Comic book, television, and movie writer Dwayne McDuffie, who wrote comic books for Marvel and DC and co-founded the comic book company Milestone Media before crossing over to television and animation, has died at the age of 49 from complications due to a surgical procedure performed Monday evening.

Milestone Media, co-founded by McDuffie expanded the role of minorities in comics and launched a line of superheroes (through DC Comics) that included Static, Hardware, Icon, Blood Syndicate and Xombi, all of which McDuffie had a hand in creating. One of Milestone’s featured characters, Static, made the leap to television in 2000 as the hero of the award-winning animated series Static Shock.

Throughout his career, McDuffie wrote comics for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, including Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Fantastic Four, Captain Marvel and Justice League of America. McDuffie also scripted several animated television shows and features, including Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and All-Star Superman. McDuffie wrote and/or produced the wildly popular animated TV series’ Justice League, Static Shock, Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. He was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Static Shock, a Writers Guild award for Justice League and three Eisner awards for his work in comic books.

McDuffie is survived by his wife, Charlotte, and his mother, Edna McDuffie-Gardner.

On behalf of the writers and Mob of readers here at SciFiMafia, our hearts go out to Dwayne McDuffie’s family, friends and fans – he was an amazing writer, whose contributions to comic books, television and movies will always be remembered and he will truly be missed.