Victor Stone

Victor Stone in Cyborg v1 #1.

Victor Stone is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Victor Stone

As a youngster, Victor Stone was used by his research scientist parents in their intelligence-boosting experiments, with the result that he became a child genius. However, he lacked any normal peer-group companionship, until he met street-gang leader Ron Evers, who involved him in petty crime. At his mother's insistence, Victor was then allowed to attend public school rather than continuing with a private tutor, whereupon he became an outstanding athlete, forsaking his parents' dream of a scientific career for him. His injury in a gang fight deepened the rift between Victor and his parents, and ended his friendship with Ron, as well. Silas and Elinore Stone, research scientists employed at S.T.A.R. Labs, were working on two important projects: overseeing a fellow scientist’s interdimensional study and observation project, while completing their own work on cybernetic body implants for disabled soldiers. While they were observing an unknown dimension, a creature from that dimension managed to slip through the dimensional barrier, instantly killing Elinore and badly wounding Silas. Their son Victor, an Olympic hopeful, was caught by the creature as well, and parts of his body were destroyed before a half-unconscious Silas forced the creature back through the dimensional portal. Victor was then rebuilt by his father as Cyborg, a being half-man and half-mechanical parts. Victor was rushed to S.T.A.R. Labs where Silas began the painful process of removing individual body parts and replacing them with enforced steel, special polymers and plastics. After being rebuilt from scratch Victor had a body far more powerful than that of any normal human being.After recuperating for several months Victor fell out with his father, blaming his mother’s death and his own condition on his father’s incompetence. Victor moved to NYC where he tried to continue in school and athletics, but found himself ostracized from humanity. After a five-month period during which he learned to control his new body, Cyborg moved out on his own, only to discover that his transformation had cost him both his girlfriend and his athletic career. He was then recruited by Ron Evers, who intended to make him a scapegoat in a plot to blow up the United Nations Building. (Tales of the New Teen Titans v1 #1)

The New Teen Titans were called in by S.T.A.R. Labs after Prof. Stone opened up an extra dimensional gateway and released a giant protozoan that was trying to convert Earth’s atmosphere to methane to suit its needs. The Titans battled the alien without much success before the battle returned to the lab where the dimensional gateway was stored. Prof. Stone sucked the air from the room, giving it no atmosphere to breathe, and Starfire blasted it back to its own world before destroying the gateway at Stone’s request. After Victor was mortally wounded, Professor Stone was responsible for creating a cybernetic suit that kept him alive. Cyborg confronted Stone, telling his father that he had screwed up once again, just like when he had turned him into a machine when he should have been left for dead. He told his father he never wanted to see him again. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26)

Captain Hall told the Titans that they needed help getting criminal William Stryker to Attica, because the last two times they tried to transport him the Vigilante attacked. Cyborg said he could use an easy case, and agreed. Cyborg drove Stryker, but the car was hit with an armor piercing shell, and Vigilante pursued them through the woods. Stryker mocked Cyborg for his morality, but the hero said he could hold his head high doing something he loved, and he doubted the criminal could say the same. Cyborg questioned Vigilante's notion of justice and doubted that he'd only killed in self-defense or the defense of others as he claimed. Vigilante said he couldn't let Cyborg take him in, shooting him in the shoulder, causing him to black out. Vigilante questioned his own sense of justice, and instead of killing Stryker he threatened him until he confessed to where evidence against him for his heinous crimes could be found. Robin, Wonder Girl and Starfire took cyborg to the hospital, and seeing that he got a get-well card from Vigilante wondered if Cyborg had got through to him. (Vigilante v1 #3)

Teen Titans

Nightwing brought Cyborg to Science City in Russia, and surprised him with a clone of Victor Stone's old human body grown with genetic samples taken when Cyborg had crash-landed in Russia. At first Cyborg saw it as another example of Nightwing manipulating him, and accused him of acting like Batman. Cyborg calmed down and realized he was grateful for the chance to be human again. He'd been a cyborg so long he'd given up on any chance of ever being normal again. Science City scientists transferred the omegadrone that stored Cyborg's essence into the body. He retained his powers, and could switch from looking completely human to being Cyborg at will. He said his goodbyes to the Titans, and went to S.T.A.R. Labs to say hello to Dr. Charles. She'd been transferred to Metropolis, so Victor abandoned his plans of getting reacquainted with her. (Titans v1 #20)

On President Luthor's request Cyborg and the Titans went to Zaire, Africa to battle an Imperiex Probe that had landed on Earth to hollow out the planet, but the battle went badly for the heroes. More Probes arrived and the heroes were only saved by Superman, who destroyed the Probes. (Action Comics v1 #781)

Cyborg later travelled to Keystone City to work on the Tunnel that was a device that used Flash’s speed to defeat the Parademons attacking Earth. Cyborg told Flash he was not really enjoying his stay in L.A. and wondered if Keystone’s neighbor Central City could use a new hero. (Flash: Our Worlds at War v1 #1) This saw Cyborg deciding to move to Central City where he was present at the Central City Medical University when it was attacked by Peek-A-Boo with both Cyborg and Flash Bart Allen teaming up to defeat her. (The Flash v2 #180)

Donna Troy later came to invite Cyborg to join Kimiyo Hoshi's new Justice League. (Justice League of America v2 #40) During this time, he came to befriends Red Tornado, and claimed that he had come up with a plan to make him indestructible. (Justice League of America v2 #41)

Post-Flashpoint

The hero of Detroit in Cyborg v3 #1.

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Victor Stone

After his father missed his football game again, Victor decided to confront him at S.T.A.R. Labs where Silas believed his son was wasting his life away with sports and confessed that he had no intention of ever visiting his game. An angry Victor was at S.T.A.R. Labs when a Mother Box exploded at his fathers laboratory with its energy mortally wounding Victor. (Justice League v2 #2) In desperation, Silas, took his son into the Red Room containing the most highly advanced technology recovered from across the world and used it to help save his son by turning him into a cyborg. (Justice League v2 #3) He was wracked by pain and unaware of his transformation until Parademons attacked as the world was under attack from the forces of Apokolips. Upon learning what his father did to him, Victor departed and found others under attack from Parademons where he helped protect them. By interfacing with the technology in the creatures, he was able to learn that the threat came from Darkseid and his cybernetics opened a Boom Tube that transported him to Earth's heroes where he warned them of the danger. (Justice League v2 #4) In the middle of the alien invasion, he helped them fight Darkseid and his Parademon army. (Justice League v2 #5) Cyborg tapped into the alien technology to close their portal after Superman hurled Darkseid back to Apokolips. Due to the crisis, superheroes were finally accepted by the public, and the seven champions became the first public superhero team initially called 'the Super Seven' but they later rebranded themselves as 'the Justice League'. (Justice League v2 #6)

Cyborg began collating a database of superhumans on the planet with Batman consulting this and it being used as a basis for recruitment for new members of the Justice League as they sought to increase their numbers. (Justice League v2 #18)

After his organic body was rejected by Grid, Victor was taken to S.T.A.R. Labs by Batman and Catwoman in the hopes that Silas could help him. Silas was at first hesitant to turn his child once more into Cyborg, to which Victor pleaded that he should stop protecting him and that it was his decision to be transformed into Cyborg this time; he must help stop the Crime Syndicate. Cyborg's new armor was crafted after Victor told his father to take him into the real red room, which he knew about since he went on-line for the first time. The armor was made slimmer since he would rather to look more human like than a tank; jump jets were also installed so he wouldn't rely solely on Boom tubes. He noted that being off-line; it was quiet and that he was not being bombarded by information. (Justice League v2 #27) Cyborg goes to enroll the assistance of Doctor Will Magnus so he could revive his metal men to help him fight against the Crime Syndicate. Magnus initially refuse to revive his Metal men as he deemed them failures, however Cyborg persuades him to do so. (Justice League v2 #28) With the group once again revived and united they're led against The Grid who Cyborg lured away from the Watchtower. Grid summoned members of the Secret Society but they were quickly dispatched by the Metal Men under the command of Victor. Cyborg and Grid both enter the digital world where they fight with one another. Grid initially had the upper hand after using Victor's human side as his weakness. However Cyborg expresses that he has grasped his tech side and that he is the bridge between human and technology and he controls the digital universe, then, severing the Grid's connection with the outside world, Cyborg traps him inside the body. (Justice League v2 #29) Receiving Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth from Steve Trevor, Victor travels to fallen Watchtower where he helps Batman utilize Wonder Woman's rope to free the Justice League groups from the Firestorm network. (Forever Evil v1 #7)

The Justice League was eventually put into conflict with Amanda Waller's anti-Justice-League Justice League, the Justice League of America. While the two groups fought, Superman supposedly killed JLA member Doctor Light, causing a controversy. However, Cyborg and the Martian Manhunter performed an autopsy on Light's body to prove that his death was not Superman's fault. (Justice League of America v3 #6) Tensions continued to rise as the Justice League butted heads with the JLA and the Justice League Dark over the mysterious woman Pandora, who begged heroes to open her box. (Justice League of America v3 #7)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Reassembling his body in Cyborg v2 #1.

He had resented his father for transforming him into a cyborg as Victor had reasoned it was better to had died than be a half-mechanical being. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26) One version had Victor despise his father due to the S.T.A.R. Labs experiments costing the life of his mother Elinore. As a result, Victor wanted nothing to do with his father. (New Teen Titans v1 #7)

Powers and abilities

His body was said to not contain much blood but rather high viscosity polyalphaolefins that was a synthetic oil. (Teen Titans v3 #11)

Through a process called technoscaling, he was able by way of an interstitial process knit together a 'skin' over his mechanical features to give him a less conspicuous look. He compared the process to an app theme with an overlay over his actual appearance allowing him to better hide his cybernetic features in public. (Justice League v3 #39)

Cyborg showcases self-regenerative capabilities as not only are his technological parts able to reintegrate after destruction but recently, his damaged flesh has also been shown regenerating beneath and around his cybernetic systems. (Justice League v3 #41)

A weapon in his arsenal was a White Noise Cannon was powerful enough to completely eradicate some targets. (Justice League v2 #4) This manifested in his right arm that transformed into a cannon and tapped into an internal power supply to generate a zillion decibels of white sound. (DC Comics Presents v1 #26)

Cyborg's mechanical were capable of analysing threats and adapting countermeasures to better combat enemies. This included initiating adaptations to his systems and even fabricating weaponry to better damage foes. Such measures included redirecting energy attacks, generating a deflector shield and even forming tentacles to protect weak spots from an enemy attack. (DC Special: Cyborg v1 #2)

Cyborg's systems are capable of fabricating and initializing any number of technological adaptations to deal with any adversary he comes across. E.I. creating synthetic kryptonite for Kryptonians, absorbing and redistributing energy for a phasing Martian

The Mother Box technology that was part of his cybernetics allowed him to open Boom Tubes between locations allowing him to transport himself along with others between any two points. (Justice League v2 #4) After having tinkered with his internal workings, Victor has found a way to be undetectable during transport. Its effects are such that not even Superman can detect them. (Justice League v2 #19)

He once maintained a database of all superhumans on the planet with details including their powers and means of contact with this being referred to as the Grid. (Justice League v2 #18)

Notes

• The Victor Stone Cyborg was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez where he made his first appearance in DC Comics Presents v1 #26 (October, 1980).
• In The Titans Companion (2005), Pérez commented on the characters creation, "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."
• In The New 52, Geoff Johns commented on Newsarama on the character following the reboot, "He represents all of us in a lot of ways. If we have a cellphone and we're texting on it, we are a cyborg—that's what a cyborg is, using technology as an extension of ourselves."

Alternate Versions

• In Flashpoint v2 #1 (2011), an alternate version of Victor Stone appeared in the altered timeline of the Flashpoint. This version also became Cyborg and was America's greatest superhero that arose during a time when Earth was engulfed in a war between the Atlanteans led by Aquaman and the Amazons led by Wonder Woman. Cyborg had attempted to put together a group to stop the war between Aquaman and Wonder Woman's forces. However, the heroes he approached all came to refuse after Batman declined to join this effort.

In other media

Television

• In Teen Titans, Cyborg appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Khary Payton.
• In Teen Titans Go!, Cyborg appeared in the animated television series where he was once again voiced by actor Khary Payton.
• In Justice League Action, Cyborg appeared in the animated television series where he was once more voiced by actor Khary Payton.
• In Young Justice: Outsiders, Victor Stone as Cyborg appeared in the animated television series third season Outsiders where he was voiced by actor Zeno Robinson.
• In Doom Patrol, Cyborg appeared in the live-action television series set in DC Universe where he was portrayed by actor Joivan Wade.

Films

• In Justice League: Doom, Cyborg appeared in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Bumper Robinson.
• In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Cyborg appeared in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Michael B. Jordan.
• In Justice League: War, Cyborg appeared in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Shemar Moore.
• In the DC Extended Universe, Cyborg made multiple appearances in the shared continuity setting:
  • In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Cyborg appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Ray Fisher.
  • In Justice League, Cyborg appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Ray Fisher.

Video games

• In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Cyborg appeared as a playable character in the fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Khary Payton.
• In Injustice 2, Cyborg appeared as a playable character in the fighting video game where he was once more voiced by actor Khary Payton.

Appearances

• DC Comics Presents v1: (1980)
• New Teen Titans v1:
• Teen Titans v3:
• DC Special: Cyborg v1:
• Justice League v2:
• Cyborg v1:
• Cyborg v2:
• Justice League v3:
• Justice League Odyssey v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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