In 1993, readers were introduced to the heroes of Dakota City through Milestone Comics. This new line of books, the brainchild of Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle, would bring some much-needed diversity in race, religion, gender and sexuality to mainstream superhero comics. to comics that had been missing for far too long.

Before characters like Static were introduced, Milestone launched in February 1993 with the first issue of Hardware, written by McDuffie with art by Cowan and Jimmy Palmiotti. The series followed a genius inventor named Curtis Metcalf who builds a suit of armor to battle against organized crime. As a hero, Hardware is a mix of Iron Man and Batman as well as an allegory for class warfare as Curtis learns that the man he saw as a father figure sees him as little more than a cash cow.

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Hardware's armor, built out of a plasticized metal alloy that Curtis created, is made up of two parts. After stepping into the Shell Forge, Curtis was quickly covered in his "smart suit," a skintight armor that is impact resistant. His second level of armor, the "external armor" gives Curtis a further level of defense from attacks. This armor consists of his helmet, which stores the suit's CPU, DOBIE (Digital On-Board Integrated Electronics), the kinetic-energy-absorbing Inertia Winder and Hardware's jetpack.

As different as Milestone was from other superhero comics in the 90s, one thing it shared with that era's other comics was a love for lots of weaponry. Hardware's weapon of choice was his Omnicannon, an air cannon designed to shoot special cartridges of Curtis' design. These cartridges included a stun blast, an explosive blast and the Octanitrocubane blast, the most powerful explosive on Earth that isn't nuclear.

Along with the Omnicannon, Hardware used a plasma whip, a retractable Sword, a fluid gun that shot out a variety of liquids that could impair his opponents, and the flow gun, which shot non-lethal ammunition. For moments of extreme danger, Hardware would pull out the PLASER, a fist-sized ball of super-heated plasma contained in a magnetic capsule and that is shot at a target using a laser beam. Upon impact, the magnetic capsule releases the plasma, which then raises the target's temperature upwards of 10,000 degrees in less than a second.

Hardware is one of the few Milestone heroes who does not have superpowers. Unlike Icon, Static, or the Blood Syndicate, Curtis created his equipment and uses his mind to overcome obstacles. But since Milestone stopped printing new stories in 1997, Hardware has only appeared a handful of times in DC's comics or in animation.

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After the events of Final Crisis, DC revealed that the Dakota Universe of Milestone had become a part of the DC Universe, with many of the characters, including Hardware, appearing in a storyline that ran through McDuffie, Ed Benes and Rags Morales' Justice League of America #27-34 where Hardware is able to talk Firestorm out of killing a villain. Hardware wouldn't show up again until the post-Flashpoint series Static Shock, where he appeared as a mentor to Static. Hardware also appeared in an episode of the Static Shock animated series and recently showed up in Young Justice: Outsiders.

In 2015, DC announced that the heroes of Milestone would be returning to comics and be given their own earth - Earth-M - in the DC multiverse. After a delay concerning legal issues, Cowan recently told CBR that all parties had come to an agreement that would clear the way for the Milestone characters to finally return to comics.

KEEP READING: Static: How the Milestone Hero Joined the DC Universe