<span class="SFPTagline">
From SCIFIPEDIA
</span>
Cyborg Superman is a super villain who battles both Superman and Green Lantern. He is most famous for causing the destruction of Star City, and is now a member of the Sinestro Corps. He is owned by DC Comics. He is hard to kill, because he can preserve his mind electronically and recreate himself with his technology manipulation powers. Cyborg Superman also seems to have Kryptonian powers, though not to the extent of a complete Kryptonian. Currently, he is a member of the Sinestro Corps (a group of villains assembled by the Green Lantern's arch nemesis Sinestro) and the possessor of a yellow power ring from Qward.
Character Origin
In the famous Reign of the Supermen (1993) storyline, after Superman is killed by Doomsday, several figures appear in Metropolis claiming to be the new Superman. One was the Modern Age Superboy, another John Henry Irons who would come to be known as Steel, and a third the Eradicator, who appears to be what Kal-El might have become if he had been raised on Krypton. The fourth was Cyborg Superman, who claimed to be what was left of Superman after his battle with Doomsday, with much of his Kryptonian anatomy replaced by technology. As the story developed over the months, it turned out that the cyborg was actually Hank Henshaw.
Hank Henshaw began as a parody of Marvel’s Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four. He and his wife Terri and two other astronauts were piloting the Lexcorps space shuttle Excalibur, when a dose of cosmic radiation causes the ship to crash. Instead of being gifted with extraordinary powers like the Fantastic Four, the cosmic radiation poisons all four members in different ways, leading Hank and the other two astronauts to die by the end of the story, though Terri is managed to be saved by Superman and Hank before his death.
In a sequel to the story, we find out that Hank’s now electronic consciousness is transferred into the LexCorps mainframe, and Hank gains the ability to bend technology to his will, shaping and manipulating it any way he’d like. With his new power, he constructs a robot body to inhabit, recreating himself. He appears before his wife in his new body. Terri unfortunately cannot accept a husband in a mechanical body, leading her to a tragic death. Hank beams his consciousness into the birthing matrix that brought Superman to Earth, and Hank leaves Earth to explore the galaxy.
Hank Henshaw can mold technology into any form, including that of his own body.
Over time, Hank becomes paranoid, and deludes himself into believing that it is Superman who caused his wife’s death by throwing something into the sun, triggering the cosmic radiation flare. Using the birthing matrix, he recreates Superman’s DNA and grafts it to a robot body, creating himself as the Cyborg Superman, with most of Superman’s powers. He first pretends to be Superman, because he plans to commit atrocities in the late Superman’s name, ruining Earth’s memory of him, the only thing left of the dear departed hero. The Cyborg Superman saves the life of the President, establishing himself as the true heir to the Superman name. With the aid of Superman’s old enemy Mongul, Hank is able to destroy Coast City (home of the Green Lantern) though is later defeated by a newly restored Superman with the help of the other new “Supermen” and the Matrix Supergirl.
Since then, the Cyborg Superman has returned and become an interesting recurring villain for both Superman and Green Lantern.
2008, SCI FI. All rights reserved.
