Retro Review: Millennium By Englehart, Staton & Gibson For DC Comics

Millennium #1-8 (1988)

Written by Steve Englehart

Layouts or pencils by Joe Staton

Finishes or inks by Ian Gibson

Coloured by Carl Gafford

Spoilers (from thirty-four years ago)

In 1988, I was still pretty new to the DC Universe.  I’d started picking up some titles, and had some familiarity with the line and its characters in the new post-Crisis reality, but I didn’t know where to begin or what I was going to like.  I was aware that some of my favourite Marvel creators (like John Byrne) were doing work at DC, which is what took me there, but I needed some sort of guide.  

And so, when Millennium launched, an eight-week miniseries that tied into just about every book DC published, I decided to read it, and to try to read every tie-in, as a way of sampling it all.  I’d done something similar with Secret Wars II a few years before, and that didn’t go great, but with Steve Englehart showrunning Millennium, I felt safe (of course, I thought the same thing about Jim Shooter and SWII, but that’s a story for another day).

The concept of Millennium was that the Manhunters, the robot police force used by the Guardians of the Universe prior to the Green Lantern Corps, had never really gone away, and had, over time, continued to recruit humans to their cult.  They also used sleeper agents to infiltrate the lives of just about every hero active at the time (including one thousand years later, with the Legion of Super-Heroes).  Some of these revelations were a little hard to believe, but it did make for a compelling story, and also led to me continuing to read more than a few DC books.

I’m only going to read the main book for this column, because as is so often the case with events like this, most of the tie-in books weren’t all that important to the central story.  I remember some of the tie-ins clearly (the LSH issues, the Suicide Squad and Firestorm issues), but am not too clear on the main event.  Let’s see how it all worked.

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

Heroes

• Green Lantern (Arisia; #1-8)
• Green Lantern (Hal Jordan; #1-8)
• Green Lantern (John Stewart; #1-8)
• Green Lantern (Kilowog; #1-8)
• Green Lantern (Katma Stewart; #1-8)
• Harbinger (Lyla Michaels; #1-8)
• Mister Miracle (Scott Free, JLI; #1, 3-8)
• Booster Gold (JLI; #1, 3-4, 6-8)
• Black Canary (Dinah Lance, JLI; #1, 3-8)
• Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz, JLI; #1, 3-8)
• Dr. Fate (Eric and Linda Strauss, JLI; #1, 3, 5-7)
• Batman (Bruce Wayne, JLI; #1-8)
• Green Lantern (Guy Gardner, JLI; #1, 3-8)
• Halo (Gabrielle Doe, Outsiders; #1, 3, 5)
• Katana (Outsiders; #1, 3, 5)
• Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce, Outsiders; #1, 3, 5)
• Looker (Lia Briggs, Outsiders; #1, 3-5)
• Geo-Force (Brion Markov, Outsiders; #1, 3-5)
• Metamorpho (Outsiders; #1)
• Jade (Infinity Inc.; #1, 3-8)
• Wildcat (Yolanda Montez, Infinity Inc.; #1, 3-5, 7-8)
• Hawkman (Katar Hol; #1, 5-8)
• Hawkwoman (Shayera Thal; #1, 5-8)
• Flash (Wally West; #1, 3-5, 7-8)
• Captain Atom (JLI; #1, 3-8)
• Blue Beetle (Ted Kord, JLI; #1-8)
• Firestorm (Ron Raymone; #1, 4-8)
• Superman (Clark Kent; #1-2, 5-8)
• Mr. Bones (Infinity Inc.; #1, 3-5, 7-8)
• Green Arrow (Ollie Queen; #1, 4, 7-8)
• Obsidian (Infinity Inc.; #1, 3, 5, 7-8)
• Skyman (Infinity Inc.; #1, 3-8)
• Wonder Woman (#1, 3-8)
• Hourman (Richard Tyler, Infinity Inc.; #3-5, 7-8)
• Bronze Tiger (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Rick Flag (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Privateer (Mark Shaw, Suicide Squad; #4)
• Green Lantern (Driq; #4-8)
• Madame Xanadu (#4)
• The Spectre (#4, 8)
• Brainwave Jr. (Infinity, Inc.; #5, 7-8)
• Windfall (Outsiders; #5)
• Nuklon (Infinity, Inc.; #5, 7-8)
• Aquaman (Arthur Curry; #5-8)
• Aqualad (Garth; #5-8)

Chosen

• Tom Kalmaku (fka Pieface; #1-8)
• Betty Clawman (#2-
• Takeo Yakata, aka RAM (#2-8)
• Xiang Po, aka Gloss (#2-8)
• Nikolai Latikov (#2-3, 8)
• Celia Windward, aka Jet (#2-8)
• Salima Baranizar (#2, 8)
• Janwillem Kroef (#2-6, 8)
• Gregorio De La Vega, aka Extraño (#2-8)
• Floronic Man, aka Floro (Jason Woodrue; #2-8)

Manhunters

• Manhunter Androids (#1-4, 7)
• Mr. Smith (Ferris Aircraft; #1)
• Lana Lang (#1-2)
• Mary Francis Cassidy (sister of Blue Devil; #1)
• Harry Hadley (The Atom Project; #1, 3-4)
• Dirk Davis (#1, 4)
• Marcie Cooper (#1)
• Grandmaster (#1, 3-5, 7)
• Rocket Red 7 (JLI; #1)
• Bernard Ferguson (#1, 4)
• Dr. Jace (#1)
• Rudolph West (#1)
• Pan (#1, 7)
• James Gordon (#2)
• Overthrow (#2)
• Laurel Kent (#2)
• Mr. Niederman (#3)
• Nancy Reagan (#3, 5)
• Dr. Wetson (#3)
• Karin Page (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Highmaster (#6)
• Harlequin (#7)

Villains

• The Joker (#2)
• The Psycho-Pirate (#2, 8)
• Hangman (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Deadshot (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Captain Boomerang (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Darkseid (#8)
• Sinestro (#8)

Guest Stars

• Ronald Reagan (US President; #3, 5)
• The Parliament of Trees (#8)
• Highfather (#8)
• Phantom Stranger (#8)
• The Demon (Etrigan; #8)
• The Creeper (Jack Ryder; #8)
• The Challengers of the Unknown (#8)
• Sarge Steel (#8)
• Deadman (Boston Brand; #8)

Supporting Characters

• Nadia Safir (Zamoran; #1-8)
• Herupa Hando Hu (Guardians of the Universe; #1-8)
• Oberon (JLI; #1)
• Maxwell Fisher (#2)
• Dan Richards (Golden Age Manhunter; #2)
• Tawny Young (#3, 5)
• Terga Kalmaku (Tom’s wife; #3, 6-8)
• Keith Kalmaku (Tom’s son; #3, 6, 8)
• Kari Kalmaku (Tom’s daughter; #3, 6)
• General Wade Eiling (Atom Project; #3-4)
• Amanda Waller (Suicide Squad; #3)
• John Economos (Suicide Squad; #4)
• Kim Liang (#4-5)
• Jim Corrigan (#4-5)
• Nabu (#6)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

• This series begins with an overview of how life is going on as usual across the Earth.  We then are taken to a gathering of various people in Manhattan Beach, a few of whom are identified (Mr. Smith, Lana Lang, Mary Cassidy, Harry Hadley, Dirk Davis, and Marcie Cooper), while others aren’t.  They’ve gathered for an audience with the Grandmaster.  We quickly learn that these people, who are various supporting characters in different comics, are sleeper agents working for the Manhunters.  They’ve been sent to infiltrate the lives of heroes (most of whom have secret identities, so that’s weird) until they are needed.  The Grandmaster says it’s time for “mass murder”.  Watching this through a skylight is Tom Kalmaku, a character who used to hang out with Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and used to go by the kind of racist name “Pieface”.  He’s been following Mr. Smith, from Ferris Aircraft, and realizes something is wrong.  The Grandmaster tells his followers that they need to track down a group of people who will stand against their plans, and kill them.  Tom gets noticed by three Manhunters in the classic get-up (it’s not clear if these are the robots, or humans in costume).  They attack him and give him a beating.  In the mountains above Santa Monica stands the new Green Lantern Citadel (in this era, the GL Corps used Earth as their base).  Five GLs hang out by the pool – Hal Jordan, Arisia, Kilowog, Katma Stewart, and John Stewart.  They are interrupted by the arrival of a Guardian of the Universe and a Zamoran.  The Zamoran, Nadia Safir, introduces Herupa Hando Hu and tells them that they’ve come to “spark a moment of destiny.”  Herupa says they need to meet some particular people, but once they do, they’ll be in danger.  He says they need more than these five Green Lanterns, and that their foes are the Manhunters.  The three Manhunters drop Tom off on a runway at LAX, with the intent of leaving him to get run over by a landing plane.  Tom crawls away as a 747 lands, but still gets tossed around by the force of the jet, and it’s not clear if he’s still alive.  In Argentina, Harbinger stands around in the mountains.  We learn that she finished writing up a record of the new age of heroes, chronicling the state of things now that the Crisis is finished and the DCU consists of a single Earth. She sent this record into orbit, and now doesn’t know what to do with herself.  The Justice League International arrives at the GL Citadel, as do the Outsiders and Infinity Inc.  There’s some small talk among the heroes, and we see that many are meeting for the first time in the post-Crisis world.  It’s noticed that Guy Gardner is acting strangely (this is after Batman’s famous “one punch” made him nice), as is Firestorm (I think this is after the Russian guy entered the Firestorm matrix with Ron), and Hawkman is kind of rude.  Hal introduces the two visitors to everyone, and they talk about how their people achieved immortality and no longer needed sex, so they separated men from women (does this mean that same-sex attraction was the norm on Maltus, or does it really just reduce all relationships to being procreative?).  The genders separated and spent more millennia being themselves, until the Crisis reduced the number of Guardians to twenty-two.  The women returned, and twenty-two of them paired off and they all left to try to repopulate (I’m not sure why the women are all tall and statuesque while the Guardians are all short, blue, and identical).  Anyway, these two have decided to come to Earth to spark the next race of immortals.  Superman asks how this involves them, and Herupa explains that prior to making the Green Lanterns, the Guardians used the Manhunters to bring order to the universe, until they became vengeful and problematic.  He says they were dismantled, but many escaped and have spent three billion years operating in the shadows on many worlds, finding acolytes.  The theory is that when Herupa and Nadia find the ten people they need, the Manhunters will try to stop them.  Wally asks why the Titans weren’t invited to this meeting, and they explain that it’s because they want Terra to be one of their new immortals.  They are surprised to learn that she’s dead, and decide they need to go talk.  They tell the heroes they should head home and wait for them to contact them.  Superman disagrees, and wants everyone to protect people in the interim (I’m not sure what he’s getting at, as there’s nothing they can do yet).  Everyone likes his speech, and they separate to go do their usual thing.  On the flight home, Red Rocket 7 tells the JLI he has something to reveal.  Firestorm finds a man named Ferguson in Martin Stein’s office.  The Outsiders go to talk to Dr. Jace.  The Flash finds his father, while Wonder Woman, who wasn’t at the meeting, finds Pan under Paradise Island.  These five people all reveal that they are Manhunters and they warn the heroes to not help the Guardians.  (This issue, not surprisingly, ties into that week’s issues of JLI, Firestorm, The Outsiders, Flash, and Wonder Woman).

• Clark Kent is at work at the Daily Bugle when his childhood friend Lana Lang comes to speak, rather loudly, about how she wants him to not help the Guardians, and to leave the Manhunters alone.  She gets more angry and erratic, and rips his shirt open; we see the other people in the newsroom react, but would have to read one of Superman’s titles to see what happened.  Herupa and Nadia fly together, holding hands, to start meeting with the people they’ve chosen to change humanity.  Herupa mentions that they didn’t plan well, what with Terra being dead, and with Raoul being senile (I have no idea whom this refers to).  They approach an Aboriginal woman near Uluru (which still gets called Ayer’s Rock here) in Australia, telling her that they’ve chosen ten people to “advance the human race”, and that she’s one of them.  The woman, Betty Clawman, claims to have known they were coming, and is ready to go with them.  They tell her that she doesn’t need to go anywhere until the “Infinite Ones” arrive, and they leave.  They next go to Japan, where they make the same offer to Takeo Yakata, a businessman.  He’s skeptical, until they do some magic stuff, and then he lets his secretary know he’s going to be away.  Batman is in Gotham, talking to James Gordon about this Manhunter business.  Gordon lets him know that Harbinger is involved somehow, and suggests that she might reveal information about the heroes.  When Batman isn’t looking, he cold cocks him with his pistol and pushes him out the window (I’m guessing that making James Gordon a Manhunter was a big argument in the DC offices, and it clearly didn’t stick).  Herupa and Nadia are approached by Harbinger, who offers to serve them like she did the Monitor, in their mission to improve humanity.  Herupa appears angry, letting her know that the golden “tome of history” she sent into space flew directly to the Manhunters’ central world, and they are using it to work against them.  She flies off to fix this problem, and Nadia says something that makes it sound like Herupa manipulated her.  They continue to Shanghai, where they make their offer to Xiang Po, and she tells them that she’d have to consult with her parents and the party leadership.  Their next stop is Russia, where Nikolai Latikov thinks they have been sent as some sort of elaborate party loyalty test and sends them away.  Blue Beetle confronts a police officer who is blackmailing him, figuring the guy must be a Manhunter, but this guy, Fisher, denies it.  The Beetle leaves, wondering who his Manhunter must be, and is confronted by his foe Overthrow.  Nadia and Herupa go to Birmingham, where they speak to Celia Windward.  In a rough approximation of Black British speech, she tells them that she’s waiting for the world to end.  They next go to Iran, where Salima Baranizar, apparently a devout Muslim, sees them as blasphemers.  They debate whether or not women can be leaders, and she seems conflicted.  Dan Richards, the first human to use the name Manhunter as a hero, walks down a street in Akron thinking about all this Manhunter discussion, and wanting to investigate.  He walks past Laurel Kent, a Manhunter who thinks about herself as superior to humans.  We know that she’s going to go on to be a problem for the Legion of Super-Heroes in a thousand years.  What’s curious about her is that she’s an android, but looks human, unlike most of the other Manhunters.  This leaves me wondering if all the infiltrators are androids, because I thought they were supposed to be human acolytes.  Nadia and Herupa go to Pretoria, where they make their offer to Janwillem Kroef, a big older white guy, who comments on how the group they are assembling needs to be run by a white man.  Next, they go to Peru, where they find a very drunk Gregorio De La Vega, wearing a loud shirt.  He’s convinced they are a hallucination, and makes a vague reference to himself as a fruit.  Tom Kalmaku wakes up in the hospital with the Green Lantern Corps standing over him.  Apparently Kilowog used some medicine and machines to make him better (this is not usually how you cure a beating).  As they talk, Nadia and Herupa appear and tell them that they’ve talked to eight of their intended ten.  Hal tells them that the heroes of Earth are all dealing with personal problems and aren’t able to protect the chosen (and let’s face it, it would have made more sense for them to approach them with some heroes).  They make their offer to Tom, who immediately thinks of his wife and kids.  In Arkham Asylum, Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, rants about how he’s been visited and is going to gain great power, which he will use to take the world into The Green, and destroy all humans.  This week’s issue continued in Batman, Blue Beetle, Legion of Super-Heroes, Secret Origins, Superman, and Young All-Stars.
• There are scores of Manhunters in their temple, listening to the Grandmaster (who is surrounded by five or six other guys who look exactly like the Grandmaster).  They speak of killing the Guardian, the Zamoran, and the Chosen.  We learn that Salima Baranizar was killed by a mob that some Manhunters take credit for creating.  He says that the heroes have spurned their overtures, so they should die.  He talks about the lion that is their symbol, and that makes no sense if they are billions of years old and not from the Earth, but whatever.  A newscaster discusses the reports of aliens, UFOs, and Manhunters on the news, and minimizes them all.  Another reporter, Tawny, watches her colleague deliver the news.  An executive approaches her and tells her that if she also minimizes these reports, he’ll advance her career.  In Russia, Nikolai is interrogated, and then shot by a Russian official who is probably a Manhunter (this page looks like it was laid out by Keith Giffen).  The Green Lanterns (Hal, Arisia, and Katma), Nadia, and Herupa escort Tom and his family to the Citadel.  Blue Beetle tells them what happened to Salima, and Nadia feels Nikolai die.  Tom, who is still reluctant to be involved in this, asks how that impacts their plan, and they say they left space for attrition.  Kilowog and John join them, showing them how President Ronald Reagan is on TV talking about the Manhunter situation.  He references the events of the Legends series, and encourages everyone to believe in their heroes, but to not believe the rumors of messiahs.  Kilowog thinks he’s a Manhunter, but the art suggests that it’s actually Nancy Reagan who is in the cult.  The Outsiders arrive in Tokyo to gather Takeo.  We learn that Metamorpho is dead, presumably at Dr. Jace’s hands.  As they prepare to take Takeo to California, they are attacked by Manhunters in overwhelming numbers.  They flee with Takeo, while Geo-Force keeps yelling his own name.  Infinity Inc., now including Hourman, arrive in Australia to pick up Betty (these are the ‘infinite ones’ referenced in the last issue).  Some of the JLI stand outside the Washington Memorial in DC, addressing a crowd.  They tell the crowd that they are handling the situation.  Black Canary thinks about how the people like them more than they did during Legend, while Captain Atom feels guilty about spying on the JLI for the Atom Project.  As they fly off, Booster Gold notices Hadley talking to someone, and realizes he’s a Manhunter.  He lifts him into the air and threatens him to leave his friend Captain Atom alone, and then drops him.  We learn that Hadley’s been passing on Atom’s intel to the Manhunters.  Wade Eiling and Amanda Waller notice this, and each schemes for their own advancement.  At Arkham, Dr. Wetson goes to see Woodrue and reveals herself to be a Manhunter.  He leaves with her.  Guy, Batman, and Mister Miracle go to collect Celia, and end up fighting off a variety of Manhunters dressed in stereotypical British styles.  Wonder Woman arrives in Pretoria, and is disgusted by apartheid.  She goes to see Kroef, who is a Minister, and makes it clear that she doesn’t like his values.  Someone mocks Gregorio in Peru (it’s clearer to me now than it was in 1987 that he’s gay), and he decides he’s had enough.  He jumps off a pier, but Flash arrives just then and saves him.  In his broken Spanish, Wally tries to make him feel better.  Kilowog, John Stewart, and Katma Stewart arrive in China to get Xiang Po, and are impressed that so many people have come to see her off. Karma realizes one is a Manhunter and grabs him.  Harbinger has arrived at the Manhunter homeworld, and splitting herself into twenty, does battle with scores of Manhunters.  She holds out as long as she can, but eventually collapses.  The Grandmaster says they’re going to put her in an energy-depletion chamber.  The heroes and the Chosen gather at the Citadel.  The heroes are a little surprised by the Guardian’s choices.  Hal notices that Tom and his family are missing.  This issue continued in that week’s issues of Adventures of Superman, Booster Gold, Green Lantern Corps, and Infinity, Inc.

• Between issues, Hal brought Tom back to the Citadel, and Infinity Inc. captured the Floronic Man, who seems pretty amused by that fact.  Batman watches them tie him up, and watches the Chosen chat amongst themselves, and doesn’t like how things are going.  Kroef talks to Wally about how he’s surprised he’s the only white person among the children, and Wally makes it clear he’s not interested in listening to his racism.  Batman’s thoughts share with us that Firestorm and Booster Gold have gone over to the Manhunters, and that James Gordon was replaced with a robot.  He suddenly remembers the old JLA villain the Privateer, and asks Hal to use his computer.  He learns that Mark Shaw, the Privateer, is incarcerated in Belle Reve, near where the Floronic Man was captured.  He borrows a jet from STAR Labs and heads there.  In the bayou, at the Manhunter citadel there, a bunch of slogan-shouting Manhunters take stock in how they’re doing.  Ferguson arrives with Firestorm, whom he has control over.  We see that Dirk Davis has convinced Booster to switch sides with money.  The Manhunter talking to Booster over video phone tests his loyalty by giving him a chance to warn Captain Atom of their plans.  Booster does nothing.  Atom meets with General Eiling, who wants him to search for Firestorm in the Louisiana bayou.  Eiling wants him to go alone because he’s hoping to show up Amanda Waller.  Hadley just misses Atom, and decides he should reveal the man’s secrets on TV.  Herupa and Nadia gather the Chosen and give them one last chance to back out before they start to train them.  Everyone agrees to stay the course, and they head into the Citadel (I’m not sure why everyone is standing around outside so much) to learn about cosmic matters.  Something momentarily bothers Nadia during this conversation, which both Mister Miracle and Martian Manhunter notice.  At Belle Reve prison, the warden, John Economos, has gathered the Suicide Squad – Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Hangman, Karin Page, and Privateer – for a briefing.  They are to search and find the Manhunter base and blow it up.  Boomerang and Hangman are resistant to doing this, and are given explosive wristbands.  The Squad heads out, and some doubt is planted as to whether or not Shaw can be trusted.  Batman arrives at the prison and meets with Economos, who lies to him, saying that Shaw was released a couple of weeks before.  Batman notices the boat requisition on Economos’s desk.  In New York, Madame Xanadu looks at the Manhunter mask in her collection, and is joined by a customer looking for a tarot reading.  He speaks in an atrocious accent, and when Xanadu moves to show him the Manhunter mask, he clocks her with a blackjack.  Jim Corrigan and someone named Kim return to Xanadu’s after going out to buy lunch, and find her on the ground.  She says that the Manhunter is in Jim’s office.  He rushes upstairs and the Manhunter asks where the Spectre is.  The guy escapes by jumping off the balcony, and then Corrigan is joined by the Spectre (I guess they were separate entities at this time).  After they’ve checked on Xanadu, the Spectre determines that the Manhunters are in Louisiana, and orders Corrigan to get a plane ticket (I’m not sure why the Spectre can’t get there on his own).  On the Manhunter homeworld, Harbinger is trapped in the energy depletion chamber, which is actually a forcefield in a big empty room.  The Grandmaster comes to gloat, and manages to drop the key to the “chamber”.  After he leaves, Lyla is able to reach it with her foot.  After she’s freed herself, she thinks she’s sneaking around their complex, but soon finds that she’s been freed so the Grandmaster can hunt her down.  As he gloats some more, we see an alien Green Lantern listening from down a hallway.  Floronic Man has slipped away from the Citadel, and meets with a Manhunter acolyte in the bushes.  It becomes clear that Woodrue is working for the Manhunters.  Batman talks to the man that rented a boat to the Suicide Squad, and then enters the swamp on a boat of his own.  We see that Batman, the Suicide Squad, Captain Atom, and the Spectre are converging on the swamp, for slightly different reasons.  This week’s issue continues, not surprisingly, in Detective Comics, Suicide Squad, Captain Atom, and the Spectre, in a four-part tie-in within the event.  It also continues in Action Comics and Teen Titans Spotlight.
• Nadia and Herupa spend most of issue five explaining the universe to the Chosen.  They encourage them to listen to their teachings and then decide what to do with the information.  They start by stating that the universe is logical, and that it began with the big bang, and then employs a number system to explain things.  Superman arrives at the Citadel, having learned that all of Smallville was a Manhunter enclave that’s been watching him his whole life.  He has broken their control of Lana and the others.  He enters the Citadel to find all of the heroes cheering for Batman.  Nadia talks about the concept of the other, which she calls two.  Batman explains how he and Jim Corrigan found the Manhunter temple in the bayou and got all of their hostages out before the place blew up.  Captain Atom, who is standing with a restored Firestorm, talks about how they absorbed and transmuted the blast that destroyed the temple, but Atom purposely leaves out mention of the Suicide Squad.  The heroes talk, with Brainwave Jr. sharing that his telepathy can’t locate more than a handful of Manhunters on Earth (first, would a telepath be able to detect androids, and secondly, he has just shown up randomly, I guess because they needed a telepath).  Some heroes want to hunt the rest down, while others, like Halo, want time to mourn.  Wonder Woman wants to get to know the other heroes better, and Wally wants to examine his life.  Herupa talks about three, a new concept, which is limited.  President Reagan speaks to the press, and is questioned on how he’s contradicting earlier statements about the Manhunters.  Boarding his helicopter, he shows doubt that the Manhunters are gone to Nancy.  Nadia talks about four, the reverse of three, which life demands.  The Chosen seem open to this nonsense, except for Kroef, who looks skeptical.  She also explains that five understands mortality.  Looker receives a telepathic message from her people, and the Outsiders (which now include Windfall and the Atomic Knight) decide to leave together, and not tell Batman.  Batman notices them leaving, and watches them fly off together.  He feels strange, but can’t explain why to Mister Miracle.  They return to the meeting, where Blue Beetle is laughing at stuff, and Black Canary keeps yelling at Ollie, who is never actually shown in this issue.  Jade talks about how it’s a shame that Booster Gold is still with the Manhunters, while Wonder Woman explains the challenges the gods have given her to Arisia.  Wonder Woman suddenly disappears.  Herupa talks about six, which is in the middle.  Aquaman and Aqualad arrive and tell the heroes that they brought a flying saucer they recovered from the ocean after fighting off some Manhunters and bionic jellyfish.  Blue Beetle realizes this means that the Manhunters can send reinforcements from space.  Nadia talks about how seven lives in “the best of all possible worlds”.  The heroes talk about how they’ve been too focused on Earth, but because they can’t interrupt the immortals during their teaching, they aren’t sure how to proceed.  Hal shares that the Manhunters operate off of Orinda, in the Procyon system.  Superman suggests he fly there with the GLs to deal with it, but Batman thinks they should take more heroes, while Katma thinks that some GLs should stay on Earth.  Skyman suggests getting Hawkman and Hawkwoman, although I can’t understand why.  Herupa talks about how eight is “the world as it really is”.  Harbinger is bound in the energy depletion chamber that is not a chamber again, and is surprised to see the Green Lantern from last issue approach.  He’s basically an animated corpse, whose ring shares with her that his name was Driq, and that he was killed in a fight with Sinestro and an insane living galaxy.  Driq frees her, but once again, the Grandmaster watches her and plans to hunt her down again.  Nadia talks about nine, which finds equilibrium through experience.  Hawkman and Hawkwoman arrive as a team is chosen to go to Orinda.  It’s Hal, the Hawks, Arisia, Katma, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Captain Atom, and Firestorm who are heading out.  Doctor Fate shows up to transport them there.  Blue Beetle studies the spaceship, and notices something strange about it.  Herupa talks about how immortality is possible through equilibrium, and that ten is the combination of the one of something and the zero of nothing.  (This numerology stuff feels very slapped together, but maybe Steve Englehart was into this kind of new agey pseudo philosophy).  This issue continues into Justice League International, Firestorm, Flash, Wonder Woman, and the final issue of Outsiders.

• I guess the space team fought their battle in the previous week’s issues of JLI or Firestorm, because when issue six opens, the space team is flying through space, with Harbinger and Driq, chasing after the Highmaster (I’m not sure how Hawkman and Hawkwoman breathe in space).  The Highmaster is a giant Manhunter who is mostly yellow.  He turns to attack the heroes, and rants about how a three billion year old plan has been ruined.  Katma suggests that the Lanterns encase him in space debris, but he uses his power to do that to them instead.  Only Martian Manhunter and Superman are able to continue the fight, but they aren’t enough.  The Highmaster blasts them and then either shrinks away or teleports.  Dr. Fate feels that he needs to use the spell called the Call of Vayu to catch him, but Nabu advises against it from a distance.  Fate tries it anyway, and the heroes are teleported somewhere rocky and flame-filled.  Because he didn’t prepare them to come to whatever dimension they’re now in, they start to pass out.  Fate says he can concentrate their life energies into two heroes, and Arisia suggests Hal get the GL life force, while Firestorm suggests Superman get the rest.  Fate casts this spell, and Superman and Hal get powered up, while everyone else lies around.  We still have no idea where this is taking place.  The Chosen are lying around outside the Citadel, appearing to sleep, as they process the knowledge that Herupa and Nadia have given them.  We see their dreams, some of which are hard to interpret (Celia sees a giant monster outline in space), while others are clear.  Kroef dreams of being a demagogue, while Tom dreams of being in the Green Lantern Corps.  Nadia points out that Kroef will play the role of traitor.  Batman is brooding when Wonder Woman approaches to tell him about how Pan was a Manhunter, but he snaps at her.  He’s upset because he’s learned that the Outsiders have been “crushed”, and then calls for Guy Gardner to come with him and find Booster Gold.  Wonder Woman is disappointed by Batman’s rudeness.  When Batman and Guy arrive at Booster’s home, he attacks them, claiming that he’s doing it for money.  Guy tries the friendly approach, and Booster knocks him down.  Booster manages to escape them, and Batman is more angry.  The Chosen begin to wake up, and Herupa and Nadia note how amazing Betty is.  They worry about Woodrue’s stability.  Tom feels very balanced, and then his family approaches and notice that he’s changed.  Gregorio surprises the Guardian by knowing that the Manhunters aren’t finished.  Kroef rejects the teachings he received, and throws a Trumpian temper tantrum.  He tells Herupa and Nadia to stop what they’re doing, and threatens to leave, which they’re fine with.  As he storms off, he calls John Stewart a slur, and he uses his ring to punch him.  Woodrue sneaks off, and finds the Manhunter operative in the woods again.  Woodrue tells him nonsense about green and red, but makes it clear he’s not with the Manhunters anymore.  When the operative, who is just a kid really, pulls out a weapon, Woodrue captures him.  Some of the heroes and Chosen come over and take him inside for interrogation.  Batman threatens to kill the kid if he doesn’t give him information, but before he can talk, Blue Beetle interrupts with news.  He, Mister Miracle, and Kilowog had been going over the flying saucer and he found evidence that it didn’t come from space but from inside the center of the Earth.  They suppose that the Manhunters have a base hidden under the ocean, and prepare to go deal with them once and for all.  This week’s issue continues in Blue Beetle, Superman, Secret Origins, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Young All-Stars.
• I guess Superman and Hal were successful in their mission, because they’re back with the others floating in space.  Dr. Fate tells them he doesn’t know the spell to get them back home.  The heroes figure there’s no great rush, as they believe they’ve finished off the Manhunters.  Harbinger tells them she knows there’s still a threat on Earth, and then she disappears.  Superman rallies them to fly home (it’s eleven light years, but Hawkwoman’s pointed out that they only need to get close enough for Fate to be able to contact Nabu).  The rest of the heroes, meanwhile, are descending through the ocean in a large spherical diving machine, approaching the Mariana Trench.  Batman admits that stopping the Manhunters completely might not ever be possible, but they can cripple their operations.  Their vehicle passes through a layer of lava, and comes out in a dry, air-filled and light area under the Earth’s crust.  Flash locates a hatch that Nuke opens, and the heroes prepare to drop down a long access tunnel.  Harbinger appears, and gives a speech about how the Monitor loved Earth so now she loves it too.  The heroes descend.  At the Citadel, the Chosen practice tai chi, and we see that Herupa and Nadia have visibly aged.  Tom’s wife watches, and feels sad that he’s changing so much.  The heroes enter the Manhunter complex, and spy as the Grandmaster addresses a room of androids, Pan, and Booster Gold.  The Grandmaster (is there more than one, or is this the same guy that had Harbinger prisoner on Orinda?) assumes that the Highmaster has fallen, and they talk about blowing up the Earth to stop the Chosen from evolving.  The heroes are discovered, and a big fight starts.  Wonder Woman sees Pan, who she’s been tasked to capture, and they start to fight.  She catches him with her lasso, but he insists on pulling away from her, telling her that if she doesn’t let go, he’ll be cut in two.  This happens, and she sees that he was an android.  Flash takes out his anger over what was done to his father on some other Manhunters.  The fight continues, and the Manhunters start targeting the Green Lanterns in the group.  Harbinger splits into twenty beings to help with the fight.  Booster Gold and some Manhunters approach the doomsday bomb, and are followed by some heroes.  Booster helps the Manhunters fight them off, but many of the androids fall.  The Grandmaster orders them to detonate the bomb, but when one of them is about to press the button and set it off, Booster stops him.  Booster starts fighting the other Manhunters, as the rest of the heroes arrive.  One Manhunter slips away, it’s the Infinity Inc. villain Harlequin.  When the last of the Manhunters are down, Booster tries to tell the others that he infiltrated them, but Blue Beetle and Green Arrow don’t believe him.  Beetle and Black Canary hold him.  With the fighting all finished (what happened to the Grandmaster though?), the heroes start to relax when suddenly the roof is torn open – the space team has returned and come straight to them (with no mention of how they got there so quickly).  Herupa and Nadia appear in a vision, asking the heroes to return to the Citadel.  Once they’re all back, Herupa says that before the Chosen transform, they want them to walk through the world one last time as themselves.  Celia notices a black car at the bottom of a nearby hill and goes to check it out.  Jade asks Betty if she can take her out with the rest of Infinity Inc.  Booster grabs Xiang and flies off, saying he’s going to show her how rotten the world is.  This issue continues into Booster Gold, Infinity Inc., Green Lantern Corps, and Adventures of Superman.

• The heroes gather outside the Citadel, and Kilowog announces that Nadia and Herupa are ready for the Chosen.  They talk about evolution and how the “race of Earth” will breed change for a thousand years, and mention their weird numerology some more.  Then they ask Xiang to come forward.  By bathing her in their green and purple lights, they transform her into Gloss, a statuesque figure with long hair.  She yells out some catch phrases and talks about the dragon-lines of power, while the others look on in excitement (although Booster seems a little bitter – I guess his story got resolved in his own comic).  Her transformation is noted on Olympus and by the Parliament of Trees, the first in many odd cameos in this issue.  Takeo is transformed next, into RAM, a guy who looks like he’s made of circuitry and like he might have an onboard modem that can handle a few MB a minute.  His transformation is noted by Darkseid and Highfather.  Nadia almost collapses, and we see that she and Herupa are now aging at an even quicker rate.  Gregorio is up next, and his transformation is into Extraño, a magician or witch, whose name is Spanish for Strange (it’s really obvious who this look is based on, with his long coat almost looking like a cloak of levitation).  The Phantom Stranger notices him, as do the denizens of Qward. They want Sinestro to stop the Guardian, but we see he’s imprisoned in a green energy device on the moon.  When it comes time for Betty to transform, it’s kind of weird.  She doesn’t become something else, but instead sinks into the Earth to become part of it, and now she communicates through or is a part of Extraño.  The Demon notices this, and says that the Earth now has a “woman-smell”, which is kind of misogynistic.  In the realms of death, Salima and Nikolai, the two slain Chosen, want to stop the Chosen, but the Spectre blocks them.  The Creeper laughs (at what?).  Celia is transformed, although other than cornrows of green flame, Jet doesn’t look that different.  She flies around and thinks about doing good.  This energy is noticed by the Challengers of the Unknown, someone I don’t recognize, Sarge Steel, and Deadman (these are very random characters at this point).  Herupa is getting weaker and weaker, and so when he calls up Woodrue, by the name Floro, he says that he doesn’t need their energy, but also makes it clear that he’s on side with the rest of the Chosen.  They call on Tom, who gives a brief speech about his sense of responsibility to his wife and children, and refuses the immortals’ gifts.  Hal doesn’t get it at first, but accepts his friend’s position, as do the rest of the Chosen.  Nadia mentions that they still have a seventh Chosen, and calls on Harbinger.  Lyla doesn’t want to join up, so she splits into twenty people and flies off.  Without his permission, Nadia and Herupa place latent power in Tom in case he needs it or wishes for it, and they tell him that there are people who will see him as a target.  At this point we go to “Darkest Africa” (really?) where we see that Kroef, who now wears an over-the-top military uniform, has been applying the lessons he learned to his country’s racist ideology, wanting to go to war with change.  Nadia and Herupa embrace and then die, their energy spent.  Booster congratulates the Chosen, and Superman suggests that since the heroes’ work is done, they should leave the Chosen to their new lives.  Everyone except the Green Lanterns (not Guy) fly off, and the Chosen stand ready for the future.  There are two epilogues to this issue in Spectre and in Teen Titans Spotlight.

The text page mentions that The Chosen would return in their own book, but we know that by the time it was published, it had the name The New Guardians.  More on that at the end.

When I chose to write about this series, I decided that I would only focus on the main book, largely because I didn’t want to dig through multiple long boxes for tie-in issues, some of which I’ve read recently, and I didn’t want to spend more than a month on this column.  Looking back, that was probably a mistake, because on its own, this did not read well as a series, but I remember it mostly working very well as an event.

Englehart plotted this so that much of the pivotal action happened in crossover issues, and so here, we didn’t really get to see some of the biggest battles or most impactful revelations of the series.  Instead, we got a lot of heroic discussion and new age philosophical rambling.

That said, I still think this was a masterfully executed crossover event.  The main series was designed to launch these new characters, and an adequate amount of time was spent introducing and developing these characters and their relationships with one another.

It’s easy to see what Englehart was going for with these characters.  They represent a wide variety of nations, races, and backgrounds, and while some of their portrayals are little more than caricatures, I guess that still counted as progress at that time.  Probably the most notable of these new characters, and I think, the only one still being used, is Extraño, who might have been the first openly gay superhero in the DCU.  There were a lot of stereotypes put into his construction, and I’m sure I’m going to have a lot more to say about him, and the others, when I move on to the New Guardians for my next column.  I also think I’ll have a lot more to say about Kroef, the very unlikeable apartheid minister from South Africa.  I’m not sure why Nadia and Herupa would have ever considered a character like him for evolution.  I do appreciate the way that DC waded into the apartheid issue in the 80s, but I guess the consensus was pretty clear then (not like it is today with a certain apartheid state that never gets criticized in mainstream consciousness).

While the series became about the Chosen, at the beginning, it was more about this concept that so many heroes had their lives infiltrated by the Manhunters.  I struggled with this, reading it this time.  If you accept that Harbinger sent the Manhunters all of the heroes’ personal details, inadvertently, it doesn’t explain how they were able to transform all of Smallville into a Manhunter bastion long before Superman was on the scene.  I can accept that the cult recruited Wally West’s father – he was never the most developed character, and it wouldn’t have taken a lot to figure out that Wally was Kid Flash.  Some of the other infiltrations, though, like Lana Lang, just don’t really make sense to me (unless this got explained in one of the tie-ins, and I forgot).  Other than Wally’s story, I’m not sure that any of these surprises led to lasting change.  James Gordon was restored, Superman saved Smallville, and things went back to normal (although the very cool Laurel Kent was ruined forever in Legion of Super-Heroes, but then she inspired Laurel Gand, so I’m not mad at that either).

In a some ways, Millennium reminded me a little of Brian Michael Bendis’s Secret Invasion, that revealed that many Marvel heroes had secretly been replaced by Skrulls.  In some cases, it made no sense, but in others, it led to some very cool stories.

I thought the choice of heroes to include in this book was interesting.  I saw in the textpiece that the plans for the story didn’t fit with what was happening in New Teen Titans, so they got left out (aside from two ‘Spotlight’ stories).  Likewise, DC chose to end The Outsiders with this event, going so far as to kill off (at least for a while) Metamorpho.  Infinity Inc. got a lot of screen time in this event, and while I never really messed with that book, it kind of left me curious to see if it’s any good.  I guess it had higher sales than the Outsiders, which seems a little surprising to me, as that other book sometimes had Batman in it.

I realized that, excluding Legends, this was the first big event to take place after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and therefore carried some weird continuity baggage.  I noticed that most heroes were meeting Infinity Inc. for the first time, and that Wonder Woman had just begun her time in the wider world.  I like that Englehart showed her excitement at (and sometimes disappointment in) meeting the other heroes.  I also thought it interesting to see how characters were reacting to Superman, given that many of them would have been operating as heroes for longer than him.  One thing that kind of stood out to me was the portrayal of Hawkman and Hawkwoman.  I know that Hawkman was called Katar, but these are not the same characters that Tim Truman and John Ostrander would soon portray in Hawkworld.  I’m guessing there’s some kind of explanation to their inclusion, but it might have been easier and made more sense to leave them out completely.  

In terms of art, I ended up liking it more than I expected to.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Joe Staton, but I think that most issues of this series were just laid out by him, and that Ian Gibson did more than an inker traditionally does, giving the characters more of his usual angularity and dynamics.  The book looked good, and it couldn’t have been easy to keep all those characters straight.  I did notice that some showed up and disappeared, like Green Arrow and the second Doctor Mid-Nite.

I’m glad I returned to this series, which really was my wider introduction to the DCU.  It was out of loyalty to that concept that I ended up getting the New Guardians series, which I don’t really remember enjoying all that much.  I’m going to be diving into it for my next column, and we’ll see if my memories of it are perhaps unkind.

If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.