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Icon #2
Mothership Connection
In 1869, the life pod of an adult alien crashed in the cotton fields of the South. Discovered by a slave woman, the extraterrestrial's genetic structure was reconfigured and he was transformed into an African American baby. Now, over a hundred and twenty years later, Augustus Freeman is a successful lawyer who covertly uses his alien super-powers to help those in need. But when a teenaged girl from the streets convinces him to use his abilities to inspire his people, the affluent Augustus embraces his true destiny and becomes Icon, the hero of Dakota.
Collecting ICON #13, 17, 19-22, 24-27 and 30.
Collecting ICON #13, 17, 19-22, 24-27 and 30.
256 pages, Paperback
First published June 8, 2010
10 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Dwayne McDuffie
429 books71 followersDwayne McDuffie was an American writer of comic books and television. His notable works included creating the animated series Static Shock, writing and producing the animated series Justice League Unlimited, and co-founding the comic book company Milestone Media.
He co-hosted a radio comedy program, and also wrote under a pseudonym for stand-up comedians and late-night television comedy programs. While working as a copy-editor for a financial magazine, a friend got him an interview for an assistant editor position at Marvel Comics.
While on staff at Marvel as Bob Budiansky's assistant on special projects, McDuffie also scripted stories for the company. His first major work was Damage Control, a series about the company that shows up between issues and tidies up the mess left by the latest round of superhero/supervillain battles. While an editor at Marvel, he submitted a spoof proposal for a comic entitled Teenage Negro Ninja Thrasher in response to Marvel's treatment of its black characters. Becoming a freelancer in early 1990, McDuffie followed that with dozens of various comics titles for Marvel comics, DC Comics, and Archie Comics.
In 1992, wanting to express a multi-cultural sensibility that he felt was missing in comic books, McDuffie co-founded Milestone Media, a comic book company owned by African-Americans.
After Milestone had ceased publishing new comics, Static was developed into an animated series Static Shock. McDuffie was hired to write and story-edit on the series, writing 11 episodes.
McDuffie was hired as a staff writer for the animated series Justice League and was promoted to story editor and producer as the series became Justice League Unlimited. During the entire run of the animated series, McDuffie wrote, produced, or story-edited 69 out of the 91 episodes. McDuffie also wrote the story for the video game Justice League Heroes.
McDuffie was hired to help revamp and story-edit Cartoon Network's popular animated Ben 10 franchise with Ben 10: Alien Force, continuing the adventures of the ten-year-old title character into his mid and late teenage years. During the run of the series, McDuffie wrote episode 1-3, 14, 25-28, 45 and 46 and/or story-edited all forty-six episodes.
On February 22, 2011, McDuffie died from complications due to a surgical procedure performed the previous evening.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_M...
He co-hosted a radio comedy program, and also wrote under a pseudonym for stand-up comedians and late-night television comedy programs. While working as a copy-editor for a financial magazine, a friend got him an interview for an assistant editor position at Marvel Comics.
While on staff at Marvel as Bob Budiansky's assistant on special projects, McDuffie also scripted stories for the company. His first major work was Damage Control, a series about the company that shows up between issues and tidies up the mess left by the latest round of superhero/supervillain battles. While an editor at Marvel, he submitted a spoof proposal for a comic entitled Teenage Negro Ninja Thrasher in response to Marvel's treatment of its black characters. Becoming a freelancer in early 1990, McDuffie followed that with dozens of various comics titles for Marvel comics, DC Comics, and Archie Comics.
In 1992, wanting to express a multi-cultural sensibility that he felt was missing in comic books, McDuffie co-founded Milestone Media, a comic book company owned by African-Americans.
After Milestone had ceased publishing new comics, Static was developed into an animated series Static Shock. McDuffie was hired to write and story-edit on the series, writing 11 episodes.
McDuffie was hired as a staff writer for the animated series Justice League and was promoted to story editor and producer as the series became Justice League Unlimited. During the entire run of the animated series, McDuffie wrote, produced, or story-edited 69 out of the 91 episodes. McDuffie also wrote the story for the video game Justice League Heroes.
McDuffie was hired to help revamp and story-edit Cartoon Network's popular animated Ben 10 franchise with Ben 10: Alien Force, continuing the adventures of the ten-year-old title character into his mid and late teenage years. During the run of the series, McDuffie wrote episode 1-3, 14, 25-28, 45 and 46 and/or story-edited all forty-six episodes.
On February 22, 2011, McDuffie died from complications due to a surgical procedure performed the previous evening.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_M...
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 17, 2020
For being a somewhat serious book, it is at times seriously funny. Buck Wild is hilarious. He's a riff on the 70's Luke Cage. He speaks in Blaxploitation and has a villain who controls men with her P-whip. He screams expletives like "Aunt Jemima's Doo Rag". Later on, it's discovered he used to be partners with the Patriot (Captain America) in a spoof of the Falcon, called Jim Crow. That is just genius.
Then at other times, the book deals with serious issues as Rocket gets pregnant and has to give up being Rocket in order to have the baby. McDuffie doesn't gloss over how hard it is to be a teenage mother either. This book is so far ahead of its time. Or maybe, in reality, readers now are just more inclined to pay attention.
Then at other times, the book deals with serious issues as Rocket gets pregnant and has to give up being Rocket in order to have the baby. McDuffie doesn't gloss over how hard it is to be a teenage mother either. This book is so far ahead of its time. Or maybe, in reality, readers now are just more inclined to pay attention.
June 1, 2022
While I adore McDuffie’s Icon run, I have to admit this collection is a bit of a mess. For some reason, this volume is missing nine issues total, as well as two issues that are literally part of the fucking “Mothership Connection” story arc this volume is named after, with it even technically being three issues if you count the tie-in prologue issue from Hardware.
Both the first part and interlude are missing from this collection (as well as the aforementioned prologue in Hardware), which just makes no sense if I’m being honest. The issues that are included here are still great, but this is missing a ton of context that would frankly improve the story overall. I have the single issues missing here, but most people don’t and they can be a bit of a pain in the ass to find both in print and digitally. Great story, but goddamn I really hope Milestone Returns makes these original ones more readily available to new readers.
The story itself, as stated before, is still fucking incredible, with this volume including my single favorite villain from any Milestone book in Oblivion. One of the dopest characters in all of comics in my opinion, and McDuffie manages to make him utterly terrifying in his very limited appearances. There’s also some pretty hilarious moments with Buck Wild, a Luke Cage parody, that levy out what ends up being a pretty dark story. Love this series and run, but I do wish there was an easier way to read these books.
Both the first part and interlude are missing from this collection (as well as the aforementioned prologue in Hardware), which just makes no sense if I’m being honest. The issues that are included here are still great, but this is missing a ton of context that would frankly improve the story overall. I have the single issues missing here, but most people don’t and they can be a bit of a pain in the ass to find both in print and digitally. Great story, but goddamn I really hope Milestone Returns makes these original ones more readily available to new readers.
The story itself, as stated before, is still fucking incredible, with this volume including my single favorite villain from any Milestone book in Oblivion. One of the dopest characters in all of comics in my opinion, and McDuffie manages to make him utterly terrifying in his very limited appearances. There’s also some pretty hilarious moments with Buck Wild, a Luke Cage parody, that levy out what ends up being a pretty dark story. Love this series and run, but I do wish there was an easier way to read these books.
January 27, 2023
A ROCKET and ICON movie NOW, please!!! This is simply BRILLIANT. Dwayne McDuffie was the best of the best. American popular culture suffered a loss that can never be rectified when McDuffie was taken at such a young age.
May 27, 2020
(Note: this is a review of the Milestone Comics series Icon, which ran for 42 issues. The only collections of those issues are Icon, Vol. 1: A Hero's Welcome and Icon, Vol. 2: The Mothership Connection, which do not contain all the issues published.)
Okay, there are a ton of problems with this series... The Icon issues ended in the middle of a storyline and had tons of crossover issues (where you needed to read other comics if you really wanted to follow what's going on) and fill-in issues (little one-offs that did not advance the main story by Dwayne McDuffie and M. D. Bright). The origin story of Icon is told again and again and again, and -- true to the 90's -- some of the "relevance" in the stories is overblown.
So here's why I think it's great.
You'd think the focus of the comic would be Icon, the titular hero who's something of a Superman analogue. (He's an extraterrestrial who is stranded in the southern United States in 1839 in the form of an African slave and lives up to the present day with his powers mostly hidden.) But McDuffie wants to tell the story not of Icon but of his sidekick Rocket (Raquel Ervin), a 15 year old girl who sneaks into the mansion of Augustus Freeman (Icon's alter-ego), discovers his superpowers, sees the possibilities of her and his life, convinces him to be a superhero, and aids him using some alien tech.
And it's about Raquel's pregnancy and what she decides to do about the baby, and her circle of friends and what they do for fun, and her sense of responsibility to her family and to the city of Dakota and to the often broken down environment around her. It's about her response to Augustus Freeman (a highly conservative lawyer and a fan of Booker T. Washington) when she feels he has not done enough. (Not surprisingly, she quotes W. E. B. Dubois to him.) It's about her fighting when fighting works well and about her thinking and plotting when those are better options.
What McDuffie and Bright create in these 42 issues is the depiction of a superhero who wants to do what she does for all the right reasons, but is also a flawed and impulsive teenager. And if you can get through all the problems with the series, you come away with a powerful portrayal of a powerful woman.
Okay, there are a ton of problems with this series... The Icon issues ended in the middle of a storyline and had tons of crossover issues (where you needed to read other comics if you really wanted to follow what's going on) and fill-in issues (little one-offs that did not advance the main story by Dwayne McDuffie and M. D. Bright). The origin story of Icon is told again and again and again, and -- true to the 90's -- some of the "relevance" in the stories is overblown.
So here's why I think it's great.
You'd think the focus of the comic would be Icon, the titular hero who's something of a Superman analogue. (He's an extraterrestrial who is stranded in the southern United States in 1839 in the form of an African slave and lives up to the present day with his powers mostly hidden.) But McDuffie wants to tell the story not of Icon but of his sidekick Rocket (Raquel Ervin), a 15 year old girl who sneaks into the mansion of Augustus Freeman (Icon's alter-ego), discovers his superpowers, sees the possibilities of her and his life, convinces him to be a superhero, and aids him using some alien tech.
And it's about Raquel's pregnancy and what she decides to do about the baby, and her circle of friends and what they do for fun, and her sense of responsibility to her family and to the city of Dakota and to the often broken down environment around her. It's about her response to Augustus Freeman (a highly conservative lawyer and a fan of Booker T. Washington) when she feels he has not done enough. (Not surprisingly, she quotes W. E. B. Dubois to him.) It's about her fighting when fighting works well and about her thinking and plotting when those are better options.
What McDuffie and Bright create in these 42 issues is the depiction of a superhero who wants to do what she does for all the right reasons, but is also a flawed and impulsive teenager. And if you can get through all the problems with the series, you come away with a powerful portrayal of a powerful woman.
September 13, 2020
Well volume 2 is much weaker and more generic superhero but part of that is because the volume skips issues so it lacks a lot of context. The Buck Wild stuff is funny and poignant social and metatextual commentary at the same time. It’s good but not as strong.
October 14, 2025
What fun. Seriously. I was not expecting this much 90s comic goodness to exist and still to had not really caught wind of it. My only complaint would be that it’s not a complete collection, and skips forwards in spots.
March 26, 2023
Love and Development Going All Around
So some pretty crazy, pretty intense scenarios this time. I like how McDuffie gives character to people who might've been one-offs like Buck Wild, a Luke Cage parody. Because as much as McDuffie likes to make fun of his competition, he treats them like there's room to grow.
It's pretty much what he set out to do with Icon and Rocket, even as they're about to go into the next chapter of their lives. There's a lot hanging over them with personal responsibilities and more. Because if you're going to settle into a status quo, you might as well keep them down-to-earth comparatively. At least with how a gentrification project is put next to Earth's judgment to survive.
So some pretty crazy, pretty intense scenarios this time. I like how McDuffie gives character to people who might've been one-offs like Buck Wild, a Luke Cage parody. Because as much as McDuffie likes to make fun of his competition, he treats them like there's room to grow.
It's pretty much what he set out to do with Icon and Rocket, even as they're about to go into the next chapter of their lives. There's a lot hanging over them with personal responsibilities and more. Because if you're going to settle into a status quo, you might as well keep them down-to-earth comparatively. At least with how a gentrification project is put next to Earth's judgment to survive.
April 20, 2016
It gets painfully obvious in both the art and dialogue where DC started interfering in the story following their purchase of the series, which is a shame--Icon deserved better.
Three stars mainly for the first half; the page with Icon and Static discussing the Big Bang was beautiful.
Three stars mainly for the first half; the page with Icon and Static discussing the Big Bang was beautiful.
August 10, 2016
Excellent! Solid story, American History and some very amusing characters.
Want to read
September 12, 2016Segundo tomo dedicado al personaje. Recopila capítulos salteados.
January 15, 2021
A collection of eight or nine non-consecutive issues selected from #13 to #30. Not nearly as strong as the first dozen issues, but still worth the time.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews