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Published: 2008-11-20 01:09:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 2676; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 0
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Icon Β© Milestone and DC comicsMade using my Template Hero
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Comments: 54
This is so old and hard to look at. I bought the first issue of Icon and was disinterested. I've learned that he was never supposed to be a Black Superman or even at his level. This is confirmed when you read the first issue and see he was momentarily stunned when he was surprised by a bullet. I just never really dug him, and I really didn't like his costume. I really hate saying this as his creator, McDuffie, was a genius and made great characters and stories and will never make any more. I don't know much else about Icon, and I don't follow DC comics much. They seem to stay in a state of flux recently, but whatever works...
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You are right some people do want a black superman and when I was younger I did too and I guess deep down Icon fill that void for me. However, I do not believe the mass media would ever show black superman being equal to a white superman any love. (not in our life-time) He would always be seen as the want-to-be superman guy. Right now I am traveling around Korea and it is hard enough fighting the stereotypes as a every day guy, I could not image trying to fight it in the real world and comic world.
I must said, I like your Warpath design, do you have a back story for him? Also what are his powers and what does he stand for? If you come out with a comic let me know, I do want a signed copy. (ha,ha) Good luck with all your characters and I hope to see them in the comic store one day.
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Warpath belongs to my friend Eric, Check him out if you want to know more. Thanks.
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Goody Day, I have just finished reading the comments post by Dualmask and yourself. I know these comments are very old and I hope since then both of you have educated yourself on ICON. If you have not and you still stand by these comment, then you have no idea what this character is about or milestone comics. I have been buying comics since the late 80s and I still have not come across a storyline better than the Milestone line of comics with ICON leading the way.
First off; comparing Icon to Superman is unfair, to be honest it is unfair to any character. Superman is like the first car, no matter what character you create. If that person has super-strength, can fly, and wears cape he or she will be judge against Superman. You would not compare a BMW to first made car and ask which one is better as being a car. Icon was never design or plan to be the βurban supermanβ Mcduff stated this himself. He was push into that role by DC comics and uninformed individuals who judge him on his powers. Which tells me neither of you ever read Iconβs comics. His original power level was nowhere close to Superman; Icon was just the most powerful guy in his city. In his second issue, Icon is cut open by a mutant with some claws and his partner (rocket) had to save him. So afterwards he started wearing body armor to protect himself. Once Milestone merge with DC comics, they increase Iconβs power level to almost match Superman. Again to make him that βurban supermanβ you were talking about earlier. Also he did not become a superhero out of the goodness of his heart. His partner rocket talked him into it, by showing him that black people need more than words to motivate them, they needed an ICON. (get it, ha,ha,)
I do agree with you (Dualmask) 100% that black people do not want a comic full of Ebony skinned character talk crazy, we have enough stereotypes already. Trust me I know, my job takes me all around the world and you would not believe how some people view and portray African American men. So if you do believe the statement you made earlier. I ask both of you to go back and read Iconβs books and do not compare him to Superman but read it for the story. Because I have multiple $50 to $300 dollar books at home which I would sell in a heartbeat if I ever had money problems. However I would never sell one of my Iconβs books, even if I was offered a million dollars and they are only worth 99 cents. I do think you did a great job and I wish you all the best.
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First of all, this piece is old and hard to look at. I really need to do an updated one. You are 100% correct, comparing Icon to Superman is completely unfair and misses the point of Icon. Here is the issue though; I and people like me WANTED a Black Superman. I still do, and that's why I created one and so did my buddy I own Icon #1 and did determine then that DM wasn't making a Black Superman and stopped buying it. No disrespect to the work he did, I just wasn't interested. Understand that then my comics list consisted of Hulk, Thor, X-men and Superman. I have a particular way I like my Superheroes. I'm not into Batman, Daredevil or Captain America on their own. DM wasn't telling a superhero story, he was telling a story that loosely involved superhuman powers. I get that- and left it- as I just wanted my power fix. Just know I've got mad respect for Milestone and the characters that came out of it. Dwayne Mcduffie was the greatest and we (the Black comics community) lost a great one one when he passed.
Icon was a victim of what we wanted and not a product of what he was. It's too bad that what DM created went over most of our heads and didn't really get the chance to become his own type of hero before becoming Black Superman for DC comics.
Thanks.
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they could at least try to redesign him in new 52 maybe he could team up with batwing for a superman/batman(icon/batwing) teamup
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They're using him on Young Justice and they gave him a slight redesign. [link]
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Thanks, Ricky. This is his original costume. I made no changes.
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Never heard of this guy before. Not a great design, although i like the cape and the gold bands. They seem to have gone a bit mad with the african colour scheme, there's at least one to many in my opinion. You did a grat job though!
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Thanks man. I agree the costume is garish.
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You did another fine job here. I'd never even heard of this guy...probably for the best.
I wouldn't take the failure of this character too hard though. It must be expected that any character designed with the "_____ version of _____ " mindset will never be truly successful, because you can't find true success by feeding off of the power of a pre-established icon, even if you're the one who created said icon.
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"It must be expected that any character designed with the "_____ version of _____ " mindset will never be truly successful, because you can't find true success by feeding off of the power of a pre-established icon, even if you're the one who created said icon." Not entirely true, because you can start with an idea and then make it your own. I am sure most people believe that War Machine could take Iron Man, and Rhodey is just as well known as Toney. War Machine epic win- even as a knock off White homage character. Black Panther was a clone of Cap-at first, but now he is ENTIRELY something else. So it can be done and it should have succeeded except for the lack of imagination from the creator. He did not think about marketability, he Just wanted to tell stories of an "urban" Superman. The problem is a lot of "urban" people don't buy comic books and those that do are savvy connoisseurs of the medium and know what doesn't work. So instead of establishing him as an "ICON" he was simply a lackluster boring guy in an ugly costume. I really hope he get's it right this time.
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That's the thing...nothing is really original anymore but when something mirrors an iconic character too much, the problems don't go away. What you say is true about Black Panther, but only because he's so visually and characteristically different from Captain America that one would never even think they were similarly designed at a glance. They didn't stop with making him an "African Captain America"...they went further to establish an identity. With War Machine, the inspiration is obvious, but War Machine isn't exactly A-list either (admittedly, I don't know much about War Machine; the sequel to the Iron Man movie will probably give me more details about the character than I ever took the time to discover in comics).
What you said about "He did not think about marketability, he Just wanted to tell stories of an "urban" Superman" is exactly right...that's why so many comics supposedly marketed toward African Americans are just insulting. What a lot of creators fail to realize is that black people don't necessarily want a comic loaded with dark-skinned characters speaking in "jive talk" and having "street cred"; we just want diversity. Characters like Luke Cage or Storm should be just as prominent as Captain America or Emma Frost. It's all in the way the character is developed, or not developed.
I think if the idea of this "Icon" character is to be successful, he needs to be taken completely back to formula. It can't about the character's powers being on equal or greater footing than Superman...Superman will never be outranked in the market; he's the very symbol of super heroes. The character needs to be taken in an original direction. Personally, it would take a miracle for that character to interest me in the slightest because the last thing I concern myself with when it comes to comics and stories is the race of the character, and if that's the focal point of the character's development, it will immediately be shallow. A super hero should be an interesting person who just happens to have super powers, not a set of powers given to a certain kind of person.
Man...I'm rambling.
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War Machine is really A-list. Even though he was built by Stark, Rhodey gave him a life that was distinctly different from Tony. Had two runs of his own book. Black Panther's powers are nearly identical to Cap's, but in the end he is truly to be compared to Iron Man, having great wealth and power.
What I am getting at is simply this, I like the idea of a Black Superman, but it should have been just that, and it wasn't. How you cited it should go is what the writer did. He did NOT use the superman formula to write Icon, instead he wrote urban stories that affected those in the 'hood. Rocket his sidekick even got pregnant out of wedlock as a teen. He really told good stories, and if you went back and collected the issues you would see what he did, and you probably would have liked it.
I personally would not have been afraid of the White homage here and really cloned him and made him the last Black Kryptonian that had been systematically enslaved and wiped out by the White ones so there would have been a real connection between them. There would be no need to explain his powers, and the extra melanin and genetic adversity makes him immune to green Kryptonite. I'd keep the main stories centered in the 'hood and yet have the whole world to play in and nosidekick. Forgiveness and redemption are the themes. I think these would be the beginning of a widely marketable character.
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I loved the Milestone books. I read a lot of them, especially Blood Syndicate, Static and Hardware. I didn't like Icon as I don't really care for the "Superman" knock-off type characters, but I really did like his sidekick Rocket.
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His concept is strong, but the execution, was horribly weak, and I HATED Rocket and the idea that a Superman like character needed a full time sidekick. Static and Hardware I liked.
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I understand your point on Icon but I don't think it was as much Icon needing a Rocket as it was that Raquel Ervin needed to be Rocket and Icon gave her that opportunity. Being Rocket I think was the push she needed to become a better person.
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I understand that, and I still hated rocket and the idea of her. I think he(McDuffy) missed the mark with her as far as the hero element is concerned. Her story would probably be a better (B) movie than a comic book. She just lacked style and savvy. Icon was written aloof and needing humanizing, thus the necessity of Rocket. I just feel that he should be able to live up to all that is Superman and more because of his skin, and Rocket IMO took away from that.
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I think the idea of Rocket was a of explaining why Icon never appeared on the scene before. According to the series, he arrived on Earth in the 1800s. There were some stories where he used his powers to help his friends. But Rocket was the one who gave him the idea he could make a difference as a superhero. The closest I think of seeing this if they tried to re-write Superman like this is if Clark Kent hadn't been a Superhero and it Lois Lane found out about his powers and convinced him to be Superman and use his powers for good. It was a good attempt by McDuffie to try to do something different with a superhero character in my opinion.
Also Icon wasn't a wimp, I have nearly every issue of Icon and there is part where the series where it crosses over with Blood Syndicate. He boils away part of the river to convince Blood Syndicate to stop attacking him or he'll do that to them. He also creams the second villainous Blood Syndicate started by Holocaust towards the end of the series.
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Never said or thought he was a wimp, just that he wasn't supposed to be Superman.
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Personally, I think milestone missed the mark with Icon himself. One of the sucky things I see about most comic universes is that everyone wants to create their own version of Superman. Icon, Supreme, Mr. Majestic, Prime. All of them are there respective universes version of Superman. That's why they all fail to a certain extent. Because they all are COPIES. The only company that did it right was Marvel. Cap doesn't come near Superman when it comes to power, but he inspires the whole universe the same way Supes does with the DCU. The power doesn't matter, it's the character what's important.
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I so agree with your statement. I love good character design as much as the next guy but I'm not a fan of designers' need to create alternate versions of pre-established "icon" characters. It's so much better to try to create one's own icon rather than try to feed off of the power of someone else's icon.
Just my 
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Exactly! I'm happy that you understood the point I was trying to make. Also, if a character is more original in design, I think it makes him or her look more interesting.Usually when I see a Superman clone, either in the comics or as an o.c. I tend to ignore them because automatically in my mind I assume they have nothing new to offer.
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In this case power does matter, and the fact that he's a Superman clone shouldn't have. I agree that McDuffy missed the mark with Icon from soup to nuts. Garish costume, disconnected aloof behavior and nothing impressive at all about him. In his first issue he was taken by surprise by a regular gun and was momentarily incapacitated, so his wow factor from the start was lackluster. There is much about the character that wasn't taken advantage of. 
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Thanks, Jeremy!
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Nice job.
For a character you consider an epic fail, you certainly did a good job in your rendition of him.
I don't know much about Icon, myself. I didn't even find out about Milestone comics until long after it folded, so the only character I'm familiar with is Static.
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Thanks, James. There was no reason to slack off on the bruh because the writers wouldn't do right by him.
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This guy had potential. He could have been fixed.
They really failed selling out to DC, that's what bury him...and every other character they had including Static, which actually made them money.
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"At the 2008 Comic-Con DC Comics executive editor Dan DiDio announced that the Milestone Universe and characters would be revived and merged into the DC Universe proper. The merger will treat the characters as new to the universe, ignoring the "Worlds Collide" crossover of 1994. Icon, along with Shadow Cabinet, will appear in Justice League of America#27, currently written by Dwayne McDuffie." Wiki quote. Unfortunately he was the writer on it originally, and he will FAIL again.
He could have been and still could be fixed, I agree.
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Wow, I hadn't heard that. Well, hopefully it will turn out good...but I have my doubts.
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In my opinion, any time they try to take a character and "urbanize" them or make an "urban" version of them, they always end up being one dimensional and really bad. It's rare when they're not.
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That is true. This is a character that actually had potential, but fell apart in the execution. The costume is gaudy and ...stupid, and the character falls short of iconic(ironically) and in the worlds collide crossover the writers decided to make him crass and low class by trying to drown Superman. The character was (somewhat)original, but sadly uninspired.
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I have to agree, the costume leaves much to be desired. Christmas colors are generally not the way to go. I don't know a lot about the character but after reading his Wiki, he sounds like he had a ton of potential. I hear he will soon be integrated into the normal DC continuity. I kind of hope a good writer get a hold of him and changes that costume.
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LOL, I just wrote something similar in my response to Rod. The colors represent Africa, red, black, and green. The gold was to represent what was being stolen from Africans. The problem is that only African Americans know this, and the symbolism is lost on people not in the know seeing that garish garb for the first time. It's too busy anyway. Another unfortunate turn is his revival is by the original writer, so I expect it to FAIL miserably again.
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Well, really. Even with the same color scheme, the costume could have been much better designed. You never know though. Writers do evolve so there's always a chance. I kind of doubt he'll end up being iconic like Superman and Captain Marvel though but at least his story is slightly more interesting (though admittedly, Captain Marvels one of my favorites).
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Yep, too busy, for no reason. Agree with all that!
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Only character I liked from Milestone was Hardware.
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Hardware. I don't like, never have liked and never will like teen superheroes. Hate em.
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Never watched the cartoons. I gots no idea what he looks like grown up.
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He was in a Justice League ep too.
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