A review by crookedtreehouse
Afrodisiac by Brian Maruca, Jim Rugg
2.0
I really enjoy the idea of viewing the genre of superhero comics through the lens of Blacksploitation. And, artistically, Afrodisiac LOOKS amazing. [a:Brian Maruca|458819|Brian Maruca|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s art is flawless from cover to cover.
BUT
at the end of the day, this is two straight White dudes writing blacksploitation superhero stories. And it doesn't work.
I probably would have found it incredibly funny if I'd read it in the 90s, but reading it in 2017 was cringe-inducing. The jokes about converting lesbians and writing the dialog in dialect just doesn't sit well on the page.
If you removed all the words and had it as an art book, it would be five stars. But even though I didn't know [a:Jim Rugg|384702|Jim Rugg|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] or Muraca's race when I started reading it, it didn't take even a full page to think "There's no way this was written by someone who isn't White."
BUT
at the end of the day, this is two straight White dudes writing blacksploitation superhero stories. And it doesn't work.
I probably would have found it incredibly funny if I'd read it in the 90s, but reading it in 2017 was cringe-inducing. The jokes about converting lesbians and writing the dialog in dialect just doesn't sit well on the page.
If you removed all the words and had it as an art book, it would be five stars. But even though I didn't know [a:Jim Rugg|384702|Jim Rugg|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] or Muraca's race when I started reading it, it didn't take even a full page to think "There's no way this was written by someone who isn't White."