DC Comics has announced the return of superhero Static and his hometown Dakota City in a surprise panel at DC FanDome. The stories of Milestone Comics characters – including Static and Icon – will continue in 2021.
DC Publisher Jim Lee, co-founder and artist Denys Cowan of Milestone Comics (Black Panther / Captain America: Flags of Our Fathers), writer / filmmaker Reggie Hudlin (writer in 2005) Black panther series, producer on Django Unchained, Director of House party), and voice actor Phil Lamarr (Static shock, Samurai Jack) took Zoom to pay homage to the late, great writer Dwayne McDuffie. While they were there, they announced the return of McDuffie’s most famous Milestone creations.
A new digital Static comic strip will launch in February 2021, just in time for Black History Month. The FanDome panel also announced an original Static graphic novel by Hudlin and artist Kyle Baker (Deadpool: Merc with a mouth), and a new comic book story for superhero duo Icon and Rocket, written by Hudlin and drawn by Cowan. Hudlin said Milestone Media is looking to bring even more Milestone characters to film, animation, and even podcasts.
What is Milestone Comics?
In 1993, at the height of the speculation boom and just before its bust, McDuffie, Cowan, and a few other notable black comic book creators founded Milestone Media, a publisher with the mandate to underrepresent racial minorities in superhero comics. to pack. Although not originally part of the DC Universe, Milestone’s books were published and distributed by DC Comics.
By far the most famous characters in Milestone’s Dakotaverse were Dwayne McDuffie co-creations, especially the young Black superhero known as Static. An animated series with the character ran for more than fifty episodes, from 2000 to 2004. Static shock hooked up a whole generation of kids to the adventures of Virgil Hawkins, who could shoot lightning out of his hands, fly through the air on a member of the electrified trash can, and sometimes have to cross over with Batman and other cool things like that.
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Icon and Rocket are less well known outside of comics, but are still held in high esteem. The former is a stranger who has lived quietly among the people for more than a hundred years, the latter a teenage girl who convinces him that he must use his powers to become a superhero. A powerful alien given the form of a Black man in America, Icon is often read as a commentary on Superman.
Milestone characters crossed with DC characters in the ’90s, and were brought into DC continuity even in the late’ 00s. IN Static shock comic launched with DC’s 2011 New 52 reboot, but was canceled after eight releases.
Hudlin and Cowan – along with Derek Dingle, another co-founder of Milestone – visited Milestone Media just a few years ago, with the intention of publishing a print run under DC Comics in early 2018. Attempts were stopped through a lawsuit by Dwayne McDuffie’s widow, Charlotte Fullerton, who inherited his 50% stake in Milestone Media and claimed she was excluded from this new venture. The pack was arranged in 2019, and now that Milestone has it ahead, it seems like the imprint is progressing very well.
