PopSyndicate.com

Just saying.

Me too. THey were pretty fresh when the whole imprint debuted. Not all of the titles were the best, but they did a very “Marvelesque” job of balancing personal issues with being superheroes.

I was very happy to see a predominately African-American super-hero universe, unfortunately I never bought into it (it was the 90’s and I was busy dropping $$ on those chronium acitate collector’s item issues…and buying 5 copies of X-Men #1). Years later, I picked up about 20 issues of “Icon” from a quarter bin at a comic store and it did nothing for me. Maybe it’s my total middle-class, white, midwest mindset, but nothing in that book clicked with me. However, the concept of the characters still intrigues me and I wish that Dwayne McDuffie would get the opportunity to explore that world again.

Or better yet, bring back Black Goliath in the Marvel Universe!

I liked the Donner and Blitzen characters.  There weren’t any regular lesbian characters then (or now for that matter).  Also, they weren’t drawn wearing stripperwear as well. 

Milestone also had one of the few transsexual characters in comics. 

No one is doing the kind of work now that Dwayne and others did back then.

I couldn’t really get into ICON or HARDWARE either. STATIC had some great writing, like the original SPIDER-MAN updated for the 1990s. BLOOD SYNDICATE had a good twist on the “superhero group” as a street gang, and had Fade as a gay character.  My favorite was Flashback, who could move back in time….  but only 3 seconds.

The books I enjoyed the most were added later, SHADOW CABINET; a great mix of fresh concepts to traditional powers in the Cabinet, and XOMBI, which had moments of Grant Morrison brilliance. I loved Catholic Girl and Nun of the Above. But some of the ideas, The Four Stableboys of Apocalypse, didn’t live up to expectations.  Unfortunately by the end of the first year, the writing and general direciton of both of them fell apart.

I miss Milestone too. There were books I really grooved on Icon, Blood Syndicate, and Hardware. Some I didn’t. I liked the idea alot and liked new characters or new versions of archetypes. I wish they would do a special anniversary or something to see where these characters are now. We have had other anniversaries like Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught Reborn (Heroes Reborn). Give us some Milestone Reborn with more GLBT characters. I think it would be great to see more ethnicities represented as GLBT superheroes. As I have expressed before if only Wiccan was around when I was a teen I could SO identify with him. Imagine if we had more GLBT characters of different ethnicities for the GLBT youth to identify with. How awesome that would be.

I really enjoyed them at the time.  Some of them felt kind of Vertigo-lite.  Especially Blood Syndicate.  That said, I’m glad that the DCU has become a little more diverse in it’s portrayals of ethnic/gay characters, and doesn’t seem to feel the need to shunt the lesbian Mexicans off to it’s own imprint.  We’ve come a long way, baby.

Corrykakes - 12 April 2007 08:20 PM

doesn’t seem to feel the need to shunt the lesbian Mexicans off to it’s own imprint. 

There’s more than one?

Touche!

drumore - 11 April 2007 05:50 PM

The books I enjoyed the most were added later, SHADOW CABINET; a great mix of fresh concepts to traditional powers in the Cabinet, and XOMBI, which had moments of Grant Morrison brilliance. I loved Catholic Girl and Nun of the Above. But some of the ideas, The Four Stableboys of Apocalypse, didn’t live up to expectations.  Unfortunately by the end of the first year, the writing and general direciton of both of them fell apart.

I remember liking Shadow Cabinet mostly for the cool John Paul Leon art (who i still love on the rare occasions he resurfaces).  I don’t remember much about the stories, though.

Xombi was pretty cool, too - probably a little ahead of its time i think.  Horror stuff is all the rage now, dontcha know.