All language subtitles for The.Star.Trek.Saga.From.One.Generation.To.The.Next.1988.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[Denys Cowan] When you're a kid
you're really focused on
just drawing comic books.

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You're not thinking about,
"I'm a Black comic book artist,

I'm gonna change the industry.
I'm gonna do this, do that."

I wasn't thinking
anything like that.

The only thing that matters
is what you're trying to do.

Bring that thing that
you want to do into existence.

No matter what.

My name is Denys Cowan.

I'm a comic book artist
and comic book creator,

one of the founders
of Milestone Media.

We founded Milestone in 1992.

I knew I had
to start a company,
do Black characters,

with Black people.

But I had no idea
what it was going to be.

[narrator] When Denys Cowan
and Derek Dingle were kids,

they drew and stapled together
their own comic book.

Now they're doing it for real.

[man] Comic book heroes
come in all shapes,
sizes and sexes,

but they haven't always come
in all races.

It is the first time
in comic book history

that a major publisher,
DC Comics,

has agreed to
release and distribute
an independent label.

For DC Comics,
it's an opportunity
to expand its market.

And for
the African-American
artists here,

it's the fulfilment of
a lifelong dream.

[school bell ringing]

Oh, hello.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Today, we have
a very important class session.

One based in literature,

but also rooted in history,
art, economics

and political science.

Words and pictures
have been paired together

almost as long
as human language
has existed.

But the comic strips
and periodicals
of the early 20th century,

gave people a new way to
tell stories

and understand ideas.

Superman, Batman, the Flash

and other heroes became avatars
of America's fighting spirit.

But those symbols
mainly existed as
white characters

created by white storytellers.

Characters of color
made up only a small portion
of the leading heroes.

And those heroes
were often filtered through
misguided stereotypes.

The mix of people
creating comics in America,

up through the late '70s,
was purely white male.

And the content of the books
reflected that in many ways.

[Dwayne McDuffie] 99.9%
of comic book companies,
up to that point,

had been owned and run
by white males.

[Paul Levitz] So, we're in
the mid-'70s,

Jenette Kahn has arrived
at DC Comics.

Jenette was passionate at
having more diverse material,

more modern material.

When I came to DC,
there had already been
a few attempts

to have more
diverse characters.

Dennis O'Neil
and Neal Adams had created

some Black characters.

Wonder Woman introduced
Wonder Woman's sister, Nubia.

This is something, I think,
we aspired to.

[narrator] The '60s
and '70s brought a shift in the
landscape of comic characters,

as the first mainstream
Black superheroes emerged.

[announcer] First of the year,
watch out for the adventures of
our brand-new superhero,

Black Lightning,

written by Tony Isabella,

and drawn by
a new, young super-artist,
Trevor Von Eeden.

On the first panel here,

Black Lightning jumps...

so let's draw a new drawing
from the top to the bottom.

-All right?
-Yeah, but,
if we do that, then...

[Denys] Black Lightning
resonated with me

because that book came out
when I was just getting in
the industry,

when I was 14 years old.

Black Lightning was, to me,

the first feeling
of representation

in mainstream comics.

It always cracked me up

that his Afro was attached
to his mask.

Like, "Yeah, okay,
that's some code-switching
right there."

"When I'm here at school,
I'm this fellow."

"When I put on this mask,
I'm Black Lightning!" [laughs]

We love Black Lightning.
He's great, you know?

I felt we could go
even further.

[Paul] The business wasn't
in great shape.

It wasn't unusual
for new comics to fade
fairly quickly.

It was hard to establish
new characters.

Black Lightning ran about
11 issues.

He was the first tentpole for

having that kind of diversity
within the line.

It was an adventure
for all of us to see
where we could take comics.

[Michael Davis] Every Black kid
on the planet who's ever
read comic books,

from the day they realize that
every superhero was white,

has wanted to do
a Black comic book company.

We've all had that dream.

Art allows us to dream,

but also, it exposes people
who may not have
our lived experiences.

Particularly in
the superhero genre.

This modern mythology
that reflects
our cultural zeitgeist.

-[man 1] It's a bird!
-[woman] It's a plane!

[man 2] It's Superman!

[Jason Scott Jones]
1980s DC Comics
was Batman, and Superman.

It was a very white landscape
as far as the storytelling,

the characters
and the creators.

[Denys] Being a Black artist
and surviving in this industry,

you weren't gonna get
the same breaks.

You weren't gonna get
the same kind of money.

You weren't gonna get
a lot of the same things,

and you had to work
twice as hard to do it.

[narrator] It's the late '80s,

and three up-and-coming
Black comic creators

were working in New York City
in a comic book industry

that still lacked
diverse voices.

I've been in comics
for about 17 years now.

And I've worked on
Batman's 50th anniversary,

I worked on
the Prince comic book.

[Dwayne] He's a world-famous
musician and artist

who fights crime
in his spare time,

when he's not in the studio.

Dwayne and I were
doing Deathlok.

I had just done
The Question.

We are doing major things
in the industry,

but we're also running against
major frustrations.

There were just certain
things in America
you knew wasn't for you.

You know, we could watch them
or read them anyway,
it was like TV.

Like, yeah there's a Black guy
every once in a while,

and comics were pretty much
the same thing.

As a reader of color,
you would notice

whenever they would put
the "Black" on a Black
character's name.

It was like, "Really?"

Black Falcon!

Each decade, you get
a little bit more access,
right?

You know that the wheels
of justice turn slow,

so we keep
banging on the door, like,

"Hey, we need more
representation," right?

Each generation, that voice
gets louder and louder.

[narrator] Outside
the comic book industry,

Black artists were harnessing
a new energy.

[Reggie Hudlin] The '80s
and the good old days
of the '90s,

was a really amazing time
for Black culture.

There were all these
powerful threads
happening simultaneously.

You had, of course,
the explosion of hip-hop.

You know, you had Public Enemy
and Russell Simmons.

Suddenly, the people
who don't think their story
is worth hearing,

realize it has value.

The ultimate message was,

we are going to be
successful Black businesspeople

that profit from
our artistic expression.

And we're gonna do it,

and we have complete confidence
in ourselves.

You look at
the Black film scene,
the Black music scene,

the Black art scene.

No one is scared.
No one's looking for approval.

Everyone's like, "Yo,
we are going hard,
it is our time."

[Denys] It's 1989.
I'm at the New York Comic Con.

I walked into a room
and Jim Steranko was there.

[man] The far-out artwork
of Jim Steranko,

who revolutionized
comic books like Nick Fury,
Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

and Captain America.

Either Marvel or DC
had asked him.

They asked Jim Steranko,
I swear to God this happened.

He says,
"They asked me to create

some Black comic book
characters for them."

He's looking at me, right?

He puts his hand on my shoulder
and goes,

"But it occurs to me
I'm not the best person
to do that."

"Denys, do you know anybody
who'd be good to do
something like that?"

He's looking
right at me, like...

Blink, blink. I'm like,

"I think I know somebody who
could probably put something
like that together."

He goes, "I'm just saying,
you know, there's
an opportunity here

and I'm not the right person
to take advantage of
that opportunity,

but you are."

Dramatic videotape
shows what appears to be

a group of LAPD officers
beating a suspect.

[reporter] The riots in
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
tore the city apart.

[woman] I hoped
somebody would care...

[voices overlapping]

When they walked out of there,
they wasn't out of there
15 minutes.

Their police chopper came by
and dropped a fire bomb.

They did it and that's arson.

...videotaped evidence
of a crime being committed.

The jury found the defendants
not guilty on all the charges.

Don't blame us for the division
that the police did.
That's absurd.

[Reggie] There's always
Black tragedy.

People were definitely like,
"No, no, we're going
to take charge."

Whether it is David Dinkins
running for mayor of
New York City,

whether it's Jesse Jackson
running for President,

it was like,
"No, no, no, no ceilings.

We can do this.

Don't fight the power,
be the power."

[all clamoring]

[Denys] I started thinking
about the lack of things.

When you're at that age
when you start,
you know, in your early 30s,

you're at that perfect point
where if you're gonna
do something like that,

that's when you're gonna do it.

So now,
I'm working with Sam Hamm,

and I'm literally staying
with him in San Francisco,

and we're doing Batman's
50th anniversary comic.

We're working on
this book together.

Sam goes, "You're listening to
Public Enemy, right?"

This is Sam.
He's the whitest dude ever,

"You listening to
Public Enemy, right?"

I said, "Who?"

He gives me the cassette.

I put it in.

Put it on the headphones
while I'm working.

["Rebel Without A Pause"
playing]

? Yes, the rhythm, the rebel ?

? Without a pause
I'm lowering my level... ?

[Denys] By the end
of that week,

I was a different person
than I was

[chuckling] at the start
of that week.

So now I'm thinking
about that conversation
with Jim Steranko.

And I'm thinking about
this music I'm listening to.

And I'm thinking about
the comics I've drawn,

and I'm thinking about,
"Where are
the Black superheroes?"

And I had to do something
about it.

San Diego Comic-Con in 1991.

Finally, like,
I can't help but, like,

we gotta do this thing,
so I called Michael.

Denys says, "I got an idea."

The day that Denys Cowan
came up with the idea,

we were walking at
San Diego Comic-Con.

[Denys] He meets me
at the lobby,
we walk around

the whole perimeter.

Back where they have
the shops and stuff,

back to the front
and we're talking.

And I'm pitching my idea
about doing this
Black comic book company

with Black characters.

And I said, "That's
the stupidest idea
I've ever heard."

He's already in.

I just thought

that my boy was about
to embark on something
spectacularly meant to fail.

He's like, "Well,
you're gonna need a writer,

you're gonna need someone
who knows what they're doing,

'cause we don't know
what we're doing."

I'm like, "Yeah, like who?"

"I'll call Dwayne."

So we call Dwayne
who's at the Comic-Con.

"Dwayne, come downstairs.

We got something
we want to talk to you about."

Dwayne looks at me and says,
"You are nuts.

You are so nuts.

Who are you gonna get
to do this?"

I'm like, "People behind us,
we can do it." [laughs]

"You're nuts and I'm gonna be
crazy for saying

I'm in. I'm in.
All right, let's do it."

Then we said
we gotta get a business guy

'cause we knew nothing
about business.

I know a fella who...
My friend, Derek Dingle,

he runs Black Enterprise.

If you run Black Enterprise,
you gotta know about business.

[Derek Dingle] Denys brought
all of us together.

He led the Milestone mission.

[narrator] Our heroes had
teamed up to develop an idea

that would impact the world
for generations.

A Black-owned
comic book company.

Everything was
figuring it out, really,
from scratch.

So we go and we meet
in different places.

[lowered voice]
Don't want people seeing us,

because we were afraid
if everyone saw us,
they'd know we were creating

a comic book company.

And you have to remember,
we're doing this while
maintaining our regular work.

It was all uncharted territory.

How do you start a company,
at all?

Who's gonna fund all this?
You need money.

Actually, before that,
you need to make a deal
with somebody.

Well, how do you make a deal
with somebody?

Maybe we should put together
a book of all the characters
that we're doing.

[narrator] They began
developing the Milestone bible.

A manuscript that detailed
every cultural corner

and nuance
of their new universe.

Exposed to
experimental tear gas

at a massive gang fight
called the Big Bang,

nerdy high school student
Virgil Hawkins

suddenly gains
electromagnetic powers

and becomes Static.

Raquel Ervin,

a teenage dreamer frustrated
by a lack of opportunity

soars through the skies
as Rocket,

after convincing
a superpowered Black man
named Augustus Freeman,

to become Icon.

An extraterrestrial hero,

born in a distant galaxy
and stranded on Earth,

this alien powerhouse
uses his superstrength

to fight injustices
that seem too big
for anyone else to take on.

Frustrated and exploited
by his employer,

genius inventor Curtis Metcalf

creates the high-tech armor,
Hardware,

to take down
the global conspiracy

led by the employer
who's exploited him for years.

When unpredictable superpowers
upend their lives,

members of rival street gangs
come together as

the Blood Syndicate,

to try to change
their neighborhood for good,

and the rest of
their newly-formed
multicultural world,

the Dakotaverse.

But they needed an ally.

[Paul] Denys showed up
in my office one day
with this book

of the original
Milestone characters.

And I said, "We've been
working on this thing."

No one had any idea
we were doing anything
like this.

And I said, "If you can read it
over the weekend, let me know."

Both Jenette and I believed

these guys had
the courage to try.

So, let's back them,

let's see
if we can make this work,

and let's see
if it finds an audience.

Monday morning,
I'm getting a call
from Paul Levitz saying,

"We read your proposal,
I read your proposal.

It's really good." Boom.

We structured an arrangement
that is both lucrative

to Milestone Media

as well as DC Comic Books.

One of the advantages
of doing this arrangement

is having product
that will bring new readers
into the comic book medium.

The four Milestone creators
handpicked the perfect team
to bring their vision to life.

So I remember sitting
up there one evening,
sitting on the desk.

Me, Dwayne, Derek,
and we were just talking.

But then they were like,
"Why don't you join us?"

I was like, "I should join."

He couldn't, because
he was doing a movie
called Boomerang.

[Reggie] Boomerang was
a real watershed moment,

not just for myself,
but for that era
of Black cinema.

But I had just started
my movie career.

I can't be doing
too much at once.

Let me just get good
at one thing

before I start doing too much.

That's it. That was a mistake.

Dwayne was our Editorial Head.

Though, he wasn't going
to be at first.

At first it was going to be
Jim Owsley.

Christopher Priest,
Jim Owsley, came up
with the logo.

Brilliant!

[Denys] When we decided to
pull the trigger on Milestone,

Jim decided to stay with DC
and we understood.

When Owsley dropped out,
Dwayne was like,

"They want me to edit, too."

He was like, "Oh, God.
I have to edit them, too."

Everybody had
55 different jobs to do.

And what's unique
about Milestone is that

most of the people
just came off the street.

[Ivan] I had my own comic,
Tales of the Closet

and I was getting
a lot of attention for it.

I just saw that there was,
like, this invisible bubble

or shield around it,
because as soon as
they picked up the book

and saw it's a gay one,

they would drop it
like it was on fire,
or something like that.

And Dwayne was
one of these guys
who picked up the book

and then he started
talking to me about
Blood Syndicate.

"I think I got a job for you."

I made some
of the characters
Dominican,

I made them Black Dominicans,

because we wanted to
talk about colorism.

Masquerade was
a guy named Morph,

and I made him transgender.

And they said,
"Okay, go for it."

The way we broke ground,
we didn't even know
we were breaking ground.

We were just kinda being real.

We wanted to
come up with a way to
differentiate Milestone

from the other comic books.

[narrator]
Milestone's innovations
weren't just creative,

they were also technical.

The company revolutionized

the way comics were painted
and printed,

by creating the Milestone
100-color process

to better represent
the richness

and variety
of real-world skin tones.

Milestone was painting
the books by hand,

and whatever you painted,
went and got printed.

This is part of why
you had to be really good.

If you went out of the lines,

that's gonna print,

so you gotta start over
a whole new page.

[Denys] So there isn't only one
Black skin tone.

With the Milestone 100 process,

we were able to show
the full range...

of that. But that was
the only way to do it
at the time.

[Noelle Giddings] Get the
artwork printed onto this
and paint right on the page.

Used Dr. Martin's dyes,

or watercolors,

little color pencil in there,

to give a little,
you know, a little punch.

And it's rich-looking
and beautiful,

and, you know, we were
pretty proud of that.

We wanted to make our own thing

and control it
and have total say over it.

[narrator]
The Milestone creators
empowered themselves

to tell Black stories.

And the comic book company
known as Milestone Media

arose from
their unified experience.

[Jim Lee] What I thought was
really impressive about
their launch is that,

the core of their characters,

the thematic elements
were so strong.

Creatively, it was
a tighter, cleaner,

stronger package.
And if I could be so bold,

I think that was
primarily Dwayne's,

you know,
expertise as a writer.

[Dwayne] So one of the things
that we tried to do was present
a range of characters,

different socio-economics,

different backgrounds,
different ages,

as much of a range
of opinions as you can

in a little, tiny model
of the world.

[Denys] It was just
a whirlwind of activity.

So it wasn't like I paused
and stopped,

really, and marked the moment
when Hardware Number 1 came out

as bracketed,
as "something special."

I was working on
Issue Number 3.

When that book came out,

we probably went out, you know,
got the copies and celebrated
a little bit.

[Michael] Nobody knew
we were going to be
a success.

We just thought about
getting out there

because it was important to
get it out there. Period.

[Reggie] Denys and Dwayne
are really like brothers.

And, you know, brothers fight.

"Man, I can't deal with you."

And then they come together.

Denys and Dwayne,
if they went and took
a creative meeting,

they could light up the room

with them having
really cool ideas.

They brought out
the best in each other.

They did amazing work together.

Dwayne and I would sit there.
No paper, no pens, no nothing,

just look at each other

and start talking about
what we wanted to do.

And we would just
go back and forth
like a tennis game.

Back and forth until
we had a whole thing

that we can repeat
to each other,

and then Dwayne would
go off and write it.

'Cause Dwayne was
more Milestone
than any of us.

We did somewhere between
250 and 300 comics,

which is probably
equal to the output

of every other
Black publisher combined.

So, it's the early '90s.

Milestone's doing its thing
and getting noticed

as being, like,
a creative center

in that time in the culture.

Mike Davis, one of the men
behind Milestone Media,

one of the founding fathers
of Milestone.

Mike, tell us
a little about Milestone

and the kind of comics
it puts out.

Hello. Milestone is owned
by four individuals.

Derek Dingle, Dwayne McDuffie,
Denys Cowan and myself.

All the characters are
owned by Milestone Media.

All the characters are
trademarked by Milestone Media.

The publishing rights,
at this point, belong to DC.

And what that has done
is given us rack space

right alongside Superman
and Batman.

And you could do a lot worse.

[Noelle] The Milestone offices
were in Manhattan.

23rd Street
between 6th and 7th Avenue.

This is my office
and there I am.

[Joseph Illidge] Milestone was
the first company
that I worked at

where hierarchy
was not important.

So, any given day,

people would come in
with their pages,

people would be
talking about scripts,

and we would all be talking
to one another.

[Matt] You'd get Dwayne
sitting on a couch,
holding court,

which he later told me was

consciously him trying
to make sure that

everybody working there
saw his face

and felt comfortable
talking to him.

The Milestone bullpen
was the funnest place to be.

[Joseph] We had
the Black celebrities

come and hang out with us
and we loved it.

But we were
a special place to be.

[Jason] It was history.

Every week,
there was a news crew there,

reporting on this amazing thing

of Black guys making
Black characters
and diverse characters.

[reporter 1] At New York's
Milestone Media,

superheroes aren't just Black,

they also includes Hispanics
and Asians.

[reporter 2] New York-based
Milestone Comics

is rolling out four new titles

to take on
inner-city problems, too.

It makes me feel good.

I get to see people like myself
in the books.

They anticipate
more characters,
more cultural diversity

and more expansion
of the market.

It's just as important for,
you know,

Black and white children

to see Black heroes as it is
to see white heroes.

[Paul] When you're
writing well,

you're finding the truth
in fiction.

And the truth in fiction

are the human things
we can all recognize

and relate to.

Milestone reflected
the many sides of Black life

and the many sides
of Black people.

Icon & Rocket,
it was my favorite book.

but Hardware...

It was somewhat
more personal to me.

I'm a Black person
working for a company,

one of the only two
Black people on my level
at DC.

And I would go home
and read Hardware Number 1,

and I would think,
"That's kinda me."

Static was a young kid
just like me.

Young, Black, nerdy,

growing up in
a multi-culti-like
neighborhood.

And it just really shifted
my perspective,

'cause, before then,

I had only seen characters
who were white.

[Robin Chaplik] Getting to see
myself represented.

There were numerous
LGBTQIA-plus characters.

Not just multiculturalism,

but it was how can
we make humanity

be in this universe?

I really, really,
really appreciated

seeing Raquel

and dealing with
teenage pregnancy.

But that amazing thing
about that storyline

is that she was the hero
of her own story.

It's not like she got pregnant
and then was written out of
the story.

No, she came back and was
like, "I'm still gonna do
this superhero thing,

and I'm gonna keep this baby.

I'm not gonna put this baby up
for adoption."

I don't think any other book
during that time
was really saying,

in that way and saying it,

to the Black community
nonetheless.

When we said
everyone belongs here,

we mean it.

And it's
such an incredible space
for inspiration to occur.

[Curtis] Icon, he kind of
reminds me of my dad.

He's got that same build,

that same kind of, like,
very stern-looking face.

Somebody who knows
who they are

and what they wanna do
with themselves.

I saw this comic book.
It had this duo of heroes.

They're standing side-by-side,

surrounded by
these SWAT officers.

They had a line at the top of
the comic book cover

that said, "Stop!
Do not hop on cop!"

I never saw a comic book cover
like that before.

They did a lot of things
I don't think anyone else
could do,

and command that
same level of attention
and respect,

that spoke to
a broader message,

beyond the world of superheroes
and comic books.

[Denys] I had seen fans before.
I'd met fans,

but seeing how what we had done
had affected people,
even at that time,

and what it meant
to Black people,

to gay people, to minorities.

Like, people
literally coming up to us
and sobbing,

and, you know, like,
the whole thing.

When I was doing some sketches,

and this guy
came up to me and told me

I got him out of the gang life.

He said, "Seeing myself
on Blood Syndicate"

and finding out I was
a Black man
drawing Blood Syndicate

gave him another
thought process about
what he wanted to do

with his life
other than just
running with the gang.

To hear someone tell you they
got you out of the gang life,

it just gives
you relevance, like,

okay, this stuff
means something.

And people weren't just
invested in the comics
and the characters,

they were invested
in Milestone.

[Sheena] It's actually a hub of
Black people getting paid,

because they're writing
the stories,

they're the editors,
they're the artists,

and so, you're actually
sustaining people's livelihood

and giving them a chance to
do the thing they love

and to be paid for it.

Everything was validated.

They validated everything
that I had wanted to be
for ten years.

Black people doing comics...

That was an amazing
moment for me.

That was the first moment
where I had full security
and confidence

that I wasn't making a mistake.

What Milestone Media had done

in that first incarnation
was blow everyone's mind,

prove the point
and create characters that
imprinted on a generation.

We sold a lot more comics
than anybody else.

[Jason] Between
the MTV interviews,

the Black Enterprise
cover story,

it was just clear that, like,

we were doing
what needed to be done
in the culture

from our angle of it.

The conflicts came with
how we would handle
dealing with DC.

[Matt] There was
a marketing campaign
for the first issues

that had just the silhouettes
of the characters
with a question mark.

There was somebody
in DC Marketing

who said, and it was
a quote that we bandied about.

"You can't show
that they're Black.
Black is death."

There was
a lot of frustration
on our part.

It wasn't because
we were being, like,
willfully oppressed.

People weren't, like,
beating down on us,

but there was a glass ceiling.

There were editors
that didn't wanna work
with Black people.

There were executives at DC
that couldn't understand
why we were doing

anything with this company,
Milestone.

And Black people
don't buy comic books,

so why are we doing this
stupid experiment anyway?

And these were people
who were tasked with
selling our books.

I think
the marketing department

always felt that Milestone
was basically unsaleable,

despite the initial orders.

There were a lot of meetings
with DC, Jenette Kahn
and with Paul Levitz,

plotting out
what we were gonna do
with Milestone.

The look of comics
and the whole atmosphere
of comics then

was the speculation boom
of the early '90s.

Comics started really
hitting a big population.

They had, like,
The Death of Superman.

People started speculating
and it was all over the news.

[reporter]
Superman died Wednesday.

E!'s Greg Agnew reports
on a world without
the first superhero.

[Greg] Superman meets
his demise at the hands of
supervillain, Doomsday.

Experts say
the ultimate sacrifice

could be profitable
for collectors.

[Paul] The mid-'90s, there was
a really nasty stretch
in the comic book industry.

Part of it was
the end of a collectors' boom

that had gotten out of control.

Bill Sienkiewicz who
is one of the artistic
influential deities

in comic books did a poster.

It was a window poster

that said,
"Milestone on sale here,"

in which he painted
the Milestone characters.

This poster was to be
something so high in quality
and so compelling,

that there was no way that
any retailer would deny it,

especially with
Bill Sienkiewicz,
who was white

acting as
the ambassador, right?

A number of comic book stores
never put that poster up.

We always had that problem
with retailers not ordering
enough of our books,

not promoting our books.

And one of the things
was there was this
misunderstanding

that Milestone
was Black comics.

And that to be pro-Black
meant that you were anti-white,

which is absolutely ridiculous.

You know,
there was a lot of hate
being thrown at Milestone

because it was like,

"Well, y'all just making money
'cause you're sell-outs."

Or they're good.

I mean, the term "hater,"
wasn't a thing yet,

but this was
pre-hater haterism.

When I started working
for Derek,

as the assistant
to the President,

and working my way up,

the relationship between
DC and Milestone

was a pretty good relationship.

And then Issue 25 came out.

[Denys] We wanted to do
a story that addressed
teenage Black sexuality,

but only in terms of Static,
in the context of Static.

[Ivan] Dwayne said,
"I want Virgil to lose
his virginity."

And that's the big thing
for the 25th issue.

I was like, "Really?"

And so, what we wanted to do
was show that on the cover

in a responsible way.

I don't remember it
in any great detail,

but I think part of it
was there was

a condom package sitting there
while the kids were making out.

[Denys] It was requested
that we remove that condom
off the cover.

I don't think
Dwayne really liked
that decision a whole lot.

[Dwayne] The compromise
we came up with was

we put the cover on the inside

and we wrapped
a black heart...

It was like a black border
that was a heart and just
the two faces kissing.

That was a huge, huge fight,

and I think a lot of it,
it wasn't about sexuality,

it was about Black sexuality,

which makes people
really uncomfortable.

[Paul] Dwayne felt that
we were making that decision
on a racially-defined basis.

I don't believe that
to be true.

But, of course,

obviously, I have
a level of implicit bias.

But I don't think so.

And you certainly can't find
anything like that on
any other DC cover

that we had done
for a newsstand publication.

I think Dwayne kind of
felt like DC didn't
really understand

what was in the contract.

We sent it to DC,
they approved it,

it came back,
we sent it to the printer,

but when we sent it
to the printer, it had
a new editorial in it.

[narrator reading]

We didn't know that
that editorial was going
to be in that book,

but it was.

And... the fallout
from that was incredible.

That editorial was basically...

We'll call it an impetus

for the decline
and deterioration
of the relationship

between DC and Milestone.

We tried different ways
to come together,

but eventually, we had a rift
that wasn't able to be healed.

We went from being
star children

to feeling like, "Well,
you guys don't really
appreciate us, huh?

So we'll show you
what it's like to
really work with us

on a level where it could be."

[Jason] We would have to battle
DC Comics every week,

because it'd always be
somebody who'd figure out
a way to slow down production.

Slowing down production
for Milestone was death,

because it meant that
people wouldn't get paid,

books wouldn't get sold.

The way we had it set up was

we would get an advance
on every book,

and that's how we were able to
keep things rolling.

The advances stopped,
so we had to just fund it.

"Good luck with that, you guys
who don't appreciate us."

There was
an ultimatum presented,

and the ultimatum was that

if Dwayne McDuffie did not
resign as Editor-in-Chief,

DC would end the relationship
with Milestone.

I think that's when
the decision was made

for Dwayne to step away
from being the nominal
editor-in-chief.

I'm sure he was still providing
much of the editorial guidance,

and Denys stepped in
on some of that.

It was an untenable situation.

I was feeling
particularly put-upon.

Done all this work just to
end up in a position where
you're really struggling.

But we were all
splintering off.

[Derek] We had
a situation where

Denys decided to leave
the company.

Eventually, sadly,
it kind of unraveled.

[Joseph] Starting in 1996,

we began operating
out of the DC offices
at 1700 Broadway.

This was after
a significant staff reduction,

in which our staff
was reduced by

between 50 and 60%.

Dwayne and Derek
continued on...

throughout that hard time.

I can't imagine what those guys
went through there.

But I visited them
a couple of times
and it was not pretty.

We made good books.
We were constantly listed

as some of the best books
being produced,

best stories,
best, you know, characters.

Dwayne's sense of things
was so logic-based.

Like racism doesn't make sense.

That's why it didn't make sense
to Dwayne.

That's why he never understood

how, if you made good content,

the thing wouldn't succeed.

That's why he and Milestone
were so ahead of their time.

[Joseph] I don't know
who made the call

for Milestone to
close its doors
for the first time,

and I was not there
for the very last days.

I spent my last two weeks there
completing Hardware 50.

For those last two weeks,
Milestone no longer had
the money to pay me.

So I finished that book
for free,

because they had given me
so much,

so I could certainly
give them two weeks.

So I completed it
and then I left,

and then, one month later,
Milestone closed its doors.

[Denys] Oh, wow.

What are these, bound editions?

Xombi.

You brought these over from DC?

You got their only copies here
[chuckling] in a box?

You're so crazy.

So now we're in,
like, '98, '99.

I had been out in California
for a while.

I'm doing storyboards,

I'm doing all kinds of stuff
and working with
different people.

Dwayne had left New York City.

He moved to, like, you know,
not the good part of Florida.

Not the Miami, Florida,
you know?

He was in Orlando.

And I would call and go,
"What are you doing
in Orlando?"

"Well, I'm just sick
of the business,
the business is sick of me."

And he was very depressed
and cynical about it.

And I was like,
"Well, you should
come to Hollywood."

The Milestone characters
disappeared almost entirely.

No more Icon. No more Hardware.

Bye-bye, Blood Syndicate.

Only one Milestone hero
survived in a very
unexpected way.

[theme song playing]

-[electrical buzzing]
-[man grunts]

[groans]

[thief] What the heck
is up with that?

[electrical buzzing]

You mean, "What up with that?"

Either use slang properly
or don't use it at all.

[Denys] I get a call
from Warner Bros.
saying that

they were interested
in pitching Static.

They ended up doing it.
I ended up being a director

on the show
for the first two seasons,

and ended up being
right back at Milestone
in a way.

I auditioned for Static Shock.

It was my first
series lead role.

Up to that point,
I had been doing
a lot of guest work,

so this was the first time
I was like,
"Oh, this is my house."

Whoa, man, are you tripping?

Why would I do
a whack thing like that?

The voice for Virgil...

To me, it was like,
"This is what
it would have been like

if I had gotten
electrical powers at 14."

[as Static]
The name's Static,

and I put a shock
to your system.

At the beginning, a very much
run-of-the-mill experience.

But when I found out
more about him...

"Oh, it's based on
a comic book."

There's a whole generation
of people, kids

who have no idea
that Static Shock,

aka Static,

was a comic book.

Since I'm kind of
the youngest member of
DC Editorial currently,

my first interaction
with Milestone was seeing
Static Shock on TV.

That was my introduction
to DC as a whole.

I started college in 2000.

And that is the same year
as Static Shock coming out.

You know, it was always on
in someone's dorm,

because it was a Black hero.

[Joseph] The Static Shock
cartoon would show
all these Black kids

that they were not alone.

So, this is the world
we fought for

and we have to continue
to fight for.

Midway through Season 2
is when we called Dwayne...

to come in and,

you know,
try his hand at writing Static
and then working in Hollywood.

But that was
a whole different trip,

seeing him again
after all that time.

And I was surprised

that they were gonna
work together,

because of how Milestone ended
and everything that
happened there.

But he literally
said this to me.

He's like, "Don't you think
more people should know
who Static is?"

I was like, "Yeah."
"Well, this is the way
to do it."

And then you know what we did?

We picked it right up
where we left off,

like it had never happened.

And the minute he hit town,

he started working
and he never stopped.

I never knew how important
it would be to meet
a role model like you.

Role model?

Yeah, a Black superhero.

I don't know.
It validates me somehow.

Heroes come
in every color, my friend.

I know.
It's just that sometimes,

I wish there was
a Black superhero back home

for folks to look up to.

Oh, but there is.

Dwayne really exploded
with his animation work.

He started writing
Justice League,

which got, rightfully,
a ton of praise.

[Dwayne] Really,
the things that they're saying
about their relationships

and how they feel
about each other,
they all mean it.

And we got to see them
in ways that we couldn't
see them otherwise.

[Reggie] Running Ben 10.

He was doing movies for DC.

So he was... really become
a go-to guy for them,

which, I knew it.

So, it was glad to, you know,

to quote
the Big Daddy Kane record,

"Damn it feels good to see
people up on it."

[Robin] Oh, my goodness.

Oh, you look so beautiful.

[Edna Gardner] Why, thank you.

[Robin] Oh, you look
so beautiful.

[Edna] Dwayne was just
so different.

[Robin chuckles softly]

-He loved to argue.
-[chuckles]

Loved to.

Oh, his vocabulary...

He told me one night,
my, uh...

-encyclopedias was obsolete.
-[chuckles]

[Robin] He had been
on the phone with his mom.

I heard that
he had run up the stairs

in his house,

and sat down.

But he stopped
being able to
feel his legs.

[takes deep breath]

Which is not a good sign.
[sighs]

And ended up at the hospital.

[Charlotte McDuffie]
Reggie Hudlin had this event
planned for that Wednesday

at Golden Apple Comics in LA.

And Dwayne was
scheduled to be there.

I had started a website
that featured

and celebrated Black comics.

And I was going to do
a launch party
at Golden Apple Comics.

And I invited all my friends
who were into comics.

But Dwayne never made it.

[stuttering] I was
at the hospital

when they said
he didn't make it.

And I said something like,

"The one indispensable person
is gone," you know.

He is irreplaceable.

When you lose your best friend
as an adult,

you don't run out
and get another one.

There's just a hole, you know?

I had heard about
Dwayne passing away

before the event started.

But we were like,
"But we have to do it anyway,

and we kinda need to do it.

'Cause everyone's gonna want
somewhere to go."

And what's beautiful is that

everyone shows up.

[Denys] A lot of people
leaned on him.

Lot of people leaned on him
and looked at him as the light,

you know, or as the rock.

Someone that they could
really, like, "This is what
I wanna be like.

And this is how
you act in comics,

and if you wanna write
the right way,
this is how you do it."

Dwayne was that
to a lot of people.

I got to tell him one day
how much he meant to me.

And, um,
he did the Dwayne thing.

He threw it back
at me, you know,
in the most gracious way.

"Oh, well, you know,

you are really smart.
You would have
figured it out anyway."

You know, all the things...
Basically everything that
I had said to him,

he's like, "You would have
figured that out."

He just gave.

[Charlotte] This is one
of my favorite drawings
of Dwayne,

just because it looks
so much like him.

John Paul got the...

mainly his shoulders,
his posture.

"That's what happens
to legends.

You're one of us now."

"Welcome to Dakota."

And I'm getting choked up
as I'm saying it.

Hmm.

Okay.

[Reggie] After the event,

Derek and Denys
kind of pulled me aside

and they said,
"Man, we built this company

and, like,
we just kind of let it go.

That doesn't make any sense."

[Derek] I said, "We got
to continue this.

It's just too important."

Well, we don't need
to talk about it.

It was written in neon,

what we need to do next.

"We've got to get this thing
going again.

So, we want you to come in
as a partner."

I was like, "Yeah," like,
"I only make a mistake once."

[Static] Welcome to
the City of Dakota.

The Big Bang protests
changed everything,

including me.

[narrator] The Milestone
relaunch reimagined Static...

Hardware...

Icon and Rocket...

...while keeping them rooted
in the culture of protest
and disruption.

And this is only the beginning.

[Denys] It took us to
bring it back in the right way
for it to really work.

And that took
a lot of commitment
on our parts.

This is for
a new generation of readers.

These are people who have
never seen Static before,
know nothing about it.

But Milestone has
always been about

the times we're in now.

[protestors chanting]
Black lives matter!
Black lives matter!

[Denys] We looked
at George Floyd,

all the protests that were
happening worldwide,

and the police response to it.

-[people clamoring]
-[woman shrieking]

[Denys] So we used
all that stuff to update

the Big Bang origin to reflect
what was going on today.

Instead of a gang fight,
which is what it was

in the '90s,
when gangs were big,

we changed it to protests
and George Floyd

and that kind of energy
around it.

What is their context?

How are they
gonna relate to it?
That's what this is about.

In the original iteration
of Milestone,

I drew Hardware,
I don't know, for 24 issues,
or something like that.

Almost two years.

And then,
when we brought
Milestone back,

I'm drawing Hardware right now,

30 years later.

[Reggie] People really dig
our books.

We're gonna be
expanding the line of books
from three to six next year.

We have a live-action
Static Shock movie
in development.

We have an animated feature
in development

that's gonna feature
the whole Milestone cast.

We're moving really fast
and really strongly.

In our first meetings
about relaunching Milestone,

one of the things
that Derek Dingle
hit really hard was,

"So many people can't
find their way into comics."

Even in our initial books,
we wanted to make sure we had

new writers and artists
working with the veterans
on the books.

[Leon Chills]
Reggie is basically,
you know, the biggest blessing,

'cause he told me that
Milestone was finally
going to be relaunched,

like officially.

Then he asked me, you know,
if I wanted to

write Icon & Rocket with him.

I didn't know how much
I was gonna get paid
or any of that.

It was just like,
"Yeah, Reggie, I'm in, duh."

[Nikolas Draper-Ivey] Dwayne
was so intelligent,

and I'm like, "I'm nowhere
near as smart as he is.

Like, how I am I gonna
live up to this? I can't draw
like John Paul Leon.

Like, how am I gonna
touch that?

And the reality is, you can't.

Best thing I can do is
just be myself.

I've had moments
where I think,

"Oh, man. One day,
I'm gonna have to do this
for someone else."

Like what Denys is doing
for me,

someone else is
gonna come along

and I'm gonna
have to mentor them.

[Leon] When I think of
working on this

and my son in relation to it,

I definitely look forward to
the day of being able to
hand a comic book to him

and tell him that I was
part of bringing it to life.

Going to Golden Apple Comics
to see my first-ever
co-written comic book

with the GOAT, Reggie Hudlin
in the store.

And I definitely want to
make it easier for him to

be able to do it
if he wanted to.

[Jim] It gives people
creative inspiration, right?

To see themselves,
not just in the characters,

but in the creators,

the talent community that
creates this content.

We wanted to do it
bigger than ever before.

And we found
the perfect collaborator
with Ally.

Ally is committed to
creating a space

that authentically showcases
Black communities.

And we've teamed up
to create what we call
the Milestone Summit.

It's this week-long program
where people can come

and get training
in all these different fields.

-It's not just about
marketing programs...
-Yeah.

...that, you know,
get your brand out.

It has to also be
financial investment
in the communities,

or it's not real.

[Reggie] Black success
has to be more than
an accident.

We need to make it
business as usual.

[Erica Hughes] We are
at the time where people
are looking for these stories,

and I think, to be in
a position where

we're able to help
tell those stories,

and change the trajectory
of other people's lives

is very, very exciting for me.

The Milestone Initiative,

to me, is the single most
important part

of what we are doing in this
new wave of development.

It's bringing people back

who thought that they
never had a chance
and bringing them in.

[Reggie] So, our job

is to teach people
the things they need to know

that they're not being
taught elsewhere.

You are all here
because you sought out
something different.

And you're willing to
be different, right?

So you have to make work
that speaks to yourself,

that speaks to
all the other folks like you

who aren't in this room,

and to convert
the most unlikely person

who wouldn't be down
with what you're doing,

but you present it so fly
that they're down.

You push yourself for so long

and you don't think
anybody's listening,

you don't feel like
your voice is heard.

And finally somebody tells you,
"I heard you."

[Atagun Ihan] You don't
come across any program
like this so it's very unique.

The genuine effort from them.

Reggie and Denys have just been
dropping gems on us all week.

He's not stuck.

He's evolving and growing.

[Dorado Quick] You know, Ally
is literally being an ally
kinda right now,

as far as helping us
getting into the industry

and getting that mentorship.

To me, it's all about
giving people a clear path

towards a thing
that they wanna do.

[Denys] It's been great.

And we know that
the talent we get out
of that program

is gonna be phenomenal.

It's already phenomenal.

Those people are
already really good.
I wanna hire them right now.

[narrator] The commitment to
building future generations

is one that
must be unwavering.

It's us.
We are the torchbearers.

The legacy-holders.

Changemakers.

If anything ties
the Denys Cowan from 1989

to the Denys Cowan of,
you know, 2022,

it's the fact that
he realizes that
the job isn't done.

[Leon] Icon says,

"To inspire humanity to strive
for their fullest potential,

to reveal to humanity
the best part of themselves,

through my on-going example
to make my adopted home

a better place to live.

Until all of humanity is ready
to take their place as
a mature species,

Icon is here to stay."

[narrator] And if you wanna
see what's next

for the Milestone generation...

Just turn the page.

Remove the ceilings.
Dream bigger!