Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, david walker, dc, dc comics, entertainment, ivan reis

Has Cyborg Restored His Manhood?

Andrew Wheeler wrote for Comics Alliance,

At Emerald City Comic-Con earlier this year I was lucky enough to be on a panel on diversity and representation with David F. Walker, two months after his Cyborg title was announced. During the panel Walker, a black man, mentioned something about the character that I had never considered; Cyborg is an emasculated black man. In his New 52 origin story, he lost the entire bottom half of his body, which means that before becoming Cyborg, he was castrated. This was, for Walker, a problem with the character.

With the DC June preview, seeming to recitify that.

This updated take on Cyborg, with sleek, humanized limbs that grow to replace limbs that he lost, may have been designed in part to address this very problem of Cyborg's emasculation. In this eight-page preview, Walker may have made it his first order of business to right a wrong and give the character back his lost cultural identity. Even if the restoration is never directly addressed on the page, it can safely be inferred as a likely and intended consequence of this change.

You may think this is trivial. If you don't see why this matters, you may think that it doesn't matter. You may even think it's silly that it matters so much to someone else that they would use any energy to address it. You are fortunate that the castration of one of superhero comics' most prominent black heroes does not affect you, and you're in good company with other non-black writers and editors who didn't see the problem.

Well, tomorrow's Cyborg #2 sees him answering some questions. Courtesy of USA Today..

Could it be… like a normal person now? Is it any of our business?

Apparently not. But, you know, it's a start.

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