Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-93

In 1993, after feeling that minority groups were underrepresented in mainstream comics, a group of black creators would set out to to give some much needed love to these minority groups. Milestone Comics, distributed under the wider DC Comics umbrella, would launch in 1993 with a handful of titles including Blood Syndicate, Icon, Hardware, and probably it’s most well know, Static. The imprint would run for a few years before most the comics ended or were canceled and Milestone would instead focus on the Static Shock animated series that had recently launched. The universe mostly focused on the city of Dakota after an event called the Big Bang. The Big Bang was a the result of a massive gang conflict on the Paris Island section of Dakota. The police would interfere with this conflict and would launch tear gas at the gangs. This tear gas was abnormal and laced with chemicals initially meant to be used to later track anyone exposed but would actually have much more drastic effects. Many of those exposed to the gas died, and those who didn’t gained a variety of super human powers. Most of the superpowered characters in Earth-93 got their powers from this quantum juice laced gas, but not all of them.

One of the title characters of the Milestone line was a clear Superman analogue called Icon. Icon too was an alien that escaped certain doom and crashed to earth, but instead of landing on a farm in Kansas, he landed in 1839 on a plantation. He would take the form of a black man and would live for the next century and a half seldom using his powers until meeting a young Raquel Ervin. Raquel, after seeing Augustus Freeman IV fly, came up with the idea that he needed to be a hero, an Icon for the community. She designed a costume for Icon as well as one for a girl sidekick named Rocket. Rocket was of course supposed to be Raquel, and after a few days of thinking it over, Icon and Rocket began their heroic journey. Icon, being an alien, had powers all his own but the 15 year-old Raquel needed a bit of extra gear. Icon gave her a belt that allowed her to store and release kinetic energy which she would use to great effect, mostly blocking attacks and shooting blasts of energy back. While she started only able to leap great distances with the belt, she would later find a way to use the belt to fly properly. Rocket could of course fit as an analogue to a few different characters, her gung ho attitude and figuring out Augustus Freeman’s powers and urging him to become a hero mirrors Tim Drake as Robin, and she seemed to be paired up with Superboy during Worlds Collide, but Icon being so clearly based on Superman does easily place her as the Supergirl of this world.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Rocket is floating high above Dakota with her kinetic belt. She is also her belt to deflect bullets coming in from the right. The Paris Island section of Dakota as well as the broken bridge leading into Paris Island. The top right corner has a motif of a blue circle with a 93 on top of it.