Milestone’s History Changed To Reflect A Deal With DC… Or Lex Luthor

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Doomsday Clock, Justice League, Superman | Tagged: lex luthor, milestone, static

Milestone’s history has now been changed to reflect a deal with DC Comics… or with Lex Luthor (Spoilers)

And there I was thinking that today’s The Ultimates #21 was rather on the nose when it came to addressing Marvel Comics, Stan Lee and its “illusion of change” approach to superheroics. The New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident by Joseph P. Illidge, Stephanie Williams, Morgan Hampton, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Carlo Pagulayan, Edwin Galmon, Valentine De Landro and Fico Ossio, published today by DC Comics, goes far, far further.

Because once upon a time, Milestone Media published a new superhero universe, printed and distributed by DC Comics. Static, Hardware, Blood Syndicate and Icon, set in the fictional city of Dakota, it saw a radioactive gas used by police to mark rioters (and anyone else in the vicinity). It also contained Quantum Juice developed by physicist Nathan Flack, after funding by the precognitive Dharma, who foresaw the need for a new breed of metahumans capable of saving the world from an impending apocalyptic disaster, which would be generated by its use, even if ninety per cent of those dosed with it would be killed. The survivors gained powers, the event became known as the Big Bang, and the new heroes were the Bang Babies. And then Milestone kinda merged with DC. There were crossovers. But then it seemed to be all forgotten, occasionally popping back for a reboot here, and a relaunch there, eventually being dropped again. Founder Dwayne McDuffie died, another founder, Michael Davis, was seemingly barred from returning, and Reginald Hudlin took things over for a bit, but not for long. The Milestone characters did appear rather briefly, glossed over in The New History Of The DC Universe by Mark Waid. First, Icon came to America as an alien baby in the nineteenth century, and the first issue of the New History.

And then, a look at the Milestone characters as they appeared in the twentieth century… with Alva Industries, the tech company formed by Edwin Alva, and behind the emergence of the Milestone character and Alva’s chief engineer Calvin Metcalf, who was betrayed by Alva, and became the superhero Hardware, now made responsible for using the Big Bang to create new super-soldiers. This is something that was implied in the Static Shock TV series, and now part of DC canon. We got this double page splash…

…ending with the line that the heroes of Dakota had all misteriously disappeared. And that seems to have been the impetus by some creators at DC Comics to give the Milestone characters a proper history. And so, today, we have The New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident, even though it was briefly released on the DC Universe Unlimited app two weeks ago for unknown reasons. Spoilers going forward. Plenty, plenty spoilers…

As Beacon, the “nephew ” of Static, the son of Rocket, and a Dakota superhero in his own right in the future, discovers his reality being wiped out by a change in the past. In the original Milestone Universe, Edwin Alva died a heroic death, inspiring Hardware further. But now, Edwin Alva’s history goes back further to The Supermen Project with Will Magnus, Nilkes Caulder, Martin Stein and Simon Stagg.

Now named alongside the other four, scientists who, by hook or by crook, would invent much of the modern DC Universe.

And yes, mostly by crook when it came to it…

…as revealed in the Doomsday Clock unauthorised sequel to Watchmen.

And now with Edwin Alva and Alva Industries involved with their own strain of The Supermen Project, creating new super-soldiers, and reflected in this New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident, out today.

Except we now have a change in history. Rather than redeeming himself for the crimes against Hardware and others, redeeming himself for so many other deaths would be harder. And now, in this New History, Edwin Alva is killed. Hardware is framed. And the history of the Milestone Universe is changed…

Edwin Alva’s actions are now reinterpreted as a way to keep everyone from messing with his actions in Dakota by establishing an unregulated, anarchic group of super folk, heroes, villains, or others, and dealing with The Supermen Project.

Because, yes, this is from a time when Lex Luthor was President of the United States…

…and Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad was in the ascendancy.

And without Edwin Alva’s agreement, it;s time for them to be let loose on Dakota and deal with what Alva left behind.

With Bronze Tiger in particular having issues with these orders.

Taking on the Blood Syndicate and Hardwar on the streets of Dakota.

And then bringing in the big guns, and another creation of The Supermen Project…

Until, eventually, DC superheroes who don’t always obey the orders of the government arrive.

Will justice be done? No, not really. Instead, a compromise will be reached.

A ceasefire, and the restriction on super powers being used at all in Dakota. And a deal being done, with Black Lightning taking on the role of Chief Appeaser.

Threats being made, back and forth, until the deal is done with the President of the Unites States of America.

And the Milestone Universe will, basically, just go away. Cease to exist. No longer be a bother. Dakota will no longer be heard from.

And hands are shaken. But here’s the thing. It’ss not just about the Milestone Universe and the DC Universe, is it? It’s about Milestone Media and DC Comics.

Whatever agreement was made, it shut Milestone down. Milestone went away. No one in the DC Universe went to Dakota anymore. And, a few blips aside, that’s the way it has stayed. And now that deal, whatever it was…

… well it’s canon. This comic book targets the very history of DC Comics and its President at the time. Because right here, right now, Lex Luthor isn’t President of the USA, he is President of DC Comics. He’s Paul Levitz.

And the principal figures of Milestone Media have just signed Milestone away. Never to return. And that is the mystery mentioned by Mark Waid in the earlier The New History of the DC Universe, exploded. And the future that Milestone coulkd have been is here, however brief, to tell Static just what they lost…

We are left with questions. What will the future of Milestone be? Does anyone at DC Comics actually realise the nature of the story they have published? Who killed Edwin Alva and changed the Milestone history anyway? The future is waiting…

The New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident by Joseph P. Illidge, Stephanie Williams, Morgan Hampton, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Carlo Pagulayan, Edwin Galmon, Valentine De Landro and Fico Ossio
Spinning out of the pages of New History of the DC Universe, uncover an untold moment in DC history, where a murder leads to an all-out war between the heroes of Dakota City and U.S. government! As their home becomes a battlefield, what must Static, Rocket, and the others sacrifice to keep their loved ones safe? But as heroes fall in the past, the stage is set for their return in the present…

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