Milestone Media’s long-running relaunch has resurfaced on Saturday – with news of it in the ‘DC Comics Surprise’ panel at DC Fandome.
The Milestone line at DC will be restored this February 2021, starting with a Static Shock comic book that will be digitally first published. Later that year, the previously announced Static Shock series by writer Reggie Hudlin and artist Kyle Baker will be released as an original graphic novel.
Milestone Comics co-founder Denys Cowan illustrates a team-up series titled Icon & Rocket, written by Hudlin.
DC also promises more Milestone titles to be announced at a later date.
But before all that, DC will be releasing a 17-page sampler for what comes on September 12 – the date of the second installment of DC Fandome – called Milestone Returns # 0. The issue, written by Hudlin and Greg Pak, will “re-introduce fans to Milestone characters such as Static Shock, Icon, Rocket, Duo, and others. ”
The artists involved include Cowan, Jim Lee, Ryan Benjmain, Khoi Pham, Scott Hanna, Bill Sienkiewicz, Don Ho, Alex Sinclair, and Deron Bennett.
Here is an example:
DC then plans to digitally publish some of the original ’90s and’ 00s era Milestone comics. These long out-of-print comic books have never been digitally released.
Originally launched in 1993, Milestone was a standalone superhero universe created and owned by four Black writers and artists – Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. They licensed their creations to DC, who published it under an impression called Milestone. The main characters / titles there were Static, Hardware, Icon, Blood Syndicate, Shadow Cabinet, and Xombi. The line was eventually discontinued in 1997, however, in 2010 a sequel to a limited series entitled Milestone Forever was published by DC.
DC later licensed Static, Icon, and Rocket for use in the main DC line, as well as in animated projects such as Young Justice and Static Shock, along with the video games DC Universe Online, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Young Justice: Legacy .
In 2015, DC announced a new partnership with Milestone Media to re-launch the common line and its defacto flagship character Static. The relaunch was postponed due to disagreements between the owners of Milestone Media and the estate of the late co-founder Milestone Dwayne McDuffie. The McDuffie family filed a lawsuit against Milestone in 2017, but it was later settled out of court.
Around 2017, Milestone and DC’s plans were to re-launch the characters as a separate line titled ‘Earth-M,’ which would co-exist with the DC Multiverse. The line would be launched with DC Universe: Rebirth-style one-shot titled Milestone (by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee), followed by new series such as Static Shock (by Reginald Hudlin, and Kyle Baker), Love Army ( by Hudlin and an Unname Artist), Duo (by author Greg Pak and an Unname Artist), and an anthology entitled Earth M.
It appears that the Hudlin / Baker Static Shock series will be transferred to these revised 2021 relaunch plans, but DC has not mentioned if any of the other previously announced projects will be fruitful.
Stay tuned for more on DC and Milestone here at Newsarama.
