Millennium (Comic Book)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Millennium was a DC Comics crossover miniseries published in the year 1988... twelve years before the actual millennium change. The basic concept was that the Guardians Of The Universe chose ten humans to father the next race that will take over their duties, and they ask Earth's heroes to protect them from the Manhunters, a race of androids with a grudge against the Guardians. Things get more complicated when it turns out that the Manhunters have infiltrated the personal lives of all of the heroes.

Often considered among the worst of DC's crossovers, due to a variety of factors, but mainly because of a confusing number of tie-ins (56 issues!), blatant and inexplicable retcons, and a group of Chosen Ones that were largely unlikable ethnic stereotypes. Your Mileage May Vary. Its Spin-Off, The New Guardians, didn't get much better, but at least featured Snow Flame, a villain who got his powers from cocaine use, and The Hemo-Goblin, a vampire who gave people AIDS when he bit them.

Not to be confused with the TV series Millennium, the movie of the same name, or any other turn-of-the-century projects.

Tropes used in Millennium (Comic Book) include:
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Manhunters, obviously.
  • Anticlimax: After all that build up, at the end of the series, when the moment comes for the Chosen to be transformed, they become... your average superheroes.
  • Beneath the Earth: The location of the final Manhunter base.
    • Also, Wonder Woman spends some time in Tartarus during her tie-ins.
    • The second Batman and the Outsiders tie-in features the Outsiders defending the underground kingdom of Abyssia from the Manhunters.
  • Blood Knight: The Manhunters, who became obsessed with the *act* of hunting criminals rather than dispensing justice.
  • Captain Ethnic: What most of The Chosen turned out to be in the end (and the major complaint about the series.)
    • The worst example might be the Latino Gay Man (with Aids) who transforms into... the sorcerer Extraño (Spanish for "Strange".)
  • Catch Phrase: "No Man Escapes The Manhunters!" ...except when they do.
  • Deep-Cover Agent: Every comic published at the time was forced to reveal that one member of the cast was a Manhunter spy, never mind how much sense it made. Example: in Superman's case, the entire population of Smallville! (via Mind Control.)
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Averted in the Batman tie-ins. While Batman abhors using guns on humans he has absolutely no problem with delivering a shotgun blast in the face to an alien robot. Robin also uses a gun to lay down suppressing fire when the robot's human agents try to rush him, although he is careful to not actually hit anybody.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite all the hoopla about The Chosen in the series, years later The Guardians would claim the whole thing was just a personal project of one Guardian (and his mate) and not a major project of theirs.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: During his appearance in Secret Origins the Manhunter Grandmaster expresses displeasure at the idea that the Axis powers might win World War II.
  • For the Evulz: Why did the Manhunters want to prevent the next generation of Guardians? Out of spite, apparently (they were once the Guardians' enforcers but were replaced by the more merciful Green Lantern Corps.)
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Completely inverted. Because the public had been temporarily turned against the heroes of Earth by Darkseid during last year's "Legends" crossover, during the events of Millennium the majority of the public refuse to believe the Mahunters attempts to discredit Earth's heroes and the Guardians. In fact many of them act extremely trusting in order to compensate for letting Darkseid hoodwink them.
  • Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The Manhunters painted their entire homeworld yellow in case a Green Lantern found it.
  • Magi Babble: The speech given by the Guardian to the Chosen, trying to sound very profound but being Narm instead.
  • Meaningful Name: Inverted; despite what the title sounds like, it had nothing to do with the end of the 20th Century.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Manhunters attack Aqualad and Aquaman with cyborg alien jellyfish submarines!
  • Omniscient Morality License: During World War Two the Starheart forces Alan Scott to take actions that are moderately destructive to the Allied war effort in order to make sure the ancestors of the Chosen are not killed before they procreate.
  • Only You Can Repopulate My Race: Sort of. The New Guardians were supposed to breed until there were enough to watch over the universe. How some of them could breed (one was gay, others had no organic bodies) was not explained.
    • Also, at the time this story took place, the rest of the original Guardians had left the universe to... breed.
  • Psychic Block Defense: The Spectre has great difficulty taking on the Manhunters because they have defenses in place against mystical manipulation. He manages to break through eventually of course, he is The Spectre after all.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: In the Young All Stars tie-in Nazi supervillain Baron Blitzkrieg tells his troops not to rape a woman they captured because such behavior was unbecoming of Third Reich soldiers.
  • Robot Me: The Manhunters replace Commissioner Gordon with a robot double.
  • Self-Sacrifice Scheme: The Guardians' messenger (and his mate) die to activate the Chosen Ones' powers. Too bad the results weren't that impressive.
  • Title Drop: The descendants of the Chosen would have been ready to replace the Guardians... in a millennium.
    • However, the Legion of Super-Heroes crossover indicated that there was no trace of the Guardians then. Considering what happened with their series, its probably for the best.
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