Icon #1

May 1993 · DC · 1.50 USD; 1.85 CAD; 1.00 GBP

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“By Their Own Bootstraps”

★ 1st appearance — Rocket★ 1st appearance — Icon

About this Issue

Icon #1 marks one of the most structurally ambitious debut issues of the 1990s: it simultaneously introduces two fully realized characters — the alien-in-human-form Augustus Freeman IV (Icon) and his teenage sidekick Raquel Ervin (Rocket) — while anchoring them in a fully pre-planned shared universe, the Dakotaverse, with roots stretching back to antebellum America. As one of four launch titles from Milestone Media, the issue was a deliberate creative and cultural intervention, placing Black characters at the center of superhero narratives rather than at their margins — a mission that would later earn the series three Eisner nominations and multiple Parents' Choice Awards. The storytelling inversion at the heart of the book — an idealistic working-class teen girl convincing a wealthy, conservative alien attorney to become a hero — challenged both the sidekick formula and the politics of Black superheroism in ways the mainstream had never attempted. Its legacy extends into animation (Young Justice), DC Universe integration, and the 2021 Milestone revival, confirming it as a genuinely durable contribution to the medium.

writer Dwayne McDuffie · artist M. D. Bright · inker Mike Gustovich · colorist Rachelle Menashe · colorist James Sherman · colorist Noelle C. Giddings · letterer Steve Dutro · cover Denys Cowan, Jimmy Palmiotti

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $2

CGC 9.8 · 180 in census $36*

CGC 9.6 · 142 in census $20*

CGC 9.4 · 79 in census $20*

CGC 9.2 · 57 in census $20

CGC 9.0 · 46 in census $20*

CGC 8.5 · 49 in census $20*

Show all 15 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 28 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 17 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 11 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 · 5 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 none in existence

CGC 4.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Milestone Media was conceived in the late 1980s and coalesced into a formal publishing venture around 1991–1993, when Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle — all African-American creators who had built careers inside the predominantly white mainstream industry — decided to build a creator-owned imprint focused on diverse, non-stereotypical heroes. Before a single issue shipped, McDuffie and his collaborators wrote an extensive 'bible' laying out the shared history, geography, and characters of the fictional city of Dakota, with Cowan providing the original character sketches that would guide the artists. The crucial business arrangement with DC Comics — under which DC distributed and published the titles but Milestone retained full copyright and editorial control, with DC holding only the right to decline objectionable material — was unprecedented for a Black-owned imprint operating at major-publisher scale. Icon #1 went on sale March 25, 1993 (cover-dated May 1993), written by McDuffie with interior art by M.D. Bright (pencils) and Mike Gustovich (inks), and a cover by Denys Cowan and Jimmy Palmiotti — the company's co-founders directly shaping the flagship title's visual identity.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Icon (Arnus / Augustus Freeman IV), an alien stranded on Earth in 1839 whose life-pod reconfigured his DNA to resemble the enslaved woman who found him; by the modern era he poses as a conservative Black attorney in Dakota City.
First appearance of Rocket (Raquel Ervin), a 15-year-old girl from Dakota's poorest neighborhood who witnesses Freeman's powers during a burglary and persuades him to become a superhero — effectively functioning as the series' true protagonist and narrator.
Written by Dwayne McDuffie; interior art by M.D. Bright (pencils) and Mike Gustovich (inks); cover by Denys Cowan and Jimmy Palmiotti. McDuffie also served as Milestone's editor-in-chief, making him both creator and editorial steward of the line.
Published on-sale March 25, 1993 (cover date May 1993) as one of four simultaneous Milestone Media launch titles alongside Hardware, Blood Syndicate, and Static — all distributed by DC Comics under a deal in which Milestone retained copyright and full editorial independence.
The issue was released in two primary formats: a standard direct-edition single (without polybag) and a Collector's Edition polybagged with two posters, a backing board, and a trading card — a packaging strategy typical of the early-1990s collector market.
The Collector's Edition contains a 3-page preview of Static, making it the first published preview of that character, who would later anchor Milestone's most culturally far-reaching property via the Static Shock animated series.
The story's opening chapter, titled 'By Their Own Bootstraps,' establishes the Big Bang event (a citywide gang war turned metahuman-origin catalyst) as the shared cosmological pivot of the entire Dakotaverse, directly connecting Icon's series to Hardware, Blood Syndicate, and Static from issue one.
Issue #1 was reprinted in the 1996 trade paperback Icon: A Hero's Welcome (collecting issues #1–8) and again in Milestone Compendium #1 (April 2022), ensuring the origin story has remained accessible across multiple decades.