Icon The Iron Age of Comics

Milestone Media’s Icon has a pretty punchy elevator pitch: “What if Superman was a Black Republican?” But with stories by Dwayne McDuffie and pencils by M.D. “Doc” Bright (both now sadly no longer with us), this book goes to some interesting and unexpected places. For one thing, this Supermanalogue has a sidekick: a teenage girl named Rocket who is arguably the real protagonist of the book and whose struggles and issues are the most complex and heartfelt that the book explores. We discuss how McDuffie and Bright tackle teen pregnancy in an honest and conscientious way through Rocket and examine racial identity and privilege through the title character, acknowledging there are no easy answers for any of the questions being raised.