Comic Info
Comic Name: Millennium
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artist: Joe Staton
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2008
Millennium #4
Reprints Millennium #1-8 (October 6, 1987-November 24, 1987). Nadia Safir and Herupa Hando Hu come to Earth with a mission…to find the next Guardians of the Universe! As the heroes of Earth find they have been infiltrated by the Manhunters, the Manhunters spring their trap…now the Guardians’ biggest failure could destroy the world.
Written by Steve Englehart, Millennium is a DC Comics superheroes event series. The comic was released weekly from October 6, 1987 to November 24, 1987 and crossed over with most of DC’s titles at the time.
Millennium spun out of Legends…and was potentially one of the most confusing stories in DC at the time. I had a hard time getting through this collection, and I still feel I’m not sure what I read…which is never a good thing.
The problem with Millennium is actually a very modern problem. With both Millennium and Secret Wars II, the comic book ties actively affected the core Millennium series. It is a logical step for a comic book company to try to get multiple series purchased and introduce readers to new characters in the core series, but the logistics of keeping up with multiple series is a problem…and it hurts the core series because it doesn’t stand alone. Series do this a lot currently, but Millennium was an early adopter of it.
Millennium #8
The story has essentially two parts and they really don’t mix much. You have Heru and Nadia training the New Guardians and the drama surrounding the most the New Guardians who are worse teamed than a season of Real World. The second part involves battle with the Manhunters which is really confusing with some big characters being sleeper Manhunters, brainwashed agents, or even robots…it doesn’t make much sense and post-Millennium stories seem to ignore most of what happened in this series.
The positive aspect of the story is Joe Staton’s classic art. It feels like more of a throwback to old art and just before the art world really changed (Todd McFarlane was already doing his thing). It has a nostalgia factor that helps carry the series a little (but art can only go so far).
Millennium isn’t a very good series. It is overly long, overly confusing, and the collection doesn’t feel like it contains all the necessary parts of the series (I’m not sure it works even if it did). I was hoping a through second read-through would clear some things up, but the series still confuses…It could have been a contender, but instead it crashes.
