Booyah!: Cyborg Appreciation 2022

[Frontier]

He said it's because the League needed a tech guy, as if Batman didn't exist. The real reason is that a Justice League with all white people and one green guy wouldn't fly in the modern era after the more diverse DCAU version.

And no, Martian Manhunter is not Black. He's either Green or whatever color is convenient for him at the time.

Batman has gadgets but I'm not sure if he's really a "tech" guy. But I guess he's sometimes written that way.

The official explanation was he wanted to modernize the League by having a tech guy on the team. The actual explanation is they wanted to modernize the team by not having the entire founding line-up consist of white people (and a green alien).

And I think Johns was a fan of the Super Friends cartoon where Cyborg was a member.

[John Venus]

Batman has gadgets but I'm not sure if he's really a "tech" guy. But I guess he's sometimes written that way.

He built the Watchtower and the Javelin One in JLU. He designed and built the gadgets that took out the League in Tower of Babel. Numerous examples of him working with or building tech stuff in the comics and in animated appearances.

[Frontier]

He built the Watchtower and the Javelin One in JLU. He designed and built the gadgets that took out the League in Tower of Babel. Numerous examples of him working with or building tech stuff in the comics and in animated appearances.

Well, some of that he probably just paid for but I know he builds his own gadgets (except for when it's Lucious Fox) but on paper Cyborg could probably do way more than that.

[John Venus]

Well, some of that he probably just paid for but I know he builds his own gadgets (except for when it's Lucious Fox) but on paper Cyborg could probably do way more than that.

J'onn and WW literally said in the Grodd episode that Batman designed and engineered Javelin One. Batman also wrote the program that disabled Chronos time belt. Both McDuffie and Timm has compared JLU Batman's intelligence to Stark and Reed. The only thing not attributed to him directly is the Watchtower which is described as something that pre existed in Wayne Tech R&D and of course Brainiac tech is beyond him, hence he just opted to smash them in the Brainiac/Darkseid episode. In the comic books we see him build the tech used to take out the JL in the Tower of Babel tie in and he is also responsible for Brother Eye.

The point is Batman is the tech guy on the JL so putting Cyborg on the team is redundant unless Batman is given another niche or not a member of the League.

[Frontier]

J'onn and WW literally said in the Grodd episode that Batman designed and engineered Javelin One. Batman also wrote the program that disabled Chronos time belt. Both McDuffie and Timm has compared JLU Batman's intelligence to Stark and Reed. The only thing not attributed to him directly is the Watchtower which is described as something that pre existed in Wayne Tech R&D and of course Brainiac tech is beyond him, hence he just opted to smash them in the Brainiac/Darkseid episode. In the comic books we see him build the tech used to take out the JL in the Tower of Babel tie in and he is also responsible for Brother Eye.

The point is Batman is the tech guy on the JL so putting Cyborg on the team is redundant unless Batman is given another niche or not a member of the League.

At least in the context of Johns' JL Batman was more the leader than the tech guy.

[SecretWarrior]

At least in the context of Johns' JL Batman was more the leader than the tech guy.

They had to dumb everyone down to make him a field commander.

[ed2962]

Batman has gadgets but I'm not sure if he's really a "tech" guy. But I guess he's sometimes written that way.

And I think Johns was a fan of the Super Friends cartoon where Cyborg was a member.

I think that's the real reason. There's a number of other minority charcters that have some connection the League that they could have used instead of Vic if it was only about adding diversity to the "founding" line up.

[dkrook]

J'onn and WW literally said in the Grodd episode that Batman designed and engineered Javelin One. Batman also wrote the program that disabled Chronos time belt. Both McDuffie and Timm has compared JLU Batman's intelligence to Stark and Reed. The only thing not attributed to him directly is the Watchtower which is described as something that pre existed in Wayne Tech R&D and of course Brainiac tech is beyond him, hence he just opted to smash them in the Brainiac/Darkseid episode. In the comic books we see him build the tech used to take out the JL in the Tower of Babel tie in and he is also responsible for Brother Eye.

The point is Batman is the tech guy on the JL so putting Cyborg on the team is redundant unless Batman is given another niche or not a member of the League.

All these feats are batgod shenanigans, and that's cool. Vic is highly intelligent and was interfaced with a computer, but now has a mother box merged with him. The capability of Cyborg to do any of the things you mentioned about Batman is so far beyond the pale its ridiculous. Biased writers are the ones who are clueless to keeping and using Vic on the Justice League as tech specialist. Count me as one of the many readers that didn't bust one off in my pants when Bruce was made God of technology over Cyborg, that crap bordered on criminal ! However, looking at what Victor is and who the writers are, it made perfect sense.

[Frontier]

They had to dumb everyone down to make him a field commander.

Well, more like Batman barked orders and only Aquaman took offense to it.

[Digifiend]

Batman has gadgets but I'm not sure if he's really a "tech" guy. But I guess he's sometimes written that way.

And I think Johns was a fan of the Super Friends cartoon where Cyborg was a member.

Cyborg is a Super Friend? But that would've been when the New Teen Titans comic was still running. Did the JLA have no black members back then, so they had to use a Titan instead?

Teen Titans Academy #14's preview contains some bad news. spoilers:

Cybeast from Future State happened.

end of spoilers

[Johnny]

Teen Titans Academy #14's preview contains some bad news. spoilers:

Cybeast from Future State happened.

end of spoilers

I find it particularly idiotic that these people thought anyone was looking forward to seeing this.

[Frontier]

Cyborg is a Super Friend? But that would've been when the New Teen Titans comic was still running. Did the JLA have no black members back then, so they had to use a Titan instead?

Teen Titans Academy #14's preview contains some bad news. spoilers:

Cybeast from Future State happened.

end of spoilers

The thing literally no one asked for.

[John Venus]

All these feats are batgod shenanigans, and that's cool. Vic is highly intelligent and was interfaced with a computer, but now has a mother box merged with him. The capability of Cyborg to do any of the things you mentioned about Batman is so far beyond the pale its ridiculous. Biased writers are the ones who are clueless to keeping and using Vic on the Justice League as tech specialist. Count me as one of the many readers that didn't bust one off in my pants when Bruce was made God of technology over Cyborg, that crap bordered on criminal ! However, looking at what Victor is and who the writers are, it made perfect sense.

Yeah but that's the problem with Vic on the JL. They're not going to let him outshine any of the League's Big Guns.

There is also the problem of him lacking any meaningful friendships with anyone on the League. Except for whenever he gets busted up so other League members can dramatically scream 'Cyboooorg'. Maybe if the Flash on the League was Wally West and both their mutual Titan histories were kept, it might have worked but alas.

Cyborg is a Super Friend? But that would've been when the New Teen Titans comic was still running. Did the JLA have no black members back then, so they had to use a Titan instead?

Yep. As I understand it, John Stewart shared the mantle with 2 other Lanterns. Black Lightning was tied in up in rights issues with his creator (DC's fault really) leading to the creation of Black Vulcan. Tempest and Herald were probably too obscure or unknown to the creators of the show. Cyborg was the most high profile black superhero available at the time.

[Holt]

The final two seasons of Superfriends were also conceived as a tie-in to promote Kenner's line of DC action figures (in the same way GI Joe and Transformers existed to plug those respective toy lines). Cyborg was one of the characters featured in said toy line, so that almost certainly influenced the decision to bring him into the TV show as well.

[skyvolt2000]

Cyborg is a Super Friend? But that would've been when the New Teen Titans comic was still running. Did the JLA have no black members back then, so they had to use a Titan instead?

Teen Titans Academy #14's preview contains some bad news. spoilers:

Cybeast from Future State happened.

end of spoilers

The final two seasons of Superfriends had him and Firestorm on the team.

Of note John Sempter Jr (who did Cyborg's last solo) was a writer on the show at the time.

Pretty much around that time Vixen was your only black Leaguer until Mr. Miracle 2 (Shilo Norman) was up and then block by Scott Free and finally Bloodwynd got the slot. Although he was someone else at the time. If you count the expanded JLA roster (JLE & Extreme...) Amazing Man 2 was it until John Stewart.

Of note Black Lightning was included in the Justice League Total Justice toyline.