Sunday, March 27, 2016

Holy Shit, Batfleck Is Amazing And Scary

The Batman as written in Batman V. Superman continues the tradition started by Tim Burton, interrupted by Joel Schumacher, and restarted by Christopher Nolan of giving the world fantastic characterizations of one of comic's most iconic superheroes.

That this characterization comes packaged with the most unfaithful version of Superman ever written is almost funny. But oh how it underscores just how complete and wonderful this Batman is. This Batman is the hot girl who walks into the bar with her homely Kryptonian friend so she shines even more.

Writing the character well is only half the job, of course. We have a clearly determined and capable Ben Affleck to thank for bringing this character to life. I've read a review or two that wasn't impressed by Affleck. These are obviously in the vanishingly small minority. Obviously because it's a rare bird who wouldn't be impressed with this performance. I'm not afraid to say it. I have never been so scared of Batman in my life. I had never before seen a rich-as-god Bruce Wayne that I could believe would dress up like a human bat and risk his life to beat up violent criminals.

Yes, this Batman was actually believable. This Batman also remained true to his source material while managing to feel like something exciting and different. He perfectly blended the alt-future Batman of the Millerian Dark Knight with the current-present Batman who helps found the Justice League. And for the first time he actually did what we all thought Christian Bale's Batman did. He showed us why criminals are scared of him.

It's not just that he was willing to brutally kill his opponents. It's that he was willing to see to it that they didn't get off that easy. He would break their bones. He would impale them with whatever was handy. He would bind them, strip them, then brand his sigil into their skins as they screamed.

This Batman called to mind an actual bat monster, a vampire that was impossibly hard to kill. The first time we see him, he is clinging to the corner where the walls meet the ceiling, then he scuttles away unharmed by gunfire. What a brilliant move not to have a fistfight be our intro to the Batman this time! Instead he is a creeping monster from a horror movie, revealed suddenly by a sweeping flashlight. I have no doubt that if I were to find this thing waiting for me in the shadows, I'd shit my pants.

The thing is, even the best written badass is a joke if the actor doesn't sell it. As good as Christian Bale was, I don't think he could have sold this as completely. That's because while his Bruce Wayne had the traces of the preppy American Pyscho, what was needed here was a more focused rage and willingness to hurt people, something that flirted with psychopathy but didn't fuck it.

The movie, frankly, gave Batman all the best material. Part of that is because Batman is exactly the kind of hero that DC seems to want to keep portraying, and they obviously keep trying to make the sunny Superman more like the Dark Knight with all his tortured baggage. But the other part of this is pitch perfect Ben Affleck. In my weaker moments, I let myself imagine that there is a version of Earth in which Chris Reeve, Margot Kidder and Heath Ledger make a Batman/Superman movie with him.

You've surely seen the "Sad Ben" clip on YouTube. I wish I could meet Ben Affleck, have a drink with him. Talk with him about "Batman V. Superman." Then I would hug him and quote one of his earliest and best films. "It's not your fault...It's not your fault."





My Take On "Batman V Superman: A Pretty Good Batman Movie"

Turns out I didn't have the necessary strength to resist watching "Batman V. Superman." And it turns out it was actually a decent action flick and one of the greatest Batman movies to boot. If you just remind yourself that Henry Cavill is playing somebody who just resembles Superman, you will be fine.

The movie isn't nearly as bad as the critics say. The fans seem to understand this. And I'm not bashing the critics. I probably got to enjoy the movie because I read two dozen reviews that put the bar really low.

The movie suffers for the same reason its prequel suffered: it shits all over the canonical Superman. There are plenty of alternate universe stories in which Superman is evil; this Superman is just kind of a pathetic schlub. The canonical Superman wasn't just super because of his powers; he was super because he was superhumanly noble. He exercised restraint, was not vengeful or boastful, and he always found a way to do the right thing. He even earnestly enjoyed using his powers for good while getting zero props in his actual life as Clark Kent, all things Christopher Reeve captured so well that I feel sorry for every other actor who will ever play Superman after him.

Furthermore, he always found a way to use just enough force to end a threat. In the case of the Kryptonian villains, that meant killing them. But otherwise, he would tone down his application of his nearly limitless strength to restrain an opponent. Superman is not like a little boy who crushes insects just because he can.

Meanwhile, Zack Snyder's "Superman" flies a human opponent through several walls at nearly supersonic speed. We didn't get to see the bloody remains that no doubt covered Henry Cavill's character in the aftermath, and the scene was played for laughs. Maybe the guy didn't actually get pulverized to death, but the film seems to have left it ambiguous enough that it doesn't mind if that's exactly what we infer.

It's not that Superman should never kill. But he is a god. He is so far above most of his opponents physically that he can stop them the way an adult stops a toddler. He only stops pulling punches when the threat is on his physical level of strength and toughness. Yet in BVS:DOJ, we get to see him acting as petty as any of us and smash a relatively very delicate human because he's kinda pissed.

This insult to the character actually works for a movie that is setting up for Batman to kick his ass, however. Henry Cavill's character is clearly pitched as a threat that an extreme quasi-fascist like Bruce Wayne would want to eliminate. So the movie really works as a showcase for a pure version of Batman, one that kills and maims in the course of battle. I was rooting for Batman to beat this pretender to death.

This movie has so much to hate and to admire. It's no wonder the reviews are so thoroughly mixed. What's good in the movie is the dumb, loud destruction, a Batman infused with a Ben Affleck who has something to prove, and the nods to the comic geeks who worship Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns." There were also nods to "The Death of Superman" story line, but nobody worships that because it wasn't that good.

The critics have done an awfully thoughtful and complete job of telling us what the detestable things are and why they are detestable. The detestable things, however, add up to less than their sum. Sure, there were times I rolled my eyes (the shell of a cannon fired in tribute, falling in slow motion?) or sighed in frustration. Sure the movie made a goal of avoiding joy or even sunlight (the outdoor daytime scenes are almost relentlessly overcast, and when there is sunlight, it is harsh desert light in a scene that quickly explodes into executions).

But I just don't think it was as jumbled and messy as they all made it out to be. I say that even though Snyder keeps shoving messianic images of this average man down our throats till we occasionally gag. I say this despite Zack Snyder's Superman floating above flood victims long enough for them to supplicate with grins and outstretched arms (a motif that appears again when he rescues a girl in Mexico from a burning building in a scene that made me cringe).

The film's great sin remains Zack Snyder's insistence on sucking the joy, hope, and nobility out of the Superman mythos, and leaving us with this Elseworld character who has all of the right powers but not the right soul. This Batman is the most logical and simultaneously most faithful adaptation of the icon. This Superman is just some unremarkable guy with Kryptonian genes. I guess his Batman brooding mixes perfectly for Snyder since Jesus never seemed to smile either. And this is definitely supposed to be Krypton Jesus we're watching here.

I say that only to turn around a say that I loved how Henry Cavill played this other Kryptonian, particularly in the final scenes of the movie. That's because the script raised the stakes in the third act. We got to see a passionate sorta-Superman. We got to see him being brave as he faced real danger from a well-prepped Batman and then from a shitty-looking Doomsday.

I don't know if I should be ashamed to admit that a lot of this acting that I loved was done by Henry Cavill's hair. In the final act, his hair is washed out of its severe Eddie Munster comb-back into the the hanging curls that evoked the classic spit-curl that everyone recognizes as Superman's. Maybe I should also be a little embarrassed to admit that my five-year-old self used to pull down a bit of my kinky curly 'fro onto my forehead, then lay face down on my pillow for a few minutes so I could have an African Superman curl for a few seconds, until my hair sprung back into its natural upright position. Either way, Henry's wet hair helped him look more like the real deal as he put his life on the line to save others.

Zack Snyder says he has made Superman more realistic. But making Superman a flawed, struggling human means altering the character into something that's just not Superman anymore. Never mind that a god-like alien that passes for white really doesn't have a hope or need of being more realistic. This modern cinematic Superman is as true to the character as Adam West's campy Batman was to his source material. You wouldn't make Batman clumsy or nervous around violence. You certainly wouldn't make him dance the Batusi. Why would you make Superman so ordinary in bearing and in spirit?

I've said before that in a proper work of Superman fiction, Superman really ought to be able to save most everybody. But I'll admit that a more realistic take on Superman would still allow for an uncomfortable amount of casualties. The depressing fictional death toll of "Man of Steel" isn't the problem with Snyder's Superman. He is simply too brooding, too severe, too conflicted, too sad despite his immense capacity to help so many people.

This Superman does make sense considering the shitty parenting he got. (His earth father suggests that maybe he should have let a bus full of his classmates drown to conceal his alien nature. Then he forces young Clark to let him die to carry on the deception.) But this Jonathan Kent and this Kal-El/Clark Kent are just not the same good people that occupy all the other Superman stories. Snyder might as well have written a scene in which Jonathan caught young Clark burning the paws off of kittens then decide to train him to kill other serial killers.

What a shame that to get the perfect Batman we had to endure the worst "Superman". Along with the rest of humanity, I enjoyed that amazing viral clip of "Sad Ben".



But Ben Affleck has nothing to cry about. He portrayed the shit out of Batman. He has now joined the ranks of Christoper Reeve and Heath Ledger for defining a character for the rest of the existence of the human species in its current form. As long as people talk about these characters, they will talk about how these select actors mustered the skill to play them better than could be hoped for by any reasonable person. I just hope this doesn't mean Ben Affleck has to suffer an early, tragic death. Which seems to be what happens with these things.

A lot of people rave about Gal Gadot as the bright spot of this film. But honestly, I didn't care for her or her accent as the civilian Diana Prince. Yet she electrified the screen when she leaped into action. (I am goosebumping now just thinking of the cheesy riff that played as she lowered her gauntleted forearms to reveal her tiaraed face and flowing locks.) She got the eager immortal warrior right.

Affleck remains the one to watch. In fact, I hope someone re-edits this movie so that it's a proper Batman film. Just remove the solo Superman scenes and all the Lex Luthor scenes and we should be good to go.

Oh, that's right...Lex Luthor.

You know, as much as I go on about how this cinematic universe desecrates the Superman character, I really should save some of that vim for how much they mutilated Lex.

I want to like Jesse Eisenberg. I can't help but think he could play me in my biopic even though I'm black. But this time around he's all bad improv and forced weirdness and ticks. I wanted to enjoy his Luthor, but he never let me forget that I was watching an actor trying to do something interesting.

I was able to enjoy this film even though I knew everything that was going to happen. I wanted to see how a noted visual director brought them to the screen, and I'm glad I did. So I can easily recommend that if you like such things, see the film. If you are a fan of Superman, you will enjoy it more if you can find a way to pass out while Ben Affleck isn't Batman-ing on the screen.

Friday, March 25, 2016

The Unappealing DC Cinematic Universe


Well, Batman v. Superman is upon us. I'm not going to see it. That one trailer -- the one with Wonder Woman battle-crying her way into our hearts -- did look cool. But I can't deny it anymore. DC characters are generally too powerful to be interesting or to let me suspend my knowledge of biology and physics.

Plus, the Superman of the DC Extended Universe is no longer the enjoyable boy scout that Christopher Reeve played with well-timed smirks. Now he's just a boring "flying brick" who doesn't seem to care about humanity the same way Christopher Reeve's alien god did. Reeve made us love Superman so much that we mourned his crippling accident and later his passing. I really don't see us ever caring that much about Henry Cavill.

It's funny. Christopher Reeve was a dyed-in-the-wool progressive liberal (which really shows in the lamentable 'Superman IV: The Quest for Peace', which Reeve helped write and direct, but which was ultimately butchered). Maybe that's why his Superman was so earnest. So nice. Reeve's alien with god powers wearing primary colors gave human form to an ideal United States. It gave Americans a chance to feel good about their own superpower nation-state, even if they didn't realize it.

To this day, when I hear that stirring John Williams score, I want to run out and help save people from danger. I want to make sure that nobody dies.

I also got this feeling when I was watching Henry Cavill's Superman in action in "Man of Steel". But for the wrong reasons. I wanted to save all the thousands of people who were dying as a direct result of Superman's rumble with Zod.

I'm far from the first to write about how disappointed I was with Superman's latest cinematic incarnation. But it's important because this disappointed shadow is so long and so dark that it has actually scared me away from attempting another DCEU experience. I don't want to be so terrified or sad during a Superman film ever again.

I suppose "Man of Steel" had to happen. America had to see its god-powered avatar powerless to stop a  9/11 event. That doesn't mean it belongs in a Superman movie, however, because it betrays the Superman mythos. Superman would have stopped the planes from reaching their targets. Superman might have even been able to get aboard the planes and disable the terrorists with minimal loss of passenger life. And maybe nobody would have died at all.

Christopher Reeve managed to save everybody. And when he discovered that this meant the death of the woman he loved, he used his god-like powers to fly faster than light and turn back time. Henry Cavill couldn't be bothered to fly Zod a few miles out of the urban sprawl. He even pulled Zod miles into outer space, but couldn't manage to alter their re-entry trajectory a few degrees so they didn't land right smack in the middle of the same couple of acres of Metropolis.

Henry Cavill is one of the best-looking men on earth, easily in the top tenth of a percent. But there is something wolfish about his handsomeness. His looks predatory, like a man who knows his looks outstrip any other quality he has, so he might as well use them for personal gain. His lantern jaw is certainly supermanly (in fact, his jaw is almost a character in itself ) but the rest of his face -- his smiling blue eyes beneath those fierce eyebrows -- strike me as a bit callous. His face doesn't say pretty, guileless boy scout the way Reeve's face did. And the look of (not "on") Cavill's face didn't tell me he really cared about the mortals that were exploding around him as he and Zod knocked buildings down. Cavill was perfectly cast for the Superman of Zack Snyder's visually impressive but joyless film.

It's a shame I probably will never see this film because I keep hearing that it got Batman exactly right. Like everyone else who cared, I initially guffawed at the choice of Ben Affleck for Bruce Wayne/Batman. But then I read an article that pointed out why Afflecek, whose acting career was a well-worn joke at that point, would be perfect for the role of an older, more bitter Batman based on the coming-out-of-retirement Batman of Frank Miller's classic "The Dark Night Returns." I was sold since then and looking forward to Affleck making the scoffer's eat crow.

And from what I've heard from I've read and heard, no matter what anyone thought of the overall movies (and most critics do think it's a mess), Affleck's performance was the best thing in the film. Sadly, this is another indictment for the DCEU. The Batman Affleck so superbly inhabited is an out-and-out neofascist.

Look, Batman has never been a friend to the people. He's a man born into one of the biggest fortunes on DC earth. Then he uses that wealth to outfit himself with high tech weaponry to beat the hell out of the criminal poor. He does not use his wealth to prevent crime by helping alleviate poverty in his city with programs to help poor Gothamites to learn how to program computers. Batman clearly votes Republican. He's too smart to be one of the xenophobic racist goons that bay and howl in approval at a Trump rally, but you get the impression that Bruce Wayne nods along when he watches an interview with Dick Cheney. And this is the best character the DCEU has to offer.

Superman is almost impossible to make interesting. Your best bet as an actor or a writer is to make him likable. Christopher Reeve managed to do so to such great effect that he has become the standard by which all Superman actors past and present have been compared. Brandon Routh might have been almost as memorable if he'd been given a better movie to work in. It's too bad that DC has chosen to distance itself so much from the camp of the late 70's. Surely they needed to make the material a bit more serious, but it looks like they went over the cliff in an effort to stand apart from Marvel's effort. These movies are some depressing shit that serve the jackbooted Batman, but tarnish the Superman myth.















Wednesday, March 23, 2016

03-22-2016, 162 lbs
Back Squat, sleeves/light wraps
45 x 15
135 x 3, 5
165 x 2
185 x 1
195 x 1
205 x 1
210 x 1

This session was so upsettinglly disappointing that I couldn't bring myself to record it yesterday.

I had to wrap lightly (able to keep them on for hours) because my knees just felt tired. I had to pysche myself up to get 5 reps with 135 after 3 reps felt so hard.

Then I failed to do anything worthwhile at heavier weights.

I can probably chalk this up to nights of inadequate sleep volume, stress, and just not being recovered yet.

Monday, March 21, 2016

03-21-2016 ~ 160 lbs
Bench Press
45 x 12
135 x 6
165 x 2
175 x 1
180 x 3, 5

One-Arm DB Row L,R  95 x 6 x 2
Walked 3 miles in 45 minutes

I was a little pissed that I didn't seem to have 185 in me today after 180 for three felt like failure. So I made 5 with the 180 after a pysch up.

I need to start with the right arm next time on DB rows. Left always gets the cleaner reps because I'm fresher.

Only about four hours of sleep last night. And I felt shaky today. Need to get better sleep. Instead I'm always up late, coding. Like right now. It's coming up on 2 am. And I just got done with this.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

03-19-2016
Bench Press
45 x 12
95 x 10
135 x 5
155 x 3
165 x 5
170 x 5

Back Squat
45 x 15
135 x 5
165 x 2
175 x 1
185 x 1
195 x 4

Not bad! 15-lb jump on bench press (though I was drifting to and pushing hard with the right side on the top set of 175); 20-lb jump on squat. I'm especially happy with the squat because it came after benching, so I was working at a 5-10% strength deficit.

Two days ago I squatted 175 for a triple followed by two singles. I got four straight with 195 today. I rested a little before the fourth. Still, it's a legitimate 20-lb jump. And just two days apart!

I have to report that I'm keeping the usually troublesome right leg in the movement better than ever. There is some good coming out of this forced reset. Right leg shrunk more than the left because the innervation there is weaker. But it's get closer to the size of the left after just a week of training because I'm forcing it to work.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Coding, Coding, Walking, Coding

03-18-2016 ~163 lbs
Walked 2+ miles

Today, I walked farther than I have in a long while. I find that walking is the perfect antidote for stretching the hip flexors naturally after sitting all day.

And, boy, did I sit. I coded from 9 this morning till after 10 tonight (just now). Of course, there were breaks for the biological needs, and for the half hour of walking, but other than that I really was coding or reading about coding. 

I feel like I'm finally gaining traction with programming in Python and to a lesser extent in Ruby. I'm actually able to initiate my own coding for simple tasks and games, and add some cute features after I get the basics functioning. 

My weight is back up due to glycogen loading. I'm eating much more again. I've also been dosing 15 mg LGD for the last four days. It's a higher dose than is usually recommended, but I feel like I'm starting from a real deficit in terms of test levels. 

Speaking of which, I'm looking around for legal ways to supplement test. I should be getting blood work done this coming week. 

Thursday, March 17, 2016

03-17-2016, ~162 lbs
Back Squat
45 x 10
135 x 4
145 x 3
155 x 2
165 x 1
175 x 3+1+1

Wow. Totally wiped out by 175. I tried to do another few reps. Twice. Both times I just stood there under the bar and shook. This is indeed a ridiculous jump to attempt. 40 lbs. But I'm trying to stay well ahead of my bench this time. I made an easy 20-lb jump on the bench yesterday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Reconditioning More Quickly Than Expected

03-16-2016 ~158 lbs
Bench Press
45 x 10
95 x   5
135 x 3
145 x 5 x 3
155 x 5 x 2
Dumbbell Row l/r 90 x 5 x 2
Walk: 1.4miles

I am pleasantly surprised at the improvement shown tonight. 145 was feeling lighter with each set so I jumped another ten pounds. This is a total of 20 more pounds tonight, but the total tonnage of the work sets is about three times greater (4000+ / 1350).

Now, I need to see my squat at 175 in a couple days, or I'll be sad.

I am discovering how important walking is. I didn't think I would lose the ability to walk at length. This is because I figured my strength training would take care of everything. This is not the case. Everything is incredibly specific. Lifting without walking just made me get tight in the hip flexors and easily winded.


Monday, March 14, 2016

Benching and Squatting 135...

03-11-2016
Bench Press
45 x 10
095 x 8
115 x 6
135 x 5 x 2
Back Squat 45 x 6, 135 x 2

03-14-2016
Back Squat 
45 x 6
135 x 4, 5, 5

I weigh under 160 right now. I finally went back to the gym and discovered that I could barely bench 135 for reps. After the bench I was too winded for squats. So I squatted a few days later (today) and did better.

It's hard to believe that I could get this weak after just a couple of months of not training, eating properly, and without SARMs.

I think the Laxogenen fucked me up. I'm going to try to creep back to high repping 225 on bench and 315 on squat. My leg muscles have been so weak that I shake when I squat down without weight. Today's training has already woken them up and I'm not so shaky anymore.

It's hard to describe this level of weakness. I'm going to finish my SARMs to see if they can rescue me. But my next step after that is test.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

DC's Cyborg And The Castration Of Black Men

I'm waiting for my body to recover sufficiently in numerous ways before I start lifting again. To be honest, however, my interest in lifting is declining in lockstep with my ageing body. I am increasingly stiff and incapable of generating any power. I can barely run or jump at all these days.

I'm a clever black man who is losing his physical prowess and his sexual mojo.

Maybe that's why Cyborg has been on my mind lately.

I'm as excited as any ageing comic fanboy about the upcoming "Batman v Superman" epic. But this movie is going to include Cyborg, and that's a problem for me.

Adding Castration to Amputation

Cyborg is by far DC's most prominent black superhero. It's always bothered me that the black guy had to be the one whose powers stem from being horribly mutilated. But at least the Cyborg of previous DC Universe iterations retained a relatively large amount of his original human body.

Pre-"New 52" Cyborg, copyright DC Comics


Notice the healthy brown skin around his upper torso, shoulders, upper arms. Notice especially how the healthy brown skin of his thighs reach up into his singlet. This suggests that though Cyborg's extremities are artificial, his trunk is intact. His genitals are intact. Even though his limbs were replaced by robot limbs, he could still get it on. 

Image result for cyborg dc girlfriend


Now look at the Cyborg bereft of his armor in DC's latest canonical continuity, "The New 52":

In case it's not clear, in "The New 52", Cyborg's only organic bits are now about 75% of his head, his neck and upper chest, some vital organs, and his alimentary tract. He no longer has any of his upper arms, thighs, hips, buttocks, testicles or penis. 

What started as injury has ended with insult. Disfigurement has been topped with castration.

Dear God Why?

The thing that really galls me about Cyborg's powers is that they are entirely technologically-based. There is no benefit to his cybernetics over, say, a suit of incredibly advanced armor. You know, like rival Marvel Comics gave to its billionaire inventor, Tony Stark.

But no. Cyborg's "powers" just had to come about through a thorough disfigurement. Unlike the rich, white playboy in Marvel Comics who could remove his tech and then have sex with models, Cyborg had to become a full amputee to get the benefit of tech powers. 

In this latest incarnation, he didn't just become incredibly unfuckable; he lost his ability to fuck at all. Cyborg is no longer "just" an amputee. He's now also a eunuch. 

Cyborg's civilian identity, by the way, is Victor "Vic" Stone. Victor means "champion" and Stone is also a euphemism for a male gonad. Ironically Vic Stone is now "stone-less." A superhero, a super-champion born by losing his stones. 

Troubling Trend Even Before They Took His Testicles

Even before the newest DC Universe castrated their premier black superhuman man, their treatment of him had been problematic. But the treatment seems even more vile when you consider that DC's ultimate hero is an otherworldly and all-powerful messiah figure who is indistinguishable from a human Caucasian male. 

In the DC Universe, the ultimate expression of both power and the best in humanity is a blue-eyed white man from outer space (which is apparently full of Caucasians or Caucasian-shaped aliens with funky skin colors). The one black guy who manages to make it on the super-team isn't just a talented mere mortal with tech, like Batman or Marvel's Iron Man; the black guy has lost his limbs, half his head, and in recent years, his dick and balls. 

This is actually a pretty interesting notion, and would make for a great story. But it's very telling that they simply made their black guy an amputee and then a eunuch without any apparent awareness of the implications. Like the fact that their almost entirely white male audience probably has a problem with black male sexuality and power. Because white males have historically had an enormous problem with black male sexuality and power. 

DC also seems unaware that mutilation and castration have historically been used to torture and dominate, but these things have been used most recently in the U.S. as a way for white slave-owners to terrorize and dominate their rebellious black male slaves. 

DC and Marvel are products of their times. Marvel was born in the early 1960s and its progressive bent has always been obvious. DC came to be in the 1930s, a time when the entire West's fascination with eugenics and white supremacy was reaching a crescendo. DC has evolved plenty in that time. They even had the Greek immortal Wonder Woman dating a black man for a while. You really can't get more boldly anti-racist than having your iconic white female superhero happily enduring penetration by a black penis. 


Yet, even while they let their bastion of white womanhood and power enjoy sex with a black man in one of their previous main story universes, they added castration to the list of indignities their most prominent black male hero had to endure in the latest one. 

No matter what positive messages about race that DC tries to send now, they will be undone by their Cybernetic black mascot. And now they're about to add Cyborg to their cinematic universe. I would love to enjoy the spectacle, but I'm not sure I can now that I know that this unwitting icon of white fear and oppression will be part of the fledgling Justice League that will be appearing in the upcoming film.

Addendum and Healing

So, I did some more digging after I jotted this stuff down. It looks like as of December, 2015, Cyborg's newer powers allowed him to regrow a simulacrum of his original body. And he's able to call upon him more robotic cybernetic form at will. This is the work of writer David Walker who is black.


That's nice.

But I also discovered a lot of commentary, and a depressing amount of it from people claiming to black, that says that worrying about Cyborg's dick is nonsense. "Libtard bullshit". "SJW bullshit."

I think that's hilarious. The comic universe full of alien gods who look exactly Caucasian gives you a black hero whose dick and balls were literally blown off...and this seems okay.

Considering how often gangs of white men have castrated black men in this country, you'd think it would raise an eyebrow when the one black guy gets superpowers and super-team membership only after his goddamned genitalia get blown off along with a lot of the rest of him.

The literature's message is clear. The only black guys who fit in are the one's that get neutered. They literally take the type of body they used for forced labor, removed the engine of his sexuality and aggression (which they loathe), and encase him in a machine that they then put to use.

That these conservative and dim-witted folks can't see this really shouldn't come as a surprise. But it still bothers me. Just like it bothers me when people want fundamentalist Christian creationism taught in schools.

There is a trope clearly at work with Cyborg, and it's one based in some of the ugliest history in the Americas. I'm glad DC seems to be coming around about it, even if most of their low-wattage fans don't care.



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