Quiet as we have kept it, Black dudes are disproportionately comic book nerds. The whole idea of someone bringing justice to the planet is some Black bullshit. We are the ones that need the equality. White folks are mostly Lex Luthor in that they already own all the means to production and distribution, and they don’t have any serious intentions in upsetting the apple cart, unless that means adding more apples, of course.
Dwayne McDuffie was the quintessential comic book nerd who loved the medium so much that he dedicated his life to making it bigger, better and thankfully, Blacker. McDuffie founded Milestone Media company with which he created a series of comic book titles featuring superheroes from the darker side of the spectrum.
But it wasn’t just Black superheroes that McDuffie was concerned with creating but a reference for Black kids who could see and read about the diaspora in their communities. Poor, working class, educated and wealthy Blacks were all getting their burn.
The highest salute to McDuffie’s creative talent was that Warner Brothers media allowed him to revision their staple characters. The Justice League went from being a campy, corny 1970s kids cartoon to a seriously storied animated series for the new millennium. The key to McDuffie as a writer is that he understands that comic book characters have to represent the realized world, not the idealized world. In the realized world heroes aren’t always perfect, but they keep the faith.
This should be the lesson I think I will take from Dwayne McDuffie’s unfortunately too young demise.
I’ll keep the faith that one day a Black hero will rise to save us all.
McDuffie’s last piece of work was the adaption of the All-Star Superman graphic novel into an animated feature.
In Dwayne’s posthumous honor, I have several copies of the best Superman movie I ever saw to give away to whoever tells me the name of the hottest Lois Lane of all time.
