Hardware. Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Of all the Milestone Media comics that were announced, Hardware (Curtis Metcalf) was the one I was looking forward to the most. The first image I saw of him was a man in armor, holding a chained bladed weapon. Hardware looked like a person not to be trifled with. From what I gathered, Hardware was an incredibly smart man who made his suit to fight against those who wronged him. I was sold! At that point in my life, I was very much in the “If they punch you in the arm, you elbow their jaw until it unhinged” line of thinking. Anyone who provoked this out of Hardware, they deserved whatever they got. And then I got the first issue in my hand.
I wasn’t ready for the opening, not at all. The bird attempting to leave and bumping into the glass, Curtis described how this bird would keep crashing into this glass, not understanding that the barrier would not allow for his escape. Yet each time it was out of his cage, it would rush for a freedom that would not happen. Then we read that for all of his academic accomplishments and his amazing career thanks to his mentor Edwin Alva Sr., for all the success and money he made for his company, Curtis is just like the bird he felt sorry for, a man trapped under a glass that he couldn’t escape.
Alva told Curtis flatly that he was a cog in the machine when he asked for a royalty point on his inventions. Not family, not a friend, not the “heir apparent” for the company. This was a huge blow to Curtis, to be told he wasn’t even respected, he was “useful.” Besides the dynamics of the “father figure/son” relationship that Alva pretended to have, getting Curtis into a school and furthering his education (with the promise of working for Alva) and an employee being told they are “just a cog” in a machine, you have an older White man telling a Black man that he is basically property. Curtis is better than a lot of us, I can see an eye being blackened at the least.
Well that’s what Curtis wanted to do and went about it, attempting to find anything he could use as leverage on Alva. And he found so much! After sending this information to every law enforcement and news outlet he could and getting no results, Curtis decided that his only option left was to physically take on Alva directly. Not at Curtis Metcalf, but as an armored boogie man who would strike at the heart of ALL of Alva’s illegal activities. He became Hardware
After the first issue, it was a wrap for me. Hardware was my guy. I spent every moment I could telling everyone who would listen to me, “Get these Milestone Books! You NEED to read Hardware!!!” As much as I caught all the context of his heroic journey, it wasn’t until I was older and into the workforce before I “got” what Curtis was feeling. I’ve never had anyone talk down to me like Alva did to him, I would be lying if I hadn't felt “trapped” at a job. Too many times I can count on my hands, I’ve felt like a cog in a machine or under appreciated while someone smiles in my face telling me just how much they appreciate me.
And it’s not something I’m alone with, being Black in the workforce, we deal with so many micro transgressions on a daily basis. And if you are a woman or LGBTQ, you may face ten times as many.
Yes Hardware does break through his glass barrier, but it took his ex-girlfriend Barraki Young for him to see much of his feeling trapped was his doing. Hardware wasn’t created to help others or stop crime. Hardware himself was a cage that Curtis Metcalf put himself in. He was so driven to “strike back” at Alva, he didn’t see the damage he was doing to himself and to the community. Eventually Hardware moved past this and became a hero, but his heroic journey is one of the reasons I like Hardware. Had I had the means, I might have been just like him.
That’s a lie. I WOULD have done exactly what Hardware did. And I pray I’d have someone who’d sit me down and check me to be the hero I need to be.