In this review of Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #3, we finally learn the backstory of Angela and the Alva Family while witnessing a few surprising appearances.
MILESTONE UNIVERSE: SHADOW CABINET #3
Written by JOSEPH P. ILLIDGE
Art by DARRYL BANKS, ATAGUN ILHAN, and DENYS COWAN
Main Cover: DENYS COWAN
Variant Cover: NIKOLAS DRAPER-IVEY
Page Counut: 40 pages
Release Date: January 15, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Despite this review of Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #3 being the first, I have been following this mini-series from the start. Since the Milestone Universe returned a few years ago, we have been met with some great stories as the Dakota Universe rebuilt itself after a long hiatus. However, with everything that occurred in this issue, I felt it important to place my thoughts in words.
The mini-series has centered around Dharma’s efforts to form what longtime followers of Milestone would know as the Shadow Cabinet. The first two issues focused on Rocket whoo came under the tutelage of Hardware after Icon’s departure. However, Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #3 goes in a different direction. While writer Jospeh Illidge and the team of artists ranging from Darryl Banks to comic legend and Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan provides us with a backstory of Angela Alva and the Alva family, they also show the Shadow leader putting the puzzle pieces together as he has been doing from the start, particularly after being turned down by Rocket.
But Illidge shows a lot of four-dimensional chess in Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #3 as Dharma isn’t the only one moving piece on the board around. Despite being a captive of Angela Alva, Curtis Metcalf — OG Hardware — pulls his own version of Batman-like contingencies that eventually bring Earth M — the Dakotaverse — together for perhaps the first time since Milestone Returns hit shelves. After destroying their base of operations, Hardware leads Rocket to a new base where she’s introduced to Duo, who I haven’t seen since their mini-series ended. He sends a package to Tiffany Evans, an Alva Technologies who would become Technique, basically a female version of Hardware.
As someone who has followed Milestone Comics (now Milestone Media) since its debut in the 1990s, seeing these characters return excited me (for the record, I choose to forget the New 52). One critique I had of Season 1 of the Milestone return titles was that despite being the same universe — the same city actually — things appeared somewhat disjointed. Things really started coming together in Season 2, however, when we saw many characters interact with one another. Under the Shadow Cabinet mini-series, however, the creative team has kicked the doors wide open.
Three artists contributed to Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #3. While I am typically not a fan of a lot of artist in an issue, the way in which the art from Darryl Banks, Atagun Ilhan, and the legendary Denys Cowan is used is perfectly done (you’ll see that in my score for the art for the issue. They each provide a different touch to the different phases of the issue. But while some might see some similarities with the work from Banks and Ilhan, you cannot mistake the signature style of drawing from Denys Cowan, who I have loved as an artist since I picked up Hardware #1 back in 1993.
Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #3 serves as the penultimate issue to the mini-series, but this really could be expanded more. I’m unsure why we don’t have any Milestone titles as an ongoing series. I’m sure other fans would agree and welcome one.
