Since I know everybody and their brother is out there trying to finish the last Harry Potter book as quickly as possible, this week’s Milestone Entry is a quick one. Blood Syndicate #9 gives us a glimpse, through the eyes of a time traveling Fade, into the events that led to the formation of the gang. Fade, after his battle with Demon Fox in the last issue, has apparently lost his grip on staying tangible in the real world and has apparently traveled back to a time when things were filled with a little bit more optimism. Ivan Velez, and in what I believe to be his first work artist J.H. Williams III, takes Fade on a very Dickensian journey into the past. However, Fade has no Ghost of Christmas Past, Present or Future to be his guide. He is alone in watching the mistakes that the Syndicate made in its first days together, where their newly acquired raw power and violent tendencies caused the death of one of their own.

The story really gets going when Fade, Flashback, and Tech-9 try to recruit am member of the Syndicate that is currently nowhere to be found. His name is Templo, and it is a name that has been dropped by more than one member of the gang in past issues. Templo is reluctant to get back into gang life at first, due to his religious beliefs, but joins up after Fade gives him a speech about helping others, and protecting their own. The ghostly Fade is watching this all and just thinks that they never should have recruited him, and shows the guilt that the events to come has caused him.

Now what happens in this issue is pretty much the Syndicate’s MO; bust up a crack house and steal all the money for the gang’s use. However, unlike their current day counter-parts, they aren’t as good at it and there are a lot of deaths involved. Templo in particular takes the life of a young kid by accident and it shakes him to his core. They do succeed in getting the money, and head back to the site of the Big Bang where they count their cash and begin to make plans for the future. Fade decides to have a talk with Templo to assure him that it was his life or the kid’s. At that moment the crack dealers that survive get their revenge. After following the gang back to the Dead Zone, they open fire on the Syndicate. One bullet passes right through Fade and hits Templo square in the head. The rest of the gang goes wild, and we see the future Fade screaming “We killed them ALL!!” as he comes back to the present…. tears streaming from his eyes.

This issue was pretty good, mainly due to the parallels I saw with Fade’s journey being much like Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol”. He is a ghostly figure, unable to change his past, but doomed for some reason to relive it. His past, like Scrooge, is filled with events of regret and lies to further his own ends. Will he learn, much like Scrooge did, from these events and work to make himself a better man? Only time and future issues will tell that tale. This issue also shed some light on some of the other members’ personalities. Holocaust was always a psychopath and Masquerade was actually working for the crack dealers protecting the money…. until Tech made him a better offer while fighting him. All in all I would count it as a positive entry into the Milestone U. Next week we go cover Static #7, join me then!

This week’s entry from the Milestone universe is Icon #7, an issue of some importance as it represents a true turning point in the lives of Icon and Rocket. In the story entitled “The Moment of Truth” Dwayne McDuffie (aided by co-writer for this issue Erica Helene) and artist M.D. Bright bring us a very good jumping on issue for new readers. At the end of the last issue, Icon promised to tell Rocket his true origin. He tells her that he is truly a “brother from another planet”, as he crashed on Earth after his starliner exploded and he landed in a cotton field in the southern United States. His life-pod altered his DNA to match the first life-form that came in contact with his ship, a plantation slave. Upon hearing this Rocket is skeptical, particularly since slavery had been outlawed a “bazillion years ago” and Icon looks like he is 40. What Icon tells her next causes her skepticism to turn to outrage, as he tells her that his pod crashed in 1839… 150 years earlier.

Rocket has heard enough, and tells the hero that she basically helped to invent that she doesn’t believe his story. She wanted the truth, and what she believes to be a web of lies. She stalks off telling Icon that she always thought she could trust him, but she sees that she can only trust herself.

In reality, it appears that Rocket lashes out at his story for one very important reason, her difficulty in dealing with the fact that she recently found out she was pregnant. Rocket has shown that despite her propensity to jump into any situation head first, she is a very intelligent girl that under normal circumstances would have listened to more of Icon’s explanation. However, with her personal life becoming so topsy-turvy her judgment has become a little murky at best. She tells herself it must be due to the hormones, but the reader knows that she simply cannot deal with the truth of Icon’s words yet. She realizes she has enough “crazy” in her life dealing with the child growing inside of her, and she must deal with that situation first before dealing with the fantastic details of her super-powered partner’s origins.

She sets out to do just that, she realizes she has to make a choice and heads to a Dakota health clinic for advice. What comes next is 15 pages of introspection that takes us into the thoughts of a pregnant teenager as she comes to grips with what her future may be like. McDuffie and Helene bring us into Raquel’s head as she deals with the positives and negatives of her situation. She thinks of her own child hood and of her mother who works two jobs and goes to school at night due to the fact that she had Raquel at such a young age. She thinks of her future with a child, and how she wouldn’t be able to raise it properly because she wouldn’t be able to finish school. Her short-lived super-hero career would also be at an end. I truly cannot sum up the power that is held on these pages, as between both words and art the reader is drawn into Raquel’s dilemma of having the child or terminating the pregnancy. Her doctor proves to be an able sounding board for most of these fears, and she comes to grips with her decision that she thinks she has finally made.

Raquel goes to see Icon, intending to ask him for money that she wants to use for an abortion. She does not intend to tell Icon what the money is for. Instead of immediately agreeing with her demand, he wants to discuss her pregnancy with her. Not to tell her what she should do, but rather to talk to her about the way that she feels about her situation.

He tells her a story of his wife, an earth woman named Estelle that was long since dead, and how she once surprised him with the knowledge that she was pregnant. Due to his alien nature, they thought this to be impossible. Icon used his life-pod’s scanners to determine if there would be any danger in carrying the baby to term for mother or child. The odds of his genetic matrix and an earth woman’s reproductive system producing a healthy baby were nil, and the odds were even higher that Estelle would die from the ordeal. Icon finishes his story by telling Raquel they knew they had to terminate the pregnancy and despite being for the best, they would always carry the pain of that decision in their hearts. What comes next is one of the most powerful final pages of any comic I have read:

This issue moved me in so many ways. You truly feel the agony of the decision that Raquel has to make come through the pages. This is not just a simple super-hero comic, and I have said this before about Icon in previous Columns, but it really is shown in this story. This book begins to come into it’s own starting with this issue, as McDuffie and Bright really show that Icon is not the book about the “Black Superman” of the Dakotaverse. Icon is something totally different, mainly due to his partner. In seven issues McDuffie has shaped Raquel/Rocket into one of the most fully developed comic characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The last page of the issue shows some great symbolism as she gets off her childhood swing, and steps into adulthood. McDuffie also shows that she is wise beyond her years, and shows it in her explanation to Icon about her decision. She knows what she must do, and much like her convincing Augustus Freeman to become Icon, sets out to accomplish it. I look forward to re-reading her journey, and look forward to bringing you those stories in future Milestone Monday columns. Next week (I promise) we will look at the next issue of Blood Syndicate, join me then!

This week we cover Hardware #9, which represents a first for the Milestone Universe…. their first fill-in issue. The story begins with Curtis Metcalf being told by Alva to start studying Hardware and devise a way to stop him. Of course this will prove to be difficult as Curtis is Hardware, but Curtis thinks he can string him along. Alva offers Curtis some help in stopping his arch-nemesis, in the form of a brilliant cybernetic scientist by the name of Tiffany Evans. Tiffany is a striking young lady, who reminds Curtis of what he was before finding out the truth about Alva’s illegal business deals. She is an optimist, looking to impress her new boss, and shows it by attacking the “Hardware problem” with gusto. Curtis spends a lot of the issue being condescending towards Tiffany due to her gender and her beauty, and trying to sneak little sabotages into their work that won’t be detected as to stop Alva’s plan to destroy Hardware.

Both of these actions draw Alva’s ire, as he easily discovers Curtis’ manipulative behavior. While he doesn’t know the motives behind them, he tells Curtis in no uncertain terms to stop being incompetent and get the job done or he will sue him blind for breach of contract. Curtis realizes he needs to do his work, forget his chauvinism, and do what Alva wants to. Tiffany beats him to the punch by coming up with her own solution; to counteract Hardware’s brute strength and technological weapons, she will create her own set of armor that would be fuel-efficient and more maneuverable. Better still, she will wear it herself! Alva loves the idea and pushes for the creation of the new armor so that Tiffany can become the newest armor covered hero in the Milestone Universe….. Technique.

Technique is unveiled when a night shipment of “equipment” is due at Dakota Airport from Columbia. Hardware shows to stop the shipment and runs into Technique, who promptly kicks Hardware’s butt. Hardware does manage to strike back, and tries to finish off Technique by using his armor to “hack” her operating system. Technique was prepared for this, as her studying hardware’s previous battles prepared her for this “finishing move”. She programmed her armor to send a virus into Hardware’s armor causing it to fire its thrusters and then shut down. Hardware plummets to the ground, and barely manages a manual override to save his life. The issue closes with Tiffany finding a note from Curtis that congratulates her for her success against Hardware, and apologizes for treating her like a “girl”. He tells her he would see her in a week as he would be “home sick” (by sick Curtis means recovering from wounds and bruises from a super-hero battle).

In terms of quality, this issue wasn’t the greatest (fill-in’s rarely are). I had a few problem’s with guest writer Brian McDonald’s, mainly due to Curtis’ chauvinism towards Tiffany. Curtis has always been someone to abhor any sort of discrimination, even going so far as to get upset when Alva calls him “boy”, so why would he treat Tiffany in such a way? This small script flaw drives most of the action for the issue, which is why I find it a little bothersome. Arvell Jones’s art is saved by Denys Cowan’s inking this issue, and while it provides a consistent look to the book, it’s not as good as when Cowan goes it alone. In the plus column this issue did introduce a new foil/ally in Hardware’s war against Alva. Tiffany/Technique could be an interesting addition to the cast of Hardware, and has potential as a love interest for Curtis and an enemy for Hardware. Let’s hope she sticks around beyond this initial introduction.

That’s it for this week folks, join us next week as we cover Icon #7!

Storylines converge, secrets are revealed, and destinies are fulfilled in this weeks Milestone offering, Blood Syndicate #8. From the cover you can tell that Kwai makes her debut in this issue, as Nina Lam finally succumbs to the transformation her body has been undergoing over the last 3 issues. She will factor into the battle that dominates this issue as the Syndicate face odd with the Demon Fox.

This issue opens where the last left off, the Demon Fox has attacked Wise Son on Syndicate turf and the team is left leaderless as they face their attacker. The gang use teamwork to take on the Fox, but this vengeful spirit splits their numbers and takes them out one by one. The Fox does this not just by physically beating the Syndicate, but also by using her powers to make each member face their own inner demons and/or secrets they have been hiding from the each other. This seems to be the way that the Fox feeds from her victims, by causing them pain and “sucking” their inner turmoil into her, making her more powerful.

The secrets that the Fox tortures the Syndicate with are huge reveals that Ivan Velez has hinted at in previous issues. Brickhouse gets all of her memories back at once, causing another one of her seizures to take her out of the battle. Third Rail is confronted by the memory of his late father, whose death he was apparently responsible for. DMZ is crippled by the realization that “she” will never come back for him, despite his nightly ritual of signaling for “her” atop the Syndicate’s HQ. Fade provides a very large meal for the Fox as she forced him to realize that he cannot hide the one thing he wants no one else to ever know about him, that he is a closeted homosexual. Boogeyman and Flashback are taken out of the battle by their simple fear of the Fox herself. Masquerade is the final member to fall as he has what the Fox terms “the prize for biggest secret of them all…. how wonderfully perverse.” The reader is not shown this secret, as it is left for another issue’s discovery.

The Fox has fulfilled the pact she made with John Wing, as the Syndicate has been defeated and humiliated. She kills Wing once he releases her from his service, just as Kwai arrives at the Factory. Kwai was drawn there by the presence of the Fox, as their lives and appearances in the real world appear to be linked. One “sister” cannot be called forth without the other “sister” being awakened as well. The issue wraps with the Fox forcing Kwai to realize that she cannot defeat her at this time, as she has grown stronger from her battle with the Syndicate and she is newly reborn. The Fox tells Kwai that she should save her strength to save “anyone she has left alive”, and it looks like Fade could truly use her help as the last panel shows him becoming completely transparent… in effect “fading away” as Flashback cries for help.

This issue was the big payoff to the “Demon Fox” storyline, and it paid off huge. Ivan Velez really packed this issue with some big reveals and big action scenes, and the reader is left wanting more. The secrets laid bare by the Fox will be fodder for future storylines for sure, and I particularly look forward to the Masquerade’s “big reveal”. Crisscross’ artwork just makes this issue shine, as he conveys each character’s emotions in the fight so well. This is particularly apparent when the Fox reveals Fade’s sexuality against his will. The pain and anguish on Fade’s face as his secret is laid bare is so expressive, the reader truly feels just how much and how long he has fought this side of himself. This creative team took this storyline and made what could have been just another uber-violent 90’s team book into a character driven action comic that keeps the reader interested what comes next.

Next week we will take a look at Hardware #9, so join me then for more Milestone memories!

And we’re back folks! Milestone Monday’s has returned, did you miss me? Well, I certainly missed you guys, so let’s get down with Static # 6. This issue is part 2 of the Commando X storyline, and as you may remember from last issue, Static was facing off with X as he tried to bomb a peace rally. Static obviously saves the crowd (he wouldn’t be a hero if he didn’t) and also gains some knowledge about Commando X. It seems that Commando X, in typical villain fashion, reveals a little bit too much about himself as he fights and escapes from Static….. he spouts off his real name and also reveals that he has tried to use the news media to convey his manifesto in the past. He goes so far as to say which newspapers he wrote letters to, and which local access cable station he broadcasted on until they yanked him from the airwaves. Much like the villains who go on to be defeated because they couldn’t keep their yaps shut, this mistake will bite X in the proverbial butt!

Static takes these little nuggets of information, and using his brain, turns them to gold. He plays the detective and tracks down copies of the letters he wrote to Dakota newspapers, and also hits the public access channel for copies of the Malcolm’s 10 TV show. Static shows he is truly a hero who, like Robert Washington said in issue 1, will be using his brains to solve problems more that just blast away with his powers. He deduces a couple of moves that X plans to make by “getting inside” his opponents head, as he takes an episode that rails against the cops to mean that he will plan to bomb the downtown police headquarters. Sure enough that instinct turns out to be correct, as Static stops some bombs shaped like cops from going off and once again saves the day.

The tapes also give away X’s location, as the production company that made the show is located in an apartment building nearby. Static decides to find out just what the connection between the company and X is, and goes to the apartment building where he comes face to face with Commando X himself. Static, realizing he needs to stop the bombs X may have already planted, plays the role of sympathizer to X’s cause. It works as X takes him into his apartment and as our issue ends, X begins to share his plans with Static. What will Static do with this information, and can he stop X’s bombs while being right there with him? We will surely find out in our next issue.

This issue not only showed Static using his brains to help solve crime, but also in his personal life as well. He manages to bury the hatchet with Daisy (the girl he made a date with but forgot about) and also resolves the friendly debate between he and his friends about the merits of X’s message. This comic continues to prove that it is a different sort of book, it’s not just about super-hero action, it’s about people. I look forward to seeing the trials of Virgil and his friends, as much as I look forward to seeing Static in action. Robert Washington and J.P. Leon truly created a book before it’s time. I really think with the popularity of Bendis’ Ultimate Spidey, that this book could really flourish in this ear of comics. (DC… wakeup my friends, it’s not too late!)

Short but sweet this week my friends, tune in next week for more Milestone goodness!