DC is expanding its rebooted Milestone imprint with Earth-M, an all-new lineup of comics set to kick off in May with the six-part limited series Duo, which comes from writer Greg Pak, artist Khoi Pham and inker Scott Hanna.
"Last year, the world of Milestone Media made its long-awaited return to comic shelves," DC said in its official announcement. "Static, Icon, Rocket and Hardware live again in a shared universe of their own, living the kinds of stories they were created to tell. In 2022, Milestone is only getting bigger. Make way for Earth-M."
The Burbank-based publisher describes the Earth-M line as "a collection of new concepts and characters created by original Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan and current Milestone relaunch shepherd Reginald Hudlin, both inspired by and nestled within the Milestone universe. In time, these new heroes may meet their Milestone forebears, but now is the time for Milestone to do what it was always meant to through Earth-M: broaden perspectives on the superhero genre as a whole with ideas you've never seen before."
DC and Milestone get the ball rolling on Earth-M later this year with Pak, Pham and Hanna's Duo, which is set to release its debut issue on Tuesday, May 17. The series tells "the story of two lovers, both alike in scientific accomplishment, merged into one body through a nanotechnology experiment. While this has granted them extraordinary powers, it has also erased the boundaries between them." Duo #1 features a main cover by Dike Ruan, as well as a variant cover by the aforementioned Cowan and a 1:25 variant cover by Nimit Malavia.
"I think the fun part of this story is that it's asking the question of 'What if you were privy to every single thought, feeling and impulse of the person you most love in the world?'" said Pak. "We talk about people finishing each other's sentences when they really know each other, and that's exactly what Dr. Kelly Vu and Dr. David Kim do in some of the opening pages of this. They work together, they live together, they love together."
Milestone is, of course, known for its emphasis on bringing greater representation to superhero comics. Speaking on that aspect of Duo, Pak explained, "No single project can represent the experiences of a whole community, so I'm not going to make any sweeping statements like that. But I'm thrilled about the project because so many Asian-Americans live in Pan-Asian families, where you have people of multiple backgrounds in the same family. And here, we've got a Korean-American man and a Vietnamese-American woman. Those kinds of relationships are everywhere, but they're seldom represented, you know? And so, there's something nice about normalizing that kind of experience."
Written by Greg Pak and penciled by Khoi Pham with inks by Scott Hanna, Duo #1 goes on sale May 17 from DC.
Source: DC