The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 645: Cybernary #5, March 1996

Our last little peek into the Wildstorm U for now - much as I'm finding it fascinating, it's superhero comics from the 90s, and those are always a bit tough for me to get into. Yesterday I had noted that the influence of technology on everyday life in this shared universe is interesting, as it reflects the kinds of advances that one might see in a society that embraces superheroes. But occasionally it goes overboard, like the giant tank that gets made out of Vandalia, the doctor who created Cybernary. And then there's the breasts.

I've just read a collection of the erotic art of Kovik, a person obsessed with enormous breasts. And I mean enormous, hanging on the floor kind of breasts. There's something of an irony, a recognition of the inherent ridiculousness of the fetishization of breasts that large sitting right on the surface of Kovik's art. They recognize that such a fetish is slightly ridiculous, and embrace it anyway. Image artists in the 90s don't seem to get this. The "schematic" of Cybernary at the end of this issue even shows metal reinforcements holding her breasts in place - I cannot imagine that a breast with steel support rods inside would be a particularly pleasant sensation, for either party, especially in a construct that's supposedly a nymphodroid.

Breasts in 90s Image comics are ridiculous. Let's move on.

It's a pity that there isn't more Gerber Cybernary. I feel like he was just hitting his stride, and that he'd introduced a good supporting cast, freed the main character from the shackles of her origin, and was ready to move forward. The character does reappear a few times in the Wildstorm U, but never under Gerber's pen. More's the pity.

Where to next? Isn't it great that I have no idea?

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 644: Cybernary #4, February 1996

Yes, yes, that is a giant boar-man with a human head grafted to its back. Things are very weird on the island of Gamorra. This is actually something that the Image universe is pretty fantastic at - it portrays the ramifications of superhero existence on science and technology rather remarkably, though the sad fact is that it seems the technological advancement just creates more psychopathic villains. The question is floated in the Flash television show, as to why it seems that every person who gets superpowers also becomes a villain - perhaps it's the unhinging of human reality that happens to a mind when superpowers are introduced. Maintaining one's humanity in such circumstances might be trying, as Cybernary is demonstrating.

Rebner's art is growing on me, and I think it was just a shock to go from Manabat's super-metal style to Rebner's art. But he and Gerber are creating a rather cool little tale in the depths of one of the worst places in the Wildstorm U, messing with bodies and minds like one might play with Lego, which makes for a remarkable read. It's a pity it's all done tomorrow.

Onward.