Joan Weldon Passes On

Joan Weldon, who starred in the science fiction classic Them! (1954), died on February 11 at the age of 90.

Joan Weldon was born on Joan Welton August 5 1930 in San Francisco. When she was only six years old her mother died. It was while she was still a student as Galileo High School that she began singing in the San Francisco Opera chorus. It was following a performance with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera that she was signed by Warner Bros.

Miss Weldon made her film debut in The System in 1953. She appeared in the movies So This is Love (1953), The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953), The Command (1954), The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), and Riding Shotgun (1954) before appearing in Them! (1954). The film did well at the box office and received reasonably positive reviews when it was first released. In the mid to late Fifties she appeared in the films Deep in My Heart (1954), Gunsight Ridge (1957), Day of the Badman (1958), and Home Before Dark (1958).

Joan Weldon also appeared on television. She was both the host and a singer on the show This is Your Music in 1955. She guest starred on the shows The Millionaire, Lux Video Theatre, Cheyenne, Perry Mason, Have Gun--Will Travel, Colt .45, Maverick, Matinee Theatre, and Shirley Temple's Storybook.

For three years she played Marian the Librarian opposite Forrest Tucker as Harold Hill in a national tour of The Music Man. She appeared in the play Kean on Broadway. She also took part in a national tour of Oklahoma! in 1963. In 1964 she appeared at the New York State Theatre/Lincoln Center in The Merry Widow. Miss Weldon retired in 1980.

Joan Weldon was an extremely versatile actress. While she may be best known as scientist Dr. Pat Medford in Them!, she had a long career in musical theatre. On film and in television she played wide variety of roles. In the Perry Mason she played the girlfriend of the murder victim, the mourner in the episode's title "The Case of the Angry Mourner." In the Maverick episode "Plunder of Paradise," she played Grace Wheeler, a widow who tells Bart Maverick about a gold mine in Mexico. Joan Weldon could both act and sing, making one of those rare individuals of multiple talents.

Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror on TCM Thursday in March

Every Thursday in March, Turner Classic Movies will be airing "Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror." The series focuses on classic films that when seen today can be problematic and even offensive. The series will examine the history of these films and examine the cultural context of these movies. Ultimately, there will be a discussion on how these films can be reframed so that they can be kept alive by future generations.

Each episode will discussed by a team of TCM's current hosts, which include Ben Mankiewicz, Dave Karger, Alicia Malone, and Professor Jacqueline Stewart. Among the films airing on "Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror" are Gone with the Wind (1939), Gunga Din (1939), The Jazz Singer (1927), The Searchers (1956), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and The Children's Hour (1961).

I have to say that I am very happy that Turner Classic Movies is doing this series. I think most classic film fans are aware that many of our favourite films contain moments that are problematic. All of my friends and acquaintances find Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's extremely offensive. I can't think of any of us that are happy with the "Abraham" sequence in Holiday Inn (1942).  That having been said, there are still those movies that are problematic, yet some classic film fans don't understand why these films might offend some of us. As someone of Cherokee blood, I find the portrayal of Indigenous people in The Searchers extremely offensive in that it is stereotypical and the Native characters are underdeveloped. That having been said, I have had to explain to fellow classic film fans why I am uncomfortable with the movie. This is where discussions, such as the ones that will take place in "Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror" can be very helpful.

The only caveat I have with "Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror" is that I wish that in addition to the TCM hosts they had guest hosts of various ethnicities to discuss the various movies. For instance, it would be nice if for The Searchers they had Wes Studi or Tantoo Cardinal to discuss the film from an Indigenous point of view. For another example, it would be nice to have Priyanka Chopra or Aziz Ansari on hand to discuss Gunga Din.

Regardless, I am very proud that TCM is airing "Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror." I do not believe that movies should be removed from circulation (as Disney has done with Song of the South), but I do think such movies should be discussed whenever they are shown. Indeed, I would love to see "Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror" become a regular series where each week one movie is shown and discussed, albeit with guest hosts in addition to TCM's regular hosts.

Please Help TCMParty Co-Founder Paula Guthat

If you regularly taken part in TCMParty, the live tweets to movies on Turner Classic Movies using that hashtag, chances are good that you know Paula Guthat. If you live in Detroit, you might also be familiar with Cinema Detroit, the only independent cinema in the Detroit metropolitan area. It was founded by Paula and her husband Tim and was voted by readers of The Detroit Metro Times as "the best place to see an indie movie." Paula is also one of my dearest friends and I literally owe her my life, as she helped through what was the darkest time in my life.

Sadly, Paula has the autoimmune disease lupus, and the disease has recently started attacking her kidneys. Treatment for lupus nephritis, the inflammation of the kidneys, can be very expensive. To help offset Paula's medical bills, her friend Dave Mersey has set up a fundraiser for her on Gofundme.

If you can help, please do so. Paula is a treasure for both the TCM fan community and even Turner Classic Movies itself. For many of us she is among our closest friends. You can donate to the fundraiser here. Any amount would be greatly appreciated.

Blacks and Film Noir

Richard Widmark and Sidney
Poitier in No Way Out

Among the most influential movements in movie history was film noir. There is a good deal of argument as to when the era of classic noir ended, but I believe it safe to say it unfolded from the mid-Forties into the Fifties. This period, which spanned the end of World War II and the post-war years, was also a time of changes in American society, including the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement. In the post war period, American movies began to be more progressive in their portrayal of African Americans. This was particularly true of film noir. It is true that stereotypes, such as the train porter in The Narrow Magin (1952), occasionally appeared in noir, for the most part Black characters in film noir are portrayed as three dimensional characters, well beyond the stereotypes of earlier years. Despite this, there were only a few film noirs made during the classic period that featured Black protagonists.

With regards to notable performances by Blacks in film noir, among the most memorable is Theresa Harris as Eunice Leonard in Out of the Past (1961). Her scene is brief, but it is significant. While Miss Harris is once more playing a maid, she is out on the town with her boyfriend and she is actually allowed to appear glamorous for a change. Eunice is portrayed as a three dimensional character rather than a simple stereotype. Perhaps my only caveat with the scene is that Eunice gives her weight as 131 pounds. Standing only 5' 2", Theresa Harris probably weighed 100 pounds at most.

Body and Soul, also released in 1947, featured another notable performance by an African American, in this case the great Canada Lee. Canada Lee played a welterweight boxer, Ben Chaplin, who becomes the trainer and confidant of John Garfield's character Charley Davis. Throughout the film Charley treats Ben as an equal and the two address each other by their first names. What is more, Ben is not a minor character, playing a major role throughout Body and Soul. In playing Ben Chaplin, Canada Lee gives  one of his best performances in a film that was much more progressive in its portrayal of an African American character than most movies before it.

The Breaking Point (1950) features another progressive portrayal of a Black character. Juano Hernández plays Wesley Park, lead character Harry Morgan's (John Garfield) partner on a fishing boat. Harry treats Wesley as an equal and it is clear that he cares for him deeply. Wesley isn't just Harry's partner; he is his friend. What is more, Wesley is given his own life. He has a son, played by Juano Hernández's real life son Juan.

While Canada Lee and Juano Hernández receive a good deal of screen time in Body and Soul and The Breaking Point, Mauri Leighton (billed as Mauri Lynn) appears only briefly in The Big Night (1951), but her appearance is significant. The Big Night refers to a night during which 17 year old George La Main (John Barrymore, Jr.) takes a major step towards manhood. In one scene George enters a night club where he is fascinated by the singer there, played by Mauri Leighton. When she leaves, George attempts to compliment her, but inadvertently makes a racist comment in doing so. To George's credit, he does regret the comment, as he realizes he has hurt her.  The scene is significant in that it actually portrays a white boy attracted to a black woman, something that would have been forbidden only a few years earlier. Furthermore, the scene demonstrates  the sort of casual racism that exists to this day. While she is not on screen for long, Mauri Leighton gives a great performance of the song "Am I Too Young" and the hurt in her face in reaction to George's comment says more than an entire monologue could.

While there are other performances by Black actors I could discuss, I want to take this time now to move onto film noirs in which the protagonist was Black. Only a very few such films were made during the classic period, but those few films are significant in that they demonstrate the progress Hollywood had made in its portrayal of African Americans since the Thirties and early Forties.

What might have been the first film noir to feature a Black protagonist was No Way Out (1951). The film starred Sidney Poitier in his first major role. He played Dr. Luther Brooks, the first Black doctor at an urban hospital. Unfortunately for Dr. Brooks, attempted robbers, Ray Biddle (Richard Widmark) and Johnny Biddle (Dick Paxton), are brought to the hospital ward after both were shot in the leg. Ray is extremely racist, and makes his hatred of Dr. Brooks very clear from the beginning.The film features early appearances by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (their first film together).

No Way Out originated as a story by screenwriter Lesser Samuels, based on the experiences of his son-in-law, who was a doctor. As hard as it may be to believe, in Lesser Samuels's original story, the doctor was white. After Joseph L. Mankiewicz bought the rights to the story, he transformed the story from being about a a white doctor working alongside Black doctors to one about a Black doctor. In doing so he created a script that broke with stereotypes in featuring a powerful, educated Black doctor. Sidney Poitier's performance further made it clear that Dr. Luther Brooks was an intelligent man of great responsibility.

In addition to presenting a very progressive portrayal of African Americans, it also presented an all-too-accurate portrayal of racism, not only in the form of Ray Biddle, but in other white characters as well. Richard Widmark, who was very different in real life from the characters he played, became friends with Sidney Poitier and actually apologized to him every single time he was required to abuse Mr. Poitier mentally or physically. Because of its progressive portrayal of a Black doctor and its portrayal of racism, No Way Out was met with some controversy. It ran into censorship issues around the country (including a temporary ban in Chicago following race riots there) and did not play in much of the South.

As controversial as No Way Out was, Native Son (1951) would be even more so. The film was based on Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son. Both the film and the novel centred on Bigger Thomas, a young Black man who becomes chauffeur to a wealthy family and finding himself plunged into a world of violence. The novel was adapted into a play that opened on Broadway in 1941. That having been said, it would be some time before it was adapted to film. MGM offered Richard Wright $25,000 for the rights on the condition that it had an all white cast. As might be expected, Mr. Wright turned them down. Independent producer Harold Hecht made an offer for the film rights, but his plans would also have made big changes to the novel's plot. Rather than being a young Black man, Bigger would have belonged to an oppressed white minority, such as a Pole or Italian. There would have also been a Jewish character and a Black character in the cast, who at the film's end would realize that what happened to Bigger could have happened to them as well. Richard Wright also rejected this offer.

It was after Richard Wright moved to Paris that he came in contact with Uruguayan producer James Prades and French director Pierre Chenal. Messrs. Prades and Chenal expressed interest in producing a movie based on Native Son that would remain faithful to the novel. They also wanted Richard Wright to write the screenplay. Ultimately, the film was shot in Argentina. Richard Wright had wanted Canada Lee to play the lead role of Bigger Thomas, but he was unable to do so. Having difficulty finding a leading man, Richard Wright wound up playing the role himself.

The major studios in the United States refused to release Native Son, and ultimately it was released by a small outfit called Independent Classic Pictures. The movie's problems did not end there, as it ran afoul of local censorship boards. Several scenes would be cut from the movie, including  scene in which Bigger kills a rat in his family's tenement in Chicago and various lines, including references to lynching in the South. In Ohio the film was rejected outright. Ultimately, in various regions of the country so much of the film was cut that it affected its continuity. Given how much various censorship boards chopped up Native Son, it failed at the box office. Fortunately in the Teens, the Library of Congress would restore the film, which had not been scene in its original state for literally decades.

Seen today it is easy to understand why Native Son evoked such controversy. It was an unflinching look at systemic racism in the United States, with an all too realistic portrayal of race hatred and police violence for many Americans in the early Fifties to stomach. Native Son is not a perfect film. Some of the acting is over the top and Pierre Chenal's direction at times leaves a bit to be desired. That having been said, Richard Wright's script is brutal in its portrayal of racism in America at the time, and George Garate's cinematography is exceptional. Although often criticized, I find Richard Wright's performance as Bigger Thomas to be fairly good. While Mr. Wright was obviously too old at 40 to be convincing as a 25 years old, he often hits just the right emotional notes in the role, sometimes doing better than the more experienced actors in the movie.

It would be several years after Native Son that Edge of the City (1957) would be released. The film centred on the friendship between  longshoreman Axel Nordmann (John Cassavetes) and the head of stevedore gang Tommy Tyler (Sidney Poitier). Unfortunately, their friendship is complicated by the head of another stevedore gang, the vicious racist Charlie Malick (Jack Warden).

Edge of the City originated as the teleplay "A Man Is Ten Feet Tall," which aired on The Philco Television Playhouse on October 2 1955. It was in the teleplay that Sidney Poitier originated the role of Tommy Tyler. While the movie adaptation of the teleplay in the United States would be titled Edge of the City, it retained the teleplay's title A Man is Ten Feet Tall in the United Kingdom. MGM was a bit nervous about the film given it centred on race relations and worried about its profitability in the South. For that reason it was budgeted at only $500,000.

Edge of the City was well received by preview audiences and also received positive notices from critics. Unfortunately, it would not do well at the box office. Although Edge of the City was not banned outright, many exhibitors in the South refused to book the film because of its portrayal of an interracial friendship. Of course, its portrayal of a friendship between a Black man and a white man is precisely what made Edge of the City a revolutionary film. It was something that had very rarely been seen before.

It was two years after Edge of the City that Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) was released. In fact, there are those who believe Odds Against Tomorrow is the final film of the classic period of film noir. Odds Against Tomorrow was based on the novel of the same name by William P. McGivern. Odds Against Tomorrow stars Harry Belafonte as Johnny Ingram, a compulsive gambler who down on his luck. In need of money, Johnny joins in on a plan for a heist engineered by an embittered former police officer (David Burke, played by Ed Begley). Unfortunately, the third member of the heist's crew is Earle Slater (Robert Ryan), an ex-convict who also happens to be a die-hard racist.

Odds Against Tomorrow was financed by HarBel Productions, a company owned by Harry Belafonte. This allowed Mr. Belafonte complete control over the production, something he would not have been permitted had it been produced by a major studio. Among the cast and crew hand-picked by Harry Belafonte was screenwriter Abraham Polonsky, who had written the screenplays for such films as Golden Earrings (1947), Body and Soul (1947), and, with Ira Wolfert, Force of Evil (1948), which he also directed. Unfortunately, Mr. Polonsky found himself blacklisted after he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951. As he was still blacklisted, Black novelist John O. Killens, was used as a front. Abraham Polonsky's credit would be restored by the Writer's Guild of America in 1996.

At its core Odds Against Tomorrow is essentially a heist film where race relations play a major role. Earle Slater casually drops the word "piccaninny" as well as the N-word itself. For most of the film David Burke finds himself trying to keep Earle Slater and Johnny Ingram from each other's throats even as they are executing the heist. Here it must be pointed that Odds Against Tomorrow broke with earlier films in another way. A henchman for mobster Bacco, Coco (Richard Bright), is portrayed as overtly gay. In the late Fifties even veiled references to homosexuality were considered taboo in film.

In Odds Against Tomorrow Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, and Ed Begley were all in top form. Furthermore, Robert Wise's direction is excellent and Abraham Polonsky's screenplay powerful. Despite this, Odds Against Tomorrow did not do particularly well at the box office, although it received positive notices from critics. Fortunately, it has developed a following over the years.

The year 1959 marked the end of the classic period of film noir. And while Black leads were rare during that period, the noirs of the classic period would have influence on the neo-noirs of the coming decades. The casts of Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Dead Presidents (1995), and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) all feature predominantly Black casts in non-stereotypical roles. While Black leads were rare in film noirs of the late Forties and the Fifties, it would be films such as No Way Out and Odds Against Tomorrow that would pave the way for African Americans in non-stereotypical roles not only in neo-noir, but in other genres as well.

Online Friends Are Real Friends

I have had internet access since 1995. In that time I have made many friends online, most of whom I have never met in person. Many of these friends number among my very closest friends, among them the dearest friend I have ever had. Many of my friends, both those I have met in person and those I have met online, have had similar experiences. Despite this, there are those who will insist that online friends are not "real friends." Indeed, there is even the phrase "real life friends," which seems to say that what occurs online somehow is not real.

Given the World Wide Web has existed for nearly 28 years, I am not sure why some people have this attitude that online friends are not real friends or, at the very least, are somehow lesser in quality than people one meets in person. Making friends online can go well beyond simply chatting with people on Facebook or Twitter. Today there is no shortage of video chat software, from Skype to Zoom. Some of my online friends have my phone number and we have texted and talked on the phone. There are several different ways one can bond with friends one has made online. And often this bonding can be every bit as strong as the bonding one has with those friends they have met in person.

Now I do realize it is fully possible for someone online to pretend to be someone or something they are not. There is the phenomenon of catfishing, whereby someone creates a fake persona online, whether for attention or some more nefarious ends. And I have had the sad experience of befriending people online, only to learn later they are not what they initially appeared to be. In one case I knew someone for a year before they turned on me, something that took me by surprise. That having been said, I have had this happen offline with people I have met in person as well. In fact, I daresay it has happened many more times to me with people I have met in person than it has people I have met online. There are always going to be those insincere or unscrupulous people who will behave nicely when they want something from an individual and then turn on that individual when they are through with them.

Fortunately, in my experience, such people are the exception to the rule. It seems to me that most people behave the same online as they do offline. I think most people online are honest about who and what they are. Over the years I have gotten to meet friends I have made online and in each case they behave the same offline as they do online. What is more, we did not suddenly become friends because we met in person. Quite simply, we were already friends and behaved as such.

For those not willing to take my word for it, a study conducted by the University of California Irvine in 2017 revealed that online friendships are just as meaningful as face-to-face friendships for teens.  There is no reason to assume that the same is not true for many adults. Ultimately I don't think the means through which people connect (online vs. in person) is nearly is as important is as how strong that connection is.

As I said earlier, I won't pretend to understand why some people think online friends are not real friends or think that online friends are somehow lesser in quality than those one has met in person. Maybe they haven't spent that much time online or maybe they just never "clicked" with someone online. That having been said, for many of us our online friendships are every bit as real and every bit as meaningful as our face-to-face friendships. To say, "Too bad you never met so-and-so in person" of someone's online friend is then not only rude, but wholly unwarranted and can be downright cruel. For years now people have connected through multiple platforms beyond in person, through the telephone, through ham radio, and now through the internet. It is not the means through which two people connect that is important. It is the fact that they connected at all and how strong that connection is that is important.

Actress and Singer Martha Stewart Passes On

Martha Stewart, the actress and singer who appeared in such films as Daisy Kenyon (1947) and In a Lonely Place (1950), died on February 17 2021 at the age of 98.

Martha Stewart was born Martha Haworth on October 7 1922 in Bardwell, Kentucky. She was very young when her family moved to Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from New Utrecht High School there. After graduating from high school, she entered a singing contest which led to a career as a professional singer. During World War II she sang on NBC radio shows Glenn Miller, Harry James and Claude Thornhill. It was at an engagement at the Stork Club that she was spotted by Hollywood talent scout.

Martha Stewart made her film debut in Doll Face in 1945. She appeared in the films Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946) and I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947). In Daisy Kenyon (1947) she played a friend of the title character (played by Joan Crawford). She appeared in Are You With It? (1948) with Donald O'Connor before playing hat-check girl and murder victim Mildred Atkinson in In a Lonely Place (1950). She appeared in only a few movies following In a Lonely Place, those being Convicted (1950), Aaron Slick from Punkin Creek (1952), and Surf Party (1964).

Miss Stewart appeared on Broadway in Park Avenue in the late Forties and Guys and Dolls in the early Fifties. Martha Stewart made her television debut on Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle in 1950. She was a co-host of the variety show Those Two. In the Fifties she guest starred on Footlights and Klieglights, Cavalcade of Stars, Songs for Sale, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Arthur Murray Party, The Red Skelton Show, The Stork Club, and Musical Chairs. In the Sixties she guest starred on Our Man Higgins, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and My Three Sons

Martha Stewart was a talented singer with a lovely voice, as anyone who has seen her musicals knows. She also displayed a good deal of talent as an actress. She played a variety of roles, from singer Frankie Porter in Doll Face to an older rich woman in Surf Party. She was equally at home in musicals and in dramas, and she always gave good performances.

Comic Book Legend Dwayne McDuffie

It was ten years ago that comic book and animated TV series writer Dwayne McDuffie died at age 49 following complications of emergency heart surgery. Mr. McDuffie was born during the Silver Age and his career in comic books would not begin until the Modern Age of Comic Books, yet he had an impact on the medium as few other writers have. Quite simply, if comic books today include more diversity than they once did, Dwayne McDuffie deserves much of the credit.

Dwayne McDuffie was born on February 20 1962 in Detroit. It was following Mr. McDuffie's death that Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele fame learned he was his half-brother through their father. Like many young boys in the Seventies, Dwayne McDuffie read comic books. He attended the Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He later attended the University of Michigan, where he received a degree in English, and then a master's degree in physics at the same school. He moved to New York City where he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He was a copy editor at Investment Dealers Digest when a friend recommended him for a job as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics.

At Marvel Dwayne McDuffie wrote the limited series Damage Control, the limited series Deathlok, and specials and one-shots related to such characters as She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man. He later wrote a few issues of The Demon for DC Comics and a few issues of Back to the Future: Forward to the Future for Harvey Comics. It would be in 1993 that Dwayne McDuffie would make his mark in comic book history with the founding of Milestone Media.

Milestone Media was founded in 1993 by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle, with the goal of addressing the lack of diversity in American comic books at that time. Dwayne McDuffie served as the editor-in-chief at Milestone and also created several of its characters. Milestone Media's titles were published through DC Comics, although Milestone retained full ownership of their characters. Dwayne McDuffie co-created several of Milestone's most popular characters, including Hardware, Blood Syndicate, Icon, Static, and The Shadow Cabinet. Dwayne McDuffie also wrote the Milestone's titles Hardware and Icon.

Milestone Media was a major break from previous comic book companies in that they had people of colour had much greater representation there than any other comic book company at the time. Hardware, Icon, and Static were all Black. Xombi was Korean American. Kobalt was of Cuban descent. Both Blood Syndicate and The Shadow Cabinet featured characters of various ethnicities and sexual orientations. What is more, the various Milestone titles, particularly Icon, often addressed real world issues. Icon presented a conflict before the more economically and socially conservative Icon and his more progressive sidekick Rocket. In the pages of Icon, Rocket became the first unwed mother in the history of comic books. Other topics covered by Milestone Media's title included drug addiction, alcoholism,  gang warfare, sexuality, and, as might be expected racism.

Sadly, Milestone Media was founded at a time when there was a boom in new comic book publishers. Between the late Eighties and the early Nineties such companies as Malibu Comics, Valiant Comics, Image, and yet others were founded. Most of these publishers introduced their own lines of superheroes. As a result, there was a glut on the market of new superhero titles. Milestone's chances may have also been hurt by the speculator boom of the Nineties, whereby speculators would buy various titles in hopes that they would be valuable later. The speculator boom peaked just as Milestone was founded and then ended only a few years later. As a result, comic book sales dropped dramatically. With sales of its titles in decline, Milestone Media ceased publishing comic books in 1997, although the company still exists today as a licensing company for its characters.

It would be Milestone Media that would lead Dwayne McDuffie into animation. Even though Static had ended its run in 1997, the character of Static was licensed for the animation Static Shock in 2000. Michael McDuffie would go onto write episodes not only of Static Shock, but Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, various Ben 10 series, and Young Justice. He served as a producer on Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Ben 1: Ultimate Alien. He also wrote direct-to-video features for DC comics, including Justice League: Starcrossed, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, All-Star Superman, and Justice League: Doom. He would return to comic books, writing the mini-series Beyond for Marvel, as well as Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Fantastic Four, and Justice League of America.

During his lifetime Dwayne McDuffie received nominations for the Eisner Award for Best Writer, Best Editor, and Best Continuing Series. He won the Golden Apple Award from the Roeper School (his alma mater) for "use of popular art to promote and advance human worth and dignity." He won the Humanitas Award for in Children's Animation for the Static Shock episode "Jimmy." Two awards are named for him, the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics and the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Kids' Comics.

Both as a founder of Milestone Media and as a writer, Dwayne McDuffie did much to advance diversity in comic books. Even after the introduction of several important African American characters in the Seventies (The Falcon and Luke Cage at Marvel, John Stewart and Black Lightning at DC), there were still few Black superheroes to be found in comic books in the early Nineties. There were also few Asian, Latino, or Native American superheroes. In co-founding Milestone Media, Dwayne McDuffie did much to change that. He wrote Black characters and characters of other ethnicities as human beings, not caricatures or stereotypes. What is more, Dwayne McDuffie's characters were ones that anyone could identify with, regardless of ethnicity. Hardware is an inventor who found he was being used by his criminal patron. Static is an intelligent teenager and pop culture geek who just happened to get superpowers. Rocket is a teenage aspiring writer who fell in with the wrong crowd until she met Icon. In writing characters that were wholly relatable, often dealing with issues that the average person might face in their everyday life, Dwayne McDuffie helped advance diversity in comic books in a way that few writers before him had.