You Are (Not) Expendable

I connected with Hardware more than any of the other launch books of Milestone Media. More than Icon and Static, but just a little more than Blood Syndicate. I might have to do a reread of all of those books one day. 

Still, at its core, Hardware was a story about a man who decided to go against the system he was a vital part of largely out of not getting respect and what he was owed by his employer and mentor. Being a part of something greater than oneself and, instead of being rewarded, he was told that he was just a “cog in the machine” that could easily be replaced. 

Expendable. 

 You are not “family.” You are an employee. Neither are you “heir apparent”. You are a cog in the machine. My machine.

You are not respected, Curtis, you are merely useful.

I remember reading Mr. McDuffie talking about his experiences at Marvel and how he felt they treated him. There was a lot of anger and resentment there, and he put all of that into Hardware. By the time it ended, the man in the machine grew up, matured, and continued fighting the good fight while making things around him just a little bit better. 

That was Dwayne McDuffie in a nutshell. Well, in a puncture-proof organic polymer shell. 

Hardware came out back in 1993, well over 30 years ago now. The world has changed a lot over that time. Dwayne McDuffie's no longer with us. Milestone was gone for a long time only to seemingly make a comeback in the era of Black Lives Matter under the specter of a growing fascist movement and a killer airborne virus that still continues to threaten the lives of so many despite the media no longer talking about it.

Cue to 2025.

The fascists are doing their damnedest to get rid of women, Black people, Latinos, disabled, and transgendered people in society, and techbro oligarch regime is bankrolling them on. 

Edwin Alva, the character who said that quote above in Hardware, definitely has techbro mentality. A man who sees himself above the law, creating tech that everybody uses, and more than willing to get rid of anybody who wants to move ahead in the company despite doing so much to make the company what it is today. 

Especially if they're a minority.

To these folks, you're not a person. You're just something that's taking up space until something better comes along. You're just something that helps them make more money, and if you get in the way of that, you're replaced by someone they feel fits their ideal. 

They have a checklist of five things, and if you're not one of the five things, you don't have a place there. 

Unless, of course, you're willing to work for slave wages, then they'll love you until they don't. Otherwise, they don't want you.

You're expendable. 

I think it was Prince who once said in this life, you're on your own. No, wait... I can't believe that.

We've got each other. 

Yeah, those in power feel you're expendable, but there are more of us than there are of them. And yeah, it does seem pretty grimdark right now, but we shouldn't lose sight of who we are as a people. 

I knew the world hated me the moment I got out of the womb. 

It's going to be rough. But I just want you to know that you're not alone. 

You matter.

You are loved. 

And no matter what they try to tell you, you're not expendable. 

And they can't take that away from you, no matter what they say or do. Live your life, and damn those who deny who you are. 

Damn those who try to erase your history.

Damn those who try to break your spirit.

And damn those who use their power to divide us.

We're better than that, and we need to act like we are.

The Edwin Alvas of the world need to be more afraid of us than we are of them.