The big twist in the cliffhanger to issue #2 is that the bad guy is Vandal Savage. Savage is a longtime DC Comics supervillain, you can read about his history HERE and HERE. Admittedly he makes a sensible villain for this story, as his immortal lifespan and history of interfering in major historic events easily explain how Hardware is able to encounter him in the past, back in 15th Century Portugal, where Hardware traveled to attempt to stop the transatlantic slave trade from starting, and for Rocket to encounter him in the present, where he appears to be the headmaster of the private school she’s attending in Sweden. Still, as I noted, I’m not too happy with Milestone using DC villains in their stories. I wish writers Reggie Hudlin and Lean Chills could have created a new antagonist (or maybe used Karma from the Shadow Cabinet?) in this role. But, as I’m writing this, I haven’t actually read this issue yet, so maybe I’ll be surprised? Let me read this issue now, and then I’ll finish this review.

Well, this was pretty wild.

But also a bit confusing.

Hardware defeats Savage in the past and succeeds in stopping the slave trade from ever getting started. Without slavery and colonization, plus with the help of some of Hardware’s advanced technology, Africa flourishes, and by the 1800s, he’s established an empire called the United Continent of Africa that rules the world, and Hardware (who uses technobabble to make himself immortal) is their King/God. The Icon arrives, being sent from his intergalactic society to investigate who on Earth is messing with the timeline, in his original form of Arnus. He meets Hardware, who informs him of their history together and reveals that although he helped Africans do better, the world is still basically effed up, as wars and holocausts still happen no matter what he does. So once again he resolves to go back and undo what he did.

It would have been interesting to get a glimpse of this advanced Africa before it was changed back. I did appreciate the deeper look into Icon’s society, The Cooperative. This was something lacking in the original Milestone comics.

But then we cut back to the present, where Rocket is getting attacked by Vandal Savage, but she called Icon for help. But dinosaurs are showing up in Dakato and the issue ends with the introduction of Brainiac (normally I wouldn’t spoil that, but the official solicitation for this issue already does).

First Vandal Savage, now Brainiac? And this is a Brainiac from a parallel Earth, I don’t know if it’s supposed to be the main DCU, but it says he’s from “Earth – 0”, so I guess that it? And this Milestone Earth is called “Earth – 93.” Brainiac even refers to Icon as an analog of Superman.

There’s some interesting ideas here but, so far, it’s just not grabbing me. I’m going to see this miniseries through to the end, just because, but I hope the next issue gets better.  Chacebook rating: THREE STARS

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