FIGHT: Round 014

Comments Off | Posted: February 28th, 2011 | Filed under: FIGHT

THE LINE: Avec Paul

Comments Off | Posted: February 28th, 2011 | Filed under: The Line

On Dwayne McDuffie

3 Comments | Posted: February 22nd, 2011 | Filed under: Thinking About Comics | Tags: comics, dwayne mcduffie

“If you do a black character or a female character or an Asian character, then they aren’t just that character. They represent that race or that sex, and they can’t be interesting because everything they do has to represent an entire block of people. You know, Superman isn’t all white people and neither is Lex Luthor.”
—Dwayne McDuffie

A lot of comics creators (and readers) use the most benign platitudes when it comes to race and gender in superhero books. They say that it doesn’t matter if the latest incarnation of a legacy character is black or white or asian, that it’s not important to the story if Black Manta is a woman this go-round or whatever. Because, you know, people are people, you know?

Dwayne McDuffie was hard-headed and impassioned enough to say “Yes, it does.” He brought the experience he had as a black kid growing up in Detroit in the 70s and 80s to every project he got his hands on by choosing directly not to emulate what he’d seen in the comic books he read, but by creating what he wished he had read.

I’m not going to pretend that I enjoyed all of his work but even when he missed the mark, the lessons he wanted to impart and the world he wanted superhero comics to inhabit were right there in high-gloss digital color on the page and in the numerous animated projects he scripted and produced. Even more than what we saw in the product, McDuffie was fearless, forthright and passionate when it came to his convictions and beliefs, whether he was speaking to fans or the the upper management at Marvel and DC.

He wore his storytelling heart on his sleeve and comics needs more of that. Pop culture needs more of that.

We’ll miss you, Dwayne. Bless.