Today actually marks the anniversary of Dwyane McDuffie's death. Yesterday I covered one of his most famous creations Static.
Today I'm going to cover one of my favorite superheros. He's also
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' favorite. Somehow, Icon is the
only black conservative alive through Jim Crow besides Clarence Thomas. I
know, crazy, Dwayne thought so too.
Anyway I personally love Icon because of the way the story is told.
Most comic books are from the perspective of the hero. But Dwayne penned
Icon's story through the eyes of Rocket. This painted an aura of
mystery around Icon at all times. We can't relate to an Alien with
superpowers, but we can relate to a human's interest in him.
Augustus Freeman is not a kryptonian like Superman hoped. He's a Termian. Icon came to Earth in 1839. The space ship he was traveling on malfunctioned and the life pod that the toddler was in crash landed on Earth. Right in the middle of a cotton field. The baby transformed to take the form of the first creature that it saw. The first creature Icon saw was a slave woman named Miriam. Miriam named him Arnus and raised him a her own because he shared her mother's eyes.
Icon is still alive in the present and still looks young because he stopped aging when he reached adult hood. He eventually took the name Augustus Freeman and simply pretended to be his son as time went on around him. I think he's up to V or VI now. Icon already knows how to return home. He's known for at least 100 years. However he's stuck here until the technology catches up to his pod so that he can repair it. He keeps it in his basement, under an old table cloth, because nobody would ever look there.
Icon
always performed very quiet acts of charity so as not to disturb people
with his great power. However one night his house is broken into by a
group of hoodlums. Icon easily dispatches of the group. Raquel "Rocket"
Evans saw the entire thing happen and begged him to become a superhero,
but Icon pretended she was seeing things. Can you imagine that?
"No little girl you're confused I wasn't flying, you're on drugs"
Rocket was from Paris Island just like Static. Raquel dreamed of becoming a writer to escape Paris Island where she witnessed the atrocities of the city that claimed her sister's life via cocaine overdose. She wanted to escape that life once and for all and never return to Paris Island. She repeatedly begged Icon to become a super hero, day after day.
Eventually when he did Icon fashioned them costumes from materials in his pod. Rocket was granted power over kinetic energy with a belt he created for her. Over time she learned to use it to flight and generate force fields as well as super strength, and kinetic energy blast.
Icon gradually revealed that he was an alien to Rocket. He let her know he escaped as a slave with his Earth mother. Afterwards he became a conductor on the underground railroad. Eventually he spent time fighting for the Union during the Civil War, World War I and II. As well as participating in the Harlem Renaissance. Icon got around, making use of every moment in his extended life.
One of the things that made Icon special was that Dwayne wasn't afraid to write about political issues. [Fun Fact: Dwayne always had CNN playing while writing] Rocket actually became pregnant at the young age of 15. During this time Rocket, a liberal, and Icon, a conservative, had a serious conversation about abortion. In another story Icon had to face off against a political activist who claimed he wasn't black because he used proper English and refrained from slang. That's one of the reasons I like Icon stories so much. Although they may be old, they're still relevant. Clarence Thomas still uses Icon quotes in his speeches, I'm more likely to quote Rocket. Icon is timeless because of it's ability to make politics an issue and keep the stories interesting as well.
In
1994 Milestone had it's first crossover. I don't mean Hardware, Icon
and Static. Milestone had it's first crossover with DC Comics. In this
story Icon and Rocket met Superman, Superboy and Steel. A postal worker
named Fred Bentson would wake up in another universe anytime he went to
sleep. Jumping back and forth between Milestone and DC.
Although Fred was unwed and had no children he held a steady job as a postal worker in both worlds. Eventually jumping back and forth between words bent Fred's psyche until it broke. Fred began to believe that he created both worlds. However his power of jumping back and forth was so great that super heroes from both worlds needed to help.
[Icon, Superman, Static, Steel, Rocket and Superboy were main characters but other Milestone characters snuck onto the cover. Look close the heroes are stickers, that kids got to enjoy the special cover]
Icon was able to have his ship repaired with help from Hardware. Once he was able to communicate with his home planet. Icon went into space to visit his home world and Rocket had her baby. This left the role of Icon to Buckwild and Rocket to her best friend.
Sadly this is when Oblivion debuted. Oblivion is to Icon as Bizzaro is to Superman. Sadly Buckwild sacrificed himself to defeat Oblivion. Rocket could no longer let others risk their lives in her place. With the help of Hardware she went into space in an attempt to locate Icon's home planet. However she ran into a race of aliens who were planning to attack Earth. She challenged them to hand to hand combat for Earth. She earned the right to control Earth, she actually had no plan of doing this but it got them away from Earth. She went back and waited for Icon to return.
When Icon returned Rocket's grandmother died. This was a story about how to handle death with Icon helping her through. The story was set to finish in issue #43 but #43 never happened. Milestone was sold to DC Comics. Icon wasn't heard from again until 2009, when the Dakotaverse was merged with New Earth.
One day Static showed up in Teen Titans and almost every hero from Milestone got offered a membership in the Justice League. This was out of the blue and no one realized it. It was revealed that Dharma from Milestone had secretly began merging the universes together. People assumed that Dakota had always been a Midwest territory and Milestone heroes had always existed in DCU. The only people that knew were Icon, Superman and Dharma. However, they all liked the situation and agreed to keep it that way.
Follow @OriginalKingD
Icon
Augustus Freeman is not a kryptonian like Superman hoped. He's a Termian. Icon came to Earth in 1839. The space ship he was traveling on malfunctioned and the life pod that the toddler was in crash landed on Earth. Right in the middle of a cotton field. The baby transformed to take the form of the first creature that it saw. The first creature Icon saw was a slave woman named Miriam. Miriam named him Arnus and raised him a her own because he shared her mother's eyes.
Icon is still alive in the present and still looks young because he stopped aging when he reached adult hood. He eventually took the name Augustus Freeman and simply pretended to be his son as time went on around him. I think he's up to V or VI now. Icon already knows how to return home. He's known for at least 100 years. However he's stuck here until the technology catches up to his pod so that he can repair it. He keeps it in his basement, under an old table cloth, because nobody would ever look there.
"No little girl you're confused I wasn't flying, you're on drugs"
Rocket was from Paris Island just like Static. Raquel dreamed of becoming a writer to escape Paris Island where she witnessed the atrocities of the city that claimed her sister's life via cocaine overdose. She wanted to escape that life once and for all and never return to Paris Island. She repeatedly begged Icon to become a super hero, day after day.
Eventually when he did Icon fashioned them costumes from materials in his pod. Rocket was granted power over kinetic energy with a belt he created for her. Over time she learned to use it to flight and generate force fields as well as super strength, and kinetic energy blast.
Icon gradually revealed that he was an alien to Rocket. He let her know he escaped as a slave with his Earth mother. Afterwards he became a conductor on the underground railroad. Eventually he spent time fighting for the Union during the Civil War, World War I and II. As well as participating in the Harlem Renaissance. Icon got around, making use of every moment in his extended life.
One of the things that made Icon special was that Dwayne wasn't afraid to write about political issues. [Fun Fact: Dwayne always had CNN playing while writing] Rocket actually became pregnant at the young age of 15. During this time Rocket, a liberal, and Icon, a conservative, had a serious conversation about abortion. In another story Icon had to face off against a political activist who claimed he wasn't black because he used proper English and refrained from slang. That's one of the reasons I like Icon stories so much. Although they may be old, they're still relevant. Clarence Thomas still uses Icon quotes in his speeches, I'm more likely to quote Rocket. Icon is timeless because of it's ability to make politics an issue and keep the stories interesting as well.
Although Fred was unwed and had no children he held a steady job as a postal worker in both worlds. Eventually jumping back and forth between words bent Fred's psyche until it broke. Fred began to believe that he created both worlds. However his power of jumping back and forth was so great that super heroes from both worlds needed to help.
[Icon, Superman, Static, Steel, Rocket and Superboy were main characters but other Milestone characters snuck onto the cover. Look close the heroes are stickers, that kids got to enjoy the special cover]
Icon was able to have his ship repaired with help from Hardware. Once he was able to communicate with his home planet. Icon went into space to visit his home world and Rocket had her baby. This left the role of Icon to Buckwild and Rocket to her best friend.
Sadly this is when Oblivion debuted. Oblivion is to Icon as Bizzaro is to Superman. Sadly Buckwild sacrificed himself to defeat Oblivion. Rocket could no longer let others risk their lives in her place. With the help of Hardware she went into space in an attempt to locate Icon's home planet. However she ran into a race of aliens who were planning to attack Earth. She challenged them to hand to hand combat for Earth. She earned the right to control Earth, she actually had no plan of doing this but it got them away from Earth. She went back and waited for Icon to return.
When Icon returned Rocket's grandmother died. This was a story about how to handle death with Icon helping her through. The story was set to finish in issue #43 but #43 never happened. Milestone was sold to DC Comics. Icon wasn't heard from again until 2009, when the Dakotaverse was merged with New Earth.
One day Static showed up in Teen Titans and almost every hero from Milestone got offered a membership in the Justice League. This was out of the blue and no one realized it. It was revealed that Dharma from Milestone had secretly began merging the universes together. People assumed that Dakota had always been a Midwest territory and Milestone heroes had always existed in DCU. The only people that knew were Icon, Superman and Dharma. However, they all liked the situation and agreed to keep it that way.
Abilities and Equipment
- Super Strength
- Enough to easily match Superman in a fight
- Super Speed
- Limits Unknown
- Superhuman Agility and Reflexes
- Near Infinite Stamina
- Enhanced Senses
- Genius Level Intellect
- Invulnerability
- Accelerated Healing
- Self Sutaining
- No need for food, water or oxygen
- Energy Projection
- Force Bolts
- Stun Bolts
- Energy Pulse
- Energy Enhanced Punches
- Positron Field
- Allows Icon to tell if a human is a sleeper mutant, active mutant, bang baby or regular human based on aura
- Force Fields
- Also absorbs energy
- Possibly Immortal
- Most Experienced Lawyer on Earth
- Advanced Hand to Hand Training Combat
- Bilingual
- Instantly learns any language he hears or sees writen
- Starship
- Raquel "Rocket" Ervin
- Inertia Belt
- Grants Rocket various abilities based on Kinetic Energy
- Force Fields
- Kinetic Energy Punches
- Superhuman Strength
- Kinetic Energy Blast
- Flight
- Inertia-less Fields
- Surrounds enemy in a room devoid of oxygen and other energies
Follow @OriginalKingD
