Dwayne McDuffie Marks New Milestones

by Evan Narcisse -- Publishers Weekly, 3/20/2007 9:01:00 AM

Detroit native Dwayne McDuffie’s 20-plus years in the writing business have taken him to every corner of the comics universe and beyond. Among other characters, the acclaimed writer has written Batman and Deathlok for DC Comics and Marvel. McDuffie (along with Michael Davis, Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle) was also cocreator of Milestone Media, the most successful black-owned comic company. Static Shock—a highly successful cartoon version of Milestone hero Static—led McDuffie to an equally stellar career in animation, including a stint as a producer on the Cartoon Network’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series. The release of the multiplatform Justice League Heroes game soon followed in late 2006, representing McDuffie’s first script work for the videogame industry. Now, McDuffie’s come back to monthly comics with gigs on DC’s Fantastic Four and the last issues of Firestorm for Marvel. PWCW talked to McDuffie about his television highlights, comic book triumphs and video game adventures.

PW Comics Week: Fans were really excited when your tenure as Firestorm writer was announced, but the news of cancellation came hot on its heels. Was that a surprise to you?

Dwayne McDuffie: Well, actually, when DC hired me, they said, “Firestorm’s going to end at issue 35. Do you want to do the last three issues?” and I said, sure. So I knew it was the end.

PWCW: Did that change your mandate or the things you were trying to accomplish in your run?

DM: Not really, though I would have liked to have more time to do more interpersonal stuff. But I was tired of hearing about Ronnie. Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie. [The original Firestorm character was Ronnie Raymond.] Ronnie is a great character, but it's not his book. You write the character as he is now.

PWCW: So what was it about this Firestorm that was easiest and hardest to write?

DM: I didn't find anything that particularly difficult about writing Jason, but I was a little uncomfortable with his girlfriend. I did not like the fact that she was mentally seven years old, so I decided that basically it just wasn't true. I wrote her as emotionally mature, just because it creeped me out otherwise. I thought I was really successful and really satisfied.

PWCW: You're also doing a one-off on Action Comics, which will be your first time writing Superman in a solo setting. What are the big differences in the way Superman’s been presented in the different media?

DM: I actually think you can ask that question for every single iteration of the character. There are several different takes of him in the comics, and on TV, too. What I was trying to do was write the guy I was reading in the [Geoff] Johns and [Richard] Donner stuff that came right before. I didn't want to be jarring at all. Clearly, they're writing the classic Superman from the media we all know, from the movies. Also, that team has a strong voice and such a clear perspective, so that made it a little bit easier.

PWCW: What have you always wanted to do with the Fantastic Four that we might see now?

DM: I love the characters and I love the concept. I love the family of explorers. They go places humankind has never been before and see things that we’ve never seen, just doing it for discovery’s sake.

PWCW: Fantastic Four’s obviously a high-profile gig, because of Reed [Richards’s] involvement on the pro-registration side during the Civil War series. [Reed favors registration and revealing superhero secret identities.] With [his wife] Sue and [brother-in-law] Johnny Storm on the opposing side, there’s been a big rift in Marvel’s first family. As a result, a new roster’s been announced, with Storm and the Black Panther filling in for Reed and Sue. How do you intend to maintain the book’s identity as a “family” title?

DM: The book’s still about family and will continue to be about family. As a matter of fact, it's about a very specific family, and will continue to be about that family. Storm and the Black Panther are extended members of the FF.

PWCW: In light of how Civil War ends, how much reconciliation will there be?

DM: Reconciliation. Well, you don't have one scene and then they’re all reconciled. That's not the way I would approach it. I can't remember ever having a serious disagreement with somebody I love where we had a single conversation and it was totally cool. Because we love each other, we cut each other slack over time. Eventually, we get reminders of why we love each other.

PWCW: What professional achievement are you most proud of?

DM: Probably getting Static Shock on the air, but my five years working with the legendary staff of the DC Animated Universe has to be close.

PWCW: You’re finally getting back to more comic book writing after having a longer stint in TV and a detour in video games. Have your writing muscles changed having done the TV thing?

DM: No, TV’s just a different form. There are techniques that are appropriate for comics and I’m coming back to using those muscles, which were a little atrophied. But they’re coming back.

Comics stories are large ongoing things, and the people who read them are extremely aware of almost everything that’s going on inside and outside the individual comic. A TV show is something that even your biggest fans have a much more casual relationship with. So you really have to think of a single episode as a one-off. So, even in Justice League, where we did long, involved continuing stories, individual units had to work for someone who hadn't necessarily watched all of the other episodes. As a writer, you’re coming at it a very different way.

PWCW: How long was the writing process for Justice League Heroes? What special requirements differentiated writing for games from writing for TV?

DM: It was maybe four or five months. The biggest difference from TV scripting is the requirement in games that I write dialogue for every character in every possible situation: when players do well or when they’re stuck, the writing has to reward them or prompt them. Fortunately, the Justice League characters are so clearly defined, it was pretty easy to do that, if labor intensive.

PWCW: It's been said that video games' rising popularity is partly responsible for the shrinking and aging of comics' audience. Do you believe that's the case? Do you believe either medium can teach the other anything?

DM: I don't believe that one correlates to the other, in terms of audience shift. I think many videogame fans are more likely to try comics than someone who hasn't spent time immersed in complex fantasy worlds. Obviously, there's a lot that each medium can take from the other, and they already do: from comics’ vast visual breadth to the immersive interactive qualities of games.

PWCW: What’s coming up for you in the world of animation? Is it all new original ideas or stuff that you worked on before?

DM: There's an original show for BET, an adult science fiction animated series. I don't even know if I’m allowed to say the name. It's a new ongoing series like nothing that's ever been on before. I think this will be just as radical in terms of animation as Milestone was in terms of comics when it came out.

PWCW: Are you guys going for the same kind of paradigm shift?

DM: If nothing else, people will notice. It’s a little bit of a Milestone reunion since Denys Cowan is designing the characters. I can’t really speak for BET, but I can tell you what I know. They are doing a slate of animation for adults and a block of children's animation, along with some miniseries like Vin Diesel’s Hannibal. It’s a pretty exciting slate of stuff and I hope it does really well, because more animation is just good for everybody.

PWCW: Will some of these things find their way into comics?

DM: With the BET project that Denys and I are doing, we'd love to find a way to do that in comics. We've just sort of fantasized about calling people up and seeing if they have any interest. Denys is running the animation department at BET. He doesn't have time. And I’ve got two series and several comic book projects on my plate, so I don't have time, either.

PWCW: Is there an update of the status of the Underground project which you talked about coming from Dark Horse sometime ago?

DM: Underground is pretty much dead, which really, really upsets me. But the concept alone was probably the coolest thing I ever did. I'm sort of hoping that, if this FF run, along with another unannounced project, goes well, that maybe my profile will be high enough so I can get Underground going. It was apparently pretty controversial from the point of view of the publishers.

PWCW: What are your thoughts on portrayals of characters of color in the comics business in the time since Milestone comics were on the racks?

DM: There's still an enormous amount of work to be done. The world of comics should look a lot more like the world we all live in, albeit with more capes and flying. We're not there yet.