Interview: Joseph Illidge Talks ‘The Dakota Incident’, Milestone, And More

DC’s New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident #1 is one of the smash hits of the year, detailing a Crisis-style event involving the Milestone characters interacting with the larger DC Universe. Selling out of its initial printing and commanding impressive prices on the back issue market, a second printing, featuring a new cover from Dan Mora, arrives on April 22nd.

Ahead of that release, I had the opportunity to talk to Joseph Illidge, one of the writers of The Dakota Incident as well as a key original architect of the Milestone universe back in the 1990s. We discussed the process of crafting the story, how Illidge kept characterization at the center amidst the big cosmic shenanigans, and more.

Check out the full interview below:

Austin Gorton: For anyone who hasn’t picked up The Dakota Incident#1 yet, what’s the elevator pitch for the book?

Joseph Illidge: New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident is about the rise of a new generation of superheroes in a city called Dakota, first introduced in comics in 1993 by a publisher called Milestone. 

A terrible incident happens in Dakota, forcing the city’s heroes to fight various DC Universe characters, including The Suicide Squad, to protect their home. President Lex Luthor gets involved in the showdown against Dakota’s heroes, with serious consequences for their future and the fate of a time traveler named Beacon.

It’s a great fusion of the Milestone Superhero Universe and the DC Comics Superhero Universe, for new readers and die-hard fans!

Gorton: The issue is divided into three acts, with different creative teams on each act. You’ve got the first act, which serves as a kind of primer on the history of the Milestone universe. Given your history with it, was that all the knowledge you had at the top of your head, or did you need to dig out some back issues to cross-check things?

Illidge: It’s a three-act structure with a prologue and an epilogue to act as the framing structure. My act marks the rise of the Milestone heroes, and it was important to me to foster a sense of wonder about what that means. A city of people who knew about Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman but never had any contact with them now had its own heroes, flying through the sky and protecting them. How it affected Dakota, and how Static, Milestone’s most popular character, was the catalyst for that change.

It’s funny because I didn’t have to dig through any back issues at all. Because I started my career in comics at Milestone the same month that Static #1 came out, which was May of 1993, my knowledge of the core Milestone mythology is pretty extensive!

The story’s sense of wonder parallels the impact Milestone had on the comics industry when they arrived on the scene in the seminal decade of the Nineties.

Gorton: Given that a three-act and prologue/epilogue structure, did the whole team work collaboratively in constructing the issue, or was each “act team” set doing their own individual portions?

Illidge: The Writers Room with myself, Stephanie Williams, Morgan Hampton, and Nikolas Draper-Ivey worked very collaboratively with the guidance of editor Marquis Draper. Veteran writer Mark Waid and Senior Editor Brittany Holzherr were with us as well, and we brainstormed in several story sessions, building out the idea from a germ of an idea to shape and crack the story.

After that, we did our own scripts, reading each other’s drafts and revising, fine-tuning, getting everything in dramatic sync for the characters and the story, all leading up to the climactic epilogue that sets the tone and ignites the future for Static!

It was really a creatively rewarding experience for our Fantastic Four of writers, and as someone who has built writers’ rooms as an editor, I had a ton of fun at the nucleus as a writer.

Gorton: The Dakota Incident#1 is almost like an entire Crisis event for the Milestone characters told in one issue; is that kind of sweeping, cosmic storytelling something you enjoy doing, and how do you make sure the characters stay centered within it?

Illidge: The Dakota Incident is definitely a large-scale event that you would usually see in a multi-issue miniseries or series arc, so that made the challenge to tell it in a one-dose installment all the more rewarding. I’ve been involved with events ranging from Batman: No Man’s Land to launching the Catalyst Prime superhero universe for Lion Forge Entertainment, so I definitely enjoy doing it! Making sure the characters stay centered within the story is always the top priority, because high-stakes dramas always have a core character or set of characters, someone to be the spine of the story. 

For DC Comics: The New Frontier, it was Hal Jordan, Earth’s second Green Lantern.

For New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident, it was Static. He’s Milestone’s most popular superhero due to the animated series Static Shock. He is the tip of the spear character for the Milestone Dakotaverse of heroes, just as Batman is the tip of the spear character for DC Comics superhero universes, both mainline and Absolute.

The core character drama is where the theme lies, and the story widens the scale and landscape of the adventure, so I make sure the humanity of the characters is present, and the dramatic conflict at the core of it all is clear.

It’s an easy process when you’re in a room with some of the most passionate and prolific writers in comics, and insightful editors who foster collaboration. We all embraced the mission, and the story was first above all.

Gorton: As a former Batman editor, who is your favorite Robin?

Illidge: My favorite Robin is Stephanie Brown, who had the costume and mantle for way too short a time under the pen of Bill Willingham and the art of Damion Scott.

There’s your deep dive for the day!

Gorton: What’s the last great comic you read and why?

Illidge: The last great comic I read was Rorschach by Tom King, Jorge Fornes, Dave Stewart, and Clayton Cowles.

It’s not at all what you expect from a story about the titular character, and it’s emotionally pulverizing by the time you get to the end.

Gorton: What can we expect to see from you next?

Illidge: Volume 1 of Bloodletter, the action horror revenge story I co-wrote with Tim Seeley for Image Comics and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn Universe, drops in comic book shops and bookstores Tuesday, May 5th!

It is the meanest, most visceral story I’ve ever worked on, and really speaks to the kind of complex characters and secret histories I love to write about, so I invite everyone who likes globe-spanning revenge stories with high action and higher stakes to check it out.

Lastly, the second printing of New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident arrives in shops on April 22nd, so if you missed getting the first printing, contact your comic book store owner immediately and reserve a copy!