Millenium: The Arrival

"Millennium" is a late 80s DC Comics crossover which strains to achieve the same epic level of its predecessors "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and "Legends," but fails because nothing which transpires here has any long-term effect on the DC Universe. We might just as well watch the DC superheroes hack their way through a jungle with machetes.The story in brief: A Guardian of the Universe and his Zamaron wife gather DC's heroes and order them to find 10 people from around the world they've chosen to breed a new race of immortals. But the robotic Manhunters (the Guardians' pre-Green Lantern Corps attempt at creating an intergalactic police force, which devolved into a cult of fanatics) try to prevent this, and are of course foiled. Other complications ensue: one of the chosen was dead before the series started, another is senile, and a third is a bigot who wants no part of a group which includes non-whites. Also, two died over the course of the series, which was published weekly rather than monthly. The remaining chosen then become a new superteam, the New Guardians.Steve Englehart's story sounds good in the summarizing. But the New Guardians' spinoff title was cancelled after only 12 issues. The group disbanded and has not been seen or heard from since, though some individual members have appeared in other DC titles.In addition, Joe Staton's pencils are not up to the levels of either George Perez in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" or John Byrne in "Legends," though Ian Gibson's inks give it a nice, slick polish that neither Staton himself or his other inkers have provided in his previous assignments, which includes a stint as a "Green Lantern" penciller."Millennium" is an agreeable time-killer, but very little more.

Marvel's recent Skrull Invasion series gave everyone the shock and awe of having heroes they've loved for years turn out to secretly be Skrulls. What some fans many not realize is that DC Comics had done this decades earlier with "Millenium". In this story, the Manhunters have infiltrated humanity for years and the time has finally come for them to take over. They need the heroes to give up peacefully, but they'll take them down as need be. Each hero has a Manhunter assigned to their life, and the reveals are sometimes surprising. Popular characters we've seen around for years turn out to be evil.The problem is that this story isn't the best to begin with. The collection is good, but there were so many crossover issues between each that aren't printed here that you begin to lose ground quickly. You have no idea what's going on. One scene will show a team like the Outsiders going to attack the Manhunters. A few pages later Batman will be brooding saying they were defeated, but we saw nothing. There are several jumps like this throughout. What this means is that you'd better carefully read each page to keep up, and be willing to make jumps in logic to fill in the empty spots.The story is a little dated (Reagan is President in the story if that gives you any indication), but it's interesting to see the first "Secret Invasion" DC-style and understand the thrill of watching icon characters (even a member of the JLI) turn on those around them.You probably won't rank this among the best stories you've read, but it's not one of the worst.

I enjoyed this book more now than when I originally read the series 32 years ago. I’ve been rereading a lot of comics from back in the day lately. I’m just feeling sentimental in my dotage I suppose.This series would probably be more appreciated today for its focus on “diversity”. I won’t bother to restate the plot here but it’s a good series for fans of the recently (1987) assembled Justice League International. I will say that this series works better with the crossover issues that were published at the time. Many times developments from those issues are not explained in detail. In that sense, this story/collection would be better served by an omnibus version that collected those issues.

I DONT LIKE THE ART TO MUCH

Like someone posted earlier, the book has missing events which made it hard for me to get into.

great story about the manhunter

thank you

Didn’t age well but the condition of the comic was great