Millennium

1-8

The success of GREEN LANTERN CORPS got Joe Staton and me the nod for DC's once-yearly line-wide special project. When it came time to decide what it was to be, my brother happened to be getting married in Houston - I flew down to attend - and editor Andy Helfer, who hated flying, flew down as well. After my brother and his bride went on their honeymoon, Andy and I hung out in their house, cruised old bookstores, and worked out MILLENNIUM. (He also taught me how to spell it; I was using one "n.")

The idea was both simple and new: eight issues, once a week for eight weeks, involving as many other books in the DC universe as possible. Each week, the main story would advance in MILLENNIUM and play off the other books out that week. It was a massive logistical effort, subject to the fully-expected turf wars and egos, but we pulled it off. And of course, two of those weeks I had to do a GLC as well (and my regular Marvel workload). So it was a busy time.

It's worth noting that we created this in November 1986, when the concept of a Millennium was essentially unknown - a new era as yet nowhere close. We were probably the first to deal with it.

It's also worth noting that MILLENNIUM included the first openly gay hero in comics, as a true cross-section of humanity was chosen to become part of the new age. I figured that, once I broke that barrier, there'd probably be a dozen in five years' time...

Other titles of Week One:

FLASH #8

FIRESTORM #67

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #9

THE OUTSIDERS #27

WONDER WOMAN #12

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Other titles of Week Two:

BATMAN #415

BLUE BEETLE #20

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #42

SUPERMAN #13

SECRET ORIGINS #22

YOUNG ALL-STARS #8

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Other titles of Week Three:

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #220

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #436

BOOSTER GOLD #24

INFINITY INC. #46

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Other titles of Week Four:

SUICIDE SQUAD #9

CAPTAIN ATOM #11

DETECTIVE COMICS #582

THE SPECTRE #10

ACTION COMICS #596

TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #18

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Other titles of Week Five:

FLASH #9

FIRESTORM #68

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #10

THE OUTSIDERS #28

WONDER WOMAN #13

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Other titles of Week Six:

BLUE BEETLE #21

SUPERMAN #14

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #43

SECRET ORIGINS #23

YOUNG ALL-STARS #9

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Other titles of Week Seven:

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #221

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #437

BOOSTER GOLD #25

INFINITY INC. #47

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Other titles of Week Eight:

THE SPECTRE #11

TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #19

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IWritten by Murray R. WardI
Collection: 1-8I

COMICS


NOTES:

1: The villains - at least, the initial villains - were the Manhunters from my JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.

The two-part index was a detailed catalogue of every nuance in the series. If ever the word "exhaustive" was warranted...