Icon and Rocket

The MAIN reason I started this thread was to simply bring more AWARENESS to Icon and Rocket - to those who CHOSE to read up on them.

"Black Panther" is not the "End All" for Diversity in Comics. He is truly a start but he is in Africa only. In the comics AND the movie - they appeared to care NOT about Blacks OUTSIDE of Africa (Wakanda) - at least at first. While that is a GREAT reference point origin-wise there are MANY characters actually BASED in America that are all too often ignored by mainstream.

All to often I think people (myself included) can CHOOSE to simply ignore what we don't understand - ignore what we don't like or agree with.

I think in cases like that we need to look within and ask ourselves why we chose to ignore something or someone. When / If we do I think we'll ALL find some sort of Bias.

https://thedirect.com/article/dc-animated-superhero-movie-static-shock-icon

There's hope, my friend.

After all - if a dude with no super powers that wears half a toilet on his head as a helmet can get his own series then there's hope for Icon and Rocket.

Additionally - Icon and Rocket are canon, as well.

Icon and Superman met during the Dakotaverse / DC Universe merger in Icon #16, fought to a standstill and THEN teamed up along with Steel, Static, Superboy, Hardware, Rocket and many of the Blood Syndicate team to defeat the being known as Rift.

Icon and Superman met AGAIN - along with Icon being a member of the Shadow Cabinet - and "Fought" again. This 2nd "fight" was no more than a staged event as part of a plan to fool the being known as Dharma.

Only one punch was thrown during this "staged" fight and it was a blow landed by Icon. This blow knocked Superman out of the watchtower and lead him to exclaim that....

"It was the hardest he'd ever been hit".............

This includes Doomsday, Darkseid, and OTHER powerful beings that Supes has fought.

In the Young Justice cartoon series, Icon was VOTED into the Justice League. During this vote Green Arrow exclaimed that the only reason Superman wanted Icon in the Justice League was because he thought he was Kryptonian.

I've seen Icon featured in YJ series as recent as 2019, as well.

It's all here in this thread - as well as the accompanying comic panels.

Icon and Rocket ARE canon. It's up to DC / WB to stop pretending that they are an unknown brand and feature them in a movie.

I meant canon compared to making Black Canary black so that theres some extra diversity in the Birds of prey movie - Huntress would have made more sense as shes been presented that way recently in the comics. So I'd be more interested in President Superman, Icon and Rocket, Vixen, Black Lightning etc instead of a movie where a character is normally white and then in the movie suddenly they're black.

And the reason I prefer it like that is because of the same reason you're suggesting Icon & Rocket - there are canon black characters who are already good and have their own history. The reason they arent as popular is because they havent had the movies and the shows or havent had some of the bigger roles in the crossover and crisis events. So thats what they need. Bring those already cool characters to the front instead

Ultimately, I suspect - if WB / DC "EVER" brought BOTH of them to the Big Screen in ANY WAY it could have some POLITICAL ramifications..................

Some may foam at the mouth at the thought of a "Black Superman".....a BLACK character wearing "The S"................."Race Swapping".....

"President Superman" originated in 2009, as a tribute to former President Barack Obama. I get it - I voted for the man TWICE, with ZERO regrets and would've done so AGAIN if he would've ran.

Icon would open AN ENTIRELY NEW can of worms in that "HIS" origins date back to 1839 - as a SLAVE. To those upset with ANYTHING "Critical Race Theory" - related Augustus Freeman IV / Icon would be an issue, too.

These are certainly MY THOUGHTS only from what I've observed in society - especially over the last few years.

To ME - Augustus Freeman IV would present QUITE the ORIGINAL story for the DC / WB Cinematic Universe - a unique BLACK superhero created by BLACK FOLKS.....with a partner that is perhaps EVEN MORE unique than HE is in Rocket.



DC has been sleeping on this treasure since 1993 - with only Static making it to a cartoon series. Static originated in Milestone Comics - along with Icon, Hardware and many other heroes, heroines and villains.

It's ALL HERE - in this thread.

“Thwak” is my favorite descriptive term now lol.
On the cover it looks like he only has one eye?

Dang he gotta spawn cape look at the size of that thing!

I've never spoken to any of the creators / writers at Milestone Media but I'd be shocked if they didn't "borrow" ideas from Spawn in regards to Icon's cape lol.

Dude uses it to MAXIMUM advantage, though. In Icon #16, during his EPIC fight with Superman, he uses it as a prop to fool Supes and then steals him with a solid strike that knocks Superman through THREE buildings lol.





He ALSO uses his cape as a prop several other times, including his confrontation with Mistress Murder in Icon and Rocket #41.

Didn’t Superman beat the KKK in both the comics and real life? By exposing the sillyness of their limp wristed handshake and other ridiculous factual insider information, he basically made them a national laughing stock, slowing popularity and growth. I know it’s not exactly addressing slavery specifically, but he did address racism and effected real life change through the comics being read on national radio networks as well.

Although Icon going back and ***** smacking slave owners into outer space is an issue I’d gladly read.

With the 2nd issue - the one I just posted some panels from yesterday - I did leave out 4-5 pages that were even more graphic and powerful than what was posted. Did not intend or want to post page for page.

What I left out was powerful.....but to me introduced a HUGE can of worms and a slippery slope.....

I've discussed here in the forums with a couple of posters that questioned "Why didn't Icon do more to stop slavery" Well - with issue 2 in the return of Icon and Rocket and the panels I left out he DID address it - in graphic fashion.

Benedict Lord did stop Icon on that plantation but not before he "Eliminated" a key figure from history.

Here is an article from 2016 with commentary from a Mr. Evan Narcisse that pretty much sums up why Dwayne McDuffie did not write Icon a certain way from the 1990's and I personally agree with the article.

This is from Page 3 of the thread:


“So, if a dark-skinned alien with Kryptonian-on-Earth levels of power landed in the Deep South in 1839 and found himself a slave, he’d just break the chains binding him and others, right? Not necessarily.
A comment thread onmy piece about Icon #16popped up, explaining why someone never got in the Milestone Media comic-book series after wondering Augustus Freeman didn’t use his superhuman abilities to overthrow the system of chattel slavery he grew up under:”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about this question. I don’t presume to speak for Dwayne or anybody who was at Milestone past or present but I think this is the classic problem of “why don’t superheroes fix everything?””

“Of course, the real-world answer is most often that this would be boring and break the dramatic tension of the fiction being built. Creators have leaned on in-story loopholes to wave off the fix-everything question, like Hitler having the Spear of Destiny and Japanese prime minister Tojo having a piece of the Holy Grail. (There was a latter-day explanation that those leaders used those artifacts to make it so that Superman, Green Lantern, and other ultra-powerful heroes active during WWII would fall under Axis mind control if they operated in territories controlled by the Allies’ enemies.)
A while back, I wrote about an issue ofAll-Star Squadronwhere the Green Lantern of the 1940s destroyed a telepathically-projected facsimile of Japan. That issue took another tack at dealing withthe fix-everything question, positing that the psychological weight of singlehandedly killing millions of people and ending a war would break someone’s mind.”
“As another commenter says, there was likely some element of social conditioning to Augustus’ reticence to singlehandedly overthrow slavery. That’s hinted at in the panels when Icon says “I helped who I could. Did as much as I thought was possible.” Icon likely wanted just to live as normal and unassuming a life as he could.
Another thing to consider is the fact that, unlike Superman, Icon was an adult lifeform when he came to Earth, a mediator in an interplanetary utopian alliance called The Cooperative.”

“There were prime-directive type rules in The Cooperative about interfering in the affairs of less-advanced planets. If I recall correctly, he retained full consciousness of his former life. Even if he didn’t, maybe there was enough of an inkling of the idea of non-interference in his human mind to hold him back. Why does he fight in World War I & II and later work for justice as a mere human, then? Probably because, as detailed in other issues of the series, that’s what felt right.”

“Future issues of Icon showed parts of the main character’s past, from falling in love with a human woman and dealing with their genetic incompatibility to being homesick for his native planet. While testifying about his life on Earth, Icon says he only discovered the depths of his invulnerability after the Civil War had started.”

“But, all of that is inside the fiction. I think the real world answers to the question are more important, like the fact that heroes who re-order the world/universe in their own image don’t often stay feeling like heroes. Even interventions that seem relatively minor and/or altruistic, like ending slavery, would have exponentially bigger ripple effects. If a flying black man starts tearing apart plantations, then slave-owners might start killing other black people indiscriminately for fear of more metahumans in their midst. And the ripples extend ever outward, resulting in a Dakota Universe that doesn’t look much like our own. The catalyst for Milestone Media was to create a superhero offering that reflected the reality it was created in, not a radically different alternate universe.
Icon is an alien who was stranded amongst humanity, grew to love it, and later withdrew from it. Both in the fiction and outside of it, he’s designed to be a hero who lives with us, not above us. Raquel dreamt up the heroic alter ego to inspire people, not rule over them.”


I have personally seen this issue pop up on youtube and in other places regarding Icon and his place in Comic Book History regarding slavery. This article by Mr. Evan Narcisse explains things well enough for me.

Dwayne McDuffie (RIP) wrote Icon in such a way that he worked WITHIN the system to CHANGE it - not take a hammer to the entire machine and try to REMAKE reality.

The latter is destructive and no one knows what ripples in time you set off by doing so.

Is it interesting to think about the "What Ifs"........? Sure it is.

But this is why The Spear of Destiny is written into DC Comics, I thought - with the mindset of keeping Superman, WW, GL and other Superheroes from going back and trying to re-write history.

Why DC Comics - all of a sudden - have allowed the current writers of Icon and Rocket to IGNORE the Spear of Destiny and eliminate key figures from History is interesting.

He may very well have but I cannot personally recall such an issue.

The interesting thing is that Superman IS in fact written into the NEW Icon and Rocket comics - either issue 3 or 4. It is intriguing the direction they are taking the series.

I can see why they didn’t write icon to come in and just blow up the entire south. It’s the same reason they never had Superman go back and murder hitler as a baby. It’s too easy and doesn’t really make for a good story. I think having him be around and endure slavery in a similar fashion to his peers is a much more inticing back story, it gives him a well to draw from beyond his incredible power.

Here’s one link on Superman I found, he initially defeated the Klan in 1946, it was the first radio broadcast Made with Superman comics, it had real world effects on the Klan, drop in recruitment, all around mockery of them on national radio broadcast definitely shed some light on them and their ways. Makes for an interesting read, it was also on “drunk history” it you watch that.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/23157/how-superman-defeated-ku-klux-klan

The story was re told in 2020 under a different name but still Superman beating white supremacy.

Controller, this is a great thread. I just noticed that most pictures aren't working, mind uploading them through Imgur next? Not sure if It's because I'm on mobile or not.

Hey Zoe yeah I saw that...

After reviewing the thread, the vast majority of the original comics of Icon and Rocket are still there, thankfully - it's only the NEWER comics that didn't post.

Personally I think the original comics (Threads 1-8) tell a better story of Icon and Rocket and give more detail - from the source of Icon's powers to his origin and beginnings.

Rocket's character is better presented in the original comics as well.