Publishers Weekly is running an article on a new TPB to be released by Simon & Schuster, called Blokhedz. The book was masterminded and crafted by twin brothers Mike and Mark Davis. Get down with the science on how these two Black creators embrace their shot at the title. Big thanks to my man Kevin Church over at BeacoupKevin{dot}com for the heads up.

Welcome my friends, to another fun filled installment of the column that has managed to bring peace and love to the Internet….. Munson’s Milestone Mondays! Now up until now I have enjoyed all the Milestone books I have been recapping for you. I have been showering them with heaps of praise, with nary a negative phrase escaping from my keyboard. I am sad to say that that ends right now, as I cover Hardware #’s 5 & 6.

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Well, just take a look at the cover folks, and you can see the beginnings of why these two comics (which represent the first two parts of a 3 part storyline) are frighteningly disappointing. Let’s set the scene shall we? The year is 1993 – we are the height of the grim and gritty superhero phase, and we have a Punisher wannabe / rip-off on the cover fighting with Hardware. He has a big huge gun, which appears to have some sort of knife attachment on the side (Rob Liefeld… white courtesy phone please, Rob Liefeld… white courtesy phone), and bullets strapped around his chest as a fashion accessory. Now, as a reader, you may think, “Nah, this guy can’t just be another grim ‘n’ gritty anti-hero. Maybe there’s something more to him than his gun and poor clothing choices.” Well you’d be a little right, but when you get through this recap, or even dare to pick up and read the issues, you will see that this character still represents the epitome of the vigilante anti-hero….. and it ain’t pretty.

In issue #5 we are introduced to one of Hardware’s contacts – Deacon “Phreaky Deak” Stuart, computer hacker extraordinaire. He is a large black man that apparently enjoys the company of a hooker once a week. However, on one of his weekly visits to his favorite lady of the night, he finds her murdered in her apartment. It just so happens that a serial killer of hookers has been striking in Dakota, and Deacon’s hooker is their latest victim. And much like any clichéd murder scene, the cops just happen to be show up just in time to pin the crime on Deacon.

Deacon, innocent of course, contacts Hardware to help him out by getting him out of jail and investigating who is actually killing the hookers. Hardware agrees to do this, and picks up Deacon at the police station in the only interesting scene from this issue as he uses an on –board imager in a car to assume the guise of an old lady as he picks up his friend. Hardware tells Deacon, that he wants him to dig into the police database and get everything he can about the case. While he does this, Hardware plans to look over the scene of the crime because as he says to Deacon “I can’t solve a puzzle if I don’t have a feel for it.”

Then, it is time to meet our vigilante. Here it is folks, the two pages you have been waiting for:

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Well, you really don’t get much more cliché than that huh? Turns out Mitch is a former rapist, and this guy in the make-up (who has some sort of Mime fetish I’m assuming) apparently has it bad for him:

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Wow…. Did you guys see that…. He was actually foaming at the mouth. Seriously, he was foaming like a rabid wolverine had bitten him in the ass. “You haven’t BEGUN to pay.” Oh god, I am so impressed with this guy’s dialogue. I would not be surprised if they consulted Charles Bronson to help with the script.

So, obviously from the last sentence on the page there, you can assume that Mitch tried to kill the ever so violent Marcel Marceau fan club member because we next see him leaving the apartment. He thinks “I punished him a long time before I let him die. I’ve waste too much time on little fish like Mitch. Time to get back on the trail of the prostitute killer.” He jumps into the Punisher-Van, oops I’m sorry I meant his own means of transportation (it is still a van though) and thinks, “I’ll need to take a closer look at the latest crime scene.” Oh-ho, an interesting plot device to get our main character, and this chump together! Let’s see what happens next!

Hardware arrives at the dead hooker’s apartment, and is looking over the place to try and find some sort of clue. “Who am I kidding?” he thinks “I’m no detective. I don’t even know what I’m looking for.” Suddenly, a voice from behind him speaks, “Returning to the scene of the crime? Saved me a lot of trouble.”

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At least Hardware has one thing going for him as this issue closes…. He’s not drooling like a mad-dog (yet). But at least we have a name for this guy… DEATHWISH. See what I mean about being the epitome of all stereotypes? This guy is magically craptastic, and he has such a way with words!

Issue 6 opens up where #5 left off. The face of between Deathwish and Hardware begins, with a whimper as Hardware responds to Deathwish’s “You heard me blow your brains out, or try to blow out mine” with “Alternately we could talk about this.” Deathwish’s response is with a large knife, more foaming at the mouth and this little retort “Talk to God, and try to put in a good word for me I’ll expect I’ll need it.” Hardware takes one look at this guy’s drool and knows he is in too deep with a completely crazy bastard. He tells him to calm down (like that’s going to work) and puts down the gun. Deathwish tells Hardware “Fair is fair, I’ll drop the knife.” Hardware starts to open his mouth and says “Good. Now let’s…” and that’s all he gets out.

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See he’s still drooling, someone get this guy a bib! Deathwish then tries to strangle Hardware with some wire. Silly vigilante, you can’t cut a guys throat through armor! Hardware pulls out some moves and flips him over his back. Deathwish rises to his feet, and delivers the same line that he delivered to Mitch in the previous issue like he’s Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction: “There’s this movie. It’s about this guy who gets pushed too far. So he decides to push back.” (So flippin’ cheesy!)

We are then treated to no less than three pages of fisticuffs before Hardware remembers “Hey this is just some guy with a gun and I have all of this high tech stuff and I am in armor so I can just whip out some techno crap and kick his ass with stuff he doesn’t even understand!” (I am paraphrasing here… although if he did say that I would have more respect for this issue.)

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Then, HARDWARE KNOCKS HIM THE F*$% OUT!!!! ( I apologize to Chris Tucker…. I just couldn’t resist) Hardware then takes a page out of the Batman handbook for interrogating and/or getting a potential ally to bond with you and ties Deathwish to a steel girder high up on a construction site in downtown Dakota. Check out this little exchange:

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Welcome to the Dakota MENSA meeting folks, try the veal and don’t forget to tip your waitress! Hardware ends up leaving Deathwish to get down by himself, since he works so well alone he should have no problem. He decides to go to work at Alva Industries, where his co-workers tell him he looks like garbage. He complains about not being able to sleep lately and gives up and heads home for some shut-eye. As he arrives at home he finds a message on a phone line that Deacon had set up to contact Hardware. Deacon tells him that he has all the police files on the murders, and he also has a warning for Hardware. Deacon tells him, Deathwish is interested in the case, to which Hardware replies sarcastically “Oh Really?” Deacon tells him that the cops are trying to keep him out of it, but that he as some uncanny ability to track down “this particular brand of SCUM, and every time he beats the police to the offender, they are stuck arresting a corpse.” Hardware takes this is stride and tells Deacon to MODEM the stuff over,(ahh the days of dial-up) and that if he can’t figure out anything from it, maybe he’ll give it to Deathwish. Deacon is impressed and asks him how he knows how to find him.

We get our answer as Hardware takes off in his hovercraft tracking Deathwish with the transmitter he inserted into the lining of his coat while he hung from the building. All Hardware has to hope is that Deathwish hasn’t changed clothes yet, but judging from the way he smells, he thinks that is a pretty safe bet. Hardware is correct, as Deathwish hasn’t changed into new clothes, he has just removed them as he is in a seedy hotel with a woman. The woman says to him “Don’t worry about it, Baby. It happens to everybody…..”

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Okay, who saw that one coming? Raise your hand if you did. I am judging by the sea of imaginary hands I see before me that no one was fooled. The guy is a drooler, and apparently has sex with hookers with his mime make-up still on. Will Hardware be able to stop Deathwish from killing him and continuing on his hooker-killing spree? Will I even care when I recap the next issue? We will see in a future column.

Let’s sum these two issues up shall we? In all honesty, it represents the worst of 90’s comics. Here we have a crazy gun-toting killer with a saliva control problem. He is a total rip-off of the Punisher, for god sake he even wears bullets as a belt! Now, I realize that looking back on a book like this is hard to do, mainly because guys like Deathwish sold tons of comics back in the day. The Punisher had three monthly books at this point for god’s sake! This doesn’t change the fact that Hardware is an armored hero who could take this guy out with any sort of high tech device and just call it a day. However he decides to trade punches with the guy, and doesn’t use his brain at all! So much for brilliant scientist guy! Do you all want to know the worst part? It took me about 10 minutes to read through both issues, there was practically no “weight” to these two comics. This three-part story probably could have been a good done in one issue, but they have to show Deathwish as a badass so they waste pages and the reader’s time with a 15-page fight scene between the two. I was not impressed at all, but still retain some hope that the next issue will at least get back to Hardware’s plot of taking down Alva industries. That plotline is much more interesting than this derivative crap. That wraps up this week’s column, next week we will cover the next issues of Static and Blood Syndicate so be sure to join us then!

Static, a.k.a. Virgil Hawkins, could be the single most underutilized Comics icon to not actually be used in the DCU. Right now, there is no everyday type hero in the DCU that the average human being can get down with (and actually relate to). On the real, he is to DC what Spider-Man is to MARVEL. His replay value could be significant in the DCU if his integration in to current continuity actually occurred. His everyman type story is real and can be grown and cultivated to make him a solid chracter with lasting effects on the DCU. Just like Spider-Man, Static’s struggles our the same as ours. His perspective, as a young adult lends to the type of evolution of failure and triumph that could be told in a way that makes you actually take the DCU seriously. Static Loves Frieda? Sure. Boy Becomes Hero, Hero Becomes Man? No doubt.

When you take it all in, the character that is Static can surpass some of these other “heroes” and give us that next-level format we need from Comics today. Especially in this post-crisis era. If DC had their eyes on the prize, they’d look to resurrect Static and drop him into the mix for the long haul. Get a solid writer on it that understands the human element and the heroism that makes a Comics character real. If no one is willing to step up, then I’d emplore DC to let ME craft his new hustle. It’s an investment in Comics history — an atomic bomb waiting to go off in the DCU that makes it all worthwhile. Some say that you can’t approach these big houses with a new capes story and have any hope of them actually getting down with it. What about a character whose flavor has stamina with the potential energy to embody the iconic values that works so well for someone like Spider-Man? The DCU needs a static shock to jumpstart the pulse of the DCU in a way that has been ignored for far too long.

Bahlactus has spoken.

Dark Stars is about Black superheroes (and supervillians) that have appeared in MARVEL/DC mainstream history. It all started with a challenge to some friends at the Comics shop that they couldn’t name twenty Black characters between BOTH houses along the superhero & supervillian line. Like ABSOLUTE GALACTUS, I’ll be sharing the Dark Stars of MARVEL/DC appearances as they are added to my collection.

This is a sad day for your friendly neighborhood columnist… the Patriots lost Sunday night to the evil Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts!!!!!!!! I would like you all to observe a moment of silence in honor of the team of the decade’s loss, but before you do that we have a Milestone comic to review.

This week we cover Icon #4

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Well, this is the book I have been waiting to review because it has something that doesn’t really show up too much on your average comic book cover, a super hero using a home pregnancy test. This was pretty daring stuff back in 1993, and it’s a story line that could have caused a fledgling comic book company some serious trouble if handled badly. Fortunately, as you will see in this and in future columns, Milestone did not drop the ball!

This issue opens up with Rocket in denial over her pregnant condition. She takes on two muggers knocking them around with her force belt’s power supplying her with all the juice she will need, all the while thinking “how can I be pregnant when I can do this?” She is later in her apartment on Paris Island, telling a friend that she thinks she may be pregnant. What follows is some very funny dialogue that is just what you think two friends would say to each other when one of them just blurts out “ I think I might be pregnant”. For example, Raquel’s friend thinks she is a still a virgin, her response to this was “ I am. Once removed”. Her friend’s response:

Raquel’s concern is that she cannot have this baby right now. While she admits it would be cool to have a child, she would have no money to take care of it or even be able to finish school. Of course the two friends agree that Raquel needs to find out for sure if she is pregnant, and to do this they take the time honored trip to the Pharmacy to purchase a pregnancy test. What happens next is what a teenager who is trying to buy an embarrassing item in any store would truly dread:

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Meanwhile, Icon is breaking up a car jacking in downtown Dakota, all the while thinking about his young partner. “The very IDEA of her having a child! She’s little more than a child HERSELF”, He thinks as he flies to his office for a two o’clock meeting he has in his alter ego of Augustus Freeman. Clearly, Icon truly needs to get a little more in touch with the real world because if he did he would not be too shocked by Raquel’s pregnancy. His meeting is with his law partner, Saul, about the case that they took on to defend Kevin Franklin (A.K.A. Payback, the man who held the Mayor hostage in the first three issues of Icon). They discuss the fact that defending Payback will be a very hard case to win, and Augustus wants Saul’s opinion on their client’s rant about a conspiracy theory involving the Big Bang, the Mayor, and the experimental gas used on the gang-bangers. Now here in the real world the Milestone readers know that there is some connection, and in comic book land Saul thinks that it is very plausible that the city did exactly what Payback said they did. With the knowledge that even his law partner believes Payback’s story, Icon vows to do what he promised his new client he would do: Find out the truth about the Big Bang. He starts by doing some conventional research, reading news articles and looking at pictures of the devastation left by the Big Bang. He comes to the conclusion that the rise of super powered gang members so soon after the Big Bang is too much of a coincidence and decides to focus on the Blood Syndicate. However there is really no information about the gang members other than one news article from the Dakota Chronicle. Concluding that he has exhausted all of the avenues his life as a lawyer gives him, Icon takes flight to discuss the Syndicate with people who may have come into contact with them.

He first stops at the offices of the Dakota Chronicle to speak with Rob Chaplik, the reporter who wrote about the Syndicate back in the first issues of their title. (Isn’t continuity grand?) Miss Chaplik is excited about Icon showing up at the Chronicle at first, as every reporter would love to interview the city’s newest and grandest hero. Her excitement changes to nervousness; however, when he asks her for details about what the Syndicate said happened on the night of the Big Bang. Rob remembers her taxi ride back to the city of Dakota, where her life was threatened if she ever revealed that information. She begins to break down, telling Icon that she doesn’t know what he means. Icon presses the matter, and Rob begins sobbing, “I did what you told me to, I haven’t told anybody I swear! This is a TEST, isn’t it? You’re one of them! Why are you DOING this to me? I swear I didn’t tell anybody, please don’t kill me!” Icon convinces Rob that he is not one of the mysterious “THEY”, and she calms down. She still doesn’t tell Icon anything however, and Icon moves on to his next potential contact.

Icon flies to police headquarters to speak with Josh Thompson, the head of G.R.I.N.D. – the police departments gang task force. Thompson tells Icon that he is in over his head by checking into the Blood Syndicate:

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Meanwhile, Raquel has taken her Pregnancy test, and the results are positive – she is pregnant! She does not know what step to take next, her friend however has only one piece of advice: “you better not let your mother find out!” And wouldn’t you know it, the front door to the apartment opens up just as those words tumble out of their mouths as Raquel’s Grandmother asks “Don’t let your Mother find out what? Are you girls up to something?” This would be the point at which the dramatic music would be queued up to play us into the next scene, as we leave Raquel to rejoin Icon in his search for the Blood Syndicate.

Icon is flying around Paris Island looking for answers and what he finds is the following:

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Looks like Wise Son has given Icon his first nickname – Oreo. (Black on the outside, White on the inside for those who need a translation of the cookie analogy) Wise Son simply takes Icon’s blows as he tells him “You can’t hurt me. NOTHING can hurt me.” Icon takes these words to heart as he tosses Wise Son high into the air, letting land on the pavement beside him. Icon gives his hand to Wise Son to help him up and says to him “Now if you’re quite finished acting out, perhaps we can talk.” His answer comes from behind, as the rest of the Blood Syndicate has arrived on the scene and the Boogeyman tells Icon “Time for talk is OVER… You hurt one of the Blood Syndicate. Now it’s time for WAR!”. The most powerful man in Dakota faces off with the most dangerous gang on Paris Island as our issue comes to a close.

Will Icon resort to violence in his quest for the truth about the Big Bang? Will Raquel keep her baby, and tell her Mom and Grandmother the truth about her condition? You’ll all just have to look for answers in the next issue of Icon my Milestone Minions!

I found this issue of Icon to be a great read, mainly due to the characterization of Icon and Rocket. We really begin to delve into both of our heroes’ lives, as we see Raquel’s home life and her dealing with her pregnancy and Icon working out of his law offices. As entertaining as a super-hero fight can be; if you don’t care about who’s duking it out, it’s just a group of people in tights throwing punches and ruining property. Dwayne McDuffie and Marc Bright are accomplishing this and managing to interweave various pieces of the Big Bang conspiracy to further the development of the Dakotaverse. One letter writer actually sums up my view of this book rather nicely in this issue’s letter column. The letter is as follows:

“Dear Dwayne & CO.,

Just had to drop you a note to let you know how much I’m enjoying ICON. Only two issues into it, and it’s one of the few titles I look forward to avidly.

I know you’re tired of hearing about the “Black Superman” thing, but Icon has more in common with Supes than not – and that one difference, his skin color, makes a WORLD of difference to how he’s perceived. Skillful, elegant ironies.

I think that’s what appeals most to me about the book. It’s first and foremost a character book. The plots come out of the characters’ reactions to the world around them. Knowing that ICON won’t be the same book a year down the line adds weight to everything that happens and makes the anticipation of what is to come all the sweeter.”

The identity of this letter writer you ask? His name is Kurt Busiek, of Astro City and Avengers fame. How about that, your humble columnist and Kurt Busiek share a common opinion about a comic; I guess it is true what they say about great minds thinking alike! On that note I leave you until next week where we will cover the next issue of Hardware!