In the early days of 1993, Milestone Media hit the comic shops for the first time. The first four titles from the company created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle and published through DC Comics were unlike anything else on the market at the time. The Milestone books focused on people that weren't usually represented in comics, giving them a chance to be the heroes of the stories.

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Milestone's rise came at a time of growth in comics, with a number of new universes and companies popping up, including Jim Shooter's Valiant Universe, the Ultraverse, and Image Comics. Sadly, Milestone shut down their comics division in 1997, and for decades the characters of the Dakotaverse seemed lost to time aside from the occasional appearance in other DC books. But like all good superheroes, the champions of the Dakotaverse have returned from the dead when comics need them most.

10 The Return Of Great Characters

A group shot of the Milestone Comics characters including Hardware, Static, Icon, Rocket, Kobalt, Xombi and others

While Static has become the best-known character to come out of Milestone - thanks in large part to his Emmy award-winning animated series Static Shock - he is far from the only great character to come out of the Dakotaverse. Icon, an alien who came to Earth in the 1800s and finally became a superhero in the modern-day after being discovered by his sidekick Rocket, is on par with Superman when it comes to power, but with a story unlike any of the other characters who are analogs to the Man of Steel.

Hardware is an armor-wearing hero who represents the overworked and underpaid. Blood Syndicate was a modern-day X-Men that was teetering between being heroes or villains. And beyond the first four series, there were characters like Xombi, Deathwish, and Kobalt, all filled with great stories to tell.

9 A Legacy Restored

Dwayne McDuffie memorial comic by John Paul Leon featuring Static and Rocket from Milestone Comics

Sadly, a number of the people who helped make Milestone so great have passed on. Robert L. Washington III, who won acclaim for his writing on Static, passed away in 2012. Maddie Blaustein, also a writer but best known for her voice work as Meowth from the Pokémon animated series, died in 2008. John Paul Leon, who was still in school when he became the artist and co-creator of Static, sadly passed away earlier this year.

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And then there is Dwayne McDuffie. Not only a founder of Milestone but one of the most prolific comic book and animation writers of his time, McDuffie died in 2011. None of these creators lived to see their 50th birthday, but with Milestone's return, their work will continue to live on.

8 Bringing New Voices To Mainstream Comics

Milestone Comics Hardware by Humberto Ramos

In the short time that Milestone was creating comics in the 90s, the company worked to bring new voices to the industry, and that dedication to diverse voices has continued to help the industry thrive. Artists like Humberto Ramos and Jamal Igle got their first big breaks with Milestone and continue to lead the way in comics today.

Milestone was a space where creators could try things that they wouldn't get to do with characters like Batman or Iron Man. The company gave writers and artists room to explore new ideas and challenge comic book tropes, and it can do that again.

7 A Second Chance For Hard To Tell Stories

Rocket learns she is pregnant

Speaking of challenging comics, the return of Milestone once again offers creators the chance to use the superhero medium as a way to really look into the harder issues we as a society face today. Milestone was not known for tackling issues of race, but of sexuality, gender fluidity, and religion as well.

Milestone may have been well ahead of its time when it initially attempted to introduce these ideas to readers, but in the decades since, the industry has become more willing to listen and learn, and the return of Milestone could push things ever further towards a welcoming future.

6 A Drive For Something Different

Hardware from Milestone comics

It was the company's drive to do things differently that has helped keep Milestone in the hearts and minds of fans for so long. As it is, few of the original Milestone titles have been reprinted over the years, making it hard for fans new and old to get their hands on the stories.

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It was the way Milestone pushed a different perspective that has kept them in the conversation for all these years. Fans both in and outside of the industry knew that Milestone was something special, something that should not be forgotten. And now that it is finally coming back, everyone will get to see that spark again.

5 Representation Matters

Members of the Shadow Cabinet from Milestone Comics

"Representation Matters" is something that gets said a lot, but is rarely acted on. If you look at the selections from the major comics publishers, you would notice that there still isn't much representation in superheroes. If you look at the current superhero books of DC, just two of the titles feature people of color as the main characters, and Marvel isn't doing any better.

Milestone, at its heart, is about representation. The company took pride in publishing stories where the heroes didn't look like Captain America or Wonder Woman. These are heroes who are truly a greater representation of the people of America and the world.

4 A Chance To Bring In New Readers

Icon, Rocket, Static, and Hardware

To paraphrase Uncle Ben, with great representation comes great readership. A more diverse field of heroes can catch the eye of new readers, bringing new blood to comic shops across the world and helping keep comics alive. And with Milestone kicking off from square one with its rebirth, that gives these new readers an easy entrance to the wonderful world of comics. They don't need to read a long wiki page to learn all about John Stewart before picking up Green Lantern, they just need to slap down a few dollars and see what Hardware is all about.

3 A Second Life For Great Stories

Blood Syndicate

Of course, if the new Milestone brings these new readers to the original titles from the 1990s, that wouldn't be a bad thing. And thankfully, after years of being impossible to find, the original Milestone books are finally becoming available again.

Every week, DC Universe Infinite, DC's digital comics service, adds more and more classic Milestone books. Currently, the focus is on the four original Milestone titles - Icon, Static, Hardware, and Blood Syndicate - but with some luck, the other series will soon join the service. And with the work to digitize the original Milestone books, there is hope that new trades will also be released.

2 There Is A Lot Of Crossover Potential

Superman Icon Worlds Collide

In 1994, Milestone and DC crossed over for the first time with World's Collide. The 14-part story saw the Superman Family team up with the heroes of the Dakotaverse to stop Rift, a cosmic being that was destroying both realities.

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After Milestone stopped publishing their own comics, some of the characters, most notably Static, were brought into the DCU proper, which allowed them to occasionally appear in books like Teen Titans and Justice League. But now that the Dakotaverse is coming back full force, the chance for another big crossover could be close behind.

1 A Universe Of New Media

Actor Michael B. Jordan and Milsestone's Static

It has already been announced that Michael B. Jordan is producing a live-action Static movie, opening the door to seeing more Milestone characters hit both the big and small screen in ways that weren't possible in the 1990s. If the Milestone revival proves to be successful, it would seem logical to see the characters break out of the four-color page and into cinemas or streaming services like HBO Max. Milestone's titles were always edgier than what DC or Marvel were publishing, and that will likely continue. Bringing the character to live-action could help quench the need some comic fans have for more adult-oriented stories.

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