The new comic series Icon and Rocket Season One reminds fans why these two classic Milestone heroes might be DC’s greatest superhero duo.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Icon and Rocket Season One #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
When Milestone Comics launched in the early ’90s, it introduced new heroes like Static, Icon, and Hardware. These characters represented people who had never been given a chance to see themselves in mainstream superhero stories. They confronted real issues and engaged in complicated struggles beyond the simplistic good-versus-evil narratives that dominated the medium. Now, DC is bringing back these classic Milestone heroes.
Icon is an immortal alien who landed on Earth and integrated into society. While he has clear parallels to Superman, Icon worked alongside a teenage sidekick named Rocket and his stories had a very different feel. This duo’s origin is retold in Icon and Rocket Season One #1 by Reginald Hudlin, Leon Chills, Doug Braithwaite, Scott Hanna, Andrew Currie, and Brad Anderson.
The new series begins with Icon aboard an alien spaceship carrying other members of his species when an alien terrorist plants a bomb. Icon tries to stop the terrorist, but is unable to and barely escapes before the bomb detonates, killing everyone else on the ship. His escape pod lands on Earth, coming down on a plantation in Georgia in 1843 where an enslaved couple discover it. The ship recognizes the woman’s DNA and alters Icon’s appearance to look like a Black human baby. The couple then adopt him as their own.
The story then flashes forward to the present day. A teenage girl named Raquel Ervin is being pressured by her boyfriend and his friends to help them break into an upscale mansion. The boys mock Raquel for wanting a typewriter and for her love of books, expressing various chauvinistic opinions that denigrate her intellectual curiosity. She explains that she wants a typewriter because it’s more secure than modern digital devices, something the boys are clearly unfamiliar with.
Raquel helps them break into the mansion, which is filled riches. Then, Icon appears, revealing that this is his home. Raquel’s boyfriend pulls a gun and shoots him, but Icon gets right back up, uninjured. He flies through the air, apprehending the kids as they try to flee, and after he crushes the gun in his bare hands, he makes them swear never to break the law or repeat what they saw to anyone.
Raquel takes this opportunity to turn her life around. She ditches her boyfriend and returns to Icon’s home, where she confronts him. As Raquel sees it, Icon has the powers and resources to be a superhero. She has drawn sketches of costumes they could both wear, as she wants to be his sidekick, fighting to help the people of Dakota City. This plants the seed that will grow into their shared superhero career as Icon and Rocket.
Much of the story is nearly identical to the origin story presented in 1993’s Icon #1 by Reginald Hudlin and M. D. Bright. The original comic never explained the reason Icon fled his ship and placed far greater emphasis on his modern-day civilian identity as a powerful lawyer named Augustus Freeman. It also focused on Raquel’s ambitions to become a writer and her love of the novelist Toni Morrison. To her, a typewriter was a necessary tool that she needed for her writing. This is obviously quite different from her concerns about modern cybersecurity in the newer comic.
Their 90s origin also laid out their respective beliefs about civic responsibility as they discussed the philosophies of W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Icon espoused a bootstraps-style conservatism, favoring Washington’s approach, while Raquel preferred Du Bois’s commitment to confronting systemic issues.
Icon and Rocket are arguably DC’s greatest superhero duo. He is every bit as powerful as Superman, but his experiences living through American history and his reluctance to take action provide a unique perspective. Meanwhile, Raquel’s new superhero identity as Rocket is rooted in a philosophy of direct action and her youth invigorates the comic with a bold determination that challenges his timidity. Their experiences could not be more different, but each brings something truly important to the story.
About The Author
For all the latest Comics News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
