| Dwayne McDuffie | |
|---|---|
 McDuffie in the late 1980s or early 1990s | |
| Born | Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (1962-02-20)February 20, 1962[1] Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | February 21, 2011(2011-02-21) (aged 49) Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, producer, editor |
Notable works | Comics:Milestone Media,Static TV:Static Shock,Damage Control,Justice League Unlimited,Ben 10: Alien Force,Ben 10: Ultimate Alien,All-Star Superman |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | Keegan-Michael Key (half-brother) |
Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011) was an American writer ofcomic books and television. He co-founded the pioneering minority-owned-and-operated comic book companyMilestone Media, which focused on underrepresentedminorities in American comics, creating and co-creating characters such asIcon,Rocket,Static, andHardware. McDuffie was also a writer and producer for animated series such asStatic Shock (based on the Static character),Justice League Unlimited and theBen 10 sequels,Alien Force andUltimate Alien.
McDuffie earned threeEisner Award nominations for his work in comics.[2]
McDuffie was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Leroy McDuffie and Edna (née Hawkins) McDuffie Gardner.[3] He attended and graduated from theRoeper School, a school for gifted children inBloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1980.[4] One of McDuffie's first introductions to comics was when he learned of the characterBlack Panther at the age of 11. He described the character as not being "anyone's sidekick", but "his own hero, his own man", saying that "In the space of 15 pages, black people moved from invisible to inevitable."[5] Of other Black characters in comics, he later said:
You only had two types of characters available for children. You had the stupid angry brute and the he's-smart-but-he's-black characters. And they were all colored either this Hershey-bar shade of brown, a sickly looking gray or purple. I've never seen anyone that's gray or purple before in my life. There was no diversity and almost no accuracy among the characters of color at all.[6]
In 1983, McDuffie graduated with abachelor's degree in English from theUniversity of Michigan, followed by a master's degree in physics.[7] He then moved to New York to attend film school atNew York University'sTisch School of the Arts. While McDuffie was working as acopy editor at thebusiness magazineInvestment Dealers' Digest, a friend got him an interview for an assistant editor position atMarvel Comics.[citation needed]
After McDuffie's death, comedianKeegan-Michael Key discovered that he and McDuffie were biological half-brothers, having the same father.[8][9]
Going on staff at Marvel as editorBob Budiansky's assistant on special projects,[10] McDuffie helped develop the company's first superhero trading cards.[11] He also scripted stories for Marvel. His first major work wasDamage Control, aminiseries following a company that cleans collateral damage from battles.
After becoming an editor at Marvel, McDuffie submitted a spoof proposal for a comic entitledTeenage Negro Ninja Thrashers in response to Marvel's treatment of its black characters.[12] Becoming a freelancer in 1990, McDuffie wrote for dozens of various comics titles for Marvel,DC Comics, andArchie Comics. In addition, he wroteMonster in My Pocket forHarvey Comics editorSid Jacobson, whom he cites on his website as having taught him everything he knows.[13] In early 1991, he divorced his first wife, Patricia D. Younger, inSeminole County, Florida.[14]
In the early 1990s, wanting to express a multicultural sensibility that he felt was missing in comic books, McDuffie and three partners foundedMilestone Media, whichThe Plain Dealer ofCleveland, Ohio, described in 2000 as "the industry's most successful minority-owned-and operated comic company".[11] McDuffie explained:
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 isLex Luthor. We knew we had to present a range of characters within each ethnic group, which means that we couldn't do just one book. We had to do a series of books and we had to present a view of the world that's wider than the world we've seen before.[15]
Milestone, whose characters include the African-AmericanStatic,Icon, andHardware; the Asian-AmericanXombi, and the multi-ethnic superhero group theBlood Syndicate, debuted its titles in 1993 through a distribution deal with DC Comics.[11] Serving as editor-in-chief, McDuffie created or co-created many characters, including Static.
AfterMilestone had ceased publishing new comics, Static was developed into an animated seriesStatic Shock. McDuffie was hired to write and story-edit on the series, writing 11 episodes.[11]
His other television writing credits includedTeen Titans andWhat's New, Scooby-Doo?.
McDuffie was hired as a staff writer for the animated seriesJustice League and was promoted to story editor and producer as the series becameJustice League Unlimited. During the series' run, McDuffie wrote, produced, or edited 69 of 91 episodes.
McDuffie also wrote the story for thevideo gameJustice League Heroes.
McDuffie was also a writer, producer, and editor for theBen 10 seriesAlien Force andUltimate Alien. His final writing credit was theBen 10: Omniverse pilot episode "The More Things Change", which aired posthumously in 2012.
McDuffie wrote a number of direct-to-DVD animated films featuring DC Comics characters, includingJustice League: Crisis on Two Earths andJustice League: Doom.[16] He scripted thefilm adaptation ofAll-Star Superman,[17] which released one day after his death.[16]Justice League: Doom was released posthumously in 2012.
After his work onJustice League andJustice League Unlimited, McDuffie returned to writing comic books. He wrote the MarvelminiseriesBeyond!.
In 2007, McDuffie wrote several issues ofFirestorm forDC Comics, starting in January through to its cancellation. Later that year, he became the regular writer onFantastic Four, scripting issues #542–553 (cover-dated Dec. 2006 March 2008).[18] Furthermore, he wroteJustice League of America vol. 2 from issues #13–34 (November 2007 – August 2009).[19] He was fired from the series following aLying in the Gutters compilation of his frank answers to fans about the creative process.[20]
McDuffie married comic book and television writerCharlotte Fullerton in 2009.[11]
McDuffie wroteMilestone Forever, a two-issue miniseries chronicling the final adventures of hisMilestone characters before they are transported to theDC Universe.
On February 21, 2011, one day after his 49th birthday, McDuffie died atProvidence Saint Joseph Medical Center inBurbank, California, of complications from emergency heart surgery.[21]
The 2012 filmJustice League: Doom is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie, and the Blu-ray and 2-Disc DVD editions of the film include the documentaryA Legion of One: The Dwayne McDuffie Story. That same year, a diner named "McDuffie's" was depicted in theGreen Lantern: The Animated Series episode "The New Guy".
In 2012, theUltimate Spider-Man episode "Damage" was dedicated to McDuffie. Furthermore, Mac Porter, the CEO of Damage Control, is modeled after him.
TheBen 10: Ultimate Alien finale episode "The Ultimate Enemy" and the video gameBen 10: Galactic Racing are dedicated to McDuffie.
In the 2011Static Shock comics series, Virgil Hawkins' high school is named after McDuffie.
In 2015, the Long Beach Comic Expo gave out the firstDwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics.[22] It has since become an annual event for the expo.[23][24]
TheDwayne McDuffie Award for Kids' Comics is given out each year at the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival.
DC Comics characterNaomi McDuffie is named after McDuffie.[25]
| Preceded by | Iron Man writer 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | Deathlok writer 1990–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | Blood Syndicate writer/editor 1993 (writer) (editor) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | Hardware writer/editor 1993–1994 (writer) 1993 (editor) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | Icon writer 1993–1997 | Succeeded by None |
| Preceded by None | Static writer/editor 1993 (writer) (editor) | Succeeded by Robert L. Washington III (writer) Jacqueline Ching (editor) |
| Preceded by None | Shadow Cabinet writer/editor 1994 (withRobert L. Washington III) (writer) (editor) | Succeeded by Robert L. Washington III (writer) None (editor) |
| Preceded by None | Xombi writer/editor 1994 (writer) (editor) | Succeeded by John Rozum (writer) Jacqueline Ching (editor) |
| Preceded by Adam Blaustein & Yves Fezzani | Hardware writer 1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | X-O Manowar (vol 2) writer 1998 | Succeeded by None |
| Preceded by | Static Shock! Rebirth of the Cool writer/editor 2001 | Succeeded by None |
| Preceded by | Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight writer 2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight writer 2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Stuart Moore | Firestorm writer 2007 | Succeeded by N/A |
| Preceded by | Fantastic Four writer 2007–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Justice League of America writer 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
