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mschlat's review
4.0
(Note: this is a review of the Milestone Comics series Icon, which ran for 42 issues. The only collections of those issues are [b:Icon, Vol. 1: A Hero's Welcome|298045|Icon, Vol. 1 A Hero's Welcome (Milestone Comics Library Icon, #1)|Dwayne McDuffie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1306374337l/298045._SX50_.jpg|289169] and [b:Icon, Vol. 2: The Mothership Connection|8016911|Icon, Vol. 2 The Mothership Connection (Milestone Comics Library Icon, #2)|Dwayne McDuffie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344369891l/8016911._SX50_.jpg|12581113], which do not contain all the issues published.)
Okay, there are a ton of problems with this series... The Icon issues ended in the middle of a storyline and had tons of crossover issues (where you needed to read other comics if you really wanted to follow what's going on) and fill-in issues (little one-offs that did not advance the main story by [a:Dwayne McDuffie|167474|Dwayne McDuffie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298440310p2/167474.jpg] and M. D. Bright). The origin story of Icon is told again and again and again, and -- true to the 90's -- some of the "relevance" in the stories is overblown.
So here's why I think it's great.
You'd think the focus of the comic would be Icon, the titular hero who's something of a Superman analogue. (He's an extraterrestrial who is stranded in the southern United States in 1839 in the form of an African slave and lives up to the present day with his powers mostly hidden.) But McDuffie wants to tell the story not of Icon but of his sidekick Rocket (Raquel Ervin), a 15 year old girl who sneaks into the mansion of Augustus Freeman (Icon's alter-ego), discovers his superpowers, sees the possibilities of her and his life, convinces him to be a superhero, and aids him using some alien tech.
And it's about Raquel's pregnancy and what she decides to do about the baby, and her circle of friends and what they do for fun, and her sense of responsibility to her family and to the city of Dakota and to the often broken down environment around her. It's about her response to Augustus Freeman (a highly conservative lawyer and a fan of Booker T. Washington) when she feels he has not done enough. (Not surprisingly, she quotes W. E. B. Dubois to him.) It's about her fighting when fighting works well and about her thinking and plotting when those are better options.
What McDuffie and Bright create in these 42 issues is the depiction of a superhero who wants to do what she does for all the right reasons, but is also a flawed and impulsive teenager. And if you can get through all the problems with the series, you come away with a powerful portrayal of a powerful woman.
Okay, there are a ton of problems with this series... The Icon issues ended in the middle of a storyline and had tons of crossover issues (where you needed to read other comics if you really wanted to follow what's going on) and fill-in issues (little one-offs that did not advance the main story by [a:Dwayne McDuffie|167474|Dwayne McDuffie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298440310p2/167474.jpg] and M. D. Bright). The origin story of Icon is told again and again and again, and -- true to the 90's -- some of the "relevance" in the stories is overblown.
So here's why I think it's great.
You'd think the focus of the comic would be Icon, the titular hero who's something of a Superman analogue. (He's an extraterrestrial who is stranded in the southern United States in 1839 in the form of an African slave and lives up to the present day with his powers mostly hidden.) But McDuffie wants to tell the story not of Icon but of his sidekick Rocket (Raquel Ervin), a 15 year old girl who sneaks into the mansion of Augustus Freeman (Icon's alter-ego), discovers his superpowers, sees the possibilities of her and his life, convinces him to be a superhero, and aids him using some alien tech.
And it's about Raquel's pregnancy and what she decides to do about the baby, and her circle of friends and what they do for fun, and her sense of responsibility to her family and to the city of Dakota and to the often broken down environment around her. It's about her response to Augustus Freeman (a highly conservative lawyer and a fan of Booker T. Washington) when she feels he has not done enough. (Not surprisingly, she quotes W. E. B. Dubois to him.) It's about her fighting when fighting works well and about her thinking and plotting when those are better options.
What McDuffie and Bright create in these 42 issues is the depiction of a superhero who wants to do what she does for all the right reasons, but is also a flawed and impulsive teenager. And if you can get through all the problems with the series, you come away with a powerful portrayal of a powerful woman.
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