BOOYAH!! Cyborg Appreciation Thread '19

[DragonsChi]

He's DC's only upper tier black character. I'd hate to downgrade him to such an extent. This sounds like a good origin powerset but at this point he probably needs to be far more advance. His abilities are about the only thing I dig about the way DC handles him. His look and a great story/writer is what has eluded him the most.

The rest of the League are supermen in their own little corners of the DCU. Tech is where Vic should reign supreme.

I disagree. Power does not equal good. Power also does not mean you are guaranteed being a winner. Power also in Vic's case has pretty much made him boring, a walking plot device, and walking plot hole generator.

Being a "Tech God" in todays world pretty much translates to no criminal ever being able to hide from him. No bank account being unavailable to him to use or shut down. Amongst other things. A "Tech God" Vic is a walking talking Deus EX Machina that so far has proven to be unsellable.

There are other methods of being a high tier character than to be overpowered and unrelate-able. But that is just my opinion.

The rest of the League are supermen in their own little corners of the DCU. Tech is where Vic should reign supreme.

See from my standpoint Vic being directly able to access the internet anytime he wants and it being directly linked to his brain functions he already is the "Superman" in his field. In truth that one ability alone makes him one of the most dangerous people on the planet. He has an infinite amount of knowledge that is constantly being updated with a thought. Anything he could possibly want or need to know right there.

It makes him an ideal counter intelligence operative. Which is why I feel where Vic should reign supreme is computer programing and developing. Making him a master hacker who also holds the worlds knowledge at his disposal.

It might take him a minute to figure out what he can do with said knowledge but having it puts him steps ahead of anyone he faces.

[dswynne]

People on his thread are not talking about the ONE thing that makes Victor Stone unique: a man with a disability, who overcame his disability by becoming a hero.

To me, Cyborg is just a smart guy who is a sports junkie, who, in spite of his present condition, wants to do the right thing. In this case, he's using his high-end, ever-evolving cybernetics to fight bad guys. Period, and simple. Now, we all can agree that the "tragic hero" has been done to death. But what type of personality are we dealing with? What are his likes and dislikes? I can see him being into sports therapy, or physical trauma recovery (including those who have acute physical disabilities). Maybe Cyborg has an ongoing rivalry with Guy Gardener, who is also a huge sports person (which could lead to some interesting adventures for a team-up).

Basically, whatever Cyborg does, it should be align with his personality and background. Personally, I like both the Cyborg from the TEEN TITANS GO show, and the Cyborg from the streaming service show DOOM PATROL. Maybe a combination of the two, where you have a Cyborg who can be serious when necessary, but doesn't take life too seriously. After all Cyborg literally hit rock-bottom due to the accident that caused his injuries; there's nothing else he can do but go UP.

[dswynne]

SNIP!

It makes him an ideal counter intelligence operative. Which is why I feel where Vic should reign supreme is computer programing and developing. Making him a master hacker who also holds the worlds knowledge at his disposal.

It might take him a minute to figure out what he can do with said knowledge but having it puts him steps ahead of anyone he faces.

Sounds like something that Batgirl did when she was Oracle.

[DragonsChi]

Sounds like something that Batgirl did when she was Oracle.

Batgirl has never worked with the military as a field operative though. She also so far out of that role now that it would be backtracking to put her back in it. So it could still work.
Overall, I think it makes more sense for Vic and there are like 12 or 14 bat characters that literally all do the same stuff so I think it could work.

But again...those are just my thoughts on the character.

[Jabare]

You all know I don’t really post here anymore but the latest issue of Justice League Odyssey is a very strong Cyborg centric one with a lot of feats and solid art.

A big improvement over DCeased which feels like Marvel Zombies

[Korath]

You all know I don’t really post here anymore but the latest issue of Justice League Odyssey is a very strong Cyborg centric one with a lot of feats and solid art.

A big improvement over DCeased which feels like Marvel Zombies

True, but there is also something really fishy happening to the Old Gods there.

Also, credit were it's due, DCeased Cyborg is the chilliest I've ever read. The guy's strapped and disabled on Desaad's torture chamber, with Darkseid here, and he's really calm and collected. It shows how confident he is.

[skyvolt2000]

People on his thread are not talking about the ONE thing that makes Victor Stone unique: a man with a disability, who overcame his disability by becoming a hero.

To me, Cyborg is just a smart guy who is a sports junkie, who, in spite of his present condition, wants to do the right thing. In this case, he's using his high-end, ever-evolving cybernetics to fight bad guys. Period, and simple. Now, we all can agree that the "tragic hero" has been done to death. But what type of personality are we dealing with? What are his likes and dislikes? I can see him being into sports therapy, or physical trauma recovery (including those who have acute physical disabilities). Maybe Cyborg has an ongoing rivalry with Guy Gardener, who is also a huge sports person (which could lead to some interesting adventures for a team-up).

Basically, whatever Cyborg does, it should be align with his personality and background. Personally, I like both the Cyborg from the TEEN TITANS GO show, and the Cyborg from the streaming service show DOOM PATROL. Maybe a combination of the two, where you have a Cyborg who can be serious when necessary, but doesn't take life too seriously. After all Cyborg literally hit rock-bottom due to the accident that caused his injuries; there's nothing else he can do but go UP.

That is the gripe everyone keeps having-why is it everywhere else including elseworld stories do we see a better character?
And this is NOT limited to him but John Stewart among others (especially of color).

What are there writers for tv shows, movies and other comics doing that the mainstream ones can't seem to do.

The tragic hero angle is annoying because that is all we keep getting same with man versus machine.

[king81992]

That is the gripe everyone keeps having-why is it everywhere else including elseworld stories do we see a better character?
And this is NOT limited to him but John Stewart among others (especially of color).

What are there writers for tv shows, movies and other comics doing that the mainstream ones can't seem to do.

The tragic hero angle is annoying because that is all we keep getting same with man versus machine.

The writers for the TV shows and cartoons aren't bound by comic book traditions. I get the impression that DC writers choose to write certain character in certain ways because those characterizations worked during the era or story that the character debuted in. But times change. What worked in the 1980s will not work today.

[Vampire Savior]

Well, there is another thing to consider that people don't usually talk about, maybe because they don't know. But there is a general thought that writers for movies and television are typically better writers than those that are stuck doing comics. Of course, this isn't always the case, as people have varying circumstances, and some people are just where they are because of fortune, or that's just the stage in their career that they are at. But the massive difference in pay grade is certainly telling. I remember Joshua Hale Fialkov saying that he makes more money writing for television than DC could pay him even if he took on writing 8 comic books for them.

So, a lot of the people you see writing comics just aren't very good or creative, to tell you the truth.

[DragonsChi]

Well, there is another thing to consider that people don't usually talk about, maybe because they don't know. But there is a general thought that writers for movies and television are typically better writers than those that are stuck doing comics. Of course, this isn't always the case, as people have varying circumstances, and some people are just where they are because of fortune, or that's just the stage in their career that they are at. But the massive difference in pay grade is certainly telling. I remember Joshua Hale Fialkov saying that he makes more money writing for television than DC could pay him even if he took on writing 8 comic books for them.

So, a lot of the people you see writing comics just aren't very good or creative, to tell you the truth.

I think that can be said about TODAYS writers by a large margin. But I wouldn't say that is that is a rule of thumb or that it has always been the case.

The Superhero comic industry is only down because in terms of creativity and substance in actual material is because the larger companies are 1) Hiring unqualified individuals 2)Giving those people unqualified people to long of a leash 3) No one is really going behind all creatives to see if what they are doing fits in the context of their universe or matches previous work. 4) Those with the most power probably shouldn't have it at all but are doing an incredible job hiding it, diverting blame, or being untouchable.

So in the end fans suffer have will be the ones who suffer the most. At least initially.

[Vampire Savior]

What kind of baffles me is that John Semper actually wrote quite a bit of TV, and he wrote good TV. That Spider-Man 90s cartoon seriously holds up, in my opinion. I was watching it a couple weeks ago, and it's still great! In contrast, I tried giving the Silver Surfer cartoon yet another chance of many, and as usual, I couldn't really get into it, and the 90s Fantastic Four and Iron Man cartoons were always lacking, but that Spider-Man toon is excellent.

And then John Semper gets that Cyborg Rebirth book, and it's terrible! I was actually surprised at how poor the writing was. There are, of course, a lot of people involved in those cartoons, so you never know if they made up for John Semper's deficiencies or what. Furthermore, comics are a different medium with a lot of its own idiosyncrasies, and perhaps Semper wasn't suited for them. Semper and co. also had a crap ton of Spider-Man stories and characters to use, while in Cyborg he actually had to try to be creative and come up with near totally new stuff, since the only things of consistency that Cyborg has are his face plate, powers, and relationship with his dad. As I mentioned, even his overall look changes all the time. And I guess even his powers aren't very well defined. He seems to reach higher levels of power and then inexplicably lose them. Or he will have something like a Mother Box but will rarely make real use of it.

But I guess the TV writer point kind of falls apart when you consider a TV writer was actually brought on to Cyborg and given a generous run, and Cyborg in comics is still in the sad state he's in. Justice League Odyssey is the best from Cyborg I've seen since the New 52, but that series was ultimately botched, too, with the artist leaving early on and Williamson just recently leaving.

[Agent Z]

He's DC's only upper tier black character. I'd hate to downgrade him to such an extent. This sounds like a good origin powerset but at this point he probably needs to be far more advance. His abilities are about the only thing I dig about the way DC handles him. His look and a great story/writer is what has eluded him the most.

The rest of the League are supermen in their own little corners of the DCU. Tech is where Vic should reign supreme.

No he isn't. There's John Stewart, Vixen and Black Lightning.

[Johnny]

Yeah but Cyborg is the only one who's been consistently pushed for a longer period of time. From that standpoint he can be seen as DC's top tier black character for the time being, which is why it makes DC look so bad when they never have any consistent direction for him.

[Iconic]

No he isn't. There's John Stewart, Vixen and Black Lightning.

While Black Lightning and Vixen can definitely punch up, they are usually playing in the mid tier. Add to that, Black Lightning is just now back on the map of the DCU. I didn't consider John because he's not an original like the others.

[jetengine]

Has Cyborg ever dealt with a magic based foe ?