Rights issues are the bane of superhero movie fans. Even more than Bane is. Some people actually got happy about the objectively worrisome acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney because it meant they now owned the X-Men, and while I do think the acquisition is objectively worrisome, a little part of me did kind of feel happy about it. And one of the most interesting characters put into limbo by rights issues is also one of the most socially important—there is tell of an upcoming Static Shock movie, but he as a character is sidelined by rights issues.
Static is one of the characters created by Dwayne McDuffie. McDuffie, like so many others, grew up reading comics. And, like so many others, he didn’t feel represented by the comics. Specifically, he felt that black characters in comics were one of two stereotypes—either brutes or, in his words, “he’s-smart-but-he’s-black” characters. He also felt that the skin tones they were printed in bore basically no similarity to the skin tones of himself, his family, and the other people around him. And he wasn’t wrong; comics printers seemed to have no understanding of what black skin actually looks like.
McDuffie had an interesting educational background to bring to comics. Just in general, really; there are not a lot of people with an undergrad degree in English and a Master’s in physics. Who then go on to art school. But if you think about it, that’s almost an ideal combination of educational credentials for superhero comics. That’s someone who brings some grounding to the world of comics, who is between creativity and practicality. Superhero comics have their own physics, goodness knows, but they are at their best when you don’t stretch anything you don’t need to.
That left McDuffie in a position to stretch what he felt really did need stretching. Specifically the actual characters themselves. He was the writer on the original Damage Control, about what happens between superhero stories, and that’s a fact that will make him an important part of comics history all by itself. But then he had the courage to cofound Milestone Media, the point of which was to start a publisher where there wouldn’t be The One Black Character or The One Asian Character or what have you. No one character would have to represent their entire ethnic group.
I really wish we could do more about McDuffie’s work. Kids deserve a world where superheros can be played by anyone, regardless of their age, ethnicity, gender, ability level, or sexuality—they should see characters who look like themselves, like their friends, and like people they don’t even know. Superhero fiction has the potential to represent the full nature of human experience, and it never has for all its roots as the tale of the immigrant and protector of the underdog. McDuffie got us that much closer, and it’s depressing to think of all the stories he never had the chance to tell.
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