Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans

2. A Milestone Development

2 A Milestone Development This racist administrative government with its Superman notions and comic book politics. We’re hip to the fact that Superman never saved no black people. —Bobby Seale, Chicago Seven trial, 1969 Once every two weeks the promotional posters are changed by the owner of the Comics Kingdom, a medium-sized comic book and fantasy games specialty store located in downtown Toronto. On the third Wednesday of January 1993, the group of boys who made their lunchtime trek from the junior high school three blocks away were surprised to find a new ‘‘teaser’’ poster on display. The poster depicted seven heroically garbed black characters flying directly out at the viewer from above a burning cityscape. In plain large print across the top of the poster was written, ‘‘Milestone: 2/27/93,’’ and at the bottom, centered between the DC Comics and Milestone Media corporate logos, was the simple declaration ‘‘If you’re not there, you just won’t get it.’’ I watched from the far side of the store, next to the display of new comics that were quickly being picked over and bought up. A small group of fans gathered around to ponder the promotional poster. ‘‘What’s this Milestone thing all about?’’ asked Jim, a Comics Kingdom regular, while he waited for one of the part-time staff members to retrieve his reserved books from the back room. ‘‘It’s a new independent company,’’ explained Barry, an aspiring comic book artist in his early twenties who also worked the cash register most weekday afternoons. ‘‘They’re totally black-owned and they’ll be publishing a whole line of black superhero books.’’ A Milestone Development 16 A few other customers, eager to hear more about any upcoming series they might be interested in, gathered around Barry. He explained what he knew about Milestone: that it was a black-owned company, that it was to feature an entire universe of ethnically diverse super characters, that all the stories would be set in the fictional city of Dakota, and that it was the brainchild of a couple of popular comic book veterans, Denys Cowan and Dwayne McDuffie. Milestone , Barry predicted, was going to be one of the most interesting independent comic book publishers around. ‘‘I don’t get it,’’ said Jeremy, another regular who had just finished paying for his stack of comics and had returned to inspecting the poster. ‘‘If they’re an independent how come the DC logo is on the poster?’’ ‘‘Well,’’ Barry hesitated, ‘‘they’re an independent who is published and distributed through DC’s system.’’ ‘‘Doesn’t sound too independent to me,’’ Jeremy countered. ‘‘Is it like the Vertigo or the Piranha Press stuff?’’ somebody in the small group asked. ‘‘No!’’ ‘‘Is it like Brotherman-type books?’’ someone else asked. ‘‘No!’’ ‘‘Is it going to be all the black DC heroes in one team book?’’ asked another. ‘‘No, it’s going to be really different,’’ Barry assured them, ‘‘and the books are going to be better quality, not like some of the underground black series that hardly anybody reads.’’ ‘‘If you say so Bear,’’ said Jim with more than just a hint of friendly sarcasm in his voice. Some of the other young customers laughed outright, the rest merely smiled to themselves. Knowing how hard his audience was to please, Barry simply responded with a noncommittal shrug, a pantomime gesture which implied they should all hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. None of these comic book fans, a third of whom were black themselves, expected much from the fledgling company which had grandly named itself Milestone Media Incorporated. They had all seen some of the embarrassing black superheroes that the mainstream industry had created in the past, and more than a few of them had tried reading the uneven and politically motivated black books that were currently on the market. Political rhetoric wasn’t what these young fans wanted, nor did they want more rehashed characters who were already out of date when they first appeared in the 1970s. What these readers wanted were great superhero stories and art. They wanted new heroes. A Milestone Development 17 When the Milestone poster promising dramatic things to come began appearing in comic book stores across North America it was, for some, a first glimpse at a new universe of superheroes, while for others it was the beginning of...