Milestone Media was a popular independent comic publisher in the 1990s that became part of the mega publisher DC Comics. Characters like Static Shock, Icon, Rocket and Hardware became part of DC Comics’ large catalog of characters but have made little splash in other forms of media.
The early 2000s proved to be beneficial to DC and Milestone when the Static Shock animated show aired on Kids WB. Static Shock showed that all kids of all races could enjoy a young Spider-Man-like character that goes to school, fights crime and deals with family issues. From 2000 to 2004, 52 episodes were made and released. However, Milestone Media did not see any other success on TV. Characters like Static, Icon and Rocket were minor characters in the 2010-12 animated series, Young Justice but they never had their own show again.
“It is very unique in that it allowed Milestone access to a complete system of distribution and promotion while still maintaining a great deal of independent control over the content of the books,” Jeffrey A. Brown, Bowling Green University professor and author of Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans, told Jeremy Lott of Urban News Service.
Now, Milestone Comics co-founders, Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle will join director and writer Reginald Hudlin and DC creators, Jim Lee and Geoff Johns, in producing new comics with the traditional Milestone characters. The new venture was announced during this year’s San Diego Comic Con, with a promise to release original graphic novels, solo series for the characters and an entire universe called Earth-M that would separate the stories from the main DC Universe.
DC Comics is hoping that Earth-M takes off, and proves that more adaptations of the Milestone material could be made into TV shows, movies and cartoons. This summer, there were rumors that Jaden Smith was going to portray Static in a live action TV series, but there has been no new information confirming the claim.
Hopefully, Milestone Media and DC will invest their time and energy into getting these characters beyond the comic pages and onto the screen.
