Cyborg is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, and first appeared in an insert preview in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980). Since his inception in the New Teen Titans relaunch in 1980, the character has been one of the most recurring roster members of the Teen Titans and in the 2010s, he was once reimagined as a founding member of the DC's flagship Justice League superhero lineup in lieu of his live actions adaptations, with these changes later removed from continuity.
The character's alter-ego is Victor Stone, an African-American genius whose athletic interests contrasts with his scientific parents. After suffering from a tragic accident that nearly kills him, he is rescued by his estranged father, who desperately used all of his knowledge to give cybernetic limbs in place of his lost ones and converted into a cyborg to save his life. While granted powers over technology and a superior body, Victor felt he lost much of his humanity and aspirations in the accident. Eventually, he embraced the lifestyle of a superhero and became one of Earth's foremost heroes, serving as a important member of the Teen Titans, Titans, and the Justice League.
Cyborg made his live-action debut in the television series Smallville, portrayed by Lee Thompson Young. Ray Fisher portrayed the character in the DC Extended Universe films Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017), and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) while Joivan Wade portrayed Cyborg in the television series Doom Patrol and in the fourth season of Titans. In animated media, the character has made his debut in the animated series Super Friends. He has been voiced by Ernie Hudson, Khary Payton, Bumper Robinson, Shemar Moore, and Zeno Robinson.
Development In an interview, Pérez described his design approach for the character. "In the case of Cyborg I was inspired visually -and I think it is obvious from the head- by Deathlok... then I decided to make him more robotic than android by making more metallic parts of him, so that he wasn't quite as human... but the half-face metallic plate was obviously inspired by Deathlok by Rich Buckler, and then I used a young Jim Brown as my inspiration for how I would handle the body language for the character."
Character biography
Victor Stone is the son of Silas Stone and Elinore Stone, scientists who use him as a test subject for various intelligence enhancement projects. While these treatments are ultimately successful and Victor's IQ subsequently grows to genius levels, he grows to resent his treatment.
Victor strikes up a friendship with Ron Evers, a young miscreant who leads him into trouble with the law. This is the beginning of a struggle in which Victor strives for independence, engaging in pursuits of which his parents disapprove, such as athletics and abandoning his studies. Victor's association with underage criminals leads him down a dark path where he is often injured, but he still lives a "normal" life and is able to make his own decisions. However, this rebellious path does not bury Victor's conscience considering that he refuses to participate in Evers' grandiose plans of racially motivated terrorism.
Victor's situation changes radically when he visits his parents' lab where experiments in inter-dimensional access are done. At that moment of his entry, an aggressive gelatinous creature was accidentally pulled through and Victor's mother is killed by it. It then turned on Victor and he was severely injured by its attack before his father was able to send it back to its native dimension.
With his wife dead and his son mutilated, unconscious and near death from the incident, Silas is driven to take advantage of his prototype medical prosthetic research to treat Victor. Victor only regains consciousness after the extensive artificial limbs and implants were installed in his body without his consent. Victor was horrified at the discovery of the metallic components, which involve most of the left side of his head and face, and raged that he would rather have died than be such a victim of his father's manipulations.
Although his bitterness remained for some time, Victor eventually calmed down enough to successfully adjust to his implants physically. He found himself rejected by the public because of his implants, including his girlfriend, who would later thoughtlessly blurt out that she would prefer he had died instead of being in that state. However, Victor's conscience was unbowed, as evidenced by the fact that when Evers tried to manipulate him into participating in a terrorist attack on the United Nations, Victor decided to equip himself with his weaponized attachments and stop him on the top of United Nations Headquarters.
Teen Titans When Robin assembles the Teen Titans, Victor joins initially for the benefit of a support group of kindred spirits and freaks, and has remained with that group ever since. Fortunately, Victor eventually finds additional new civilian friends such as a group of juveniles who are adjusting to their own prosthetics and idolize him because of his fancy parts and his exciting adventures. It also turns out that their teacher Sarah Simms, who has often assisted Cyborg and the Titans, admires him as well.
Another person who sees past the cybernetic shell is Dr. Sarah Charles, a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist who helps him to recuperate after having his cybernetic parts replaced. Cyborg and Charles date for some time and she, along with Changeling, keeps trying to reach him when he is seemingly mindless following the severe injuries he incurs during the "Titans Hunt" storyline.
Deaths and rebirths
Although Cyborg's body was repaired by a team of Russian scientists after the missile crash he had been in, albeit with more mechanical parts than previously, his mind was not. Eventually, his mind was restored by an alien race of computer intelligences called the Technis, created from the sexual union of Swamp Thing and a machine-planet when Swamp Thing was travelling through space. Cyborg, however, had to remain with the Technis both to maintain his mind and because, in return for restoring him, he had to teach them about humanity. He took the name Cyberion, and gradually started becoming less human in outlook, connecting entirely to the Technis planet.
Eventually, Cyberion returned to Earth, establishing a Technis construct on the moon and a smaller base on Earth. With Victor's consciousness dormant, but his desire for companionship controlling the actions of the Technis' planet, it began kidnapping former Titans members, his conscious mind so suppressed that he was not only searching for deceased Titans, but even sent one probe looking for himself as Cyborg. He ended up plugging them into virtual reality scenarios, representing what he believed to be their "perfect worlds". Although the Titans were freed, there was a strong disagreement between them and the Justice League over what action to take; the League believed that there was nothing left of Victor to save, whereas the Titans were willing to try, culminating in a brief battle, where the Atom and Catwoman (who had followed the Justice League to investigate) sided with the League while the Flash fought with the Titans, until the two were convinced to work together after Batman and Nightwing found the system containing Victor's core consciousness. While Victor was distracted trying to aid his friends, a Titans team consisting of Changeling and the original five Titans were sent by Raven to try making contact with Victor's human side, while Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Captain Marvel, and Mary Marvel moved the moon back to its proper place. Eventually, thanks primarily to Changeling's encouragement, and Omen and Raven holding Victor together long enough to come up with a plan, Victor's consciousness was restored, and "downloaded" into the Omegadrome, a morphing war-suit belonging to former Titan Minion. In the wake of this event, the Titans reformed and Victor was part of the new group. However, he felt less human than ever before.
Shortly after this, Nightwing revealed he had cloned Victor's body, and by flowing the Omegadrome through the clone, Victor regained his human form, but still had the abilities of the Omegadrome. He often used the Omegadrome to recreate his original look in battle. With his newfound humanity, Victor took a leave of absence, moving first to Los Angeles with Beast Boy and then to Central City. While in Central City, Victor was involved in one of the Thinker's schemes, helping Wally hack the Thinker's attempt to plug himself into the minds of Central City's population so that Wally could outthink his opponent, though Victor lost the abilities of the Omegadrome in the process.
Mentor Victor mentored the new incarnation of the Teen Titans, consisting mainly of sidekicks, most of whom have taken over the identities of former members (i.e. Tim Drake, the third Robin, instead of Dick Grayson, the original Robin and Titans leader), as well as stalwarts such as Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy. They have fought enemies such as Deathstroke, Brother Blood, Doctor Light, the Titans Tomorrow, and a brainwashed Superboy and Indigo during a team up with the Outsiders in the Insiders storyline. Cyborg was the only one capable of standing up to Light thanks to his solar shields, though he makes it clear that he only won the fight because the rest of the Titans had softened Light up first.
"Infinite Crisis" and beyond During the 2005–2006 storyline Infinite Crisis, Cyborg joined Donna's "New Cronus" team that went to investigate a hole in the universe that was found during the Rann-Thanagar War. He left Beast Boy in charge of the Titans while he was gone. They arrived at the reset center of the universe and with the help of assorted heroes aided in the defeat of Alexander Luthor, who was attempting to recreate the multiverse and build a perfect Earth from it. After returning to Earth, Cyborg is temporarily fused with Firestorm due to Luthor altering the Zeta Beams the heroes were using to return home.52 #5 (August 2006)
After being severely damaged during Infinite Crisis, Cyborg was rebuilt over time in thanks to Tower caretakers Wendy and Marvin. He awoke a year later to find a different Teen Titans being led by Robin, the only member from the team he formed prior to going into space. He is still a member of the team, but feels that Kid Devil and Ravager are hardly worthy Titans, and thus is attempting to find a way to reform "the real Titans".
After the team along with the Doom Patrol defeated the Brotherhood of Evil, Cyborg asked Beast Boy to rejoin the Titans, but Gar refused, saying that his skills were needed with the Doom Patrol. After returning to Titans Tower, Cyborg began reviewing the security tapes during the last year, in which it appears that he was looked to by all the Titans of the past year for a shoulder to lean on, despite being in a coma-like state.
It appears that although Cyborg has returned to the team, the role of leader is now in the hands of Robin. He does however retain the position of statesman amongst the team and occasionally plays second-in-command.
In Justice League of America (vol. 2) #3, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman agree that Cyborg should be offered membership in the new Justice League. However, following a battle against Amazo, Green Lantern and Black Canary take over the formation of the JLA, and Cyborg is not amongst the roster.
In the Teen Titans East one-shot, Cyborg gathers a new team of Titans. During a training exercise, the group is attacked by Trigon, and Cyborg was blasted with a giant energy beam. He is last seen in a crater, with only his head and torso remaining.
Titans