Hot on the heels of the GALACTUS emo special issue in FF #74, we see the devourer starving and even more desperate to reel in his missing herald in Fantastic Four #75, Worlds Within Worlds.

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Convinced that his silver herald is the only one who can get down with bringing a proper planet to the table, GALACTUS decides he may not be able to do the Earth a solid (i.e. not consume it). He’s got a giant-sized space-ray tuned like a microscope in hopes of locating the Silver Surfer and he’ll do anything to find him!

(Click the scan for a larger image!)BTW, this is the first time I’ve seen GALACTUS rockin some shorts. Maybe that was a mistake by the colorist? Moving right along! GALACTUS plots to get the active members of the Fantastic Four to drop the dime on the Silver Surver. First, he tries putting them to task physically by having them go head-up against clones of themselves: (Click the scan for a larger image!)Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the THING lets fly with some colorful descriptions of himself have me wondering just how familiar he’s gotten with himself:

“..but a little thing like THAT ain’t gonna put the KIBOSH on America’s favorite lumpy-skinned sweetie!”

That can be interpreted any type of way, right? The verbiage is clearly ol’ school. But wait, there’s more:

“NUTS! That creep’s an insult to us GENU-WINE blushin’ beauties!”

I don’t know what is going on with the THING, but, maybe he’s got an itch that needs to be scratched , or maybe he’s looking to enter the next Ms. Teen THING pageant on girlie-man isle.

GALACTUS appears in the shape of an astral image and demands the Fantastic Four give up the ghost on the Silver Surfers location. Ben, still feelin’ his wheaties, decides to toss GALACTUS some lip:

(Click the scan for a larger image!)Not really appreciating the lack of act right on the part of the Fantastic Four, and the THINGS huge mouth, GALACTUS decides to start tossin’ rocks. Huge ones. Right at Earth. At least one member of the Fantastic Four is unaware of the total annihilation about to kick in — Emo Girl, a.k.a The invisible woman: (Click the scan for a larger image!)Meanwhile, Reed Richards decides it’s time to punk out and hand over the Silver Surfer to GALACTUS (if he can find him).
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one; or do they??? Get down with Fantastic Four #75 and find out how this follow-up to Emo-Fest 2006 shakes out. Bahlactus has spoken.

Yes, it’s Monday, and do you know where your children are? Well I do, they’re at bahlactus.com just like you. I am your host, Jeff Munson, and I welcome you back to this column for a triple threat of great Milestone madness. (Sorry, I read a few too many old time Marvel Bullpen Bulletins over the weekend, so If my column this week sounds a little too much like Stan “The Man” you know who to blame!) This week we are going to cover the following three Milestone comics: Hardware #2 and the debut issues of both Static and Icon.

We begin with Hardware #2- chapter 2 of “The Man in The Machine”:

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Well, the cover really says it all, as it covers the issues villain, and the content of the book. When we last left Hardware he was in for the fight of his life against a multiplicating meta-human named Reprise (see what I mean about the Stan Lee influence). This issue opens up in the midst of this fight, with Edwin Alva having himself a Dr. Doom like moment as he pontificates about how the city and the world is his but he keeps being stifled by Hardware. He thinks about how much money the high-tech hero has cost him, and how he does not know his true identity. However he promises that a trap is ready to be sprung that when Hardware takes the bait, his very special assassin will do his work and that “I shall MYSELF unmask your lifeless corpse”. We next shift ourselves to the big battle wherein Hardware is being put through his paces by Reprise, and as Hardware discovers every duplicate he quickly kills/ takes out is just replaced by another. Hardware is surrounded, and the reader finds out something interesting about his gadgets in this fight. He runs his suit on a power source that is “battery powered”. Taking on Reprise apparently is too much for the limited power he planned on for this mission and he needs to get out before he becomes pretty much powerless. He decides to retreat via his ship the Skylark, but in the process of getting out of the warehouse, he is shot in the back by Reprise. The battle suit’s shell integrity becomes compromised due to the low power levels of the suit, but Hardware dose manage to get away by using his last shell in his Omni cannon to fight back the duplicates and then manages to trigger the bomb he planted to blow up the warehouse.

Hardware wants to try to make it back to his lab, but realizes he won’t make it in the shape he is in. Curtis decides to have the Skylark take him to his apartment where he passes out from the pain of the shotgun blast still in his Hardware shell.

We then cut to the next day where a Professor Barraki Young is called by one of Curtis’s lab techs saying he had not been in yet. Prof. Young decides that she may drop in on Curtis after work to check on him, and when she does she discovers Curtis lying in his bed with the Hardware shell still engaged. He decides to tell her the truth about his double life, and the motivations behind it. Her reaction was not exactly what you would call subtle:

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Well after that little tête-à-tête, Curtis decides to get his act together for what he thinks will be one final mission. No more senseless death and endangering the innocent. Our final page of this issue is Hardware, loaded up like Rob Liefeld was drawing him ready to confront Edwin Alva as he vows “as sure as the sunrise, Edwin Alva will die at my hands”


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I have to say, this issue seems a little rushed to me. While it did include some interesting points, Hardware calls his On-Board Computer “Obie” for example, but everything involving Barraki bears a little more explanation. Is this an ex-girlfriend of Curtis’, one would think so because she has keys to his apartment, and is contacted when he is missing for a day. Curtis clearly values her opinion and trusts her because he instantly opens up to her about his issues. SO who the heck is she? This is Curtis’ “Peter Parker” moment (with great power comes great responsibility and all that jazz), it’s being delivered to him by someone the reader has just met, but there is no real intro into the importance this person has in his life. The whole conversation just seems to be a way for Curtis to come to the realization that he was acting selfishly and recklessly in his actions against Alva. However instead of Uncle Ben we have someone the reader can’t really identify with because of the lack of a personal back-story. A little nit-picky I can here some of you saying out there in internet land, but if a hero is going to change his plan of action and show some remorse for the damage and killing he has wrought you want to know who convinces him of his errors a little more than this. Despite this, it’s still an entertaining read, with a few one liners that will make you laugh and some added diagrams of Hardware’s weaponry in the back after the letters page. Also after the letter’s page is a short 4-page preview of our next Milestone book – ICON! SO, let’s move along to Icon #1 shall we!


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The first issue of Icon is entitled “By Their Own Bootstraps”, and begins in the year 1839 aboard a space ship. Yes, you read that right; the first scene involves a blue skinned alien aboard a space ship that appears to be exploding. The alien jumps in an escape pod, which crash lands on earth somewhere in the south where a black woman happens upon it after hearing the crash. She touches the outside of the craft, which sends some sort of signal to the alien, and the craft changes the alien’s shape to that of a young African American baby. The woman takes the child and looks back at the ominous craft, not entirely certain of what just happened. Writer Dwayne McDuffie and artist M.D. (A.K.A. Marc & “Doc”) Bright use 4 pages with only the art, no dialogue, to convey this part of the story and it is very well do

We next jump ahead to 1993, we see Augustus Freeman sitting in his law offices. He is speaking to his partner about a woman he met a few nights ago, and how differently they view the world. He describes her as “Impoverished, impassioned, Angry.” And that she told him that he had a responsibility to help people, and that perhaps he should be doing more than just being a lawyer. We cut to the housing projects where a young girl, Raquel, is writing at a kitchen table. McDuffie begins to tell her story using her writing here as she has a flashback and describes her journey with 3 friends to the suburbs around the city of Dakota. Noble, one of her friends suggests that since the Cops will be trying to stop the “Big Bang” that they go out to the suburbs and help themselves to some serious cash and merchandise. (As a side note here, the “Big Bang” is the gang fight that I referred to in the first Milestone Mondays column, which is the pivotal event that provides the initial powers to some of the Milestone heroes.) Raquel is not eager to do this, but goes along as Noble reminds her if they get enough money she can get herself a typewriter. As a poor writer from the projects this entices Raquel to stay. They find a large house and break in. Raquel is amazed by the study that is in the house and her reactions are as such:

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It’s at this point that they are caught as a black male catches them stealing a big screen TV, Noble pulls a gun and tells the man that it ain’t worth getting killed for a white man’s stuff. The scene shifts and we see it is Augustus Freeman, and he politely and eloquently informs Noble he is wrong on several accounts, and that it is his house and that he does not allow him to steal anything. Noble, gun in hand, fires and as Raquel recalls:


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That’s a priceless line. Augustus takes a few more slugs to the chest while the other run away. He grabs the gun and tells noble to stay put. Raquel then sees something she thought she would never see as Augustus takes flight after them and scoops them up depositing them back onto his property. He chastises them for wasting their lives because he has little patience for criminals. He tells them he is going to let them go, because he does not want certain details of this encounter made public, but in the future he expects them “to comport yourselves like citizens. Not common thugs. If you want something, pay for it. If you can’t afford it, work for it. Your behavior reflects poorly on our people and on yourselves.” He receives and F-bomb from Noble as a reply. To which Augustus says that they are to return any other stolen items to their rightful owners and that they are to NEVER commit another crime because if they do they will see him again. Needless to say, a bulletproof, floating, eloquent black male scared the bejeezus out of these kids and they believed him.

Raquel gets home and realizes that her world seemed pretty small after that encounter. She spends the night thinking and writing and visits Augustus at his home with an idea.

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It is clear Augustus thinks this encounter over as we are shown Raquel getting her costume that she designed from Augustus along with a belt that would protect her from harm when she wears it. He tells her to meet him at the bridge in 3 weeks, and they will talk. On that night Augustus is walking, thinking about his life and the lives of the people around him. The recent riots and the Big Bang have provided the city with nothing but examples of hopelessness; he decides he must provide an example to the contrary. He will become Icon with his sidekick Rocket (Raquel). The issue ends with them taking their first flight to help in a situation downtown. Rocket asks Icon how he is going to help out in a situation involving the cops when she asks, “what are you going to do? Land in the middle of eighty bazillion cops and ask them if they need a hand?” Icon tells her that this is essentially correct and not to assume everything is racial. They land and Icon introduces himself to the officer in charge. He is greeted by the police in a manner that causes Rocket to say: “Don’t assume everything’s racial huh? I’ll try—“


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This is another great opening issue, the reader has a voice to follow and it is Raquel/Rocket. She is the lynchpin of this book as she will be the one to open Icon’s eyes to the way the world really works when you are not a rich black lawyer. The art by Marc Bright is excellent, and the writing really gives you a glimpse into the mind of Raquel and Augustus. Raquel even uses a quote from W.E.B. Dubois for inspiration for Icon’s creation; it’s truly a well-written book. And the issue also has a 3-page primer for our next subject, and my personal favorite of the entire Milestone books – STATIC! (Did Milestone anticipate my writing this column all those years ago or what)


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Static #1 written by Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III and drawn by John Paul Leon is chapter one of “Trial By Fire”. It opens with a scene in a downtown Dakota arcade, where Frieda Goren is meeting her friends. What she finds there is a gang called the 5 Alarm Crew, whose leader Hotstreak wants a chat with her. She tries to fight off the gang members who are eager to “take her to their leader” when Static comes to the rescue. Static is floating on what appears to be a trash can lid displaying such electrically based powers as a Taser Punch, and an electrostatic force field around his body as he takes on the gang members. He appears to be in full control of his powers, and the gang knows who he is so this is obviously not his first appearance. He is also a teenage hero who enjoys engaging his foes with sine witty banter such as bowling his opponents down and proclaiming that he has picked up a spare.

After he gets rid of the gang members, he floats down to make sure Frieda is okay. He obviously knows her in his secret identity because the first thing he thinks is:

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He is obviously a fun loving guy who enjoys the limelight of his heroic actions. After flying away he runs back to his house anticipating a phone call that he has a feeling will be coming. Here we see that Frieda and Virgil Hawkins (Static’s secret ID) are very close friends. They discuss Static’s saving her from the gang and Virgil acts excited about the hero making an appearance and despite his knowing the whole thing listens to her experience in the arcade. The next day they both go to school, and like all high schools, hang out in the hallways with their friends. It is here that we see the writers have an excellent grasp of teenage life. The conversation between Virgil and friends is priceless as they cover such subjects as a ballet performance, eating potato chips, diets, and dates. It also shows that Virgil and Static’s actions/ personality are one and the same. He is just as goofy and grandstanding as Virgil as he is as Static. Virgil doesn’t use his secret ID to be somebody else. In any case the few pages in the school hallway need to be read to be appreciated, as it’s really on the mark.

Homeroom comes, and as things begin to take their normal shape on a school day the 5 Alarm Crew break in and take Frieda out of class by brandishing a gun and hauling her out. Virgil sneaks out of class and changes into Static to follow them, as Frieda meets Hotstreak, the leader of the gang who has some “fire-power” of his own. He is able to set objects aflame, and as Frieda basically tells him to take a flying leap, using some colorful finger gestures I might add, Static arrives to save the day! Or so one would think as he fights Hotstreak he realizes he is not up against a gangbanger with power, he appears to be faster than a normal human being. He wraps up Hotstreak with a garbage can and as he does Hotstreak’s hat and hood fall back. Static appears shocked as he recognizes Hotstreak:

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This is how the issue closes as Frieda pulls back a beaten static’s mask to reveal her best friend’s face! What a cliffhanger, why did Static fold up like a cheap accordion? What will Frieda think? Well as the title of the next issue suggests we may just find out the answer!

This book rocks just as hard as it did back in 1993. What got me excited about the title, and gets me psyched to re-read the run now is the letters page. You know the tradition of the first letters page where the writers tell you how their book is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that their book is better than all other books out there and how different it is? Well, Robert Washington takes this tradition and runs with it. He sells hard about the book being not just about Static, but about Virgil and his friends. He goes on to joke that he wanted the title to really be called VIRGIL AND STATIC or VIRGIL HAWKINS’ PALS AND GALS, because the pitfalls of being a teenager are what the book will be about as much as super-heroics. He also wants the reader to know that this hero is going to use his brain, and that even though he seems to know his powers he will discover new ones. Static will “use his brains instead of raw firepower. His REAL super-ability is his ingenuity and creativity.”

He also confirms that he is working very hard to make sure that VIRGIL AND STATIC ARE THE SAME PERSON. The secret identity won’t be where his true personality resides and he won’t get tougher by putting on the mask and tights. Combine this letter column and the story itself, and you have a fine first issue. If there is any book I could convince you fine readers to pick it up through the course of these columns I hope it’s this one.

In summary, Static’s first issue is excellent. The artwork by J.P. Leon is nowhere near the excellence he would show in collaboration with Alex Ross on the Universe X titles, but it shows where that excellence started. I can’t say enough about the script, the dialogue is great and one has to wonder if Brian Bendis was a regular reader of this book back in the day because I have to tell you it feels a lot like an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man to me. Perhaps Static was a book before it’s time!

Well that was a long column, thanks for seeing it through with me my Milestone Minions (see I just can’t shake that Stan the Man at ALL!) Tune back in next week where we will take a look at the further adventures of the Milestone Heroes as we look at Static #2, Icon #2 and the first two issues of BLOOD SYNDICATE!

MANSLAUGHTER, the Amazing Spider-Man #271, 1985.

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It’s pretty typical that back in the 80s, bruthas were cast as the middle-manager boss, hired-gun, and backbreaker. Manslaughter Marsdale was no exception in the Amazing Spider-Man #271.

With a stable of solid fighters, Manslaughter works a boxing gym and rules with iron fists. One of the main stories in the issue revolves around Crusher Hogan, (everyone knows this is the cat that Spider-Man beat in the ring shortly after gaining his powers), and a young boxer in the Marsdale gym that is thinking about jumping ship to new management.

Naturally Manslaughter isn’t feeling the news and decides to school the boxer on his options:

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One thing that immediately stood out to me is the fact that this cat is huge. Freakishly huge. Larger than Crusher Hogan, (and you know how big that cat was over Spider-Man). The size of his hands are like two 10lb turkeys grafted onto the end of his arms, but, his dome is tiny! I’ve always wondered about any villian with a small cranial set. Is that on purpose? The implication is that my mans physical size and strength must compensate for a smaller realm for the neurons to fire and someone else is masterminding behind the scenes.

It’s true that Manslaughter is the middle-manager boss type, answering to a higher authority in Madame fang:

I can’t say it surprises me that Manslaughter is frontin’ muscle for this crustly lil’ woman, given that it’s the 80s and typical of large-muscle-little-brains to be doin’ someone else’s dirt. Still, it would be on point for one of these thoroughbred type bruthas to have their own crime syndicate hustle going on (ala Wilson Fisk a.k.a Kingpin). On the one hand, it makes me think that no matter how strong a Black man can be, he’s always got to answer to someone who seemingly has more mental hustle & flow to exploit the juice for their own gains. Could it be that bruthas are susceptible to puttin’ in work for someone else, because, thats the way it’s always been and Black folks just think smaller???

On the whole, do we just accept the short-term gains because thats the angle we get played and at least we get a lil’ somethin-somethin’??? I’d like to think otherwise, personally, but here I am reading a Comic that sort of embodies my fear. I know plenty of cats, including myself, that are counter to that perception — the triple threat (i.e. big, Black, and intelligent). Was the mode back in the 80s that Black folks couldn’t aspire for more? I wonder if thats how the whole stereotypical mentals of, “but, you’re an exception to the rule” came about? Things that make you go, hmmmmmmm. Still, Manslaughter in the end is just your typical third-string street goon and is necessary to make this whole play seem plausible.

This is a Spider-Man Comics issue, so the cat does appear, but, I haven’t been focusing on his role (this is called Dark Stars remember!). Spidey’s story aside, we’ll fast forward to the part where he goes toe-to-toe with Manslaughter.

Spider-Man really finds out what it’s like to fight a brutha who feels no pain. One of Manslaughter’s main hustles is the operation he underwent to remove all pain receptors. Makes it tough to put a man down who can’t feel the can of whoop-ass you just broke out on him.


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In the end though, Spidey lets Manslaughter know why he’s just fakin’ the funk as a boss-playa with the ol’, “Spider trumps Lambchop-hooks, FOO!!!“:



Black folks, if you’re out there and reading this…WHATEVER you go for, go for it all. Think big, go for broke, and STOP SNITCHIN’!!!! (at least on each other). You can’t be the peoples-champ type hero if you’re a sidekick and you can’t survive as the evil genius if you’re the first one to die on the front line. MAYHEM is a man called MANSLAUGHTER, Spider-Man, #271.

Bahlactus has spoken.

(SHOUT OUT! Munson’s Milestone Mondays is some new hotness on bahlactus.com. Jeff is one of my heralds, so show him some love. Hit the Milestone Mondays link for what you can expect here!. Bahlactus has spoken).

So here’s the thing, Bahlactus (a.k.a Clarence) and I met through our mutual shopping experiences at Comicazi (The Best Damn Comic Book Store Ever….. you know I think the Bad Kids should trademark that one).  One Wednesday, we got to talking about things he was going to start doing with his website besides the excellent Comicazi podcasts.  Some of the things you have already seen, like the Dark Stars and ABSOLUTE GALACTUS.  I, in my infinite wisdom, asked him if he had ever read any of Milestone Comics books from the 1990’s.  Bahlactus had not heard of such a company, or any of their comics. So we had a little conversation about who and what Milestone was, and I told him that Milestone was an imprint of DC comics (much like Wildstorm is today) and they published books that featured minority super-heroes.  They managed to publish 264 comics of 7 ongoing titles and a few mini-series and even spawned a Saturday morning cartoon series.  I told him that I had a full run of everything they had published, and that I would lend some to him so he could write up a few articles for his Dark Stars columns.  Little did I know that saying those little words would open up a can o’ worms as Bahlactus, using his most powerful world devouring voice, said “why don’t you just do a series of columns about the various titles and I’ll post them on the site!” So to keep myself from being devoured by his Power Cosmic, I said yes.

Now, before we go any further, allow me this little intro for those of you who don’t know me personally, my name is Munson…. Jeff Munson (yeah that whole James Bond thing really works better verbally I know but what are you gonna do).  I have been collecting comics for going on 25 years, and have amassed a pretty huge collection in that time.   I rarely, if ever, sell any of my comics so my 160 plus long boxes are sitting in a bedroom in my house. (Yes, I am married, and the wife has no problem with this).  I am also a white male originally from Portland, Maine; which is one of (If not the most) the whitest states in the USA.  So the column you will be reading here will not really be from any sort of ethnic perspective because if you look up the word “Caucasian” in the dictionary there would be a picture of me, on a dance floor, with the white-man’s over bite in full effect!  Besides, Bahlactus would give me a smack with his good pimp hand right across my face if I tried to be “Street” (and since I just cracked that joke I am getting ready to duck and cover).

To start our look at this company I want to give you all a general overview of the Milestone family of titles we will be looking at, here they are (including how many issues of each were published):

• Hardware - 50 issues
• Blood Syndicate - 35 issues
• Icon - 42 issues
• Static - 45 issues
• Shadow Cabinet - 17 issues
• Xombi - 21 issues
• Kobalt - 16 issues
• Heroes - 6 issues

Limited Spin-Off Series

• Deathwish - 4 issues (Hardware Spin-off)
• My Name is Holocaust - 5 issues (Blood Syndicate Spin-off)
• Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool - 4 issues
• Wise Son: The White Wolf - 4 issues (Blood Syndicate Spin-off)

Crossovers:

• Shadow War - Company-wide crossover. Involved all comics, including the newly premiered Xombi and Shadow Cabinet.
• Long Hot Summer - Company-wide crossover. Three issues of the comic by the same title along with tie-ins in every Milestone title. - July-September 95
• Worlds Collide - 1 issue (crossover with Blood Syndicate, Hardware, Icon, Static, and DC’s Steel, Superman, and Superboy

For the 1990’s it was a pretty prolific company, and some believe that the company’s relationship with DC tested the waters for the eventual purchase/ publishing of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm comics.  The comics themselves all take place in another universe apart from the DC Universe and the heroes reside in or around the fictional city of Dakota. The central event for most of the main characters in the books getting powers was a “big bang” event centering around a gang fight in the city (details of which I will reveal as the reviews go on as it is a central part of some storylines).  Of note is the company’s hype page (called The Company Line) in it’s first issues proclaiming that Milestone comics were meant to be read, despite their debut issues being available in a poly-bag with a trading card and a poster as well as a regular edition.  I have to say I was just as psyched to read a Milestone book after seeing this hype page as I was when I first read it, as they say to let their comics out of their bag and “let some air in there”.  This company wanted readers and not collectors (you got to love a company that is about getting you to READ and appreciate the stories, in an era when the collectors/ speculators were running rampant).

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Milestone also says that it believes the city of Dakota more resembles the real world because of its’ diversity.  Diversity in cultures will be what the “Dakotaverse” will be all about. Milestone comes right out and tells you that they will not be “Superman in blackface”, and that they are looking to tell exciting superhero stories, and invite all cultures to check out their first four titles.  The reader is led to the conclusion that their will be no Black Vulcan’s, or Apache Chief’s or Samurai’s in this company’s books as second fiddle minority heroes are a thing of the past!

We will begin our reviews of Milestone comics with the very first issue of the very first title ever published:  Hardware # 1! 

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Hardware was the first title published by Milestone, and was created by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn/designed by Denys Cowan.  In Issue #1, titled “Angry Black Man”, we meet Curtis Metcalf; a young African American male possessed of immense intelligence.  The book jumps right into the action as after a two-page intro to a young Curtis, we see Hardware in flight under attack by 3 helicopters.  It is apparent to the reader that this is not your ordinary noble/moral superhero who always lets his enemies live, while under attack, he allows one helicopter to destroy another, and using his array of weapons such as an omni cannon and a plasma whip, pulls a pilot out of another and drops him to his death.  He is truly, as the Milestone hype machine calls him the High-Tech Dreadnought of Justice! 

After dispatching the copters, Hardware returns to what we learn is his private laboratory, in the building that he works at Alva Technologies.  Here is where we learn the “secret origin” of our hero as Curtis tells the reader of Edwin Alva, a man who took Curtis under his wing at the age of 12 after meeting him at a science fair.  Alva sponsored Curtis’ enrollment in a program for minority students to attend an elite prep school, where he quickly discovered that he was much smarter than the other students.  He graduated from High School at 14, and got his first college degree at 15.  Alva continued to pay for Curtis’ education, paying for his next six degrees and all Curtis had to do was work for him after graduation.  The reader is shown that Curtis believed Alva to be a close friend, almost a father figure, who encouraged Curtis to invent just about anything that came to mind.  Curtis did this for years, making Alva and his company tons of money.  Several years go by, and here is where it gets a little interesting as Curtis decides he would like a little share in the profits of his
creations.

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This guy is obviously a huge jackass so to get out of this situation; Curtis decides to dig up some “information” on Alva that may give him some “leverage” to get out of his contract with him.  What he discovers shocks him.  Alva was the center of a huge “web of corruption” and as Curtis says “My benefactor and role model.  The economic savior and humanitarian pillar of the city of Dakota has connections to organized crime.”  He has governments in his pockets, he is a money launderer and arms dealer and Curtis turns from blackmail for purely personal gain to just trying to stop Alva.  After using conventional means such as supplying the police and FBI with the evidence he gathered and getting nowhere, Curtis realizes he has to take the matter into his own hands and creates Hardware, “The high-tech creature of the night who has been checkmating Alva’s illegal operations”.

Hardware is active only at night, keeping his day job with Alva to divert suspicion, and has converted an old elevator shaft in his lab to a mass arsenal that after he activates his Hardware shell forge, selects different weapons for him to utilize in his various missions.   The issue ends with Hardware heading out to a warehouse that Alva uses to store stolen weapons to be fenced that he plans to destroy.  After facing off with guards, and cutting one of their arms off with a retractable sword, he runs into a superhuman named Reprise who has the power to duplicate himself and his weapons.  The issues ends with Hardware facing off against Reprise lamenting “I’m sorry I didn’t bring more stuff with me”.  To be continued indeed.

In looking at the issue, it is apparent that Hardware is a mixture of Batman and Iron Man/ War Machine from his grim & gritty attitude to his armored weapons.  In terms of being a “hero” he is no Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark.  He has a mission and one believes, at least in terms of initial characterization, that if he succeeds in taking down Alva he would stop being Hardware.  It’s a comic that feels different for this reason as the hero is doing the right thing, but purely for a personal gain.  Time and future issues will tell if this continues to be true, as some people who start out doing this find they like “playing the hero”.  The different weapons available to hardware shows unlimited potential as well, the reader is shown such a huge lab that you believe that Hardware would have whatever he needs for any situation.  The writing for this issue is quite good, as an initial intro to a character and his motivations that today may make up a 6-part storyline is done from pages 16 to 21.   McDuffie provides everything you need to know about the main character and his enemy on those 5 pages (modern storytellers take note, less is sometimes good).  The artwork is impressive as well, and the coloring  (which the Milestone calls Milestone 100™) helps provide a unique look.  It is a book that makes you want to read the next issue, and not just because it ends on a cliffhanger.  You genuinely want to see if Curtis makes headway into his one-man war on Alva so that he can free himself from the shackles of his company.  It is just as readable today as it was over 10 years ago, as corporate greed is always in the news as Alva is much like the leaders of such companies as Tycho.

Next week we will look at issue 2 of Hardware and start our look at the other Milestone books by looking at Icon #1 & the hero that spawned an animated series Static #1.  See you then!

Comicazi’s first FOOD issue featuring the, “Justice League Hero Sammich” and “Elise’s Cookies — Made with Hate“!!! Bahlactus and the Bad Kids are wildin’ out at the Comicazi HQ!!! Somewhere in there, they also drop some Comics clue on Brad Meltzers, “Justice League of America” — it’s all about the food in Comicazi Issue No.7!!!

Comics mentioned in this issue of Comicazi: Local, Annihilation #5, and Earths Mightiest Heroes II #1