Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: cyborg, dc comics, dc fandome, Fortnite, ray fisher
Warners Deletes Cyborg From DC Fandome After Ray Fisher Comments?
Dude, where's my cyborg? Once upon a time, Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter got so incensed with Fox Studios refusing to renegotiate a Marvel licensing deal in the same way that Sony had, that he decided that Marvel Comics would no longer promote the Fantastic Four and X-Men, the rights that Fox held. This meant the cancellation of Fantastic Four comics and all licensing, including games, figurines, trading cards, the lot. An appeal was made by Marvel to save their much-better selling X-Men comic books from cancellation, but all licensing, merchandise, games, statues, figurines, trading cards, cartoons were also dropped and the X-Men books were not promoted, in favor of Perlmutter's X-Men replacement choice, The Inhumans. Bleeding Cool scooped this story initially as it played out, as disbelieving eyes started to realise the truth as project after project was dropped. Eventually, Jonathan Hickman confirmed all.
It seems we may be having a repeat performance of that over in Burbank. Ray Fisher, the actor who played Cyborg in the Justice League movies has spoken out about what he saw as racist behavior against him during the making of that movie, and it seems that certain people at Warners may be taking their slow revenge.
Last week, ShiinaBR, who specialised in Fortnite leaks, tweeted out that " The development of a 'Cyborg' outfit has been postponed indefinitely." DC Comics licenses many of its characters to Fortnite for players to use. Indeed, the recent Batman/Fortnite comic book gave readers exclusive skins and items to download for their game. Now, those signing up to DC Fandome, are able to load up fan art and assign themselves a DC Comics identity to match, featuring hundreds of DC characters. Which means you can be Captain Carrot, Congorilla, Cave Carson, or Cyborg Superman – but Cyborg is missing.
You can add it manually, and some have done just that, but it seems a very strange omission. Is this the sign of a gradual de-Cyborgisation of the DC Universe? Ray Fisher got a Hot Toys figure of his character back in July, but yesterday's "anniversary celebration" of his conversation with Warners' Walta Hamada, stating "One year ago today, Walter Hamada and @wbpictures failed to bury the truth about Justice League. One year ago today, they failed to bury me with lies in the trades. They failed because you all lent your voices. I am forever in your debt. Happy #HamadaDay" shows that Ray Fisher is not going to let this go. Could it be that Warners don't want to bring any more attention towards Cyborg, so as not to remind people or Ray Fisher anymore? I wonder how, or if, this will affect Cyborg's appearance in the Teen Titans Academy comic book? He is no longer in the Justice League comic after all.