Dwayne McDuffie was a Detroit native who attended The University of Michigan. Later on Dwayne McDuffie started off specifically at Marvel Comics in editorials during the 80's after a friend got him an interview for an assistant editors position at Marvel Comics. He eventually went on to create Marvel's Damage Control. In the 90's, he became a free-lancer and worked with Marvel,DC,Harvel,and Archie comics.
Eventually McDuffie co-founded Milestone Media and explained this about it:
"If you do a black character or a female character or an Asian character, then they aren't just that character. They represent that race or that sex, and they can't be interesting because everything they do has to represent an entire block of people. You know, Superman isn't all white people and neither is Lex Luthor. We knew we had to present a range of characters within each ethnic group, which means that we couldn't do just one book. We had to do a series of books and we had to present a view of the world that's wider than the world we've seen before."
Milestone released it's comics through DC comics and with McDuffie as editor-in-chief, he co-created Static amongst other characters. When Milestone stopped releasing new comics, McDuffie's character Static got his own show,Static Shock,which McDuffie was hired to write and story-edit on the series, writing eleven episodes.
McDuffie was also hired to write for the animated series Justice League. He was soon promoted to story editor and producer as the series became Justice League Unlimited. During the entire run of the animated series, McDuffie wrote, produced, or story-edited 69 out of the 91 episodes.McDuffie also wrote the story for the video game Justice League Heroes.And got credit for shows Teen Titans and "What's New,Scoody Doo?".
McDuffie was hired to help revamp and story-edit Cartoon Network's popular animated Ben 10 franchise with Ben 10: Alien Force, continuing the adventures of the ten-year-old title character into his mid and late teenage years. During the run of the series, McDuffie wrote episode 1-3, 14, 25-28, 45 and 46 and/or story-edited all forty-six episodes. McDuffie is currently producing and story editing a second sequel series Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, which premiered April 23. 2010. He wrote episode 1, 10, 11, 16 and 21.
Eventually he came back to writing comics and wrote such work as Marvel's "Beyond!" and wrote issues of Justice League,Firestorm,and Fantastic Four.
McDuffie recently wrote Milestone Forever for DC Comics, a two-issue, prestige format mini-series chronicling the final adventures of his Milestone characters before a catastrophic event that fuses their continuity with the continuity of the DC Universe.
McDuffie's last work was writing the script for the newly released "All-Star Superman" animated movie.
He passed away today 02/22/2011 but the cause of death is still unknown.
*UPDATE*
Comic Book Resources is reporting that McDuffie died from complications having to do with "a surgical procedure" performed Monday evening.
R.I.P. Dwayne McDuffie