Dwayne McDuffie

"He’s not dead, he’s up there fixing the sun. And when he’s done he’ll be back, and I’ll be here waiting for him."

—Lois Lane

Dwayne McDuffie was an American comic book writer, known mostly for his creation of the African-American superhero Static. Although originating in McDuffie's indie Milestone Comics label, Static eventually moved to the DC Comics Universe, and his creator followed suit. McDuffie wrote for DC Comics, and contributed to various animated DC spin-offs, including Static Shock, Justice League and several Direct to Video movies. He was the main writer and editor for the Ben 10 Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien animated series.

Before Milestone, McDuffie also worked at Marvel Comics, where he created Damage Control, a series about the people who clean up the mess after superhero-supervillain battles. Much later, he returned to Marvel temporarily to write Fantastic Four, which had fallen into the hands of an editor who remembered McDuffie's love of the characters from the days when they were both lowly Marvel minions together.

Sadly and shockingly to his fans, McDuffie passed away suddenly on February 22nd, 2011 due to complications during a surgical procedure he had the day before. His last work was the script for Justice League Doom, the animated version of JLA: Tower of Babel. He was 49, having just recently had a birthday a day before his death.

Works by Dwayne McDuffie with their own trope pages include:

Other works by Dwayne McDuffie provide examples of:

Awesome McCoolname
Child Prodigy: Dwayne went to college as a child.
Deadpan Snarker: There's no better example than "Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers", a mock pitch satirizing the state of black Marvel characters in the late 80s (along with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
Doing It for the Art: Dwayne was very passionate about his work, and one of his final online posts was him showing joy at Static, one of his original creations, finally being made into an Action Figure.
Executive Meddling: This sums it up pretty well. (At least some of it, such as Hawkgirl's death ruining a planned romance arc, has been confirmed true.)
Room Full of Crazy