Today in Black History Month in Comics:
1993 was an amazing year. It gave us some of the greatest Hip Hop albums ever with “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” “Midnight Marauders,” and one of my all-time favorites, “93 Til Infinity.” I had graduated high school and rolled with the greatest crew anyone could ask for. On the comics front, it was a good year (back then every year was a good year) with not just Marvel and DC Comics, but many independent books coming out. Image made the biggest splash with ex-Marvel artists forming their own company & books (honestly a lot of X-Men rips, but I dug them).
For me, 93 was the year of Milestone Media, an imprint at DC Comics that had minority heroes at a time when you wouldn’t have too many Black heroes with their own books. From the moment I saw Hardware on the cover of Previews, I was a fan. Ok, I was a Stan. Coming short of sending Milestone Media letters every month asking about the characters and asking for a job (I’d volunteer to work for them without blinking if given the chance). What I loved about the books and characters is that they were tangible. While I wasn’t a superhero or some alien hanging out with gang bangers, I felt that I knew the characters or at least someone like the characters I was reading.
Icon wasn’t the title I was looking forward to the most. The whole “alien from another planet” is always cool with me. My preconceived notions of “Black Conservatives” gave me pause when I read the premise. Frankly they still make me raise my eyebrow, but that’s life I suppose. What drew me in was his partner, NOT SIDEKICK, Rocket. Rocket, Raquel Ervin, was like SO MANY young ladies I grew up with and called friends. Smart, witty, fallible, tough and yet fragile as any of us… Raquel is the hero that Dakota City and Icon needed. The hero we needed, even though we didn’t know just how much then. Or how much we need a heroine like Rocket now.
Rocket first appeared taking part in some dumb mess, breaking into a home of a rich person. It wasn’t just any rich person Raquel and her friends entered. Augustus Freeman, a successful lawyer who really was an alien over 150 years old, caught the would-be thieves and also was shot in the chest. This should have been the end of Rocket’s story. However Augustus was not hurt, annoyed, but not harmed at all. He stopped the robbers and to avoid his secret getting out, Augustus let them go with a stern warning and the “raise yourself up by your bootstraps” speech many of us roll our eyes at.
Raquel felt that Augustus could be more than just a man hiding from the world. She approached him and explained he can be an Icon for The People. Augustus agreed and Icon was born. Raquel also had a vision for herself, thus Rocket came into the world. On their first outing they ended up testing Icon’s beliefs in the American justice system when they ran afoul of Dakota City’s Finest as they were attempting to save the Mayor from a kidnapping. After saving the Mayor, stopping a super powered “Bang Baby,” and hopping on some cops, Icon was on his way to being just that for Dakota City.
Rocket’s world was about to change as well. Just after starting her career as a superhero, Rocket discovered she was with child. In the years I’ve been reading comic books, this was a first for me. I’ve seen adults with children. Plenty of single parents, we’ve had plenty of bad parents (looking at you Magneto, before the retcon), orphans for sure, however a teenage mother was new.
And with Raquel being Black added a new dynamic. This wasn't some “streetwise, sassy, hothead” stereotype; Raquel was a fully fleshed out character with hopes and dreams beyond just wearing some super outfit, saving the world, or meeting some cute boy. What really gave her depth early into the comic was how she came to decide to keep her child. Dwayne McDuffie and Erica Helene (co-writer for issue seven) showed how complex this choice is for young women, and for women overall. It wasn’t a moment to preach or say what was good or bad, the story of Rocket and her child was about a young lady making a choice that she’d live with for the rest of her life. It had a 17/18 year old who was groomed on superhero comics fully invested in what he’d call some “soap opera stuff” only a year or so ago.
Rocket ended up having her son, Amistad, briefly retiring from the superhero business. She trained her best friend Darnice to be the new Rocket and “Buck Wild, Mercenary Man” as the new Icon when Augustus decided it was time to return home. Soon Raquel would be drawn back into the superhero fold and once again become Rocket as Augustus would return as Icon.
For me, Rocket is one of the greatest hero journeys in comics. She grew into someone bigger than herself, every bit the hero she wanted Icon to be, Rocket was that and more. Many times Rocket was the glue between Icon and the other characters. And Icon grew to not only respect her outer strength, but more so her strong spirit.
Rocket was recently in the animated show “Young Justice,” in the 3rd season it appears Rocket was a member of the Justice League along with Icon and Hardware. Perhaps Young Justice at one point as well. Besides that, there hasn’t been much seen from her and the rest of the Milestone Media characters for various reasons. There was talk of revamps and relaunches, I personally would love for new trades as I lost my whole collection years ago. While they make for a great team, Rocket could stand strong with her own comic. Maybe one day….
Ad