Icon : mothership connection / Dwayne McDuffie, writer.

"In 1839, an alien star-liner malfunctioned and exploded. A jettisoned life pod crashed--in the middle of a cotton field, in the Deep South. The pod was equipped with a unique survival mechanism, which reconfigured the genetic structure of its passenger to match whatever life form it first encountered. And so it happened that Miriam, the slave woman who discovered the pod, found inside a baby boy with her mother's eyes. Stranded on our primitive world for nearly two centuries, the alien adopts the guise of successful lawyer Augustus Freeman IV. Eventually, encouraged by the passion of an opinionated young woman named Rocket, he dons a costume to symbolize Humanity's potential and uses his incredible powers to benefit us all as Icon, the Hero of Dakota. Now things are about to change. Icon's people have found him, and he's about to return to his home in another galaxy. But Rocket refuses to give up the dream. The world needs Icon, and she's determined to find someone to fill that role--even if it means somehow teaching the brain-damaged, 1970s blaxpoitation buffoon Buck Wild what it means to be a hero."--P. [4] of cover.