Cyborg #1 Comic Recap/Review

Cyborg #1 Recap/Review – Protocol: Evolution

 

Cyborg #1 Comic Recap

Somewhere, in another galaxy, a team of soldiers find themselves surrounded by sinister beings known as the technosapiens.  The soldiers are called tekbreakers, and they know that they are doomed, but today is a good day to die.

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A few million light years away… in Detroit, a crowd is protesting STAR labs.  Cyborg’s dad, Silas Stone, doesn’t understand what they want, and his coworker mentions that the protestors likely don’t know either.  They go to see Victor, and are surprised to see that Cyborg has changed.  The superhero explains how he was recently killed in battle.  He died outright, but in a moment, a new operating system apparently activated – a self-repair protocol that brought Victor back from the dead.  The STAR labs scientists are fascinated by this, which angers their fellow co-worker and childhood friend of Cyborg, a woman named Sarah.  But Victor is used to this sort of treatment from his father, and says it’s okay.  Sarah doesn’t understand saying it’s like Cyborg isn’t even in the room, and leaves, disappointed in her fellow scientists.

Back in the other galaxy, the fight isn’t going well.  The few surviving soldiers escape through a portal with a some civilians, but it is too late for many of their friends.  As the portal closes, the Technosapians inspect one of their captive soldiers.  They recognize a new technology on the soldier they haven’t seen before, yet looks familiar.  They begin to infect the soldier, learning of his nature and where he found the stolen tech.

Over in STAR labs, Cyborg is finally starting to get frustrated, realizing Sarah was right, and that he is being ignored.  When he loses patience, Victor has an outburst, and the scientists are shocked to see that Cyborg’s arms are growing strange new weapons.  Silas and the other scientists begin to observe these changes with fascination, not noticing that Victor is not taking this development as well.  He goes to see Sarah, and painfully admits that he doesn’t even know what he is anymore, and his dad is not making things easier.

His old friend agrees to take him out of the lab to deal with these emotions, so they head out into the city.  However, this puts them face to face with the protesters.  With a new target to yell at, one amputee calls Cyborg part of the problem.  He is clearly frustrated over the loss of his arm and eye while Victor gets incredibly sophisticated prosthetics.  Before Victor can answer to this, a man approaches him.  He and Cyborg actually know each other as the each played on rival football teams in high school.  The two greet one another amicably, and they leave to find somewhere they can catch up with one another, with a flustered Sarah in tow, and the confused amputee left behind.

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Meanwhile, the Technosapians are pleased.  This new technology brings these sinister aliens hope for reaching the state of perfection their creator intended.  They convert the fallen soldiers into new Technosapians, and vow to find where this technology came from, and take it for themselves.

Cyborg #1 Comic Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Cyborg #1!

So yeah, I thought this would be a fun comic to review.  For one thing, we never quite give as much attention to DC as opposed to Marvel, and this looked like a great idea for a series.  After all, Cyborg as a character is going places.  Pretty soon he’s going to be more associated with the Justice League over the Teen Titans if that hasn’t happened already.  And second, with a new writer who has mostly worked on more independent titles like Shaft before, I was really curious what we’d be getting out of this story.

On the whole, it was a very impressive first issue.  Usually I have to qualify most reviews of first issue comic books because they’re a tough nut to crack.  You need to have something that is entertaining on its own, but also sets up what’s going to happen in the rest of the series, and somehow also setting the tone and pace so readers know what to expect going forward.  That’s a lot to do in a very short amount of pages, so usually I have to review comics with a #1 on the cover with a little more generosity than I would for a comic that’s mid-series.

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But here?  Nah, it’s just a good comic.  Without any qualifiers, this is a great story.  Here are all the things this one little comic does that I like.

1. A focus on technology – which should be obvious for a Cyborg comic but whatever basic things like this are important!
2. A continuation of much that has been brought up in the Justice League comics so far – namely that Silas is a terrible person and it leaves Victor feeling vulnerable while also so worried about losing his humanity it’s breaking him up a little on the inside – they’re adding and tweaking things here but this is mostly loyal to Cyborg as he has been depicted in the New 52
3. Secondary characters I like – mostly Silas, who is kind of a typical inattentive dad but he’s never fully treated like the bad guy. He’s not a very good father but it’s not like he hates his son either, he just pays more attention to science than he does his own son. That makes him deeply and critically flawed, but the comic doesn’t go overboard painting him as a monster.
4. A pretty cool enemy that works well with Cyborg, and will likely delve into the character’s technology which these days is kind of alien in origin, if I recall correctly. That shows familiarity with the established canon while also putting your own spin on it, even if your are blatantly ripping off the Borg. Hey, if you’re going to steal, steal from the best, right?
5. Victor comes to terms with his emotions very subtly, by being reminded of his past through this random football guy. It says a lot even though none of this is spelled out in the comic, as it serves as something grounded Cyborg can relate to while dealing with all of these changes.  They’ll probably follow up on this in issue two, but it stands alone just fine as this little moment.

So yes, it’s a good, fun comic, you should totally check out.  The art is great too, though a couple of panels I feel are a little overdone.  Like, I don’t know, I’ve never really pictured Cyborg as being this emotional.  I always think of him as having… dulled emotions thanks to his cybernetic nature.  That’s the impression I got from the New 52 comics thus far and I’ve always found that… interesting.  But that’s no big deal, and I certainly won’t let something little like this ruin a perfectly good comic.