Exploring the Impact of Teen Pregnancy

with DC Comics Character Rocket

Milestone Media is a fascinating case in the history of the comic book industry. Founded in 1993 by comic book artists and writers like Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Christopher Priest (although he had to leave the project early on), and others. Milestone Media aimed to introduce characters and stories more representative of minority groups in the United States, which they felt wasn’t done in the big comic book publishers like Marvel and DC.

They managed to get a distribution deal with DC while maintaining ownership of the characters, which is how we got series like Hardware, Static, and Blood Syndicate. But it was the series Icon that quickly became a fan favorite, and a large part of that was because of Rocket, Icon’s sidekick and the one responsible for encouraging him to become a hero.

In this article, we are going to address one of the essential aspects of Rocket’s history, which is when she got pregnant at 15 years old and became the first teenage single mom in comic book history.

The Milestone way, the McDuffie way

One of the running themes that Dwayne McDuffie, who was Milestone’s Editor-in-Chief and primary songwriter, had when writing these books was to tackle social issues. So, not only was he creating minority characters doing superhero stuff, but he also wanted to make statements on various subjects. This is why the comics made by Milestone often dealt with racism, social disparity, drugs, and many touchy subjects. And one of the most important topics was addressed in the pages of the Icon series.

The plot of Icon is relatively straightforward: Raquel Ervin is a teenager living in the rough part of town. One day she sneaks into a mansion with her friends to steal, but they are stopped by Augustus Freeman IV, a black man capable of flying and with super strength. She eventually discovers that Augustus is an alien that came to Earth two centuries ago, and he has been living here ever since.

Raquel is inspired by Augustus’ abilities and tries to convince him to become a superhero, which she succeeds at. Raquel dons the mantle of Rocket and Augustus, the one of Icon, with the two of them fighting crime and dealing with many social issues in the process.

Pregnancy and responsibilities

Somewhat earlier in the series, McDuffie throws a bomb: Raquel is pregnant. Her then-former boyfriend wants nothing to do with the situation and asks her to have an abortion. This was another hot topic that McDuffie tackled in the Icon series: the validity of abortion and whether Raquel should do it or not.

Raquel discusses her pregnancy with her mother, grandmother, and Icon himself. Ultimately Raquel decides she wants to have the baby and become a single teenage mother, which is the first time that has ever happened in comics.

Raquel’s pregnancy and subsequent role as a mother become one of the cornerstones of the Icon series. We see her combining her role as a superhero with all the struggles of a pregnant teenager. It was undoubtedly a courageous move at the time, and there were people at DC editorial who were not thrilled to distribute a comic where one of the protagonists is a teenage single mom. Still, no one can deny that it was original and relevant.

Her son was born Amistad Augustus Ervin, and he came to the world two months premature, although he never had any major health issues. The name “Amistad” came from a ship that brought enslaved Africans to America centuries ago, and “Augustus” obviously came from the main protagonist, Icon.

Conclusion

Milestone Media achieved a lot in the 90s and deserved much credit for what it did for the industry. But, unfortunately, McDuffie usually got a lot of criticism for dealing with topics not traditionally addressed in comics. But people need to understand that McDuffie wasn’t trying to celebrate teenage pregnancy: he simply stated that this is a reality many teenagers go through. And instead of trying to find an easy way out, he shows Raquel overcoming the situation and taking control of her life, deciding to have her son and raising him to be a good man. I think this is a perfect message to give, and it shows the spirit of McDuffie as both a writer and a human being. And he managed to pull that off as he wrote a superhero story!

Even today, teenage pregnancy is a topic that is not dealt with much in storytelling, let alone comics. But unfortunately, it is a part of our society that happens every day, and a lot of girls don’t have the emotional support to deal with these challenges. But perhaps in someone like Rocket, they can find a bit of “superhero” inspiration.