Monday, May 19, 2014

Time for it to Stop

This weekend I watched some of DC Entertainment’s animated films.

I watched Justice League: Doom. It’s about replacing Aquaman, whom we pretend doesn’t exist, in the plot with Cyborg. That’s even though Aquaman is one of the four original “Super-Friends” whom the original “Legion of Doom” was gathered to fight.

I watched Justice League: War.  It’s about using Cyborg in the Justice League’s modern origin story to replace Aquaman, who again is completely shut out (although his pissy half-brother, Orm. shows up in the credit sequence).  This is major shift from the actual printed story, where Cyborg is used to replace the Martian Manhunter. 

At least I can look forward to the Superman vs. Batman movie, where there is no original comic story to ignore. So it will skip right to ignoring Aquaman totally, and including Cyborg, instead. 

Look, I have nothing against Cyborg as a person or as character—
Okay, wait, that’s a lie.

I’ve always thought Cyborg was a crappy character.  Great guy, but a crappy character.  Let’s start with the laughably ‘heroic’ name: VICTOR STONE.  Good heroes have names that undercut them, names that are boring or even wussy (“Bruce Wayne”; “Clark Kent”; “Peter Parker”; “Barry Allen”; “James Bond”, “Arthur Curry”, “Scipio Garling”,  et al.); it makes the superheroic identity seem like a contrast.  VIC STONE Is a movie star name (a PORN star name, really).  I can’t wait until he has a son someday and names him “Turok 2.0”.  Naming him “VICTOR STONE” cries out “this character is a HERO”, which is typical of the lazy, cheesy writing of his creator Marv Wolfman, the Man Who Could Do No Write.

"You have to love him. He's the captain of the football team!"

Then there’s his origin.  The iconic JL-level heroes have myths of self-creation (“I shall become a bat!”), happy accidents (“CRAAAAAAACK!”), or bequeathed legacy (“Speak my name”, “Doomed planet”, and “Oh, god, really, the ring choose YOU, WTF?!?! “).  Vic Stone’s origin is a “Doom Patrol” style origin: a BMOC (race car driver/movie starlet/jet pilot/football player) has a tragic injury that both marginalizes them from the norm and gives them special powers.  Why, it’s rather Marvelesque, isn’t it?  Like the origins of Daredevil or the Thing or the Hulk?  Almost as if Cyborg’s creator were writing for Marvel.

"DISHWASHING LIQUID?!?!"

At least Geoff Johns did a good job making Cyborg’s New 52 origin more epic (Red Room surgery with T.O. Morrow using alien high-tech to repair damage caused by Darkseid’s invasion!).  Cyborg’s pre-52 origin was that an experiment his parents should have been tending blew up at him because his parents were making out on a control panel; that’s Wolfman-style heroism. 

Huh; jive turkey!

And, of course, there’s the generic-ness of his powers/name.  Let’s slap some tech on him, that’ll let him do whatever we need.  He’ll be a cyborg. Named…. Cyborg.  Eventually he can hang out with Dark Vigilante, Strong Guy, Warrior Woman, Magic Lamp, Speedster, and Sea King.  Except when we just use him instead of Sea King.    It’s like he’s the result of an office bet at DC Comics: “I’ll bet you one dollar you can’t come up with a new superhero before the elevator ride’s over!” 

I guess it wasn't as egregious in his original setting in the Teen Titans, where Cyborg was introduced with Dark Mage Girl, Alien Metal Bra, and, um, Beast Boy.  He was always fairly colorless in the Teen Titans. No connection to any of the DC heroic dynasties or iconic characters, no independent stories or setting of his own, no special role on the team.   We all agree he was vivacious and charming, thanks to Khary Payton and fun writing, on the Teen Titans cartoon, but that’s hardly a reason to use him while benching Aquaman.

In all fairness, Canary's not a natural blonde.

I get that DC doesn't want its iconic heroes to be a ‘whites-only club’, and it’s laudable. And they've only got so much to work with.  Lord knows, all their attempts to level-up Vixen have consistently failed miserably, because, well… Vixen’s a much worse character than Cyborg, even.  You can put a pig in a dress, but you can’t teach it to dance.

Yeah, I'm guessing they all went in and were never heard from again.

But… Cyborg as a Justice League founder?!  Rather than Black Lightning, who’s got a much better publishing pedigree and Justice League connections?  Or Mister Terrific?  Or Vibe, who also got his powers from Darkseid’s invasion and is, after all, the world’s greatest break-dancing superhero, whether they show him doing it or not?

Anyway, I didn't intend for this post to become a diatribe against Cyborg as a character.  Or even against his choice as DC’s affirmative action choice in the Justice League.  It’s about EXCLUDING Aquaman from other-media projects.  About replacing him with Shazam in things (do NOT get me started).  About not treating him as one of its icons at the same time DC’s leadership trumpets its goal of refreshing his status as an icon.  Perhaps this is a split between DC Comics and DC Entertainment, I don’t know.

But I do know that it's time for it to stop.










12 comments:

  1. Randy Jackson5/20/2014 6:40 AM

    Agreed, and welcome back!

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  2. The Absorbascon is back! This is the best news the Internet has given me in weeks!

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  3. Great Caesar's ghost, you're back! Glad to see you, man!

    You once said that Green Arrow is correctly positioned as the top tier of the B-Listers -- he never looks impressive compared to any of the Justice League mainstays no matter how hard they try. I submit that perhaps Aquaman is in the same boat (har har) and is best suited as the powerhouse of the B-List.

    I know it sounds like I'm not giving Aquaman proper respect, but that's not it. I simply think you can't properly showcase him when he's in the same room as Wonder Woman, who beats him in just about every category.

    And of course, I don't need to tell you that Aquaman shares Green Arrow's golden age pedigree; they're both great concepts, which doesn't necessarily mean they're the best candidates when you need to take Darkseid down. But Aquaman is a terrific candidate if you want to revive something resembling the Green Arrow / Hawkman rivalry of old.

    None of which elevates Cyborg to being worthy of A-List status; he is, as you say, a Marv Wolfman character (strike one) with a limited concept (strike two), who also has way too much exposed flesh for his metal parts to actually keep him safe from bullets (strike three). He might -- might -- be worthy of the DC B-List, but he's no Aquaman or Green Arrow.

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  4. I was housecleaning the bookmarks today, and was about to delete yours, then thought, "Well, let me check…" Glad I did!

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  5. Absolutely floored when I clicked on Absorbascon (to get to your link to Sally P). Welcome back. The Harvey Dent Show lasted waaaay to long.

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  6. It's a delight to read your comments again.

    On the bright side, Aquaman is heading *two* titles, just now.

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  7. First: Don't wait ten months between posts ever again! That's rough for a great blog like this...

    And second, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter should be out of the League. Both have always been out of place, right up there with the Atom and Bloodwynd. If you're doing an Avengers style League, fine, they can be third string. But icons? Never Shazam is an awesome replacement (Captain Marvel would have been better but such is life) and Cyborg is just replacing one kind of bland with another.

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  8. See, this is why I stick to the classics. Even if, when the next reboot comes around, they tell us that the original JLAers were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wildebeest, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Metamorpho, and J'Emm, Son of Saturn, I have boxes and boxes of comics that say otherwise. And I always will.

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  9. I see we are out of hibernation, Scipio. Which fills me with delight.

    I'm glad...GLAD, that they are actually doing something with Aquaman.

    Cyborg is...okay I guess. I like Mister Terrific a whole lot better though.

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  10. In possibly the most humiliating example yet, Aquaman has been replaced in the Super Friends dynamic by...Apache Chief!!

    http://www.gocomics.com/pop-culture-shock-therapy/2014/05/13#.U4ky0pVOXZY

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  11. Welcome back, finding out the Absorbascon is alive again made my day!

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