By Steve Englehart, Joe Staton & Ian Gibson, (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-094-9
DC Comics third braided mega-series was a bold effort intended to touch all corners of their universe, introduce new characters, tie-in many titles and moreover to do so on a weekly, not monthly schedule.
Hot on the heels of Crisis on Infinite Earths (ISBN: 978-1-56389-750-4) and Legends (ISBN: 978-1-56389-095-6) came Millennium, which saw writer Steve Englehart expand on an iconic tale from Justice League of America #140-141as well as his run on the Green Lantern Corps.
Billions of years ago the robotic peacekeepers called Manhunters had rebelled against their creators. The Guardians of the Universe were immortal and desired a rational, emotionless cosmos – a view not shared by their own women. The Zamarons had abandoned the Guardians at the inception of their grand scheme but after uncounted centuries the two factions had reconciled and left our reality together.
Now they had returned with a plan to midwife a new race of immortals on Earth, but the Manhunters who had infiltrated all aspects of society throughout the universe were determined to thwart the plan, whether by seduction, connivance or just plain brute force. The heroes of Earth gathered to protect the project and confront the Manhunters in their own private lives… and their own comics.
Unfortunately this volume, which only collects the eight-issue miniseries without even a synopsis of those individual tie-ins, is an incomprehensible morass of confusion. In its original form each weekly instalment of Millennium acted as a catalyst for events which played out in the rest of the DC Universe’s comics. Here, without those concluding chapters, the plot and characters bounce about from crisis to revelation to denouement and nothing makes any sense at all.
In addition to the miniseries itself, Millennium spread across 21 titles for two months – another 37 issues for a grand total of 44 comic-books. I know that there might be some small confusion about existing plot-threads in individual titles but nothing like the sheer bewilderment caused by just collecting the core miniseries as a stand-alone book. The target audience is clearly primed – both financially and in terms of story scope – for extended trade paperback series now in the wake of Seven Soldiers, 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis, so why foist this sad, truncated, bowdlerized abridgement on us?
Steve Englehart, Joe Staton and England’s own Ian Gibson may not be stellar names at the moment but this tale was ambitious, bold and highly entertaining, whilst many of the follow-up chapters were incredibly impressive, with individual contributions from such luminaries as George Perez, John Byrne, Kevin Maguire, Kieth Giffen, Jerry Ordway and a host of others. Even if it’s only in the cheap and cheerful Showcase Presents format, don’t the creators and especially the readers deserve the whole story?
© 1988, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.