Hardware #1 cover by Denys Cowan and Jimmy Palmiotti

HARDWARE #1

MILESTONE MEDIA/DC COMICS
WRITER: Dwayne McDuffie
PENCILS: Denys Cowan
INKS: Jimmy Palmiotti
COLORS: Noelle Giddings
32 pp., Color, $2.95

When the discussion of Black superheroes pops up, it often turns to the question of whether actual Black people as writers would tell better stories about Black superheroes than writers who are White.  Of course, some always say skin color doesn’t really matter, but they’re always White, speaking from the perspective of advantage.

A White man can certainly write really good comic books featuring African-American characters.  In the 1970’s, Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont wrote excellent darkly comic and bloody horrific stories for Marvel Comics’ vampire hunter, Blade.  But there’s just something about a writer who has lived as a Black man in America writing stories about a fictional character that is not just a Black superhero, but also a Black person in America.  Of course, I realize that sometimes a character being Black has nothing to do with or has no affect on the narrative (for instance, Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ Martha Washington comics).

But sometimes being a Black writer spinning a narrative about a Black character does matter.  Witness the short-lived, mid-1990’s comic book series, Hardware.  Hardware was the first comic book published by Milestone Media.  Milestone was an imprint of DC Comics that sought to publish superhero comic books featuring a more diverse cast in terms of skin color and ethnicity, in particularly African-Americans.  In the case of Dwayne McDuffie, Hardware’s scribe and co-creator, the title had a storyteller who certainly understood what it was to be a talented African-American who repeatedly bangs his head against the glass ceiling.

McDuffie is an underrated writer, and one who has been shamefully underutilized by both Marvel and DC Comics – more than likely because he is a Black man.  [That’s improved recently.]  He’s certainly as talented as Brian Azzarello, Paul Dini, Jeph Loeb, Brian K. Vaughan, Mark Waid – I could go on… Maybe if he were white or British (white Brit, of course), he’d be more appreciated both by editorial and fans.  I imagine that McDuffie could certainly replicate Mark Millar’s one trick – re-imagine old Marvel storylines over and over again (which he does quite well).

Back to Hardware:  What McDuffie gave Hardware was the sense of being more than just a fictional character with a skin color default setting (as many, if not most, white comic book characters are).  McDuffie made the character, in a sense, an idealized version of a Black man struggling to prove that he can be and is exceptional in spite of the fact that they expect only the negative of him.

Hardware is the superhero identity of Curtis “Curt” Metcalf.  A child prodigy in science, Curt draws the attention of legendary businessman/inventor, Edwin Alva, Sr., who is also a big time criminal.  With Curt’s parents’ blessings, Alva takes the boy and makes sure he gets the best education possible, which means elite schools and colleges.  After earning six degrees, Curtis goes to work for Alva, and Curtis’ inventions make Alva even richer.  However, when Curtis visits his mentor and asks to be a partner, this young Black genius gets a surprise.

Alva informs Curtis that he is basically a slave to him – a smart slave, but still a slave.  Alva calls Curtis a cog and compares him to a dog who has forgotten who the master is.  Alva tells Curtis to even forget the idea of being the heir apparent to run the company when Alva leaves, and Curtis can’t quit because his contract with Alva Industries won’t allow him to work for the Alva’s competitors.  Using his brilliant mind, Curtis builds a suit of armor and becomes a kind of Iron Man (the Iron Man 2020 version) and Machine Man amalgamation he names Hardware.  Hardware then uses his powers to wage war on Alva’s criminal enterprise.

It’s not impossible for a White man to write a title like Hardware.  [It’s not impossible for a Black man to write Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon.]  Still, there’s something that rings true and feels genuine about the Black American experience in McDuffie’s work on Hardware.  From the opening scene in which a young Curtis studies the parakeet that will not stop banging its head against the glass window for freedom to the scene of an adult Curtis learning to check his rage and see the big picture of revenge, McDuffie is likely writing what he knows, but regardless, it reads like the truth.  That’s what makes him not just a really good Black writer of comic books, but an exceptional comic book writer when compared to just about any other comic book scribe.