Cyborg

The rift between Victor Stone and his scientist father was widened one afternoon when he stopped by his parents’ lab at S.T.A.R., only to see a blob-like creature enveloping his mother. Vic’s father was able to hit the recall button, sending the creature back through the dimensional gateway, but his mother was dead, and Victor himself had been fatally injured as the creature dissolved half of his body. Silias Stone, determined he would not lose his son as well as his wife, adapted an experimental cybernetic military suit to replace what the creature had destroyed. When Vic finally awoke, he was horrified at the man/machine he had become, furious at his father for making him into it. When he could finally leave the lab, he encountered only fear and hate, and so withdrew as much as he could.

Vic finally found a home when Raven appeared, inviting him to join the new Teen Titans. They accepted what he was and what he could do as a cyborg, and they saw the man behind the prosthetics. They—Raven especially—even helped him reconcile with his father before he died of radiation poisoning. The Titans (and Changeling in particular) were Vic’s first real friends, and his most lasting ones.

Shattered

When the Wildebeest society captured nearly all the Titans (New Titans #71, 1990), Vic’s body was deemed unsuitable for possession. He was launched as a decoy in a rocket, which crash-landed in Siberia near an old Soviet science city. The Russian super-hero Red Star found him nearly destroyed in the crash, then brought him back to Dr. Pyotor Raskov. Raskov rebuilt him as best as he could... but Victor’s brain was virtually inactive. Cyborg was left little more than a robot. (New Titans #76, 1991)

The Titans never fully regrouped after their battle with the Wildebeest. Fractured by death and betrayal, the remaining members were able to do little more than allow S.T.A.R. Labs to work on him, and the newer members had no reason to regard him as anything more than a remote-controlled robot. Red Star took him back to Russia in hopes that the scientists who rebuilt him might have more success, only to discover they had both been manipulated by political factions intent on regaining power.

Technis

The entity calling itself Zavior was the offspring of a Technis cluster—electro/mechanical sentients collecting knowledge throughout the galaxy—and Earth’s plant elemental (Swamp Thing). Zavior came to Earth, observed it, and planned to use the hybrid forms of Cyborg and Team Titan Prester Jon* to digitize the Earth, transforming it into their new CPU to renew Technis’ vitality. The Titans, a revived Cyborg, and other Technis clusters stopped it, but Zavior had sapped Cyborg’s power. There was no way for him to make it home alive. The other Technis clusters offered to assimilate his soul, allowing him to live on and giving them the vitality they needed to continue. He accepted the choice, and departed Earth with Technis (New Titans #103–107).

The presence of a human soul provided a focal point, and a being calling itself Cyberion emerged. Possessing Vic Stone’s memories, but not his emotions, Cyberion encountered the Titans amid the New Citadel War, in which the rest of Technis was destroyed. He stayed briefly on New Tamaran to help rebuild, then left to explore the galaxy with Changeling and then-Titan Jarras Minion (New Titans #127–130, 1996). Despite his friend’s presence, he remained cold and aloof, until Changeling finally chose to return home. Minion left also, but first gave Cyberion the Omegadrome, the morphing battlesuit he had so reluctantly wielded.

Cyberion set out to rebuild Technis, using collected debris and the morphing powers of the Omegadrome, becoming less and less human as time went on. Somehow Technis was cross-referenced with Titans, and a growing planet came to Earth to collect the Titans. Massive technological disruptions were followed by “Technis” enveloping the moon, and the Titans all being captured. Once they realized what had happened, the Titans searched for a way to find Vic’s soul, and finally contained it within the Omegadrome (JLA/Titans, 1999).

Human Again?

Vic’s human soul, memories, and personality were back, but his body was wholly alien technology. Worse, the JLA didn’t trust him not to lose control again, and only released him on the condition that the other Titans watch over him. Nightwing picked up on the problems Vic was having—the temptation of his lost humanity, the lack of trust on the part of even his friends—and took a gamble. He realized Science City #3 still had samples of Vic’s DNA, and that cloning technology had advanced just enough to make it possible to grow Vic a new body. With a little economic push from QuickStart Enterprises, they did just that, implanting the Omegadrome inside the new body.

At first Vic felt he had the best of both worlds: the human body he hadn’t had in years, plus all the morphing and battle abilities of the Omegadrome. Yet there were subtle differences. Things wouldn’t taste quite right, or his enhanced senses wouldn’t shut off. He still felt the duality.

Full Circle

In a pitched battle for Keystone City, the Thinker A.I. deactivated the Omegadrome. Vic had morphed into “Cyborg Classic” for the battle, allowing the liquid metal to imitate his original implants and armor. The McGees and S.T.A.R. Labs tried, but were unable to reactivate the morphing ability. After all his changes, physically he’s back to roughly the form he wore in his early days with the Titans.

Cyborg signed on to the new group of Teen Titans as a mentor to the younger heroes. After returning from deep space in Infinite Crisis, he spent a year in a coma. Even his mechanical parts were inactive. Since waking up, he has tried to help put the Teen Titans back together.

• Primary Sources
• Art Credits
• Origin Tales
• Profiles in Print
• Legacy-Era Appearances
• One Year Later Appearances
• Series Regular In...
• Further Notes
• Related Commentary

Primary Sources

• Tales of the New Teen Titans #1: Cyborg (July 1982), Marv Wolfman & George Perez
• “Terminus: The Fate of Cyborg” - New Titans #103–107 (November 1993–Late January 1994), Marv Wolfman
• “The Technis Imperative” - JLA/Titans #1–3 (December 1998–February 1999), Devin Grayson and Phil Jimenez
• “Transitions” - The Titans #20 (October 2000), Devin Grayson and Jay Faerber

Art

• Modern: Teen Titans (third series) #12 (August 2004) - Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza
• Cyborg Classic: New Teen Titans (second series) #1 (August 1984) - George Perez
• Rebuilt in Russia: The New Titans #78 (August 1991) - Tom Grummett and Al Vey
• Cyberion: The New Titans #128 (December 1995) - William Rosado and Will Blyberg
• Omegadrome: The Titans #1 (March 1999) - Mark Buckingham and Wade von Grawbadger

Origin Tales

• Tales of the New Teen Titans #1: Cyborg (June 1982), Marv Wolfman & George Perez

Profiles

• Who’s Who in the DC Universe #5 (July 1985)
• The Official Teen Titans Index #1 (August 1985)
• Who’s Who (loose-leaf edition) #5 (December 1990)
• The Titans Secret Files #1 (March 1999)
• The Titans Secret Files #2 (March 1999)
• Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files 2003 (December 2003)
• The DC Comics Encyclopedia (2004)
• 52 Week 47 (March 28, 2007) under Teen Titans

Significant Legacy-Era Flash Appearances

• Flash #1 (June 1987), Mike Baron
• Flash #2 (July 1987): “Hearts of Stone,” Mike Baron (cameo)
• Flash #4 (September 1987): “Kill the Kilg%re,” Mike Baron
• Flash #9 (February 1988): “The Chunk,” Mike Baron (cameo)
• Flash 80-Page Giant #2 (April 1999): “Last Dance,” Christopher Priest
• Flash: Our Worlds At War #1 (Summer 2001): “Time on Target,” Geoff Johns
• Flash #180 (January 2002): “Peek-a-Boo,” Geoff Johns
• Flash #186–188 (July–September 2002): “Crossfire” Parts 3–5, Geoff Johns
• Flash #189 (October 2002): “Messengers,” Geoff Johns
• Flash #210 (July 2004): “Reconnected,” Geoff Johns (cameo)
• Flash #214 (November 2004): “The Secret of Barry Allen, Part One,” Geoff Johns (cameo)
• Flash #228 (January 2006): “Finish Line, Part 2: The Summoner,” Joey Cavalieri

Significant One-Year-Later Flash Appearances

• The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #5 (December 2006): “Lightning in a Bottle Part 5: Missing in Action,” Danny Bilson & Paul DeMeo
• Countdown #43 (July 4, 2007): “The Funeral,” Paul Dini with Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray

Series Regular In...

• The New Teen Titans / Tales of the Teen Titans/ The New Titans (1980–1996)
• The Titans (first series) #1–20 (1999–2000)
• Teen Titans (third series) (2003–2007)
• DC Special: Cyborg (6-issue mini-series, 2008)
• The Titans (second series) (2008—)

Notes

*Prester Jon was able to interface with computer systems. On one mission his body was killed while he was inside, and he sent his consciousness completely into the computer to survive. After that, he spent most of his time living in the Team Titans’ communicator bracelets (Team Titans #1: Killowatt, 1992). Prester Jon and most of the Team Titans were wiped out during Zero Hour.

Related Commentary

• Smallville Cyborg

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