REVIEW: Icon & Rocket Season One No.3

As a person who read the original Icon series thanks to an introduction by one of my previous college professors (love you Professor Tate), when the first issue of this book hit the shelves, I was left between a rock and a hard place : I loved seeing some of my favorite Milestone characters back in between the panels (especially Rocket, I swear that girl’s physique is never nothing to sneeze at, ageism be damned) but when the origin story played out exactly as I remembered when I first was introduced to their story, I was apprehensive.

A faithful adaptation, usually there is nothing wrong with that in the comic book industry. If anything, that is what the typical comic book head like myself would clamor for – but this was too similar to the first take that was written when I was still learning how to write my own name. The only difference to me at the point of the first issue’s bookend, was just the updated language switched to millennial slang. And if that was going to be the only variation to this iteration of Icon & Rocket, then DC could keep it.

I stuck around though, and the second issue featured with another shape-shifting alien that stood on the opposing side of Icon was something unfamiliar that I had not recalled from the previous version of this tale. Things had gotten interesting and I was waiting for another month to see if the new adventures would continue or would the team of Chills & Braithwaite regress back into playing it safe with what was tried and true?

Good things come to those who wait, despite whatever break-neck paced humanity attempts to assuage otherwise. “Icon & Rocket” No.3 sees Rocket putting Icon to the task of more than just typical heroism to get his name in the media. Instead Icon, goes straight to the source laying waste to poppy fields and damaging a worldwide economy so focused on numbing the pain of existence as opposed to allowing people to learn how to deal with the plight head on.
Subject matter like this is why when McDuffie was helming my favorite J.L.A. run, I was rooting for Icon in the inevitable showdown with the off-brand sun-god himself that all superheroes are derivatives from (if McDuffie’s Detroit compatriat found in Geoff John’s didn’t explain well enough during “Doomsday Clock”) in Superman. Rocket’s attitude is as crass as ever, a character trait that Icon is as quick to blame on her youth as she is as quick to apologize for her errors in judgement.

Watching these two collaborate together and find their footing once again, is something that actually makes me proud of a ret-con. Tupac once shared a similar sentiment of mine in saying “My only fear of death Is comin’ back to this bitch reincarnated, man” on the now classic double LP “All Eyez On Me” (“Loyal To The Game” is the poet’s best work though. forget whatever you heard); and in a community where the ret-con is frowned upon, if any reincarnation can bring back as much joy within it’s familiarity as in this story, then I would almost be a fool not to say “sign me up” ! But that’s a big almost …

I love the looming threat of Icon’s thousand something year nemesis here, feels like something straight out of James Cameron’s playbook the way that he stalks Icon and strikes through those closest to Rocket. The only difference between this alien and a cyborg sent back with Kyle Reese is that this alien is more calculated and sales the intel he has on his target while still getting his hands dirty, dolling out the ultra-violence that could only be expected from a horror picture as he shape shifts into his more natural form.

Then there’s a lawyer (of all things) who is able to pull of leaps and bounds like she was given a move set by Siegel & Shuster themselves! Just when Chills wants you to go all out against the system by his recordings of a President who is willing to commit infanticide for drug money like King Herod in his Christian-mythos prime, he ropes you back in to cheer along a defender of that same corrupt system, that with the way he scribes their actions would make any thinking man reach for the nearest brown paper bag and commence hurling. And the best part about this? The lawyer doesn’t look bad in a pair of stockings too! Braithwaite’s pencil is might be able to give Manara & Llovet a run for their money in graphic novel erotica if this series is any evidence, there’s plenty here in the third issue – just use your imagination.

“Icon & Rocket Season One” No.3 is a slow-burn for those on the fence about a reboot for some of their favorite characters straight out of the coveted Dakotaverse. But the slow burn is like a stick of incense : when the scent hits the nostrils and rests in the mental’s temple. Yes, the pack may carry the same scent in every stick, but once it’s lit , the aroma dispels any doubts that the decision made to ignite it, let alone buy it, was anything but a good one. Well, the rocket’s behind Icon & Rocket’s ship for this storyline are already ignited, and they’re more than lit – this book is burning hot and the aroma proves that Chills & Braithwaite have what it takes to keep these two funky and fresh as the last time they hit print twenty odd years ago.

Score : 5/5

(W) Reginald Hudlin (A) Doug Braithwaite, Andrew Currie