Characters / Superman – Cyborg-Superman

Superman Main Character Index
Title Character
Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman
Supporting Cast
Lois Lane | Jimmy Olsen | Ambush Bug | Steel
Villains
Central Rogues Gallery (Alexander "Lex" Luthor, Bizarro, Vril Dox/Brainiac, Cyborg-Superman, Darkseid, Doomsday, Lobo, Mister Mxyzptlk, Mongul, Phantom Zone Criminals [General Zod]) | A-L | M-Z (Superboy-Prime)
Spin-Offs
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers/Supergirl, Supporting Cast, Rogues Gallery) | Power Girl | Superboy (Conner Kent/Kon-El, Jonathan "Jon" Samuel Kent, Supporting Cast, Rogues Gallery) | Legion Of Superheroes (The Founders, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Five Years Later, Postboot, Threeboot, Retroboot, Other Heroes, The Fatal Five, The Legion of Supervillains, Other Villains, Supporting Cast)

Green Lantern Main Character Index
Green Lantern Corps (Earth Lanterns, Hal Jordan) | The Sinestro Corps (Thaal Sinestro) | The Red Lantern Corps (Atrocitus) | The Blue Lantern Corps | The Star Sapphire Corps | The Orange Lantern Corps | The Indigo Tribe | The Black, White, Ultraviolet and Gold Lantern Corps | Other Villains (Cyborg-Superman, General Zod, Mongul, Superboy-Prime) | Supporting Characters | Golden Age

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Cyborg-Superman

Alter ego: Henry "Hank" Henshaw

Species: Technomorph, formerly Human

First Appearance (as Hank Henshaw): Adventures of Superman #465 (May 1990)

First Appearance (as Cyborg-Superman): The Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993)

AKA: Henry "Hank" Henshaw

Hal Jordan: "He needed someone to hate for what happened to him. He chose Superman."

Hank Henshaw and three other astronauts were accidentally exposed to cosmic radiation and given superpowers. Hank was the only one stable enough to survive, as an energy being capable of inhabiting machinery. He initially lacked control over his energy form, accidentally wreaking havoc on all machines around his host; he decided to leave Earth by hijacking a small portion of Superman's Kryptonian birthing matrix/starship. Combining the Kryptonian technology with traces of Superman's DNA from the rocket, he made a Cyborg-Superman body. Over time in space, he went mad and blamed Superman for "exiling" him, developing the delusion that Superman had trapped Henshaw in his own birthing matrix and sent it into space believing the machinery too complex for Henshaw to manipulate. He returned to Earth and posed as Superman during his death long enough to prepare for an invasion. His destruction of Coast City was the last straw that drove Hal Jordan mad, making him effectively a nemesis for both heroes. He has since become Grandmaster of the Manhunters, and served in the Sinestro Corps, making life miserable for Superman and Green Lantern alike.

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Tropes relating to Hank Henshaw

• '90s Anti-Hero: Cyborg-Superman takes on the traditional build, partial clothing, and powers of who is arguably the most inspirational hero in the DC Universe, with half of his body being mechanized and his face partially being a mechanical skull akin to that of the T-800. He plays the role of hero whilst competing against four other people who wish to inherit the legacy of Superman... until it's revealed that his actual motives are to take revenge on Superman and with utterly senseless reasoning at that.
• Alliterative Name: In proud comic book tradition.
• Arc Villain: Was the Big Bad of Reign of the Supermen, and a major player in several other story arcs.
• Arch-Enemy: In his point of view, Hank sees Superman as this, blaming the Man of Steel for killing his wife and friends, turning him into a mechanical monstrosity, and being left with nothing while Superman has everything he doesn't. While Superman does see Hank as a dangerous foe on his part, he's more secondary to him compared to Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and General Zod. That said, one can make an argument that he fits this better for Hal Jordan, being his greatest enemy specifically for Earth as Hank wound up being a major architect in the destruction of Coast City and driving Hal into becoming insane himself, becoming Parallax, and enacting his own plan in destroying and recreating the multiverse.
• Arm Cannon: Frequently transforms his hands into beam weapons.
• Artificial Limbs: In his original appearance as Cyborg-Superman, one of Henshaw's legs and one of his arms were mechanical. In later appearances, three or even all four of his limbs may be artificial.
• Ascended Extra: Henshaw's gone from being a one-off villain with limited powers and scope to the Big Bad of Reign of the Supermen, and a major player in the DCU, holding titles including Grandmaster of the Manhunters, Alpha-Prime of the Alpha Lanterns, and Herald of the Anti-Monitor.
• Ax-Crazy: Hank is completely insane. It certainly didn't help that his companions died in a horrific cosmic radiation whereas he survived, only to be physically crippled so badly that it took a massive toll on his mind. This, and the fact that he was a supporter of Superman didn't exactly help matters either.
• Back from the Dead: Claimed to be Superman, back from the dead; has since died and come back many, many times.
• Badass Cape: As part of his faux-Superman outfit. He continues to wear one even after joining the Sinestro Corps and changing the rest of his costume.
• Beware the Superman: Hank is one of the earliest examples of this trope and still remains an influential example. He possesses much of Superman's main powers as well as sporting his iconic outfit. Yet instead of being an optimistic, benevolent paragon towards Earth, he is a delusional madman who wants to usurp the Man of Steel's reputation as well as kill Superman under a misguided thought of revenge. On a further parallel, Hank also inspires great fear, which is how he was able to be recognized by the Sinestro Corps and be made a member just in time for their war against the Green Lantern Corps.
• Big Bad: Hank ends up being the ultimate antagonist of the Reign of the Supermen storyline, trying to impersonate the mantle of the Man of Steel after the real Superman died in battle against Doomsday. That said, his main motivation, despite his good public reception has nothing to do with heroism and upholding what Superman stood for so much as he wanted revenge against his former idol for indirectly causing said cosmic radiation when he threw the Eradicator into the sun (although Henshaw's wife has confirmed that the timing of the accident means that the flare had to occur before Superman disposed of the Eradicator). Even when Superman felt sorry for what happened to him, Hank's mind has gone so far off the deep end that the idea of accepting said forgiveness is totally blank.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: In Reign of the Supermen he goes to work alongside Mongul in terrorizing the Earth in the former's bid to conquer and assert his personal reign over it, in addition to also enacting revenge upon Superman. That said, Hank remains the primary antagonist as well as the storyline's Final Boss.
  • In his return during DC Rebirth he assembles the Superman Revenge Squad and plays this role with General Zod. Nominally he's the team's founder and rest of the group responds to his orders, but he knows Zod wouldn't stand being given orders and is a better strategist anyway, so he lets him call the shots.
• Big Bad Ensemble: He plays the role of the main antagonist in the second half of Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey.
• Body Surf: Henshaw's ability to project his consciousness into any mechanical device or clone body is one of the reasons for his apparent inability to die. He can even take over the bodies of other sentient machines and cyborgs, as he did to the Alpha Lanterns.
• Broken Pedestal: Prior to his disfigurement, Hank thought very highly of Superman, much like nearly anyone else did. Then he was involved in an accident that killed his friends and drove him insane, forcing him to cyberize his body, whereupon he lost faith in Superman and declared him as being responsible for all his misfortunes. Despite his tragic circumstances, Hank's loss of faith is not justified as it's a by-product of his growing madness and he only ends up causing more destruction, giving Superman an incentive to consider killing him as he's too much of a threat.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Has featured the "S" symbol on his chest and the back of his cape.
• Brown Note: in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey, he plugs himself into Apokolips' communications technology and sends out a sonic frequency so painfully loud that it jellifies the minds of the Parademon troops and kills them instantly.
• Chekhov's Gun: Cyborg-Superman places a sensor on Doomsday's body to alert him if the beast ever came back to life. He also placed a portion of his digital existence in it, so when his body is destroyed at the end of Reign of the Supermen, the Cyborg gets to hitch a ride on Doomsday and build himself a new body, which he does in the Superman/Doomsday mini-series Hunter/Prey.
• Chest Insignia: Originally had a version of Superman's "S" shield. He later replaced it with the Sinestro Corps symbol, but returned to displaying an "S" in "Reign of Doomsday".
• Co-Dragons:
  • Hank serves as a commanding member for the Sinestro Corps during their battle against the Green Lanterns. He also happens to share his position with Superboy-Prime and The Anti-Monitor.
  • In Superman: Doomed, Hank is brainwashed alongside Lois Lane to work under Brainiac as he goes on to experiment with Doomsday.
• Corrupted Character Copy: In his first appearance, he and his crew were stand-ins for the Fantastic Four, with Henshaw as Mister Fantastic. He brings up the "ironic" similarities in an Intercompany Crossover, which made him have a much harder time than them and turn to evil instead.
  Hank: While residing in your computers I learned we share much in common. You four were bombarded by unique cosmic rays during a brave mission into space. My wife, I, and two of our friends experienced a similar fate while on the space shuttle Excalibur. The radiation that invaded our craft was both unexpected and unexplained. You four were blessed with tremendous powers and abilities. As were we, at first. Ultimately, though, my team lost their lives to the effects of the radiation. I survived as a nomadic intelligence, always forging new bodies of circuits and alloys. You swore to use your new for the good of mankind. Me, I resented my fate and the loss of my human body. I didn't fight for humanity. I declared war on it and its greatest champion.
• Create Your Own Villain: Hank's insanity and turn to villainy as the infamous Cyborg-Superman all stems from the fact that Superman had a fight against The Eradicator and threw him into the sun, which caused a solar flare to be released, which just so happened to make contact with Hank and his crew while on their space trip in the NASA Space Shuttle Excalibur. Although Henshaw's wife confirmed that the timing of events mean that Superman couldn't have caused the original solar flare, Superman does admit responsibility and regret in his own role in Henshaw's subsequent fate, though Hank's insanity has destroyed any sort of chance in redemption.
• Cult: Facilitated the creation of a cult that venerated him as the reborn Superman. This cult later clashed with one that venerated the Eradicator.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: He looks like a straight example, but it's a bit more complicated. Originally part of a pastiche of the Fantastic Four Gone Horribly Wrong, he was turned into an energy being/ghost that could possess machinery after his body decayed away. It wasn't until he was rejected by his wife and wandered around space for a while that he became a hardcore villain (and even more hardcore Death Seeker). So, this is more a case of his soul-eating cybernetics. He eventually found himself in a clique with the Anti-Monitor and Superboy-Prime, both of whom had every intention of destroying everything that existed, including him. It didn't stick, much to his regret.
• Cyborg: Has constructed a series of bodies for himself, all of which combine Superman's DNA with alien metals, giving him the appearance of being a half-mechanical Superman.
• Darker and Edgier: He makes his grand entrance sometime after Superman died and takes to acting as a hero so that he can win the public's attention. He's also more merciless than the Man of Steel as well as having an appearance that looks similar to the Terminator. Interestingly, all of the replacements of Superman are a constructive breakdown of a sort-of character that is meant to be a more cynical type of an earlier archetype, but Cyborg-Superman ultimately proves to be the biggest example out of the three.
• Dead Person Impersonation: What he thought he was doing to Superman following the events of The Death of Superman.
• Death Seeker: Allied himself with Sinestro and the Anti-Monitor in the hopes he will die in battle, and the latter promised to kill him if he survived (for which Henshaw thanked him). Toyed with nonetheless, however, in that Henshaw is determined to die on his terms and not anybody else's. Hence his refusal to let Doomsday best him during Reign of Doomsday.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Hank Henshaw is a deconstructive case study of characters who show up to be cool, more cynical replacements/contrasts of older characters and heroic figures. He shows up after Superman dies and makes efforts into being a hero with unscrupulous and brutal ways, but in no way does this make Hank any better than his predecessor. In fact, his three competitors, Superboy, the Eradicator, and Steel, all fit the deconstructive mold, but Hank is the best example as he tends to be the most adamant in his declaration of being Superman's successor, except that his actions only end up bringing in more distrust towards others who knew of Superman personally and more cynicism in the long term. Finally, and unsurprisingly, he's actually a villain.
• Demonic Possession: Of Alpha Lantern Boodika.
• Dragon with an Agenda: In the Sinesteo Corps War, most members are really only in it to assert their dominance over the Green Lanterns as well as using their power of fear to take over the multiverse. Three of Sinesteo's lieutenants, namely Hank Henshaw, Superboy-Prime, and The Anti-Monitor have their own goals. Hank has no interest in any greater or self-indulging desires. He just wants to die after the war is over. The Anti-Monitor, in an unexpected moment of respect promises Hank that he'll kill him once the battle is done.
• The Dreaded: So much so that Sinestro himself recruited him into the Sinestro Corps.
• Driven by Envy: Not to the same degree as Luthor, but Henshaw is obsessed with proving himself to be better than Superman, who he believes receives the respect that should rightfully be his.
• Driven to Madness: It's safe to say that Hank really didn't take it very well when he and his astronaut friends made contact with cosmic radiation and the other three died in agony whereas Hank lived on, only for his pain to also inflict damage to his psyche and driving him mentally over the edge. Mongul himself notes just how insane Henshaw became as he's aware that Superman would never have committed the actions that Hank accuses them for.
• Electronic Eyes: Always has one mechanical eye and one real one. Its version of his Eye Beams is considerably more enhanced than that of his Kryptonian eye, to the point where it's frequently the only one he bothers to fire.
• Enemy Mine: Forced into one with first the JLA and then Superman during Reign of Doomsday.
• Energy Beings: Henshaw's real form is that of a Pure Energy consciousness that can project itself into new bodies.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Through his villainy, while not really justified, one of Hank's motivations stems from the fact that he lost his friends and his wife due to a cosmic radiation accident that he blames Superman for (although Henshaw's own wife has confirmed that Superman's fight with the Eradicator couldn't have caused their accident).
• Evil Costume Switch: He was always evil, but once he was done pretending to be Superman, the Cyborg exchanged its version of his costume for a red-and-black copy that has alternately featured the Sinestro Corps symbol and a silver (or red) Superman shield on the chest.
• Evil Counterpart: It's not subtle when you're a villain and your title is Cyborg-Superman. Hank has all the powers you'd expect from the Man of Tomorrow, with all the admirable qualities instead being replaced with grand delusions and an ever-raging insanity that's incomprehensible at best. While certainly a villain, it's just as accurate, if not, moreso, to consider Hank Henshaw an Insane Counterpart to Clark Kent, and for bonus points, his characteristics are not too dissimilar to how Lex Luthor would view Superman as.
• Evil Twin: Partially. His human parts are cloned from Superman's, though his mechanical ones help to screw up the image.
• Evil Versus Evil: During his battle with Cyborg-Doomsday in Reign of Doomsday.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: He puts up a facade of being a hero and a successor to Superman, but is actually a villain who seeks to enact revenge against Superman for being responsible for the death of his crew as well as his current physical and mental state.
• The Fantastic Faux: Hank's character background and backstory are very reminiscent of the Fantastic Four and more specifically, he takes some inspiration from Reed Richards, being a leading astronaut and scientist who made contact with a form of cosmic radiation that significantly altered the passerby's physiology and giving them superhuman abilities. Unfortunately, things only go downhill from there.
• Flying Brick: Can and does mimic all of Superman's powers, including Flight, Nigh-Invulnerability, Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Senses, Eye Beams, and Freezing Breath. That's in addition to his technopathic and psychic abilities.
• Flying Firepower: He flies and has Superman's Eye Beams and Breath Weapon and an arsenal of Kryptonian, Apokoliptian, and Oan weaponry.
• Freudian Excuse: Henshaw and his crewmen were exposed to radiation energy that mutated their bodies and warped their minds. Two of his friends committed suicide, and while his wife was apparently cured, she proceeded to kill herself after Henshaw appeared to her in robotic form. And then, if that wasn't bad enough, he was forced from Earth after a conflict with Superman, leaving him isolated and free to indulge in his paranoia. It doesn't justify his grudge against Superman, but it certainly explains his madness.
• From a Single Cell: Henshaw's consciousness will always survive and transfer so long as a single piece of him survives his "death".
• From Nobody to Nightmare: A variant. While Hank Henshaw, astronaut, certainly wasn't a nobody before gaining his powers, Hank Henshaw, supervillain, was a minor antagonist with no real ability to fight against Superman. Then he beamed himself into a Kryptonian birthing matrix and gained the power to create bodies based on Kryptonian technology, and Superman's genetics, turning himself into one of the greatest menaces in the DC Universe.
• Genius Bruiser: Henshaw was already a scientist and astronaut when he was exposed to the radiation that granted him his powers. He became a technological genius whose abilities allowed him to face the likes of Superman in combat, and return from the dead.
• Glass Cannon: Henshaw's mechanical parts are far more easily damaged than his organic ones. That said, they also hit far harder.
  • Sadly for Superman, this can vary, with some stories depicting his mechanical parts as even tougher, to the point where superman calls them invulnerable.
• Godzilla Threshold: One of the few villains Superman is willing to kill, which he does at the end of Reign of the Supermen. Henshaw gets revived, though. In Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey Hank's threat level proves to be so much that Superman is forced into an alliance with Darkseid, of all people, just to put in the effort to stop Hank from causing further destruction when he has plans for Apokiliptian technology.
• Hand Blast/Power Palms: When he isn't just converting his hand into a full-on Arm Cannon.
• Happily Married: Hank had a good relationship with his wife, Terri, and were eager to work alongside together as astronauts. Of course, when Terri committed suicide right due to her own loss of sanity upon seeing Hank as a cyborg, his own failing mental stability worsened beyond any help.
• Healing Factor: One of the most extreme ones in comic books. Thanks to the combination of his enhanced Kryptonian physique, his mechanical self-repair function, his incorporated cloning technology, and his true nature as an Energy Being, Cyborg-Superman will recover from any injury, no matter how extreme. Over the course of his battle in the Watchtower with Doomsday he repeatedly rebuilt himself from scratch, with a different ratio of flesh-to-metal each time.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The series did this with its final storyline Reign of the Supermen, the story starts out normally with the first two issues of each title attempting to endear us to the four Supermen. Then come the halfway point of the third month when the Cyborg Superman decides to ventilate the Eradicator and allow Coast City to be destroyed by Mongul. Then, it turns out the Cyborg Superman was actually a very minor character who was an expy of Reed Richards!
• Hoist by His Own Petard: How the Cyborg Superman is defeated in Reign of the Supermen: in a last-ditch effort to kill Superman again, the Cyborg grabs a fuel line and attempts to douse Superman in Kryptonite. The Eradicator, living up to his programming to protect Kryptonian life, throws himself in front of the shot and his energies re-power Superman, allowing him to finish off the Cyborg Superman.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: This is what pings Lois into realizing the Cyborg Superman isn't the real Superman - he casually mentions to Superboy that he wished he had better control of his powers when he was his age. Lois remembers that Superman didn't get his powers until he was an adult.
• Insane Troll Logic: Henshaw's main vendetta against Superman is the belief that Superman is responsible for the events that led to him being trapped in the Kryptonian birthing matrix that allowed him to rebuild his shattered body, but ultimately Superman did nothing more than fail to save Henshaw after a terrible accident.
• Irrational Hatred: Henshaw's hatred of Superman is based on nothing but delusion. He blames the Man of Steel for causing his accident, for driving his friends to suicide, and for exiling Henshaw from Earth. None of these things were Superman's fault, but Henshaw is long past caring, and his hatred of Superman has reached frankly rabid levels.
• It's All About Me: As far as Hank is concerned, everything can go to hell so long as he gets to fulfill his desire for revenge against Superman, which is outright delusional, to begin with. That said, Hank really couldn't care less and is unwilling to either reason with or be reasoned by anyone. The only thing that matters is his own desires.
  • He also has a superiority complex where he wants to prove himself better than Superman. In an Enemy Mine situation with the Superman family when fighting against Doomsday, he was exhilirated at the prospect of defeating "The Ultimate", thinking that by doing so, he's proven himself superior to the Man of Tomorrow. But when he loses and has to be saved by Supergirl, Hank attacks her out of dismay and the denial of seeing himself as being inferior to her.
• It's Personal: In a variation, Henshaw's loathing of Superman is one of the few things he has left, while Superman sees Henshaw as just another enemy. Similarly, Hal Jordan hates the Cyborg-Superman with a passion, while Henshaw is far more interested in pursuing his grudge against the Man of Steel, seeing Green Lantern as just another hero out to stop him.
• Joker Immunity: No matter how many times Henshaw is killed, he always comes back, much to his own chagrin.
• Killed Off for Real: Unusually, Hank hasn't been permanently killed off and replaced. However, this trope happens to be his biggest desire ever since his days as Cyborg-Superman. Hank simply wants to be killed off and never come back alive again so that he could be at peace with himself and hopefully reunite with his friends. Unfortunately, this being comic books, it never comes to pass, much to his ever-increading frustration and sorrow.
• Kryptonite Factor: Donwplayed. Kryptonite will shut down Henshaw's organic parts, but has no effect on the Kryptonian (and later Apokoliptian) alloys that compose most of his body. Magic—even magic that was disabling Supergirl—has no effect on him whatsoever, as demonstrated when he hijacked the Watchtower's magitek defenses and threw them at Doomsday.
• Lightning Bruiser: As a Kryptonian/machine hybrid this is to be expected.
• Look Behind You: A sickening version of this trope. The Cyborg-Superman discovers a family that survived the Coast City shockwave that ravaged nearby areas. As they're talking, the Cyborg says that the one who did this was right behind them. As they turn and look, he changes his arm to its arm cannon form and obliterates them.
• The Lost Lenore: A rare example of an outright villain qualifying for this; while Hank is mainly motivated by the loss of his crew, the biggest example from them happens to be his wife, Terri. It also doesn't help in that Terri committed suicide right in front of him, which played a role in Hank's declining sanity and vowing revenge against Superman.
• Man of Kryptonite: Can project both Kryptonite radiation and red solar rays from his incorporated Kryptonian weapons.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Henshaw suffers from delusions, depression, suicidal impulses, a completely irrational hatred of Superman, and is prone to mental breakdowns and fits of rage.
• Never My Fault: Hank manifests as a makeshift robot to his wife Terri, but the trauma of seeing a machine claim to be her husband after he rotted away drives her mad. He flees Earth in despair and when he returned he naturally blamed Superman for killing his wife and exiling him to space, even though Terri may have recovered if he wasn't so impulsive. As Hal Jordan says, Henshaw hates Superman because he has nobody else to blame for his misery.
• "Not So Different" Remark: He did wound up meeting Reed Richards in a Superman/Fantastic Four crossover event and he was quick to note just how similar they were in their background and profession, up until the point where both of them contracted a sort of radiation from space that would forever change their lives.
• Nuke 'em: Tried to nuke Metropolis as part of his plan to rebuild it as a new Engine City.
• One-Man Army: If you want to stop Henshaw and you aren't Superman or Doomsday you'd better have an army. A big one.
• Primary-Color Champion: When impersonating Superman, Hank wore the Man of Steel's iconic uniform; mostly blue with red accents and a red and yellow symbol with a large "S" emblazoned onto it. He ditches this in favor of more red and black after Reign of the Supermen
• Psychic Powers: Of an ill-defined and evolving variety.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His Manhunter/Sinestro Corps uniform. He later modified this outfit to create his final "evil Superman◊" uniform, with a red shirt, black pants, red trunks, and a black cape.
• Red Baron: Styled himself "The Man of Tomorrow" when posing as Superman reborn.
• The Resenter: Towards anybody who has a "normal" life. He's particularly spiteful towards Superman, who has everything Henshaw has lost.
• Revenge Before Reason: Wants revenge on Superman for things that never happened in the first place.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Became more associated with Green Lantern following his attack on Coast City. He never let go of his hatred of Superman, though, and his last Pre-New 52 appearance, however, was in the Superman Family Crossover, Reign of Doomsday.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey, he sealed his life force away in a small mechanism that he attached to the rock he had bound Doomsday's body to and thrust into the depths of space, later inhabiting and restructuring a fallen Apokoliptian cyborg body into his new body. Before the story's end, Darkseid seals Cyborg Superman's life essence again into a small container, keeping him on hand should he ever need him.
  • Finished the Post-Crisis universe trapped in his central node, under the care of S.T.A.R. Labs.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: His mechanical parts can shift into almost any weapon Henshaw imagines.
• Single Tear: He is killed during the Sinestro Corps War, which was an outcome he desired ever since his cyberization. Unfortunately, the Manhunters took notice of his remains and ended up regenerating him. His deepest desires taken away from him, Hank can do nothing but weep a single tear out of sadness and disappointment over not yet being able to die permanently for once.
• Skull for a Head: Three-quarters of his face is taken up by a grinning metal skull.
• Slasher Smile: Well, his entire mouth is a robotic endoskeleton, so the only mouth flection he is capable of expressing is a wide smile. Combined with his psychotic nature, it makes his looks even more terrifying than it already is.
• The Starscream: Once served a tribunal that hoped to bring Superman to trial, in this role. The tribunal wanted to try Superman for the crimes of Krypton; Henshaw was just looking to seize the tribunal's planet for his own uses.
• Suicide by Cop: Because his biggest wish is to be killed and stay dead, Hank often involves himself with battles against others who are just as strong as he is, hoping that they can finally put an end to his life. And on a number of occasions, he does die, only to be revived either way, which furthers his own grief.
• Superpower Lottery: Even more so than Superman. Given that he has a cybernetic version of Superman's body, he possesses all of his powers as well as his original technopathic powers and the ability to transplant his consciousness into mechanical devices, and create new bodies. More recently, he was given multiple Yellow power rings as a member of the Sinestro Corps. Then he gains the Phantom Ring.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A man who's body was destroyed in a freak accident with his mind transferring to a superhumanly powerful cyborg form with Technopathic abilities. He goes insane from his transformation and vows to kill Superman. His new body has a ghastly metal skull face and is partially composed of Kryptonian elements that give him the edge over the Man of Steel. Basically he's a grander scale Metallo. The key difference is Henshaw is quite intelligent as well as far more violently deranged, something that pushes him above Corben's threat level.
• Swiss-Army Superpower: Yellow Lantern Ring, actually. Having joined the Sinestro Corps War, and become Grandmaster of the Manhunters, the Cyborg-Superman gained a fistful of Yellow Power Rings taken from deceased Sinestro Corpsmen.
• Technopath: Can control most technology and transplant his consciousness into mechanical devices. This has allowed him to create new weapons at will, gain control of the Manhunters, and at one point, operate one billion robots at a time.
• Terminator Impersonator: Sports much of the aesthetic of a Terminator, what with half its body being a Skelebot complete with Glowing Mechanical Eyes. You could basically call him a "Terminator in a Superman costume", but he is a human whose intelligence was merged with machinery and then created an artificial body to impersonate Superman. His similarity to a Terminator was played up in Superman Versus The Terminator, where he allies himself with a Terminator so that the two can destroy their mutual enemies (Superman and John Connor) and pave the way for machinekind to rule. Further, in order to combat the increased threat that Kryptonians pose, Skynet upgrades its Terminators with abilities like Heat-Vision and Jet Packs.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from a minor villain with technopathic powers to a serious menace whose body incorporated Kryptonian genetics and machinery. He upgrades his act again when he added Apokoliptian and Oan technology to his cyborg body, and again when he gained several Sinestro Corps power rings.
• Tragic Villain: Be it insane or too hopeless to be considered for redemption, it is clear that Hank Henshaw didn't choose to be evil and is really only the way he is now because he was put into a situation in which he had no control over and had to see three of his friends die whilst Hank himself lost his sanity in the process. Even amidst his insanity, Hank confides that he doesn't appreciate his predicament and simply wishes that he could just die off. In fact, one of the reasons he fights against heroes is that he hopes that someone kill him off and he even requests The Anti-Monitor to kill him once they serve their purpose to Sinestro during the Sinestro Corps War.
• Two-Faced: Half-machine, half-Superman to be precise.
• Ungrateful Bastard: He was getting brutally razed by Doomsday after having a moment of overconfidence and he has to be saved by Supergirl from getting killed. Hank's response? He turns around to attack her instead because he feels insulted that he had to be saved and in his mind, it means that he is weaker than Supergirl, something that he cannot acknowledge, considering that he wants to prove himself better than Superman.
• Unwanted Revival: The Manhunters do this to him in the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, much to his anger and disappointment.
• Villainous Breakdown: About once per arc.
• Villain Override: After merging with the Central Power Battery he's capable of overriding control of any rings that recharged afterward.
• Villain Team-Up: Has worked with Mongul I and the Sinestro Corps. During DC Rebirth he gathered a new Superman Revenge Squad with Eradicator, Mongul II, Metallo, Blanque and General Zod Eradicator and Zod betrayed him to free Zod's lover and son out of Phantom Zone.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: A mild variant. While his bodies inevitably look like a cross between Superman and the Terminator, how much of him is mechanical vs how much of him is flesh, as well as the composition and form of the alloys involved, is subject to change.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: He really does not, and a lot of his motivation is trying to goad people into destroying him, following his realization that revenge was hollow and would gain him little.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Is sometimes characterized as such, particularly during the Sinestro Corps War, where all he wants to do is die.

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Cyborg-Superman II

Alter ego: Zor-El

Species: Technomorph/Kryptonian

First Appearance: Supergirl Vol 6 #5 (March, 2012)

"I care a great deal about this city's fate. What I care about — is making sure everything in this entire area is obliterated!"

AKA: Zor-El

After H'el on Earth and destroying the Sanctuary, Supergirl has had enough of Earth and goes off-planet to find a new home. Luckily for her, she finds a much more generous planet named I'noxia that hails her as a hero when she saves them from danger. Their technology can even make robotic replicas of people from her memories; making the place a paradise... or so it seems. It is there she meets Cyborg Superman: a mysterious cybernetic being that looks very much like her cousin. He tells her that he's behind all this and can give her everything she desires on the planet. There's just one little fee: he wants her flesh to replace his cybernetic parts.

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Tropes relating to Zor-El

• Abusive Parents: A twisted example as the parent is genuinely affectionate and prioritizes their child above all else. However, Zor-El's warped mind meant that only he knew what was best for Kara and his actions only end up harming her moreso then benefitting either of them. And this was before Zor-El lost his mind and became Cyborg-Superman.
• Adaptational Badass: Zor-El in both the Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis universes was simply an ordinary Kryptonian with an important position in Kryptonian society and usually ends up dying without really contributing to anything major. In the Post-Flashpoint universe, not only does he survive, but he ends up becoming Cyborg-Superman and a genuinely powerful character with an important influence towards his daughter, Kara, during her years as Supergirl.
• Adaptational Villainy: While Zor-El manages to survive the destruction of Krypton, the subsequent decay of Argo City results in him becoming more irate and panicky in his efforts to save the city. It all goes downhill from there and, through Brainiac's influence, becomes a villain by being converted into a second Cyborg-Superman.
• Appendage Assimilation: He wants to take Supergirl's biomatter and use it to rebuild his body. He succeeds but is so distraught at his true identity that he gives her back her body so she can escape Brainiac.
• Appropriated Appellation: When he explains that he isn't Superman, Kara calls him a Cyborg Superman and he keeps the name.
• Archnemesis Dad: He's Kara's father, Zor-El, now working with Brainiac and having been converted into a murderous cyborg.
• Came Back Wrong: On both ends; Zor-El himself was dying by the time Brainiac found him and while he was able to recover, he was unwillingly converted into a technomorph by the Coluan in his attempt to create the "Ultimate Kryptonian. Zor-El himself also dabbles into this habit by creating cybernetic versions of Argo City's population in his warped attempt to bring them back. Needless to say, his daughter is not pleased.
  Supergirl: This isn't the future. Look at them. Look at their eyes. You made them monsters! [...] These things aren't alive. You perverted our people's bodies. It isn't right. They move but they don't talk and they aren't really alive.
• Composite Character: This version serves as one to both Zor-El and Hank Henshaw under the virtue that he is Supergirl's father and a villainous, robotic version of Superman. Eventually, the novelty runs out in-universe when Jor-El offs him which coincides with the reintroduction of Hank Henshaw into the Post-Flashpoint universe.
• The Dragon: He's working for Brainiac, but has plans of his own. When he defies Brainiac, their fight allows Supergirl to escape.
• Dying to Be Replaced: He's killed by Mr. Oz, conveniently around the time DC brought back the original Cyborg Superman, Hank Henshaw.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his faults and his villainous actions, he did love his family. In fact, when he finally regained an organic body and restored his past memories pre-cyberization, he was in complete shock to discover that he killed his daughter to accomplish that deed. He promptly restored her back to life, even if it meant returning to a cybernetic body and lost memories.
• Foreshadowing: Kara notes that he seems familiar when she looks him in the eyes.
• I Did What I Had to Do: In Supergirl Rebirth #3 Cyborg Superman defends his actions stating that he did what he needed to do to guarantee Kara's happiness.
  Cyborg Superman: I heard you, Kara. You longed to return to Argo City. I did only what needed to be done to give you that.
• Identity Amnesia: He doesn't remember anything about himself. Not even his name. This is because Brainiac erased his memories while rebuilding him to make him a loyal servant. He remembers everything after he becomes whole again, but is so distraught at his true identity that he has a change of heart and restores Supergirl's body; reverting him back into Cyborg Superman and removing his memories once more.
• Killed Off for Real: Zor-El is eventually offed by a returning Jor-El who, in his perspective delivers his brother a Mercy Kill by activating a failsafe in his containment tank that drowns him. He doesn't come back from this, which is further affirmed by the resurfacing of Hank Henshaw himself.
• Knight Templar Parent: He wants what he thinks is best for his daughter. Unfortunately, the extremes that he's willing to take are incredibly disproportionate and they only end up further antagonizing Kara as well as making things worse for Zor-El. The fact that he's working with Brainiac, of all people, isn't helping matters either.
• Last-Second Chance: Despite his actions, Supergirl is still open to giving Cyborg-Superman a chance to become a better person and not just because he is her father. However, it's Deconstructed when a supervillain starts to leak this information and portray it as Kara defending a murderer and sullying her public reputation, despite Supergirl's pleas that her father was a broken man and only wants to help him out.
• Love Makes You Evil: In Supergirl Rebirth Cyborg Superman does horrible, horrible things such as turning corpses into reanimated, soulless zombie cyborgs and making human sacrifices. And everything - everything- he does is because he loves his daughter and wants her to be happy. He says "I'm doing this for you!" over and again, and he means it.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After he dissolves Supergirl and rebuilds his body with her biomatter, he regains his memories and realizes he's Kara's father, Zor-El; shaking him to the core. To save Supergirl from Brainiac and keep her from knowing the truth, he restores her body and reverts back into Cyborg Superman so she can escape while he holds him off.
• Naked on Revival: After his body is restored, the cybernetic parts fall off, leaving him naked. He remains naked for the duration before becoming a cyborg again.
• Offing the Offspring: He kills Supergirl, his own daughter, by absorbing her flesh in an effort to reconstruct his. While it does restore his memories as his past self before his cyberization, he is completely aghast by what he had done and promptly brings his daughter back to life, even if it meant going back to being a cyborg.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His left eye is a red cybernetic.
• Red Right Hand: Cyborg Superman's right arm is lanky and skeletal; making him appear more inhuman than he already is.
• Sanity Slippage: He was adamant in wanting to save Argo City from collapsing into desolation during Krypton's destruction. However, he was unable to find proper solutions, in addition to quickly running out of time to a point where he had no choice but to approach Brainiac and make a deal to save Argo City, which is what led him to become the second Cyborg-Superman.
• Take My Hand!: A sinister example: Cyborg Superman declares that he can take Supergirl to Argo City, and she only needs to take his hand.
• Ultimate Lifeform: An unwilling example; while Zor-El was open to working with Brainiac in an effort to save himself and potentially restore Argo City and its inhabitants, Brainiac had the ulterior motive of forcibly subjecting Zor-El's body and mechanizing him in an effort to create the "Ultimate Kryptonian". He succeeded as demonstrated by Zor-El's amazing powers and capabilities that are on par with Superman's, but the conversion has left Zor-El insane and despondent.
• Unwilling Roboticization: He was forcibly converted into a cyborg by Brainiac in his effort to create a Kryptonian that can justify itself in being the strongest in existence. It went well for Brainiac, but for Zor-El, all it wound up for him is further suffering and sadness over what his body had become and much of his enmity against Supergirl revolves around trying to undo his mechanical physiology and revert back to a wholly organic body.
• We Can Rebuild Him: He was on the verge of death when Brainiac found him and rebuilt him with cybernetics. He wasn't missing any body parts, but Brainiac wanted to make him the ultimate Kryptonian. Brainiac also altered Zor-El's DNA to make him look more like his "superior" brother, Jor-El. Cyborg Superman grows to hate his appearance and yearns to be fully biological again.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The impetus of his villainy and his opposition towards his daughter was driven out of a desperate desire to save Argo City and it remained one of his primary motivations up until he died at the hands of Jor-El.

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