Happy Friday! Hope everyone is excited for the long weekend and that you all stay safe. Today I am continuing my recap of Cyborg Volume 1: The Imitation of Life. This post I am covering issues #3-5. If you still need to read part 1 click this link right (here). Last we left Cyborg his father had been replaced by a real creepy look alike. Time to see how this Volume concludes.
The Imitation of Life, Part Three: Nightmare: This issue begins with a flashback of the Justice League fighting Darkseid. The Justice League is getting their butts kicked and Cyborg is failing to save them. We quickly see this isn't a flashback but is Cyborg having a nightmare. He wakes up in S.T.A.R. Labs where Sarah is running tests on him and she is surprised Cyborg could dream while his brain function was at close to zero. They both just chalk it up to stress and fatigue.
The test they are doing is a transmogrification test. Cyborg can not use the nanites in his body to make himself look more human. We even get a classic Cyborg, "Booya!" It is pretty cool but seems to take a lot of processing power to maintain. Sarah suggests dinner and music to celebrate.
They go to a new jazz club where multiple people seem to recognize Victor, but he claims to not know any of them. Including the singer on stage who literally swoons at the sight of him. Victor catches her and she reveals that she is his ex-girlfriend, Britton. Sarah up and leaves and instead of stopping her Vic has a chat with Britton. She tells him they dated during senior year of high school, but he broke up with her and when he disappeared, she tried talking to Victor's father but he blew her off. Vic gets upset and he loses control of his transmogrification, so he leaves quickly.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs Vic confronts Dr. Marrow (his dad isn't around). Marrow explains that parts of Vic's memory were turned off so that the transformation wouldn't drive Vic crazy. Vic is understandably mad and demands that the memories be turned back on. Marrow agrees, but quickly betrays Vic and tries to subdue him. When that doesn't work Superman shows up. Things escalate quickly and Superman tells Cyborg he has to shut him down. Their fight is causing too much damage so Cyborg booms them up to Mars.
We see that this is another nightmare. Sarah and Marrow are trying to figure out what is wrong with Cyborg, but before they can Cyborg's body starts moving around independently of his mind. Cyborg's body starts attacking people and Sarah calls Silas. Evil robot Silas tells her he will be there soon and we see the real Silas being held prisoner. Real Silas asks who and why, but robot Silas just tells him that he is looking forward to taking everything from real Silas and then killing him (you know typical bad guy stuff).
Still trapped in his nightmare, the entire Justice League is now on Mars and is ready to kill Cyborg.
The Imitation of Life, Part Four: Mind Maze: The Justice League are all still fighting Cyborg on Mars. They fight for a while, all of them insulting Cyborg in turn. When he tries to boom-tube back to Earth, he opens a portal to Apokolips and Darkseid comes out. Cyborg knows all this isn't real but can't figure out how to get out, until he hears a woman's voice. The voice leads him to a maze. He figures that the maze represents a subroutine to find his lost memories.
The Justice League comes to stop him again, but this time he figures out that they are just a stray bit of code that Malware (the guy from Cyborg Rebirth #1) left in his system. They are cleverly named Wyrmms and they are messing Cyborg up.
In the waking world, Cyborg's body is messing stuff up. Marrow is also clever enough to figure out that Cyborg is infected with a malicious program. Sarah figures she can write a program to help but they would need his body to stop moving in order to connect a device to him.
Robot Silas is driving towards S.T.A.R. Labs while still chatting via video chat with the real Silas. The fake Silas admits that he is the one who implanted the worm in Cyborg and also claims to be real Silas's first creation but real Silas doesn't remember that. Sarah finishes writing a shutdown program and plans to just try and plug it into the rampaging body of Cyborg. Meanwhile, inside himself Cyborg is still fighting the Wyrmms. He gets them on the run only to follow them into his memories. We see young Vic baking cookies with his mom and playing catch with his dad.
Cyborg quickly figures out this is just the Wyrmms again, hiding in some of his most painful memories. So he shoots them and then moves onto more memories. He finds the memory of Britton and he is indeed a jerk to her. Finally Cyborg reaches the source of the voice that has been guiding him. It is a faceless floating cloak who claims to be the love of his life. Cyborg is suddenly hit with the full force of all his lost memories, but it is hurting him. The memories still don't bring back the face of his true love though. The floating cloak thinks maybe he is protecting her from himself (comic logic I guess)? Cyborg is feeling empowered by the knowledge of his true self. He uses his new resolve to punch the now giant Wyrmm and then destroys it.
Sarah tries to approach the rampaging Cyborg body, but it grabs her and starts choking her. Before it can do more than scare Sarah, Vic wakes up and drops her. He tries to apologize but she needs a moment and walks away. Of course now fake Silas shows up asking if Vic is okay. Vic is pretty mad about the whole missing memories thing, but is more worried about who planted the worm and who is messing with him. Robot Silas promises they will figure it out while the real Silas is forced to watch from his prison.
Later that night Vic tries to talk to Sarah. He wants to apologize and she asks him if he was aware of what his body was doing. He tells her that he was trapped in a nightmare and that he met his love but couldn't remember who she was. He shares that it is nice knowing that someone loved him, but she probably wouldn't still love him now that he is Cyborg. He then thanks Sarah for being such a good friend, then of course proceeds to wish for a great guy to whisk her away from all the danger and love her like she deserves. They say goodnight to each other and then we see Sarah open a photo album. It is full of pictures of her and Victor, clearly in love.
The Imitation of Life, Part Five: Regeneration: An operative, codename Echo, is running through the streets of Baghdad. She has been compromised and needs to be extracted. She almost makes it to her extraction point but a car bomb kills her right before she can get away.
We see a memory of another explosion, the one that hurt Vic's mother and gave her the cancer that killed her. Real Silas wakes up feeling a bunch of regret. In walks a real ugly looking robot (like a mutant Cyborg). It has brought Silas breakfast.
Elsewhere, Victor is walking Blue to an appointment. They are in a rough neighborhood and Vic finds himself surprised at how Blue can somehow see things so much clearer than Vic, even naming all the people as they pass them. A young kid tries to run by them but Blue trips him. The kid is in a hurry but is still pretty polite. Two cops roll up and ask if Vic or Blue saw a kid run by. Blue makes a joke about being blind and not seeing anything. Vic is not impressed with these cops who are both under investigation for excessive force. (Note: Vic is wearing a hoodie, hiding who he is.)
The cop tries to pull the whole "reaching for my gun,” thing but Cyborg takes down his hood and the two cops bolt really quickly. Blue is giving Vic a bit of a hard time about growing up outside of the community that is Detroit. Vic is about to drop Blue at the VA but Blue insists he comes inside.
There is a surprise party waiting for Cyborg. Many people are there to celebrate and honor Cyborg for being a hero who overcame injuries and disabilities. Vic is bashful and grateful.
Back in the evil layer of robot Silas, the gross robot and real Silas are chatting about souls. Silas tries to get information, but the robot just tells him in good time. Meanwhile, at S.T.A.R. Labs the CIA is asking the fake Dr. Stone to revive the agent from the beginning because she has some really important information. Silas says maybe they could but they would need a Mother Box. Just so happens the CIA has one and it is on the way. Sarah and Harrow are super against this and in his prison, so is the real Silas.
Later, fake Silas asks Victor to help him recreate the explosion that made him Cyborg. At first Vic is against it but Silas plays to his kind heart and Vic agrees to trying to help save this woman. They inject her with nanites and put her in a tank to try and regenerate her. Sarah and Marrow are still not feeling this but Cyborg is all in. It seems like it isn't going well but in the end it seems to work and now we get to have a female Cyborg.
Thoughts: This story is getting more and more interesting, but I still have a few issues. What the heck is up with Sarah not telling Vic about them being a thing? Also, the whole impostor story is a little old. I literally just wrote about the same thing happening in Green Lanterns. It is fine, but maybe it is just feeling over done. I am curious where the female cyborg story is going to go.
I also am curious if something happened with the artists working on this. DC sure seems to like using multiple artists on any given storyline, but in issue 5 the art changed halfway through the issue. Normally this doesn't bother me, but this was such a huge shift that it was distracting. I'll quickly note that for issues #2-5 that artists were Will Conrad, Timothy Green II, Derec Donovan, and Allan Jefferson. If you want to check out more of these artist's work, click their names.
There were a lot of fun covers in this volume but this one was my favorite done by Paul Pelletier and Scott Hanna.
The best line of this volume goes to my man Blue. Music does always speak to my soul.
See you all next week when I dive into the complicated history that is Wonder Woman.
Last Week: Catwoman: Election Night #1
Next Week: Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies, Part 1
Note: All images belong to DC™
The Imitation of Life, Part Three: Nightmare: This issue begins with a flashback of the Justice League fighting Darkseid. The Justice League is getting their butts kicked and Cyborg is failing to save them. We quickly see this isn't a flashback but is Cyborg having a nightmare. He wakes up in S.T.A.R. Labs where Sarah is running tests on him and she is surprised Cyborg could dream while his brain function was at close to zero. They both just chalk it up to stress and fatigue.
The test they are doing is a transmogrification test. Cyborg can not use the nanites in his body to make himself look more human. We even get a classic Cyborg, "Booya!" It is pretty cool but seems to take a lot of processing power to maintain. Sarah suggests dinner and music to celebrate.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs Vic confronts Dr. Marrow (his dad isn't around). Marrow explains that parts of Vic's memory were turned off so that the transformation wouldn't drive Vic crazy. Vic is understandably mad and demands that the memories be turned back on. Marrow agrees, but quickly betrays Vic and tries to subdue him. When that doesn't work Superman shows up. Things escalate quickly and Superman tells Cyborg he has to shut him down. Their fight is causing too much damage so Cyborg booms them up to Mars.
We see that this is another nightmare. Sarah and Marrow are trying to figure out what is wrong with Cyborg, but before they can Cyborg's body starts moving around independently of his mind. Cyborg's body starts attacking people and Sarah calls Silas. Evil robot Silas tells her he will be there soon and we see the real Silas being held prisoner. Real Silas asks who and why, but robot Silas just tells him that he is looking forward to taking everything from real Silas and then killing him (you know typical bad guy stuff).
Still trapped in his nightmare, the entire Justice League is now on Mars and is ready to kill Cyborg.
The Imitation of Life, Part Four: Mind Maze: The Justice League are all still fighting Cyborg on Mars. They fight for a while, all of them insulting Cyborg in turn. When he tries to boom-tube back to Earth, he opens a portal to Apokolips and Darkseid comes out. Cyborg knows all this isn't real but can't figure out how to get out, until he hears a woman's voice. The voice leads him to a maze. He figures that the maze represents a subroutine to find his lost memories.
The Justice League comes to stop him again, but this time he figures out that they are just a stray bit of code that Malware (the guy from Cyborg Rebirth #1) left in his system. They are cleverly named Wyrmms and they are messing Cyborg up.
In the waking world, Cyborg's body is messing stuff up. Marrow is also clever enough to figure out that Cyborg is infected with a malicious program. Sarah figures she can write a program to help but they would need his body to stop moving in order to connect a device to him.
Robot Silas is driving towards S.T.A.R. Labs while still chatting via video chat with the real Silas. The fake Silas admits that he is the one who implanted the worm in Cyborg and also claims to be real Silas's first creation but real Silas doesn't remember that. Sarah finishes writing a shutdown program and plans to just try and plug it into the rampaging body of Cyborg. Meanwhile, inside himself Cyborg is still fighting the Wyrmms. He gets them on the run only to follow them into his memories. We see young Vic baking cookies with his mom and playing catch with his dad.
Cyborg quickly figures out this is just the Wyrmms again, hiding in some of his most painful memories. So he shoots them and then moves onto more memories. He finds the memory of Britton and he is indeed a jerk to her. Finally Cyborg reaches the source of the voice that has been guiding him. It is a faceless floating cloak who claims to be the love of his life. Cyborg is suddenly hit with the full force of all his lost memories, but it is hurting him. The memories still don't bring back the face of his true love though. The floating cloak thinks maybe he is protecting her from himself (comic logic I guess)? Cyborg is feeling empowered by the knowledge of his true self. He uses his new resolve to punch the now giant Wyrmm and then destroys it.
Sarah tries to approach the rampaging Cyborg body, but it grabs her and starts choking her. Before it can do more than scare Sarah, Vic wakes up and drops her. He tries to apologize but she needs a moment and walks away. Of course now fake Silas shows up asking if Vic is okay. Vic is pretty mad about the whole missing memories thing, but is more worried about who planted the worm and who is messing with him. Robot Silas promises they will figure it out while the real Silas is forced to watch from his prison.
Later that night Vic tries to talk to Sarah. He wants to apologize and she asks him if he was aware of what his body was doing. He tells her that he was trapped in a nightmare and that he met his love but couldn't remember who she was. He shares that it is nice knowing that someone loved him, but she probably wouldn't still love him now that he is Cyborg. He then thanks Sarah for being such a good friend, then of course proceeds to wish for a great guy to whisk her away from all the danger and love her like she deserves. They say goodnight to each other and then we see Sarah open a photo album. It is full of pictures of her and Victor, clearly in love.
The Imitation of Life, Part Five: Regeneration: An operative, codename Echo, is running through the streets of Baghdad. She has been compromised and needs to be extracted. She almost makes it to her extraction point but a car bomb kills her right before she can get away.
We see a memory of another explosion, the one that hurt Vic's mother and gave her the cancer that killed her. Real Silas wakes up feeling a bunch of regret. In walks a real ugly looking robot (like a mutant Cyborg). It has brought Silas breakfast.
Elsewhere, Victor is walking Blue to an appointment. They are in a rough neighborhood and Vic finds himself surprised at how Blue can somehow see things so much clearer than Vic, even naming all the people as they pass them. A young kid tries to run by them but Blue trips him. The kid is in a hurry but is still pretty polite. Two cops roll up and ask if Vic or Blue saw a kid run by. Blue makes a joke about being blind and not seeing anything. Vic is not impressed with these cops who are both under investigation for excessive force. (Note: Vic is wearing a hoodie, hiding who he is.)
The cop tries to pull the whole "reaching for my gun,” thing but Cyborg takes down his hood and the two cops bolt really quickly. Blue is giving Vic a bit of a hard time about growing up outside of the community that is Detroit. Vic is about to drop Blue at the VA but Blue insists he comes inside.
There is a surprise party waiting for Cyborg. Many people are there to celebrate and honor Cyborg for being a hero who overcame injuries and disabilities. Vic is bashful and grateful.
Back in the evil layer of robot Silas, the gross robot and real Silas are chatting about souls. Silas tries to get information, but the robot just tells him in good time. Meanwhile, at S.T.A.R. Labs the CIA is asking the fake Dr. Stone to revive the agent from the beginning because she has some really important information. Silas says maybe they could but they would need a Mother Box. Just so happens the CIA has one and it is on the way. Sarah and Harrow are super against this and in his prison, so is the real Silas.
Later, fake Silas asks Victor to help him recreate the explosion that made him Cyborg. At first Vic is against it but Silas plays to his kind heart and Vic agrees to trying to help save this woman. They inject her with nanites and put her in a tank to try and regenerate her. Sarah and Marrow are still not feeling this but Cyborg is all in. It seems like it isn't going well but in the end it seems to work and now we get to have a female Cyborg.
Thoughts: This story is getting more and more interesting, but I still have a few issues. What the heck is up with Sarah not telling Vic about them being a thing? Also, the whole impostor story is a little old. I literally just wrote about the same thing happening in Green Lanterns. It is fine, but maybe it is just feeling over done. I am curious where the female cyborg story is going to go.
I also am curious if something happened with the artists working on this. DC sure seems to like using multiple artists on any given storyline, but in issue 5 the art changed halfway through the issue. Normally this doesn't bother me, but this was such a huge shift that it was distracting. I'll quickly note that for issues #2-5 that artists were Will Conrad, Timothy Green II, Derec Donovan, and Allan Jefferson. If you want to check out more of these artist's work, click their names.
There were a lot of fun covers in this volume but this one was my favorite done by Paul Pelletier and Scott Hanna.
The best line of this volume goes to my man Blue. Music does always speak to my soul.
See you all next week when I dive into the complicated history that is Wonder Woman.
Last Week: Catwoman: Election Night #1
Next Week: Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Lies, Part 1
Note: All images belong to DC™
I think see more now why you don't love Cyborg. I feel like there's not much going for his character. His story is just a little blah and boring. And you know I also don't love that Sarah isn't being honest with him. I don't like how the writers are treating her. I would much prefer to know more about what his cybernetics do for him and what he can do with those cybernetics. Are there people out there trying to steal his tech? Still seems like the writers haven't really explored what it means to be human which you think they'd jump on. I want to know more about the blind guy, his story seems more interesting than Cyborg.
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