the difficulties of being a teenager in high school. And the art was really good, really engaging. For one thing, there was some interesting panel use which actually did not distract from the story. That's no mean feat. I think the credit there would have to go to ChrisCross for the breakdowns. For another thing, the art was just exciting to look at. It crackled with energy and it literally seemed to glow. All credit there to Nikolas Draper-Ivey--of whom I'd not previously heard. 

There's a tell-tale panel late in the story. (No spoilers.) Static is caught in a fight, and he has a flashback to a scene wherein he learned something that he can now put to use in the fight. There's a fight scene panel at the bottom of a page, then you turn the page and the top panel is the flashback, and then we're back into the fight. But it's done without any narration to guide you. The whole thing relies on the art, really. And it does take a modicum of intelligence to follow it. If you weren't paying attention, I think you'd have to wonder, "Why did he stop fighting? Who is this other guy?" And then, a moment later: "So he's fighting again? What just happened?" I like this for a couple of reasons, one of which is that it shows the writer (and the editor, too, I suppose) taking a bit of a chance. They aren't guiding the reader through it. Second reason is that it means that they felt that they could take that chance because they trusted the reader's intelligence. You don't get a whole hell of a lot of that in mainstream comics, do you?

So I am most enthusiastically waiting for the second issue of Static. I'm also going to have to have a look for Milestone Returns #0. I haven't spotted it yet on the stands, and I was thinking maybe it still hadn't been released. (Last time I checked with the comic book store it had only been released as an e-comic, and since I ditched Amazon I have also left e-comics behind. Alas.)

So to sum it up: I'm pretty happy with the return of Milestone. I hope that they can keep it going for a long time...and, of course, add more titles. After Hardware, I see that Blood Syndicate is up. That was one of my favorite Milestone titles from the first run. Dare I hope for a new Shadow Cabinet? We'll see.

Speaking of all that, here's one worry: Icon and Rocket is identified as a six issue mini-series. That's not going to be nearly enough for me unless it's just going to be one of those recurring mini-series kinds of title. So let a hand, brahs and tahs. Lend some dollars. Make Yours Milestone!