REVIEW: Cyborg #21

Marv Wolfman and George Perez created DC“s Cyborg during their classic run on Teen Titans in 1980, so readers have to be appreciative of Marv Wolfman“s role in writing the current ongoing series for DC“s most prominent African-American hero. When an original creator continues to or returns to work on his/her creation, comics fans can enjoy the mild delusion that corporate interests do not over determine the delightful experience of their recreational pleasure.

Cyborg #21 introduces the “Steel & Blood”“ story line. Chapter One of this story line ”“ “Mechs”“ — finds our hero shredding some mysterious Mechs that are deploying technology nearly as advanced as Cyborg“s own. The prologue to this issue may provide some clues to this mystery but readers may not care too much about the origins of the Mech tech since, at this point in the story, new readers will still be trying to figure out exactly what is going on in this book.

Cyborg has always been a complicated superhero to pull off successfully. His limitations as a comic book character can often be obscured or erased in popular team books with an established cast of spectacular heroes. Cyborg was amazing in Wolfman and Perez“s Teen Titans and he has been ok in the Justice League books, but like many 20th century black heroes he was designed to be in the background. One way that other titles ”“ Black Lightening, or Marvel“s Falcon have tried to over come the curse of the Black-hero-in-the-background scenario has been to create/re-create the urban (i.e. Black) contexts out of which these heroes could and should have emerged, given their often stereotypical origin narratives. Even this approach at revisionism has had mixed results.

Maybe this terrain has already been covered for this character. And the story of Cyborg #21 is not about who the main character really is; especially now that he is so far into his own title. Note: this issue, even though it is a starting point for a new arc, is not a good onboarding point for the character or for this ongoing series. It will be too confusing for most readers and for some it will feel like Cyborg is a supporting character in his own book. The concept of a disembodied Black man sutured together with alien tech and fragments of his own body is a rich one for any genre. But sometimes, reading a Cyborg comic is like watching a sequence of missed opportunities ”“ unfolding panel-by-panel and page-by-page. 2.5/5.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Marv Wolfman (A/CA) Sam Lotfi