Icon (comics)
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Icon (also known as Augustus Freeman, Augustus Freeman Jr, Augustus Freeman III, and Augustus Freeman IV) is a Milestone Comics superhero. Created by Dwayne McDuffie, he first appeared in Icon #1 (1993).
In 1839, an alien starliner malfunctioned and exploded. A jettisoned life pod crashed -- in the middle of a cotton field, in the Deep South. The pod was equipped with a unique survival mechanism, which reconfigured the genetic structure of its passenger to resemble whatever life form it first encountered. And so it happened that Miriam, the slave woman who discovered the pod, found inside a baby boy with her mother's eyes.
In the present, the alien is still with us, in the guise of a successful lawyer, Augustus Freeman IV. Still marooned, he waits for Earth's technology to catch up to his life pod's. Secretly possessing superpowers that belie his human appearance, he has always performed quiet acts of charity. But one night his house was broken into, and he used his powers for the first time in decades, an action which was witnessed by Raquel Ervin. The idealistic youth convinced him to become the superhero Icon, Hero of Dakota, with Raquel as his sidekick, Rocket.
Despite its title, McDuffie has said that the protagonist of the Icon series was actually Icon's sidekick, Rocket.
The man called Augustus Freeman was originally an alien lawyer, before an accident during a galactic cruise led to his crash-landing on Earth. To allow him to survive until rescue, his life-pod was programmed to transform him so that he would resemble an infant of the local sentient species. However, he landed in the American South in 1839 and was found by a black woman, and as such was raised as a slave.
He did not age visibly beyond adulthood, and to disguise this fact, he periodically assumed the identity of his own son. By the late 20th century, he was posing as Augustus Freeman IV, the great-grandson of his original human identity. He became a successful lawyer and settled in the city of Dakota.
Raquel Ervin was a teenage girl who was born in Paris Island, the poorest, most gang-ridden neighborhood in Dakota. Her prospects seemed fairly bleak until a chance encounter with Augustus Freeman IV. After seeing him use his powers, Raquel persuaded Augustus to become a superhero named Icon. With the aid of an alien device giving her the ability to fly, Raquel became his sidekick, Rocket.
Icon held conservative views on economic and social issues, which often put him in conflict with more liberal Dakota superheroes, including his sidekick. Under Rocket's influence, he eventually began re-evaluating his views.
Because of the superficial similarity of his powers and origin story, Icon was sometimes referred to as the "black Superman", a designation rejected by his creators.
Characters
- Augustus Freeman IV/Arnus/Icon - in actually Augustus Freeman I, II, III and IV; the alien Arnus came to Earth aboard a life-pod after the starliner (an interstellar cruise ship) he was aboard was damaged. He used the life-pod's equipment to mimic the first lifeform who discovered him... a slave woman in 1839 named Miriam.
- Raquel Ervin/Rocket - Icon's sidekick and the one who inspired him to become a hero (after breaking into his house with friends...). After seeing him fly and not show any effects from a point-blank range gunshot, Raquel returned to his house, this time with ideas for two costumes. After their first adventure, Icon asked her to retire, using his alien senses to discover that she was pregnant.
- Rufus T.Wild/"Buck Wild, Mercenary Man"/Buck Goliath/Buck Lightning/Buck Voodoo/Buck Naked/Jack Crow/Buck Icon/Icon II - First appeared in Icon #13 "It's Always Christmas" (May 1994); Buck Wild possessed "belief defyin' strength" and "tungsten hard skin". He once used an experimental growth serum which turned him into the gigantic "Buck Goliath". After some time, he wore a replica of Icon's costume in order to take Icon's place when Icon returned to his home planet. Rocket (Darnice) was able to use her Inertia Belt to carry him, making him appear to fly. His time as Icon II was short-lived when he gave his life in order to stop a villain from Icon's homeworld. While working with the Patriot, he wore a winged costume allowing him to fly. He also experimented with wearing some sort of wrist apparatus which generated lightning bolts. During his brief resurrection, the legendary Ruby Begonia brought him back to life, and allowed him to generate green smoke, the sound of drums tolling doom, and a ghost like double (soul self?) which could possess others and make them do his bidding.
- Darnice/Rocket II - Raquel Ervin's best friend Darnice took on the role of Rocket while she was on maternity leave (one insisted upon by both Icon and her close friends).
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