Dwayne McDuffie – On The Realities Of The Black Writer In The Comic Book Industry

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[Dwayne McDuffie - On The Realities Of The Black Writer In The Comic Book Industry]

[Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011)]
Well, I think being a writer that the reader knows is black puts a lot of the mainstream—I say “mainstream,” I mean “white,” readership on edge. I mean, white male readership on edge. They’re really looking for some proof that I’m trying to—the phrase I get all the time is I’m always trying to “shove my agenda down their throats,” which seems sexually charged to me, I don’t know.

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[Dwayne McDuffie] Source: LYBIO.net
But I came on the Justice League after a very successful run. And during that run, they had added two black characters to the team, and it was already planned that two more black members would join the team very shortly. So when I came on the book, I was told right up front “Bring the black Green Lantern in, and bring in Firestorm,” who’s kind of a young Spiderman-ish superhero, black college kid. And I’m like, “Oh, great, okay.” And before I knew it, I had broken what I call the Rule of Three. And that rule is, in popular entertainment, if there are three black people in it, it is a black product. You can have two black guys, although it’s a stretch. If you have three, it’s a black show. And suddenly it was a black show. And somebody, I think the artist, did a pinup, with all the black characters. And somebody leaked it and said “That’s the cover! McDuffie’s gonna turn the Justice League all black! He’s getting rid of the white guys!” Never part of the plan, never even considered, but it freaked people out, so they’re reading this stuff looking for proof…

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[Dwayne McDuffie] Source: LYBIO.net
But there is a hardcore piece of the audience whose back goes up whenever you go into these issues, and they don’t even realize it. And what kills me about it is that when they’re writing about it, they’re always hyperrational. You know, “Look the fact is, there are more white characters, and if you picked randomly, you would end up with all white teams. And the fact that there were three black people on this team is statistically ridiculous. It’s obviously a quota.” And the quota arguments on fictional teams crack me up. Because who’s actually—I’m sorry, is somebody losing a job here? Which fictional character is losing a job? There’s no connection. They’re not talking about what’s going on in the comics. They’re talking about what they think is going on in their lives (and that’s not really going on either.)

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[Dwayne McDuffie] Source: LYBIO.net
That kind of goes into, sort of, the fundamental thing that we’re getting out of the genre, which is our heroic image of ourselves. You know, it’s very much a power fantasy, it’s very much a male power fantasy, it’s very much a white power fantasy. So if I write, as I have many times, a story where Daredevil, who doesn’t have powers, gets the drop on Thor, who has unbelievable powers, people go “Oh, that was so cool! Daredevil was so clever!” If I have Black Panther do the same thing—“That’s impossible!” It’s like, yeah, it’s impossible with Daredevil too, man. It’s like, I write Batman all the time, in Justice League, where he’s hanging out with seven guys who, by any logic, should be able to you know, eat his lunch without even working up a sweat. And he’s constantly outmaneuvering them, and outfighting them and out-thinking them, and we think “Batman is so cool!” But when black characters do—much less, relative to where their positions are—it makes the readership uncomfortable, because they’re not used to seeing it.

Dwayne McDuffie – On The Realities Of The Black Writer In The Comic Book Industry. And before I knew it, I had broken what I call the Rule of Three. And that rule is, in popular entertainment, if there are three black people in it, it is a black product. You can have two black guys, although it’s a stretch. If you have three, it’s a black show. Complete Full Script, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text.