Hey guys, I’m Kya and on this episode of ‘Yellow Spandex,’
We’re talking about a character who doesn’t really wear a costume.
Victor Stone’s cybernetic body has gone through tons of upgrades, downgrades,
obliterations and iterations over his 37-year career as Cyborg.
And he’s finally gotten his big break as a founding member of the DCEU Justice League,
So let’s give you a crash course on
The Evolution of Cyborg.
Starting, as always, with
The Comics.
Now, with a tech-heavy character like Cyborg or Iron Man,
There’s going to be a lot of variation in how certain artists draw him.
We’re not going to cover every time someone added a new rivet,
But there are definitely distinct eras we can explore.
Let’s begin with Vic’s 1980 debut in
The New Teen Titans.
Cyborg’s origin hasn’t changed much over the years.
He was a brilliant scholar and a star athlete in high school,
until he was horrifically injured in an accident at S.T.A.R. Labs where his parents worked.
Vic’s dad hooked him up with experimental cybernetic body parts.
And as great as his old man was at keeping him alive,
His fashion sense was a little… Yeah.
Look, I get that the idea of a half man, half machine superhero was still a relatively new idea at the time,
We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Better. Stronger. Faster.
But Vic’s original design looks pretty dated today.
It looks like he’s wearing a teenie metal tank top and trunks,
And garters holding up long metal stockings.
I’m also not really digging the headband keeping the mechanical half of his face attached.
It really depends on the artist drawing him,
But this version of Cyborg never really looked like the robotic elements were part of his body,
They just felt like clothes he could take off whenever he wanted.
This was Vic’s signature look for years,
and it’s what he’d always return to after he’d get blown up or disintegrated or whatever.
There’s the time he became Cyberion, after his mind was uploaded to a race of alien A.I. called the Technis.
Cyberion was a black and red mass of machinery,
without any of the living components that made Cyborg a cyborg.
Vic lost touch with his human side,
Literally, because there's no human parts there.
But his fellow Titans managed to rescue his consciousness and transfer it to the Omegadrome,
Which isn’t nearly as cool as it sounds.
Basically, it was a morphing alien super-suit used by a former Titan named Minion,
Which turned Vic into a naked golden man.
Then, the Titans cloned Vic’s old body and merged it with the Omegadrome.
It gave him his human form back, and let him recreate his classic look in battle,
Just with some fly gold metal parts instead of chrome.
Eventually he lost the Omegadrome powers and returned to his normal cybernetic self.
In The New Titans Vic got an aggro ‘90s upgrade that included the most unnecessary handles since the Gamecube.
It didn’t last though, and he went back to his traditional look until
The New 52
changed everything.
Cyborg’s importance to the DC Universe increased dramatically after the reboot,
Which made him a founding member of the Justice League.
Not only that, his tech got a big upgrade thanks to a Mother Box from the Fourth World.
As a result, Vic’s new armor was massive, and it left almost no flesh exposed.
Cyborg finally looked like a true powerhouse,
And this carried over to most of his DC animated movie appearances.
But a few years later he slimmed down for the DC You redesign.
This look is the complete opposite of his hulking New 52 uniform.
Honestly, it looks like he’s wearing one of those Michael Phelps swimsuits with some glowy lights on them.
His arms and shoulders are completely exposed,
Which definitely lets Vic’s humanity come through.
I just think they went a little too far in that direction.
It doesn’t matter much, because he went back to being big as part of Rebirth.
His skin is almost entirely covered up again,
Which kinda just makes him look like a robot with half a face glued on it.
I do like that he finally gets his own logo, a little gear on his chest that looks like a C.
It’s not a bad costume, but it definitely could use some color to spice it up.
It does look awesome in ‘Injustice 2,’ though.
Second gen is always better.
This design was probably meant to bring him in line with the DCEU Cyborg,
who we’ll get to in a little bit.
First, let’s talk about Vic’s appearance in
Cartoons.
Cyborg first appeared in
‘The Super Powers Team,’
The final incarnation of the long running ‘Super Friends’ show.
He’s wearing his traditional armor, so no surprises there.
But he is voiced by Ernie Hudson, which is just awesome.
M-- Mom! What in blazes?
I guess he had some free time after ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ cartoon passed him over for Arsenio Hall.
Arsenio Hall!
Cy’s most important animated incarnation was on Cartoon Network’s
‘Teen Titans.’
Until ‘Justice League’ comes out, this is probably the version of Cyborg most people are familiar with.
When there's trouble, you know what to do... Call Cyborg!
The brilliant, anime-inspired designs from Glenn Murakami introduced the Titans to a new generation of fans,
And Cyborg’s new look was an awesome update to his classic style.
Boo-ya!
First off, Cy got a much-needed splash of color to his monochrome metal armor,
thanks to these cool see-through blue bubbles that let you see the tech underneath.
His silhouette also changed drastically.
Before the cartoon, Cyborg was usually depicted as a normal, muscular dude with metal parts.
But Murakami bulked him up big-time, which made his silhouette really stand out from his skinny teammates.
Also? He was bald, which I can’t believe never really caught on in the comics.
The same design was streamlined for the cuter Teen Titans Go Cartoon,
And it’s definitely an inspiration for Cy’s appearance in DC Superhero Girls,
Just because you're some big scary red dude, you think you can mess with my city?!
which combines the clear blue bits with his logo from Rebirth.
Finally, in Justice League Action, he’s got the same bald head and rounded bulk,
with a dope blue and white color scheme accented by circuitry and thick black lines.
Moving on to
Live Action,
Vic’s first appearance was back in 2006 on, what else, Smallville.
This is where all the TV budget DC people end up.
Thanks to the TV budget, his cyborg implants were hidden under his skin,
so he just wore regular clothes.
What are you lookin' at?
Which means he’s more or less just The Famous Jett Jackson with super strength.
He returned as part of Oliver Queen’s Justice League,
Where he wore their standard sleeveless hoodie uniform over some grey Under Armour,
And some not very cybernetic sneakers and sweatpants.
Finally, we’ve come to Vic’s big screen debut in ‘Justice League.’
I’m not sure why DC went back to the real-life head on a CGI body look,
Because it sure as hell didn’t work in ‘Green Lantern.’
It definitely made Ray Fisher’s job a lot easier, though,
Since he just had to wear some mocap pajamas onset.
As for the design, I’m not the biggest fan.
All I see are a bunch of jagged edges and metal bits with some glowy red lights to break it up.
His like, costume is as boring as his personality.
Relax, Alfred. I'll take it from here.
Do I know you?
Whatever, it's fine, I'm like over it.
Honestly, he looks like a Michael Bay ‘Transformer,’ and that’s not a compliment.
I kind of wish they’d gone with this early concept art that looks like his DC You design.
As opposed to the ‘Terminator with too many polygons’ look we have now.
It’s pretty impressive from a technical standpoint,
and I'm sure Ray Fisher is gonna be an awesome Vic Stone,
But I wish they’d gone a little more traditional with his costume.
There’s like, no design to the design.
Superheroes are icons,
and their costumes are symbols meant to inspire us,
and to give us insight into their character.
The whole purpose of the character is that he’s struggling to keep his humanity,
It's not the machine that resists you! It's me! My spirit! That's the part you can't break!
But that doesn’t come across visually when the only skin present is a teeny bit of his face.
That's why I hope Cyborg's got something up his sleeve,
besides his sonic blaster,
to make his movie costume reflect the awesome character he is.