Milestone Forever #2 Review

Milestone Forever #2

I’m rather torn about what to write about part two of Milestone Forever. I’ve been a huge fan of the Milestone characters for a long time. This is basically a wrap up of some of the major characters, and how the Milestone world came to be integrated into the DCU. It was good, well written, and yet somehow not quite what I was looking for.

The issue started with Dharma, once more hoping for guidance about a big decision looming in his future. We see a few scenes from Hardware’s childhood, and there’s a scene about a bird he used to have that occasionally got loose and kept bumping into a window, because he couldn’t understand the barrier he couldn’t see. Then we skip to Hardware, evading some people trying to steal his tech. He easily bests them, saves their lives in the process and reflects that he’s changed, at one point he would have let them fall to their deaths. Curtis gets back to Alva Industries, which he inherited on Alva’s death.

Curtis is tired of having so much of his life defined by his past with Alva, and takes some very radical actions. He retires from being Hardware, sells off the company after radically shrinking it, and proposes to his longtime girlfriend. A minor character called Technique agrees to take over Hardware’s responsibilities in defending the people of Dakota.

Back to Dharma, who sees this unfold and decides Hardware can’t help him with what lies ahead. He takes his sister, the warrior Iron Butterfly, into the other dimensional space that makes up the Shadow-slide his group uses to teleport. Here, we see Rift, the big threat from Worlds Collide, the DC/Milestone crossover back in the 90s. Dharma intends to use Rift’s power to try and save his world, unless his actions destroy the world instead. This is the one thing his precognition can’t foresee for him- what will happen here. Dharma next looks in on Static, and says “Although he has reached but a fraction of his power, he is the most powerful being on Earth.” High praise indeed, considering that world has Icon, Kwai, and Dharma himself.

Static is roughly ten or so years in the future, attending a high school reunion. He meets up with various friends from his series, and keeps hearing people are “sorry about Frieda,” which he wont discuss. He reflects back on his high school memories, which anyone would, but also on his former career as Static, which he seems to have given up on long ago. Just as he’s wondering if anyone even remembers Static, Hotstreak, his former foe now going by Firewheel, breaks in, demanding to know which of the attendees is Static. Virgil’s friend Richie runs interference as Virgil slips out and finds one of his old costumes, still hidden after all these years.

Here we see classic Virgil, remarking on how well he hid his costume, then allowing that Flash and his ring trick is even better. Virgil has always been a sci fi and comic geek, although that seems to have been forgotten in his appearances in Teen Titans. Static chases Firewheel off, and later he and his friends discuss the attack and when he’ll show back up. There’s an interesting line about if Static has to go back (he’s a medical resident now) that Icon will fill in, as “she” owes a favor. I presume Rocket has taken over for Icon, although he’s effectively immortal, or I thought so at any rate.

Virgil and friend reminisce, one of them having bought the old comic shop they used to hang out at. They get drawn into gaming, and Virgil gets home very very late, to spar verbally with his sister, now married. We also learn their dad passed on, and there’s another odd reference to Frieda.

Virgil and friends attend the homecoming game, and sure enough, Firewheel shows up. Virgil tries to quick change by yelling “Shazam!” and triggering his powers, burning off part of his clothes, but not effectively revealing the costume, causing his friends to burst out laughing. Firewheel continues his racist tirade, and Static easily beats him into the ground. We then learn that Virgil has been telling this story to his kids, another ten years in the future. Virgil is now married to Frieda, and at least one of the kids has inherited Virgil’s’ powers.

Dharma and Iron Butterfly conclude that if Static wasn’t going to stop him, no one was, so he will go ahead and do it. Dharma then kills Iron Butterfly, and goes about his task, telling her he will bring her back if he can. He enters a void of power, formed by he and Rift’s strengths meeting. He finally senses an opportunity when Darksied’s death (during Final Crisis I suppose) creates a power vacuum, and Dharma manages to blend the strands of Milestone’s world into that of the main DCU, and says no one will ever know the difference, that everyone will always think the two worlds were always one. The futures we saw for the Blood Syndicate, Hardware, and Static are undone, and we revert to the modern day DCU.

McDuffie got what he wanted, a chance to tell what would have happened to his creations if they had been able to go on in their worlds. In guess I’m a bit disappointed that so many of them just… quit, eventually. Yes, heroes are only human, more or less, and deserve their shot at happiness, but it’s a bit sad that so many of them just lost their taste for… adventure? Heroism? It was well written, a nice what could have been, but mildly depressing, at least to me.