Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Icon #10

Today’s Super-Homage is one that I’ve talked about before: Icon. He was created by Dwayne McDuffie for Milestone Comics and was featured in his own title in the early 1990s’s. I talked about him back in February when I looked at a trade that has his series’ first eight issues. He shares some similarities to Superman in that he’s an alien who crashed on Earth and he has a secret identity. The similarities stop there though. Originally named Arnus, he crashed on Earth in 1839 and took the form of an African-American baby. He was named Augustus Freeman and kept his alien heritage a secret for over a century. It isn’t until the 1990s where he (at the behest of a young girl named Raquel) decides to become a superhero and clean up the city of Dakota.

Today’s issue is Icon #10. I did think about looking at an issue where he and Superman actually duked out, but it’s part of a crossover called "Worlds Collide." I haven’t read the total crossover, so this one seemed best. If you want to hear some discussion about those issues, head over to From Crisis To Crisis: A Superman Podcast where they went in-depth with that crossover between DC and Milestone. Dwayne McDuffie wrote the issue. M.D. Bright provided the pencils. Mike Gustovich handles the inks. James Brown (not the singer but that would be cool) and David Montoya handles the colors. So, let’s see what happens when Icon chases after some gangster

Icon #17

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie

Pencils: M.D. Bright

Inks: Mike Gustovich

Colors:  David Montoya and James Brown (Good God! Hey!... Had to do it.)

Letters: Steve Duturo

Editor: Matt Wayne

Trade Tales! - Icon: A Hero's Welcome

It seems that I’m on a bit of a “black superhero” kick this month because I got another one for today: Icon from the Milestone Universe. In the 1990’s, a group of black writers and artists got together with DC in order to create a universe where the heroes are minorities. One of the writers was the late Dwayne McDuffie, a favorite of mine. Another hero that came from this universe was Static who had his series and later cartoon series, Static Shock. The universe lasted for a few years but died off because of low sales. In the late 2000’s, DC tried to incorporate some of these heroes like Static and Icon into the then-current DCU. DC even had tried to bring Static into the New 52. I’m hearing that the co-founders of Milestone are getting stuff back together, so we might see these characters again.

Anyway, back to the hero of the post. Icon aka Augustus Freeman is pretty much the Superman of this universe.  Icon was one of the first books released by the company. The trade has the first eight issues of that book. I first read this when I found it in the public library. I eventually added it to my collection. McDuffie, who was also writing Static Shock at that time, is the writer. Green Lantern artist M.D. Bright provided the pencils. Mike Gustovich provided the inks for all eight issues. A variety of colorists and letterers did the eight issues.