Title:
Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, Vol 1: Going Underground
Author:
Gerard Way; Jon Rivera
Artist:
Michael Avon Oeming
Contributors:
Nick Filardi; Clem Robins
Genre:
Graphic Novel, Sci-Fi
Series:
Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye (#1-6)
A
few starting notes:
I
received a free digital review copy of this book via Edelweiss. Edelweiss provides review copies from publishers in exchange for the
opportunity to write fair
and honest reviews.
This is one of two titles I received for review from DC's* Young Animal imprint.
*Check
me out, moving up in the world! Lol.
Both
were written by the beautiful human being Gerard Way, and, as with Doom Patrol, I'm going to be totally honest, fair, critical, and
professional – despite my fangirling tendencies.
(*resists
urge to start singing 'When I was/ A young boy/ My fa-ther/ Took me
into the city...' and offering to sacrifice my Killjoy soul to Gee,
Queen of Sass*)
Premise:
It
probably won't surprise you to learn that Cave Carson has a
cybernetic eye.
Does what it says on the tin and all that.
What
may surprise you is the underground civilisation, the corporate plot,
and the fungus-monsters.
Strap
in to the stolen Mighty Mole, and brace yourselves – things are
gonna get weird...
Best
bits:
Cave
Carson, as mentioned, has a cybernetic eye.
Which
means that we have a main character with a disability – 'cos dudes,
though the eye has the benefit of allowing Cave to scan cr*p, this
eye has some issues (and not
of the comic book type!.)
And
of course, this eye is a replacement for the original.
I'm
not going to say what happened to the original eye because, well,
spoilers. But it's... probably nothing you would guess, to be honest.
The
art style of this book is great!
It's
kind of psychedaelia combined with this indulgent retro-comic/pop-art
style that creeps in for a little extra edge every so often.
You can
tell that the creators enjoyed making this comic!
The
plot here is off-the-wall (in a good way,) and kind of
anti-corporation and development, which is kind of cool.
I
actually also liked for once that there are limited 'powers' in this
– there's Cave's eye, but even that had its limitations.
It
actually led to things being more interesting, because there was no
metaphorical 'magic wand' (power) to fall back on.
This
book also had people of colour (PoC) side-characters who were given
limited development here, but they seem pretty cool, and there's
potential for them further down the series.
One
of the bad-guy characters looks like Lucius Malfoy! True, this was
probably unintentional – but it made me laugh ;)
And
a reminder to support diverse creators my nerdlets!
Gerard Way has experienced mental health and addiction problems, including depression, and has discussed that he (while preferring he/him pronouns,) has struggled to define his gender, often feeling more female than male.
Not
so great bits:
Potentially
distressing content includes:
-
grief/loss of a parent
-
strained family relationships
-
massacre of indigenous people (see below)
-
violence against indigenous people (see below)
-
references to death from cancer
-
murder
-
violence
There's
also much swearing and some actual nudity (and as this is a graphic
novel – it's actual
nudity.)
If
there's one big, questionable, uneasy factor to this book, it's in
the depiction of the Muldroog.
The
Muldroog are a fictional race who live underground – and there are
both good things and bad things about the way they're represented.
Certainly,
there's some things that are laudable about the rep here – their
technological advancement, for example.
And
I can't say, for sure, what cultures the Muldroog are reminiscent of.
There's
an influence of the Celtic and of the Nordic to them, but the very
fact that they live under the USA brings other factors – like
Native American representation - into play.
But
I need to make something clear right now: I DO NOT HAVE THE SKILLS TO
FULLY DECONSTRUCT THE REP. HERE.
I
simply don't know enough about the cultures of various indigenous and
native peoples to do this justice.
If
there are any indigenous writers/bloggers/whatever who have written
about Cave Carson, PLEASE let me know – I would love to link to
your work, and hopefully learn a few things.
There
are however some warning signals that should make any reader at least
a little wary (spoilers are marked with square brackets and written
in white [] ):
-
[Chloe] one of whose parents was Muldroog, is referred to (by a bad guy,) as a half-breed. This is a) a slur, and b) an offensive trope.
-
A kid is not told of their heritage by their Muldroog mother so that they can have 'a normal life.'
-
There is a massacre of the Muldroog [by EBX, the company Cave works for] – including graphic images of many dead Muldroog people.
-
There are also other Muldroog deaths, several violent.
-
There is an association of the Muldroog with hallucinogenic drugs.
-
There's a hint of the White Saviour trope – not straightforward (there's a lot of stuff going on here,) but definitely something to be wary of.
Much
like Doom Patrol, Cave Carson does require a degree of surrender to
the wackiness of the plot/world that not all readers are going to be
happy going along with.
Verdict:
I
have BIG concerns over the indigenous representation (*squints at
book*) but overall, a good start to the series.
Of
the two Young Animal titles I've reviewed, I'd definitely prefer Doom
Patrol, but this one's fairly cool too.
If
I hadn't read Doom Patrol, I'd probably be bubbling over with
excitement about Cave Carson; as it is, though, I couldn't help but
compare the two.
Liked
this post? Try these:
Glad to hear that even though the disability was fixed w/ something high tech, it still had limitations. That's unfortunate about the indigenous rep, but otherwise it sounds good :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah... that's a complex (and weird!) storyline, lol.
DeleteThe indigenous rep. was soooo disappointing, because, even though it's a fictional race, it fell into a lot of the negative tropes and portrayals that should be avoided. :/
Thanks for the comment :)