What is MILESTONE FOREVER, you ask? Well, we can take a guess, but why slow down the process? Since it’s part and parcel of what we do, being The Source and all, we talked to Milestone founder and MILESTONE FOREVER writer Dwayne McDuffie for the scoop on the new project, along with some essential back story to bring you newbies up to speed. Take it away, Dwayne:

16 years ago this month, industry giant DC Comics and upstart Milestone Media entered into an unprecedented creative partnership, producing 14 interlocking, creator-owned titles including Hardware, Icon, and the multimedia hit that would best be known as Static Shock. The story Milestone chose to tell was an audacious one, larger than life on its surface, character and story-driven at its base, Humanist and multicultural at its heart. For over 250 issues, fans explored a superhero universe like no other.

Today, nine Parents Choice awards, four Eisner Award nominations and one Emmy and Humanitas award-winning hit TV series later, Milestone is back, its continuity mysteriously merged with the DCU. While we saw the DC side of the story in “Justice League: When Worlds Collide,” Milestone Forever gathers the original artists from Milestone’s launch titles: John Paul Leon, Mark Bright, Chris Cross and Milestone Founder Denys Cowan, to complete the tales told in the original runs of STATIC SHOCK, ICON, HARDWARE, SHADOW CABINET and BLOOD SYNDICATE. Milestone Editor in Chief Dwayne McDuffie reveals the final fate of each of Milestone’s launch characters in a bittersweet tale that chronicles the literal end of a universe, and the birth of something new, with major consequences for the future of the DC Universe.

The very first Milestone comic will finally be collected, 17 years after its original publication. HARDWARE: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE will reprint Hardware #1-8, featuring the character’s origin, and first adventure. The Direct Market (comic book store) release date hasn’t been announced yet, but it tends to be about a month earlier than in the general market.

That is awesome news! In the meantime, how about some mean-ass Walt Simonson wallpaper?!

10 books reviewed:
Amazing Spider-Man #595 (BUY IT)
Amazing Spider-Man: The Short Halloween (BUY IT)
Dark Reign – The Hood #1 (BUY IT)
New Avengers #53 (BUY IT)
Final Crisis Aftermath – Ink #1 (BUY IT)
Ms. Marvel #39 (DON’T BOTHER)
Batman in Barcelona: Dragon’s Knight (SPLIT VERDICT)
Superman #688 (SPLIT VERDICT)
Teen Titans #71 (SPLIT VERDICT)
Justice League of America #33 (DON’T BOTHER)

Agree? Disagree? Think we don’t know what the heck we’re talking about? Leave your comments below!

And if you think we your feedback doesn’t matter, you’re wrong — last time out everyone begged us to stop putting the intro in between every segment and we listened — thank God!

Special thanks to Midtown Comics for providing Jon’s books for review.

As always, email us your questions or comments at pcs@popcultureshock.com or give us a call at 1-888-817-5766 and we’ll address your feedback on the next show.

Dwayne McDuffie

In 1972, DC bought the Fawcett characters Captain Marvel and the Marvel family. During its heyday, Fawcett’s Captain Marvel outsold Superman. It was immensely popular – until DC took Fawcett to court for copyright infringement, claiming CM was too much like Superman. Fawcett settled out of court, which led to them shutting down altogether. DC’s Shazam comic had mediocre sales, and in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, CM and the family were integrated into the DCU proper, and never again reached the same level of popularity. Currently the characters have changed to the point of near unrecognizability: the wizard Shazam is dead, a white-haired CM has taken over for him, and Mary Marvel has been corrupted by archenemy Black Adam. Recent Shazam revivals by Jeff Smith and Mike Kunkel that have brought the character back to its roots have not sold as well as during the character’s heyday.

In 1983, DC acquired a number of superhero characters from Charlton Comics. At one point Charlton was home to legendary creators like Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Roger Stern, Bob Layton, John Byrne, Dennis O’Neil, and more, but the company hit hard times in the early 80s and would go out of business by the 90s. While some Charlton characters thrived for awhile, like Blue Beetle and the Question, today new characters inhabit these identities, and the rest have fallen into obscurity despite occasional revivals. And of course, the Charlton characters were originally going to be used in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen until DC changed their minds and the creators ended up using new characters inspired by the Charlton heroes.

In 1994 Marvel purchased Malibu Comics after that company suffered financial decline. Malibu hit its stride in the 90s with its Ultraverse line of superheroes. Marvel did a brief relaunch with them, which included a bunch of crossover specials, but they too, never reached the same level of popularity.

In 2004, Disney acquired the assets to CrossGen after that publisher also had money problems. For a brief time, CrossGen came close to revolutionizing the entire industry, attracting A-list creators like Mark Waid and George Perez, developing a production system that emphasized eye-popping artwork, utilizing multiple distribution systems and reprint formats, and launching initiatives designed to attract a wider reading audience. But Disney’s plans to further develop breakout hits Meridian and Ruse have yet to see the light of day, and though certain CG titles have been reprinted by Checker Books, no new material has been forthcoming.

It’s a pattern that has repeated itself throughout comics history: whenever the bigger company acquires the smaller company, the latter’s properties eventually become either irrelevant or altered, if not in the short term then over the long term. If they get absorbed into a pre-established continuity, they lose their uniqueness, that certain something that made them special to begin with. Yes, McDuffie is at DC now and will likely be consulted whenever someone wants to use the Milestone characters, but what happens when he’s gone? Can future creators be trusted to care about them as much as McDuffie, who was an integral part of their creation?

Something else about this deal bothers me. DC executive vice-president Dan DiDio insists that it’s not about wanting to diversify the DCU, but it’s about “bringing great material into the DC universe, and being able to add value to everything we do.” Well, that sounds all nice and noble, but riddle me this: why is it that whenever DC decides to throw a bone to readers of color, they put their best efforts into making “legacy” characters connected to pre-established ones? Green Lantern II (John Stewart). Mr. Miracle II. Steel (originally one of the “replacement” Supermen and who is still considered part of the Superman family). Mr. Terrific II. Jakeem Thunder (successor to Johnny Thunder). Firestorm II. And to go beyond black characters, there’s Atom III (an Asian-American), Question II (a Latina), and Batwoman II (a lesbian).

Remember Muhamamad X? Skyrocket? Orpheus? Chances are you don’t. These were original heroes of color created within the DCU but were given little chance to shine for very long and now linger in superhero limbo. Sure, someone could use them again, but it’s so much easier to buy someone else’s characters, especially when they come with their own built-in fanbases. Typical corporate mentality.

I wonder if reviving Milestone at Image was ever considered? Whether as a single book or a series of books, I could’ve easily envisioned seeing Milestone finding a home there, where the characters would’ve remained as they were without any corporate intervention. And certainly the fanbase would’ve followed, just as the fans of Bone and Strangers in Paradise did when those books found a temporary home at Image – and Milestone would’ve probably been an easier fit, given Image’s superhero roots.

Like I said, the fanboy in me can’t help but think it’s cool to see Static join the Teen Titans and Icon to join the Justice League, or whatever plans they may have for the Milestone heroes. And as for continuity issues, well, there’s always some BS way to shoehorn them into continuity, although the impression I get is that Final Crisis will have nothing to do with it and the “Worlds Collide” crossover will be conveniently forgotten. Regardless, I believe this is a huge mistake that will, over time, work to the detriment of these characters instead of their benefit. By losing the uniqueness that made them stand apart from the crowd, the Milestone heroes will, sooner or later, become as far removed from their roots as the Marvel family is now.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope to be proved wrong.

But I don’t think I will be.

Dwayne McDuffie

Dwayne McDuffie

Dwayne McDuffie

Dwayne McDuffie: “…anybody who has seen Justice League Unlimited knows I like [Green Lantern] John Stewart, so I wouldn’t be averse to opening up that big, ugly can of worms.”

Nuff said!

Dwayne McDuffie

Dwayne McDuffie

Dwayne McDuffie

Avengers Classic

Also: writer James Sturm briefly talks about his forthcoming Satchel Paige biography.

What can I say? Awesome choice. Let’s hope he sticks around awhile.