Writer Joseph Illidge is back in the Dakotaverse with a relaunch of one of the original Milestone team titles by the name of The Shadow Cabinet.
The new Shadow Cabinet series continues to drive the entire universe forward with a series filled with espionage, surprises, and plenty of superhero action. We got a chance to speak to Illidge all about The Shadow Cabinet, as well as his memories of the original company that left a lasting imprint on the industry in this exclusive interview.
How did you make your return to the Milestone Universe and the new Shadow Cabinet series?
Joseph Illidge: My return to Milestone was really activated by my deep dive into the Milestone relaunch that started in 2020. Buying and reading the books, and figuring out if I had a story to tell that would give the 21st century Milestone some new texture for their world. The Shadow Cabinet from the 90’s became my favorite series in the line, so I thought long and hard about what a Shadow Cabinet would be in the 21st century. I reached out to Reginald Hudlin and Denys Cowan, the producers of Milestone, to see if my thinking matched theirs, and that’s when the talks began. Editor Marquis Draper and Executive Editor Chris Conroy from DC Comics came into the mix, and we all had a call to discuss what this series had to be for the Milestone Universe
The opportunity to use Milestone’s Icon Vs. Hardware series and the failed invasion by Superman’s enemy Brainiac as the story’s launching point for The Shadow Cabinet was too good to pass up, so we get to both reintroduce the characters and world to Milestone fans and introduce the Dakotaverse of heroes to new fans in a way that wastes no time hitting the ground running, as you see in the first three pages of issue #1.
How would you compare the original Shadow Cabinet series to the current iteration?
Illidge: The original Shadow Cabinet was a group with a lot of members, and you have to remember that it came out in the early-to-mid 90s, so it predated DC’s The Authority and Marvel’s The Ultimates in its cynical, geopolitical approach to superheroic action. Basically, if Mission: Impossible and The Justice League had love children, they would be The Shadow Cabinet.
The new iteration is a much tighter group of three. In part because bigger doesn’t always mean better, and in part because from a writing perspective, the core players of the Milestone Universe are on the stage for our grand drama, so having two handfuls of Shadow Cabinet members would have crowded the story we needed to tell.
What is your personal history with Milestone and what are some memories that stick out about the original company?
Illidge: Milestone is where I started my career in the early 90’s, and where I caught the editorial bug under the tutelage of Dwayne McDuffie, the Co-founder and Editor-in-chief of Milestone.
The most profound memories involve the sharing of wisdom from Milestone’s founders: Denys Cowan, Dwayne McDuffie, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. The sheer education we all received from them will always be part of my creative and business baseline.
Milestone was also an environment that invited and nurtured creative expression and experimentation. I recently watched an episode of The Sackhoff Show in which Katie Sackhoff interviews her former Battlestar Galactica co-star Jamie Bamber, and they discuss how working on the show spoiled them for every other show they would work on. Working on Galactica was so collaborative and daring for everyone, especially so early in their adult careers, while all other shows going forward in their careers were structured in a different way.
Milestone was incomparably daring, and the company did courageous things in the 90’s that changed comics forever. Unflinching exploration of ethnicity, gender, and non-monolithic representations of communities. Tackling teenage pregnancy, teenage sex, the juncture point of different social and political ideologies…Milestone was, is, and always will be all of that.
Which characters did you feel like you needed to include in the new group and what type of dynamics were you looking to build in the group through your selections?
Illidge: There’s no Shadow Cabinet without Dharma, the pragmatic leader with timeview that allows him to see the past and multiple futures of people and objects. His right hand must always be Iron Butterfly. The enforcer of Dharma’s agenda and protector of his leadership.
Anansi is the newest member of the Cabinet, originating from the Static Shock cartoon and being introduced in publishing in 2023’s Static Team-Up: Anansi #1. Having him in the group is so much fun because he’s so much more joyful than the others. Their team dynamic has different aspects, and the characters complement each other well. More definitively in terms of war, think of Dharma as the quasi-Buddhist warrior, with Iron Butterfly as his sword in one hand and Anansi as the fist you underestimate because it holds no weapon…until you realize the fist is a weapon in and of itself.
Darryl Banks and Atagun Ilhan are the art team on Shadow Cabinet. What do they both bring to the series?
Illidge: Darryl and Atagun define the series in the most profound way as the artists, and because they represent two different generations of comic book artistry they complement one another while sharing qualities of dramatic storytelling, great dynamism in action, and immersing you into this fantastic world with a balance of flair and grit. Their different art styles represent the different character perspectives of the story, and I’m so thrilled with how well they mesh together.
With colorist Chris Sotomayor, the lettering of AndWorld Design, and covers by both Denys Cowan and Nikolas Draper-Ivey, The Shadow Cabinet is the perfect visual fusion of artistic styles.
Future of Shadow Cabinet and the Dakotaverse?
Illidge: We have three more issues to go in this saga, and once it’s done, new doors will be opened for the future of Milestone’s Dakotaverse. I’ve already heard a few things here and there, and I’m excited by the possibilities!
Other upcoming projects?
Illidge: Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet finishes its 4-issue run in February 2025, so everyone can take a bathroom break in March, then in April my new Image Comics/Todd McFarlane ongoing series Bloodletter debuts, giving us The Secret History of the Spawn Universe through its main character, an ex-CIA operative-now mystic nomad named Tasha Thornwall.
Until then, I’m enjoying my return to Milestone and DC Comics with a story the team and I intend to sit alongside Waid and Ross’s Kingdom Come and Robinson and Smith’s The Golden Age as both a timely and timeless superhero saga.
Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #1 is currently available at your local comic shop. Look for issue #2 on December 18.
