How well-received was Millennium at the time?

[Tzigone]

Haven't read it, and am curious. I have read the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold issues of the era, and for BG, in particular, it seemed liked it threw a wrench in things. The Dirk-Manhunter thing seemed completely out of the blue and inconsistent with prior characterization to me, but it is certainly possible I overlooked something.

[ducklord]

Millenium is definitely a mixed bag.

On the plus side
- Some of the genuine sleeper agents (as opposed to the robot replacements) provided some solid plot twists.
- There was a genuine, well-intentioned effort on DC's part to create a cast of international characters.
- It was remarkably well-organized. 8 weeks in and out, with dozens of crossovers. I don't think DC or Marvel are remotely capable of pulling off something like that any more.
- It introduced us to G'nort!
- The middle issue ("10") features wonderfully silly comic book pseudo philosophy.
- It was nice to see the collective heroes of the DCU working towards a goal to advance humanity, rather than merely defending reality from destruction for the umpteenth time.

On the less-than-plus side
- Although I personally LOVE Joe Staton art, I can understand why some fans blanche at the thought of him being out in front of a company-wide crossover.
- Some of the Manhunter spies fell squarely in the category of "are you serious?"
- For all the good intentions with regards to the Chosen, they were stunningly one-note cliches. The evil racist South African. The ridiculously flamboyant homosexual. The cold technocrat from Japan. I know it was the 80's, but even as a kid I thought, "wow, these characters are a little broad."
- For seven issues, the series repeats a noble mission statement - This is not a story about super-heroes. You can probably guess how it ends.

It's worth a look, though. I still think Extrano could be a breakout character.

[jetengine]

Hey it gave us Snow Flame.

[Hol]

I remember really enjoying the Crossover issues at the time. Flash was great. Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and JLI. Oh and Superman. But the actual series was just ok. I haven't re-read the main series since.

[Fromper]

I never read it. I started reading comics a few years after that, but I have Milennium tie-in issues of some comics that I caught up on as back issues. Reading just those tie-ins without the associated miniseries, it was a disruptive mess. When I reread them recently, I wondered if tracking down the whole series would make it worthwhile, but I decided not to bother at the time. So I'll keep an eye on this thread, but I'm not really feeling it.

[Stingo]

I never read it. I started reading comics a few years after that, but I have Milennium tie-in issues of some comics that I caught up on as back issues. Reading just those tie-ins without the associated miniseries, it was a disruptive mess. When I reread them recently, I wondered if tracking down the whole series would make it worthwhile, but I decided not to bother at the time. So I'll keep an eye on this thread, but I'm not really feeling it.

I recall being on the fence when Millennium came out but I was a total convert after reading the excellent Secret Origins issue 22 as written by continuity maven and all-around legend Roy Thomas. This issue really wrapped the whole event up in a big red bow and brought order and cohesion to the proceedings.

As for how well-received the mini was, as I recall it was a pretty huge event being only the second big crossover since Marv Wolfman's Crisis On Infinite Earths. I particularly enjoyed Baron's Flash crossover as well as Roy's The Young All-Stars.

[Lee Stone]

The teases were great.
Some of the Manhunter spies worked perfectly in their books, like Rocket Red in JLI who, unlike his successor, hadn't warmed up to the team or shown his identity. Or Laurel Kent in Legion, who had had an attepted-murder mystery earlier in the run where someone shot her with a Kryptonite bullet. Because of that story, no one would've expected her.

I agree about Staton's art. Love him on Huntress, Green Lantern Corps, Femme Noir and Dick Tracy.
But I felt he was mis-assigned on Millennium.

Millennium also signaled the end of Booster Gold and Outsiders, with Blue Beetle ending a few months later.

I enjoyed the series, although I do agree about the characters introduced being a bit one-dimensional.

[kcekada]

The crossovers were better than the mini-series. It was an interesting concept -- sunk or swam -- depending on the creative teams invovled. Suicide Squad crossover was one of the better stories.

[Fromper]

It's funny how people are praising tie in issues of things like Flash and Suicide Squad. Those are among the ones that I have, which I thought were just disruptive to their series, and didn't make much sense without the Millennium miniseries.

[titanfan]

Big company-wide crossovers were still new at the time so it was considered a big event a lot of people looked forward to.

Wasn't as good as Crisis and was kind of a mixed bag. All in all, not terrible. Was expecting more of the characters to break out but none of them really did.

[Lee Stone]

It's funny how people are praising tie in issues of things like Flash and Suicide Squad. Those are among the ones that I have, which I thought were just disruptive to their series, and didn't make much sense without the Millennium miniseries.

I think the tie-ins of those books were better to non-regular readers.
I liked the Suicide Squad issue, but then I wasn't reading Suicide Squad at the time and had only read the first two issues before I dropped it.

Of course, Millennium also did something at the time that gives it a negative mark. It had crossovers with books not available to most readers.
Comic shops weren't everywhere and the standard place to buy comics was still convenience stores and newsstands.

Millennium was pretty tightly knit. And I lucked out because we had a Waldenbooks in our town from 1986 until sometime in the mid-'90s. So I was able to get the Legion issue.

But the biggest culprit was that Suicide Squad story.
Because it was a mini-crossover with three other titles, with a pretty snazzy interlocking cover image, and one of the titles was Spectre.
I remember getting Detective, Suicide Squad and Captain Atom and being disappointed because it crossed over with Spectre, which wasn't available anywhere.

I wasn't always able to go to Waldenbooks, because it was on the south side of town and we lived on the north side, so I don't know if it appeared there or not.

But that was the main reason why newsstand comics didn't normally cross over with direct only comics.

A similar thing happened with the last JLA/JSA crossover, with part of it being in Infinity, Inc.
I never read the other part to the story because it wasn't available.

[mikelmcknight72]

i believe it may have been DC's first attempt to replicate the success of the Crisis on a smaller scale. It also seems to have been written to shake up the GLC. Instead of finding ways to tie-in series organically, they seemed to have a mandate that every series with a tie in issue would have a cast member revealed as a Manhunter operative. Most of the traitor had little to no backstory that made the revelations believable (Rudy West, Lana Lang, Helga Jace, etc). The only memorable and well-written one was in Suicide Squad 9 during the legendary Ostrander run. It wasn't just the best tie-in, it was better than any issue of the main event series.

The New Guardians were pretty forgettable too.

[Lee Stone]

And it was also an inspired effort to use Harbinger outside of Crisis.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Millennium was not bad, but I think it was seen as a step down from Crisis and Legends.

The weekly aspect was novel, so it started and finished within 2 months, which was nice.

Joe Staton's art really was a strike against it given how the previous two crossovers had George Perez and John Byrne art.

The next crossover, Invasion, was much better received.

[DrNewGod]

It had a lot going for it. With the withdrawal of The Guardians, a move by The Manhunters was a natural, and had a nice prophetic theme in the consequences of abandoning a seemingly defeated foe to squalor. It undershot at almost every turn, mainly with the ill-thought-out sleeper agent insertions (Booster Gold's being a standout). What bugged me the most was the ham-fisted attempt to reconcile the Golden Age Manhunter characters with the plot in All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc.

Ultimately, it was the second major step in DC's march toward supplanting their published history with what contemporary writers wanted to remake their history as.