Review: Cyberfunk Streetz
Cyberfunk Streetz - The Book of Afrofuturistic Hip Hop Stories by writer Jeff Carroll and artists Alan St Clark, Joey Martinez, Rolo Ledesma and Zebra Comics is a far cry from your average comic book. With a fresh, energetic style and a bold, flippant humour, this is a triptych of stories that explore the future of love, sex and relationships in a world where technology is reshaping our perceptions and expectations... maybe a little too fast for the fragile, flesh and blood human heart to keep up?
As a framing narrative, Carroll stars as the presenter of his own late night talk show, introducing each tale as he chats to his guests, Cyber Bae and the Cyberettes, a trio of female sex robots. This issue includes a short preview of their upcoming story. Cyber Bae is the standout leader of the group, with her afro, gleaming bronze bodywork and sass. These are no brainless toys, despite their generously proportioned anatomies; any brother hoping for a free ride is in for a shock...
The three stories explore speculative relations between men and women of the future from an African American perspective. In The B.A.N.G.E.R Bros, gender role reversal is complete. Women are the main breadwinners and often treat men as disposable commodities. Sixteen year old Camari lives with his rich girlfriend in her 155th floor apartment, but he feels 'like a polygamist' because he knows she is probably fooling around.
His older brother advises him to find a girl who will treat him better, because "You can't turn a playa into a wife" ... That is easier said than done, however, when Camari cannot go to any clubs where people don't know that he is Queen Ma's boyfriend. His brother has an idea; a virtual reality club in which Camari can take on a new identity and discreetly meet new people...
In The Programmable Man Stacy is bored with her lovelife. Her man works long hours and is too tired at the end of the day to give her the satisfaction she craves. Her faithful security robot is sometimes all she has for company...
She then sees an advertisement for the Feelings Program: a latex sleeve that fits over the frame of her security robot, transforming it into a rippling hunk ... "completely loaded with over 3 million R&B and love ballads, romantic poetry, salsa, hip-hop and slow grind dances, exclusive knowledge of every tantric position" ... plus a ten-pack and big bulges where it counts... What could possibly go wrong?
In The Ass Doctor, Ivan is a plastic surgeon specialising in breast and booty enlargements which, in the year 2075 CE, absolutely every woman on the face of the Earth simply must have. He earns plenty and brings happiness to many clients, for whom an attractive figure is a guarantee of success in the dating game.
Romance eludes him, however. He then sees an advertisement for Call and Response, a certified aphrodisiac. This magical potion makes average-looking guys irresistible to women. Ivan hits upon a genius plan: he generously applies this miraculous gunk to the silicone implants of his clients. All of them. What could possibly go wrong?
Yes, the humour is very adult and there is no subtlety on show here, but it is all light-hearted and even-handed. Often African American men are called out for treating women as sex objects, but here men and women are both fair game in stories that satirise the attitudes of both genders.
Anyone can be shallow, and the pitfalls of sacrificing deep and meaningful for sleazy and superficial are hilariously laid bare.
Zak Webber
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