ICON VS HARDWARE #1 (of 5)
Story: Reginald Hudlin and Leon Chills
Art: Denys Cowan, Yasmin Florez Montanez, John Floyd and John Stansi
$3.99, 32 pages
DC Comics / Milestone Media
Review: Kris Lorenzen

What It Is: The first issue of a set of three miniseries that comprise Milestones World’s Collide event, coinciding with Milestone Media’s 30th Anniversary. That “World’s Collide” moniker should excite any fans of the original Milestone books from back in the day.

The Good: The Milestone properties are so strong, it’s great to see them get some love lately. Two compendiums of the original mags from the nineties have been released, making those groundbreaking stories available to a wider audience for the first time in decades. They’ve also been rolling out new seasons of some of their most popular properties—Static, Icon & Rocket, Blood Syndicate, etc.—all of which have been fantastic in their own right.

This issue catches you up with all of those goings on and dives you headfirst into a clash of the titans, civil war amongst heroes type of story. Yes, we’ve seen that before, but this conflict feels earned and believable. The time travel adds a funky, comic booky element that’s missing from a lot of self-serious modern comics. Having the conflict stem from one character’s desire to change the past and one who’s been alive for the past 200 years and experienced it all, is something we haven’t quite seen before.

Oh yeah, and Milestone characters? They actually fight crime. What a crazy notion…

Cowan’s art always delivers and it’s great to see him firing on all cylinders so deep into such an amazing career. He’s also been getting the prestige reprint treatment, with a Question Omnibus and the above-mentioned compendiums. This is superhero melodrama of the highest caliber, a back-to-basics kind of approach that fans are always clamoring for. Let’s hope those fans put their money where their mouths are.

The Bad; Not much, really. Three different inkers in a standard sized comic is usually a little muddled, but here it’s pretty smooth. The whole thing is a team effort and it’s a rock-solid team. Not a lot of books come out, especially good ones, this early in the year, so let’s hope it doesn’t slip through the cracks.

The Score: 9 out of 10 capes.

Further Reading: Those Milestone Compendiums are $60 a pop, but at 1,300 pages and containing 50+ issues, are well worth it. Go on. See why ’90s comics aren’t all bad