THIS WEEK: After years of waiting, Milestone Returns #0 arrives in shops this week, marking the revival of the Dakato-verse.
Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Milestone Returns #0
Writer: Reginald Hudlin Artists: Denys Cowan, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Bill Sienkiewicz, ChrisCross, Juan Castro, Jim Lee, Ryan Benjamin, Jimmy Palimotti, Don ho, Khoi Pham, and Scott Hanna Colorists: Chris Sotomayor, Wil Quintana, Alex Sinclair, and Hi-Fi Letterer: AndWorld Design
This week’s marquee release, Milestone Returns #0, has been a long time coming. Indeed, DC Comics first announced the revival of the severely-underrated Milestone line’s Dakato-verse characters as far back as New York Comic Con 2017. Now, the first of the new comics has arrived, making its way to shops in this 40-plus page print format.
The book that’s hitting shops this week is bifurcated: half of it is the Milestone Returns: Fandome Preview published in conjunction with that event last year, while the other half is a new story titled The Big Bang. There’s some overlap between the two pieces, with The Big Bang basically re-doing some of the Static Shock vignette, this time with the work of Nikolas Draper-Ivy, one of the artists who will be illustrating that series when it arrives in earnest. And you know what? It’s all fine. It’s The Big Bang story that’s really for sale here, with the Fandome Preview feeling like a nice curiosity and a fun extra.
Teamed with legendary Static creator Denys Cowan, Draper-Ivy puts forth a stylish and modern take on the character. The story — written by Reginald Hudlin — opens at a Black Lives Matter protest in which militarized police and authoritarian forces (complete with giant shields and tanks) are tear gassing peaceful protestors. And it is in this context we get our first glimpse at Static’s updated design, at the interests that will drive the book, and at the themes that will presumably be present throughout all of these new Milestone comics. It’s all very poignant and exciting, paying homage to some of the most underrated superhero comics ever made while also updating them for today.
From there, Milestone Returns #0 moves to some of the Dakota-verse’s other characters, including Hardware, as well as Icon and Rocket. Totaling 24 pages in story, The Big Bang is a fantastic primer and tease for the new Milestone comics that are to come, enough to motivate readers to dive back into the old books (now available on comiXology for the first time) while also stoking anticipation for the new books this summer, the first of which is Static: Season One #1, slated to arrive in June from the creative team of writer Vita Ayala, artist ChrisChross, and Draper-Ivy.
So yes, the wait for these new Milestone comics has been a long one, and, hell, even the initial announcement of these most recent books was a little confusing, with them first being billed as digital-first releases before now transitioning to coming out same day online as in print. But in an ideal scenario, the new line will help to cement Milestone’s important legacy within the comics industry, while seeding a revival for the characters and the comics, one that will carry these stories into the future as superhero comics continue to change (ever so slowly) to better reflect the diversity of the country. Milestone Returns #0 is certainly a great start.
The Static Shock film will have significant differences from the comic books — and according to Reginald Hudlin, that’s due to the nature of the medium.
During a DC press conference attended by CBR, Hudlin explained, “Look, I think whenever you tell a story, and you go from medium to medium, that’s a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of the unique qualities of that medium. And how you tell a story in television is different from how you tell a story in a movie, and versus how you tell a story in a comic book.”
He continued, “They can all be really different, and all be really good. The Batman TV show from 1966 is different from the Neal Adams comic book in the 1970s, which is different from the Christopher Nolan movies. But they’re all great, and they’re really different. And I believe in leaning into making the most of each medium and each platform and all the different audiences.”
Michael B. Jordan is producing the Static Shock film under his Outlier Society banner and recently offered a brief update by saying the film was being “built out.” Randy McKinnon was tapped to write the script for Static Shock; McKinnon previously wrote the Disney+ sports film Safety, which Hudlin directed. Hudlin also wrote the Milestone Returns one-shot which introduced the new version of the Milestone Universe — and reworked Static’s origin for modern times.
DC and Warner Bros.’ Static Shock film is produced by Michael B. Jordan and Reginald Hudlin and written by Randy McKinnon. No director is currently attached, nor is any casting information available.
TBS has enlisted Tiffany Haddish to host “Friday Night Vibes,” a weekly movie showcase that will feature wrap-around segments with the comedian and guests.
Haddish’s new venture with producer Reginald Hudlin was among a number of programming announcements unveiled Wednesday by WarnerMedia at the company’s annual upfront, including a plan to give HBO and HBO Max original series second-window airings on TNT and TBS. The shock of Monday’s news that WarnerMedia is set to spinoff of AT&T and merge with Discovery has greatly overshadowed the company’s programming announcements for its ad-supported cable networks.
But the upfront presentation that was scheduled long before Discovery and AT&T sealed the deal went ahead as planned, complete with remarks from WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who is expected to bolt after being unpleasantly surprised by the secret merger plan.
In its upfront pitch to advertisers, WarnerMedia referred to its linear general entertainment cable networks TBS, TNT and TruTV as “TNets,” a sign that the company is looking to program them as a block at times.
“The TNets have been invited into consumers’ homes for decades and our fans know they can continually turn to us for quality programming that fits their emotional need: a good time, a good laugh, or a thrill ride,” said Brett Weitz, general manager of TBS, TNT and TruTV.
In the summer, WarnerMeida said it would launch the “Front Row on TBS” and “Front Row on TNT” as programming blocks that will carry select titles from HBO Max platform. TBS’ lineup will include series “The Flight Attendant,” “Love Life,” “Close Enough” and “12 Dates of Christmas.” TNT will run DC superhero vehicle “Titans” docu-series “Class Action Park” and upcoming HBO Max original “Rich People Problems.”
“We know viewers discover content in a variety of ways, and with ‘Front Row’ we are giving more of them an opportunity to encounter our groundbreaking Max Originals,” said Tony Goncalves, exec VP and chief revenue officer for WarnerMedia. “To put it simply, we’re growing audience. That’s valuable to each and every one of our partners from distributors.”
Those programming umbrellas are designed to run with fewer commercials as a bid to keep viewers more engaged in the movie.
Haddish’s series is set to bow June 18 at 7:30 p.m. with 2015’s “Creed” followed by 2018’s “Creed 2.” The movie selections will emphasize artists from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. The wraparounds will feature Haddish interviewing celebrity guests as well as musical performances and a regular DJ. Haddish and Hudlin previously worked with TBS on the Tracy Morgan comedy “The Last O.G.”
Hudlin is executive producing with Phil Gurin of Gurin Co.
“I’ve wanted to work with Tiffany again since we did ‘The Last O.G.’ together, and ‘Friday Night Vibes’ is a place where we can celebrate great movies, play great music and hang out with funny and insightful guests. It’s the best way to spend your Friday night,” Hudlin said. “Let’s watch movies and have some fun,” Haddish enthused.
Separately, TBS said unscripted competition series “Wipeout” and “Fast Foodies” and scripted comedy “Chad” have been renewed for second seasons.
