“Destroy the Monolith”

This article tells the story of Milestone Media in the 1990s, arguing that the creation of the Milestone Universe was a radical act of world building. The Milestone founders and the creative teams they brought together integrated elements of the superhero genre into their narratives while critiquing the genre and the comics world from within. Their partnership with DC was seen by some as proof they had sold out; this might explain why Milestone has received less critical recognition than it deserves. But close attention to the structure of the relationship between Milestone and DC, particularly in its early years, tells a different story. Although their time with DC was brief, the Milestone founders created a world worth writing about, a world of subversive superheroes and radical possibility. The work of the Milestone founders reflects their hope for a comics industry that could be other than it is: a comics industry that magnifies real-world social justice struggles through the lens of superhero fantasy and provides a platform for underrepresented creators in a predominantly white comics market

Comics · Fantasy · General partnership · Milestone · Narrative · Narratology · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction