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A review by cleheny
The New Teen Titans, Vol. 3 by Marv Wolfman
1.0
Wow--Cyborg's story is so tone-deaf, it's shocking.
This volume doesn't have a great arc; the stories are generally stand-alone. But there are four tales at the end, told by each of the "new" members of the Titans--Changeling, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg. Starfire's story is well-done; her traumatic past and difficult relationship with her sister is effective. Raven's story is pretty good, and Changeling's is a convoluted mess. Basically, every piano that could ever fall on his head does so.
But Cyborg's story is awful. It is a classic product of white Reagan America. Cyborg is an extremely intelligent and athletic black male who gets drawn into a bad crowd as a child because his parents don't see him as a kid but as a future brilliant scientist. He has a run-in with the law, is essentially scared straight, and does his best to stay out of trouble (though he's still estranged from his father). But the bad-news friend tries to lure Victor back in by claiming that whites oppress blacks, a claim that Victor strongly rejects.
So black criminality is because blacks mistakenly believe that there is racism in the world, and that whites have an easier time of it. Not only is this belief apparently ludricous--at least according to Wolfman's Cyborg--it leads to all manner of crimes, including terrorism. Yeezus! And the only true friends Cyborg has are white (or green, in Changeling's case)--blacks aren't loyal to people who don't share their delusional understanding of American society and who aren't willing to rob and kill innocent white people. Backstabbers all! Man, white privilege doesn't even begin to explain this crap.
This volume doesn't have a great arc; the stories are generally stand-alone. But there are four tales at the end, told by each of the "new" members of the Titans--Changeling, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg. Starfire's story is well-done; her traumatic past and difficult relationship with her sister is effective. Raven's story is pretty good, and Changeling's is a convoluted mess. Basically, every piano that could ever fall on his head does so.
But Cyborg's story is awful. It is a classic product of white Reagan America. Cyborg is an extremely intelligent and athletic black male who gets drawn into a bad crowd as a child because his parents don't see him as a kid but as a future brilliant scientist. He has a run-in with the law, is essentially scared straight, and does his best to stay out of trouble (though he's still estranged from his father). But the bad-news friend tries to lure Victor back in by claiming that whites oppress blacks, a claim that Victor strongly rejects.
So black criminality is because blacks mistakenly believe that there is racism in the world, and that whites have an easier time of it. Not only is this belief apparently ludricous--at least according to Wolfman's Cyborg--it leads to all manner of crimes, including terrorism. Yeezus! And the only true friends Cyborg has are white (or green, in Changeling's case)--blacks aren't loyal to people who don't share their delusional understanding of American society and who aren't willing to rob and kill innocent white people. Backstabbers all! Man, white privilege doesn't even begin to explain this crap.