Earth ≠

The Legacy of Luther Strode #3 (2015)  //  Image Comics

The Shooter

Story: Justin Jordan, Art and Cover: Tradd Moore

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No, it’s kind of accurate. Here’s the thing.

Dwayne McDuffie was a hero of mine and he somehow, just because he was SO fricking gifted and so generous, wound up being a mentor to me, of sorts. He was always checking in and he often gave me life-changing advice and I miss him constantly. 

For some reason, he thought I would be a good fit to write Static. I think at least four times, he asked me to write Static for one thing or another. But I always turned it down because I knew without a shred of doubt that MY Static would never be as good as DWAYNE’s Static. 

But the Milestone characters were very important to me, and I wanted them to be spotlightedas much as possible, and I completely fell in love with Rocket. I felt that, if Dwayne approved, then I could write Rocket in other books and hopefully boost her visibility (at this point, she wasn’t appearing in a regular comic).  It felt like there was a little more room to show different sides of her, somehow.

So I asked for her in Birds of Prey, I asked for her in Villains United, I asked for her in Secret Six, and in all three cases, I was turned down. I don’t think it was for any reason other than licensing. but I don’t really know. I don’t remember absolutely for sure, but I think Dwayne was fine with it, it’s been a while. I don’t think I would have proceeded without his okay, I normally never cross that kind of picket line (which is why I didn’t write Blade and didn’t write Black Lightning, until the creator himself said it was fine). 

So I don’t remember a specific plan. But I did want to write her, I would still love to do that, someday.