EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #273: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE 2008

[Blake Petit]

The DC Universe has been a patchwork from the very beginning. Even before Barry Allen made his first appearance and the concept of multiple Earths was introduced, the company that would become DC had already made a merger: National Periodical Publications (home of such heroes as Superman and Batman) teamed up with sister company All-American (home of Green Lantern and the Flash) for All-Star Comics #3, which birthed the Justice Society and, along with it, the concept of a shared superhero universe. Within a few years, the two lines were under one publisher, National, which eventually became DC. Most people these days forget they were ever separate lines in the first place.

Over many years, DC acquired other universes of superheroes after their publishers went by the wayside. From Fawcett Comics came Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, plus a few lesser heroes like Bulletman and Ibis. Quality Comics gave us Plastic Man and the heroes that would later make up the Freedom Fighters. Charlton probably had more important heroes transfer over than any other – Captain Atom, the Blue Beetle, the Question and many others, who not only found major roles in the DCU, but also served as partial inspiration for a little thing called Watchmen.

This weekend, the DC Universe announced it was going to expand again with the absorption of heroes from two universes that we haven’t seen in far too long, and both announcements put a big ol’ smile on my face. First up: the Milestone Universe. Milestone was a line of comics created in the early 90s that primarily featured minority characters and creators. Although DC published these comics, they didn’t own them. Creators like Dwayne McDuffie held on to the rights after the line died. There were a lot of great characters who came out of this universe, most notably Static. This teen hero with electrical powers got his own cartoon show (which crossed over with Justice League Unlimited) and a miniseries some years after the rest of the line went away. For years, fans have clamored to see Static join the Teen Titans. Now it seems they may finally get their chance.

Another favorite Milestone creation of mine was Icon. On the surface, he’s something of a Superman clone: an alien who comes to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. But Icon has been on Earth for a century and a half, lived through the days of slavery and the Civil War, through the civil rights movement, and up to the present day. He was a unique character with a unique perspective. And as interesting as he was, he wasn’t the viewpoint character of the book – like Watson and Holmes, we saw Icon’s story through the eyes of his sidekick, Rocket. The book had a very unusual dynamic, and it’s something that’s still intriguing today. Icon was a favorite of my girlfriend, Erin, as well, along with Blood Syndicate. She was even more excited than I was when the news that they were coming back broke the internet.

The characters will return at the hands of one of the guys who made them popular, Dwayne McDuffie, in the pages of Justice League of America. From there, the heroes of the city of Dakota will spread throughout the DC Universe proper and, hopefully, become permanent fixtures.

But there was another universe of heroes announced this weekend, one almost as old as the likes of Superman and Batman. Once upon a time, there was a publisher called MLJ that employed guys like Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, who conjured up heroes like the Fly, the Comet, and the Web. In fact, they even produced the character widely recognized as the first patriotic superhero, the Shield, beating the debut of Captain America by about 18 months. But then MLJ introduced a new character, a redheaded teenager whose popularity took off like a rocket, until they actually renamed the entire company and the entire line of comics after him. And thus, the MLJ heroes became the obscure superhero arm of Archie Comics.

These characters got revived a few times over the years – in the 60s there was an effort to breathe new life into them, and in the 80s they were published by Archie as Red Circle Comics. Even DC has gotten their hands on them before, in the 90s when they took the names and basic concepts (although they were reimagined to a degree by up-and-coming writers like Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn) as Impact Comics. It was here that I became a fan of the characters, with my two favorites being The Comet and The Fly. In fact, you guys may remember me saying in this column many times over the years that I had an idea for a Comet revival that I’d be happy to write as soon as someone got around to offering me the job. Looks like I’ve been beaten to the punch, though. The Archie heroes will return in The Brave and the Bold, as written by J. Michael Straczynski.

So I guess I can let him do it.

Seriously, I’m a big fan of Straczynski’s. Babylon 5 is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Midnight Nation and Rising Stars were brilliant. I loved his Amazing Spider-Man run right up until certain (cough) editorial interference made the ending the most disgusting wad of bovine earwax I’ve ever suffered through reading. In fact, the only time I’ve been outright disappointed in anything he’s done was his Squadron Supreme run, which I thought suffered from just plain being too much like Rising Stars. I’ve been quite anxious to see what would happen when he dipped his toes into the DC Universe. I just never expected that he would be doing it by bringing in the Archie heroes one at a time.

So like the Charleton, Fawcett, and Quality heroes before them, the Milestone and Archie heroes will soon be part of the DC Universe proper. It won’t be a different line like Impact was, it won’t be off on “Earth-50” like the Wildstorm universe… these will be heroes existing on the core DC Earth. The next time Doomsday starts tearing up Metropolis, Hardware and the Jaguar may well pop in alongside the Outsiders to help save the day. I think it’s safe to say that nobody (who isn’t being unnecessarily argumentative) will argue that trying to bring back these characters is inherently a bad idea. The question, tough, is bringing them back as part of the DC Universe a good idea?

Milestone, of course, has encountered the DCU before. There was a crossover in 1994 between several Milestone titles and several Superman family books called Worlds Collide. The guys at DC say that they’re simply choosing to ignore that storyline in the reintroduction – they’re going to treat the Milestone heroes as people who have been in the DCU all along, with their origins and backstory intact rather than try to re-start them. I think this is the right approach. Fans of the Milestone characters are just that: fans of the characters, and they want to see the same characters they loved over a decade ago. By launching a new Milestone line, DC would in effect become its own competition, as so many different publishers have done over the years. By introducing them in Justice League of America, the characters will simply become available like any other DC hero. If Icon takes off, he can get his own book again without needing a half-dozen other Milestone books to come out at the same time to justify the line. The next time there’s a supernatural event like Reign in Hell, they could work in Xombi. And, of course, if anyone has any sense they’ll add Static to the Teen Titans right away. If Sean McKeever writes him as well as the rest of the team, he’ll be popular enough to get his own comic back in a year and a half.

With the Archie guys, it’s a little different, but just a little. I’m not sure on the details, but it seems like DC has acquired the Milestone guys – in other words, they now own them. Permanently. With the Archie heroes, they’re licensing them – in other words, giving Archie money for the rights to use the characters for a period of time. Which means there’s always the possibility that one or the other party will decide not to renew the license when it comes up. Now the good news is, DC and Archie have had a good working relationship for a long time. They even entered into an agreement a few years ago in which Archie will use DC’s advertising resources while DC gets access to Archie’s newsstand distribution model. And as there’s very little overlap between the DC and Archie audiences (I probably account for a good 25 percent of the overlap by myself), there’s no need to worry about competition.

But regardless, as long as it’s a licensing deal, the chances of losing the characters someday will exist. Depending on how much the characters are integrated into the DC Universe, this may be a big deal. If they haven’t gotten much further than The Brave and the Bold, then it won’t make many waves. If they’ve gotten popular (which, of course, is the hope), then their absence will be felt. And there’s no better example of this than another comic book company that used licensed characters in a big way: Valiant.

When Valiant Comics launched their universe, they did so with the licensed characters Magnus: Robot Fighter and Solar: Man of the Atom, which were once released by the defunct Western Publishing. Although books like Harbinger, X-O Manowar and Shadowman soon became popular enough on their own, Magnus and Solar had already been woven inexorably into the fabric of the Valiant Universe. When Valiant died, however, the licenses left and have been bouncing around ever since.

Now that a new company, Valiant Entertainment, has acquired the Valiant library, fans have been wondering if they would reach an agreement to bring back the versions of Magnus, Solar and Turok that the readers remember most fondly. But this weekend’s San Diego Comicon has showed us this won’t be the case. Although Valiant Entertainment undoubtedly campaigned for the characters, it was announced that Dark Horse Comics has gained the license not just to Magnus and Solar, but to other Western characters that never made it in a Valiant comic, such as Doctor Spektor. A few years ago, I would have jumped for joy at this news, but now that there’s a company trying to bring back new Valiant Universe stories, I’m bummed that Magnus and Solar won’t be a part of that.

It wouldn’t be the same with Archie and DC, of course. The Shield will never be as fundamental to the DC Universe as Solar is to Valiant. But it is something to think about. Still, I’m not going to think about it so hard that I’ll pass on the book. I love the Archie heroes, I love the Milestone heroes, and I’m over the moon that they’re going to be coming back.

Let’s just do ‘em right this time, DC, okay?

Favorite of the Week: July 23, 2008

Gotta love Dan Slott and Christos Gage. I haven’t been wild about Secret Invasion (if anyone can find the plot progression between issues two and four, PM me and tell me what page it’s on), but they made the crossover issue Avengers: The Initiative #15 the best read of last week. When the Crusader uses the Freedom Ring to protect his Skrull identity from 3-D Man, he inadvertently convinces the hero that everyone at Camp Hammond is a Skrull except for the two of them. That’s just the beginning, though, as the Skrull who fell in love with Earth is forced to fight against his own people in the invasion of Manhattan. This is the kind of book that proves any character can be made interesting with a good enough writer. Crusader was a throwaway character from Robert Kirkman’s Marvel Team-Up run, but they made him a character with depth, a history, a personality and, ultimately, a tragedy. They made us care about him. Just like they’ve done with all of the wanna-be heroes and also-rans that have populated this title. I’ll try almost anything these two get their hands on.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the novel-in-progress ”Summer Love” at Evertime Realms. He’s also the co-host, with the inimitable Chase Bouzigard, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms.

[DMcDuffie]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

I’m not sure on the details, but it seems like DC has acquired the Milestone guys – in other words, they now own them. Permanently.

No. DC has licensed the Milestone "Dakota Universe" property (including Static, Icon, et cetera) for use in DC Universe comic books. Milestone still owns the characters and copyrights.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by DMcDuffie

No. DC has licensed the Milestone "Dakota Universe" property (including Static, Icon, et cetera) for use in DC Universe comic books. Milestone still owns the characters and copyrights.

Okay -- thanks for the clarification!

And, may I say, I'm really looking forward to seeing those guys again.

[Chase Bouzigard]

Originally Posted by DMcDuffie

No. DC has licensed the Milestone "Dakota Universe" property (including Static, Icon, et cetera) for use in DC Universe comic books. Milestone still owns the characters and copyrights.

Are you like the real deal, if so thanks for some real info.

[Mark Blicharz]

Welcome to CX, Dwayne!

[Rainbow Raider]

If that's really Dwayne, holey moley! I gotta tell you how much I loved your work on Justice League Unlimited! Great show, wish it was still around.

[DMcDuffie]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

Okay -- thanks for the clarification!

And, may I say, I'm really looking forward to seeing those guys again.

You and me both.

[ErinPatricia]

Im just glad these guys are coming back! I loved the Milestone books ( as I have said like 9 million times now lol)

[WhereIsTony]

Great Column I loved the Shield.

I was excited becaus eI thought Adam's equally quality Column on crossovers was back.

your avatar is a dark reminder friend

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by WhereIsTony

your avatar is a dark reminder friend

That's the idea.

[PinchyWearO]

Actually, Straczynski was on board with the "deal with the devil" story in Spider-Man and the ending of the marriage. He's publicly stated that he disagreed with the extent the changes that story would bring, but that he volunteered to write the devil story.

Although I'm a fan of his, I wasn't a huge fan of his Spider-Man run (although it was an improvement since the clone saga.)

[chrismozer]

Just remembered "The Black Hood." Another great Archie hero.

Cannot wait to see him in the DCU!