If you don't know who this is, you should. R.I.P. Dwayne McDuffie

Today, co-founder of Milestone Media, Dwayne McDuffie died.  It feels as though my reality has been rocked.  Not in the same way as his family must be feeling, but as though one of my heroes died.  I’m an empathetic person by nature; but, I don’t feel any personal connection to people I don’t know – I never understood people who hear celebrity gossip and say things such as, “Jen should know better than that.”  Why should she?  You don’t know her.  Yet, when I heard about McDuffie’s death, I was (and am) greatly saddened by it.  Perhaps because he is one of the few strangers I admire.  The last time I felt like this was when I heard about Steve Irwin’s death.  Maybe it’s because, for me, they both represented how great humanity could be.  I’m not saying they were perfect, but their passion for what they did in life was so tangible that it inspired others to do the same; to do something no one else has done.  Smiles are infectious, and so is happiness; and, both of these individuals personified that in their careers and success.

I watched Teen Titans, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited and loved them all – impressed by the maturity of the dialogue and characterizations, while also appreciating that they weren’t too mature for children.  There was no condescension in the storyline or dialogue, and no sexuality that caused hands to be clapped over eyes and ears (unless you were old enough to understand it).  I never knew that the one common element in the creation of these series was Dwayne McDuffie.  When I started reading Milestone I knew it would be good because his name was on it, and I was not disappointed. 

art by Denys Cowan

I read Archie as a child.  It was my first comic book series, and thank the gods I was surrounded by strong female figures, because I would’ve hated to reach adulthood thinking that Betty and Veronica were archetypes of anything.  Luckily I grew out of that phase very early, and started reading and watching science-fiction and fantasy.  Princess Lei, Clair Huxtable Esq., Xena, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and (of course) my own mother quickly became my standards of womanhood.  When the Fox animated X-men: The Animated Series first air in 1992, I watched Storm with awe.  She was beautiful, intelligent, well-spoken and powerful.  It might not make sense to a non-fanboy/fangirl, but even with real-life examples, to see a female, superhero of color was like  . . . when the Yellow Ranger was a Black female – completely ground breaking (which it was at the time) and self-affirming.  Even with her white hair and blue eyes, there was no mistaking her for anything else except a woman of color.  Kids would tease about the Power Rangers, but nobody teased about X-men; and, Storm was the s#@!.  Yet, when I would go to the comic book store, there would ONLY be Storm.  No one else that looked like me; and, I became more aware of how different I was -  I felt more like the “other”.  For me, that search for self-reflection in my reading material simply lead me to fantasy novels, manga, and anime (they were minorities too!). 

art by Eric Battle

Yet, in retrospect, that even a ridiculously confident and precocious children like myself (to give context to this statement: I read and understood Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, What Alice Found There, and Shakespeare while in elementary school – libraries are a form of magic) searched for self-reflection in sci-fi/fatasy, shows the importance and need for diversity in our escapism – particularly as children.  Perhaps, it was because being a nerd and geek at such a young age was difficult already; or, maybe because I was a female; or, maybe because I was a minority; or, maybe because I was all of those together, that I had that desire to see myself represented in media. I had numerous self-sufficient, successful, minority women around me every day; but, I wanted to know them in my dreams.  I wanted to know that maybe one day I could control the weather, or be an officer aboard the Enterprise, or be an Amazon, or save the planet with a ring (yes, I lead the school recycling program).  Uhura, Xena, Gi, Rouge, Jubilee, Gaia, and even Aisha told me that those dreams of being a superhero-adventurer weren’t ridiculous. 

art by Denys Cowan

In 1993, an older, but lifelong, sci-fi/ fantasy/superhero fan, Milestone Media started at a time when I was no longer reading comics.  Comics in the early 90s were lacking, and my attention shifted to television, film, and anime; but, when Static Shock debuted in 2000 I took notice.  I wasn’t a child anymore, but the fact that a show about a Black superhero was on television (I think Hammerman, Storm, Gaia, and Kwame were the only previous examples), both shocked and pleased me.  It showcased a responsible (as a teenage superhero can be) African-American teenage boy and his working, educated family.  For those who don’t realize what an accomplishment this is, Hammerman went off the air in 1991, and after that the villain Harvey “Two-Face” Dent of Batman: The Animated Series was the only regular Black character in an animated cartoon.  Yes, there was Elisa Maza and her family on Gargoyles, but their ethnicity was never directly stated – they were just people of color (which was equally awesome). 

            In the 00s there was a wave of Black superheroes on television and in film; most notably: Storm, Static Shock, Nick Fury (who became Black!), and Cyborg.  Yes, there were others, and more importantly, there were simply characters who just didn’t look like everyone else (characters who have green skin and blue skin advance diversity in comics as well as those representing real-world racial ethnicities); but, the common element in most of the these works was Dwayne McDuffie. 

After I discovered McDuffie, I went back and jumped into the Milestone universe with Milestone Forever.  As expected, it was brilliant; and, I immediately wanted to send it to every GNOC that I knew so that we could discuss the portrayal of minorities, our regret that we had never read it earlier, our plan to collect and read all Milestone, and theorize on how it would fit into with the DC Universe. 

art by J.J. Birch

          As I write this, my Twitter feed is being flooded with various tweets #DwayneMcDuffie.  It saddens me that only now, in his death, will his brilliance be known outside of the comic/cartoon community.  For what he accomplished, his name should be as recognized in American media as Stan Lee; but, he was a comic artist who asked major publishers to address the lack of minorities in comics, and the racism inherent in the stereotypical manner that characters of color were portrayed.  This letter to Marvel, written while he was an editor there, best shows his frustration.  Ultimately, McDuffie left Marvel and co-founded Milestone Media; but, because most stores thought that only “non-whites” would want to read about minority characters, and Blacks and other people of color did not provide significant revenue, Milestone eventually folded.  It was re-introduced through the tv show Static Shock. 

art by Joe Bennett

For those of us fortunate enough to have spent time with the genius of McDuffie, we sorely feel the lose.  For those of you who are just now discovering him, I suggest you pick-up a trade and jump-in.  McDuffie’s characters were an inspiration to me, as a minority, because I felt that I had no representative in the comic world – I wanted to see a person of color, who sound educated, and didn’t have overly-enlarged features in comics.  However, it was the original storytelling and conviction to his principles that made me admire McDuffie himself.  I hope that his name and achievements continue to grow in popularity in the coming weeks; and, that his message for diversity inspires and educates others in the process.