Chapter 2: Chapter 2

It turned out I was not living in a dream. This life I was living was real. That, or this dream was very lifelike. I went to bed and woke up the next day hungry. There was a box of cereal in my cabinet but no milk. I ate it just like that before I washed up. The water was not hot just lukewarm. That irritated me a lot, but I'd put in a complaint later. For now I was heading out to visit my local comic store.

I knew that there was an old one on 6th street, however, I was unsure if it was still around now. If not I was ok with searching the area. This would help me out anyway as I needed to know where everything was.

As I opened my door I saw my next door neighbor. He was around my age and wore glasses. He seemed to have dark circles under his eyes and when he looked up at me he seemed to sigh. I ignored him and left.

I wasted no time and headed straight for 6th street which did not take me long to reach. I was happy to see that the comic store was there and that people were coming in and out of it. In 2025 this store rarely had customers but the few of us that did visit it appreciated all that the owner did for us. It was a great place to hang out and it always had the volumes we were looking for.

That's why I was excited to enter it once more. The glass shined and comics lined the wall showing off various superheroes to all those passing by. I hears that sweet chime as I opened the door.

The shelves were still full but I noticed a lot more people in here. Many of them were teens, a few kids and a couple of adults. The owner was a middle aged white man that seemed slightly bored at the counter. This was not the owner I knew.

Approaching the counter the man looked up at me and popped his pink gum. "Yeah?" He asked me.

"Do you have Invincible here?" I asked.

He pointed towards a wooden shelf full of comics, some even laying on the ground. The entire section was devoid of any love as all the customers were busy devouring the Marvel and DC sections. I thanked him and went over to that small section.

I did find Invincible but there were not that many volumes of it. I also found the Walking Dead comic series along with a few others. Since there were not many volumes of either of these series I quickly dropped them. My idea of creating a cinematic universe out of Invincible crumbled but I saw a spark of light soon after.

My spark was the comic Static. I knew the hero well as he was my childhood favorite next to Robin, Cyborg, Raven, Beastboy, and Starfire. The Teen Titans that I loved to watch as a kid. But he along with them soon fell off the air.

Static got some love but not a lot of it. I quickly saw many volumes released to this character. Then I saw Icon, Hardware, Blood Syndicate and a few other titles. Each one belonging to Milestone comics.

I never read anything about the other characters in their universe, so I just gathered up the first five issues for each. I wanted wanted learn more about them and see if I could do anything with this.

I came with nothing but left with a stack of comics. I was very content with this and went home. Before I did anything about my movie creation process I decided to devour these comics and picture myself in this world. What was it about? Could people relate? I truly did not care about money, as I had more than enough of it. I simply wanted to bring more exposure to characters or books that I loved. I wanted to see them on the big screen.

When I finished the last comic a lot of time passed by, but I wanted more. I reread them once more and enjoyed the idea of all of them living in the same state. Many of them having experienced the same event and origin of how they obtained their power. This was unlike Marvel or DC where the heros were spread out. This universe was contained and the heroes were dealing with problems that a lot of minorities could relate to.

After finishing the first five issues of each series I knew I wanted to make a cinematic universe out of this. But the question appeared, how? Where could I start? 

Milestone Comics were not based here in Michigan, or at least I assumed they weren't. I had no clue where they were. If anything they might be on the west coast in California where a lot of companies were.

This was not 2025 where I could go to my tablet, phone or computer and search the company. I had to bring out the yellow pages, something very ancient and I hoped I would never have to use.

It was a thick book with the phone numbers of every company in the USA. I had to search through that book until I found the number I was looking for.

In my apartment there was a home phone that was attached to my wall. The cord was long and there were numbers on the phone itself. This thing was really old but better than nothing. I noted that I should buy myself a cell phone tomorrow and a car.

I never lived a luxurious life and did not plan on it now. Although I had a lot of money I planned on using it to do a lot of things I wanted to. Living a simple life was fine as long as I could create what I wanted.

"Hello this is Dave speaking from Milestone Media, please hold." A deep voice called from the other end of the phone after he finally picked up after a few rings. I had no choice but to hold.

"Hello, are you still on the line?" The voice asked me after five minutes of waiting.

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"Yes, I'm here." I replied.

"What can I do for you today?"

"I was calling on behalf of…" I paused for a second. What would I call my studio? A long list of names ran through my head in a second before I decided on one. "I'm calling on behalf of Raven Studio's, and I was wondering if I could speak with the creator of Icon. My company is interested in gaining the rights to create a movie based off this character."

"Raven Studio's you say?"

"Yes. That is the name."

"Please hold."

This time I was waiting for ten minutes before someone spoke up. "Hello, is this the representative for Raven Studio's?"

"Yes, this is him."

"Great! I am Dwayne McDuffie, co-founder of Milestone Media I heard you were interested in one of our heros. Although, I must say I've never heard of your studio before, where are you located exactly?"

"Hello Mr. McDuffie, I'm Alex Scott the founder and CEO of Raven Studio's. I'm actually interested in all the characters from the Dakotaverse if I'm being honest. But I settled on Icon for now as I felt starting with one was better than trying to grab hold of them all. And it's natural you've never heard of my studio before, it is relatively new. It's located in Detriot, Michigan actually."

"I see, I was born there but haven't been back in ages. How are things?"

"Not that bad. At least in the part I stay in."

"You stay up river or down?" Dwayne asked me.

"Up."

"It was the same for me as well. However, I cannot make the decision to give you the rights to one of our characters. Considering you are relatively new you'd have a difficult time trying to break into the industry when DC is already at the top. I'm not sure if you know this but our characters tell a compelling story of growing up as a minority and the different situations one goes through." Dwayne explained to me. I listened to him and nodded my head along.

"Well, I can agree with you on one point. DC is at the top when it comes to superhero movies, but how long do you think they can reign? Marvel has released many films so far and with Spider-Man 2 coming out this year it could give them a run for their money. Let me ask you, why don't you want to see your character up there on the big screen?"

"Who says I don't? It's just unlikely that someone would pick it up. The amount of colored people looking at comics are very slim and in this time I don't feel that there are many that would enjoy watching a film with a colored actor as the lead. Besides, if I did allow such a thing it has to be with a studio that has some sort or background."

"See, that's what is stopping you. You want an established studio to pick up your comic series, but you know they won't do it for the reason you've just given. I'm more than willing to pick up not only one character but all of them and put them on the big screen. My studio may be new, but we can compete with Marvel and DC when it comes to funding. Give me a price, how much do you want for the rights of Icon, Static, and Hardware?"

Dwayne took a while to answer.

Before he spoke up, I threw out a number. I figured this would be a big enough bait for him to latch onto as well as my ticket needed to create a superhero movie. "100,000 for all three of them, or 1,000,000 for the entire Dakotaverse. I want the right to create movies based off the characters there, what do you say?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. I can have my lawyer draw up a contract right away. How about we meet tomorrow to go over the details?"

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