DC Comics General

Hank Henshaw was the "Cyborg Superman" from the Reign of the Supermen storyline (the one that also introduced Steel and Kon-El/ Superboy). Henshaw had earlier appeared in as part of a scientific space-exploration group that mirrored Marvel's Fantastic Four, but whose physical changes were not beneficial. Henshaw was the Reed Richards expy, and I believe he dissolved into energy, or something. Anyhow, he managed to reform himself with a cybernetic body and became the Cyborg Superman, and later just the villainous Cyborg. During this period, the earlier, heroic Cyborg (Vic Stone from the New Teen Titans) was not being utilized, so it wasn't an issue. Now, however, the Vic Stone Cyborg IS being used, is in the Justice League, etc. SO having a villain with exactly the same name would not seem like smart practice.

Hawk (if by "Hawk" you mean one half of Hawk and Dove) is Hank Hall. And Hawkman, even though nobody asked, is Carter Hall (or Katar Hol, or both).

edited 1st Aug '15 10:31:12 AM by Robbery

Huh, so apparently the term Brainiac came from the supervillain as far as anyone knows.

I believe that's so. According to Wiktionary, it's a blend of "brain" and "maniac," though is also influenced by "ENIAC" or possibly Univac, which were the names of early computers, and did not exist prior to the creation of that character (kind of like how Elzie Segar invented the word "goon" in Popeye). Throughout the 50's and 60's you'd frequently see computery things in fiction tagged with and "-ac" or "-iac" on the end.

edited 1st Aug '15 12:49:38 PM by Robbery

What I was trying to get at is that the names "Cyborg" and "Hank" are already taken.

IIRC, at the time Henshaw was brought in as the Cyborg, Vic Stone was going under another superhero name. I think he also had undergone a change in powers and looks.

A quick consult to Wikipedia tells me he was going under the name Cyberion, but it doesn't specify exact dates. It says around that time Damage was a member of the Titans, and Beast Boy was using the Changeling identity, so odds are it was the early nineties.

Yeah, I think I remember that. I think it was the late 90's, though. They'd redesigned him, too, so that he looked more like his Robotman incarnation from Kingdom Come (golden living metal). I rather liked that version myself, at least the look of it.

edited 2nd Aug '15 11:26:43 AM by Robbery

So this article happened.

“Comic books are taking on social issues lately and maybe they should get back to taking on superheroes and making people laugh,” he said

I'm taking it that this person has never read a comic book in their life, has no idea that comics have been tackling social issues for decades (even in the '70s when Green Lantern and Green Arrow fought for social justice and in the '40s when, hell, Superman himself fought against corrupt landlords).

> fox news

i know it's a cliche to point this out but i'm not really surprised.

edited 3rd Aug '15 9:33:33 AM by wehrmacht

Heck, Superman's very first story consisted of him basically bullying a Governor into pardoning an innocent woman.

Personally, I don't think comics shouldn't tackle social issues, but it seems that just about whenever they try, (and the keyword here is 'try',) they either fall flat on their covers or are just too ham-fisted for their own good. The early 70's was the worst case of this, ("MY WARD IS A JUNKIE!") though we still get something like 'Superman: Grounded' every now and then, (" 'Over there' has to stand for itself...") so if they're going to attempt to tackle issues, they had make better darn sure they know what they're doing, or at least get someone who's actually an expert of said issues read the script before the comic goes to print.

Also, this◊ is probably one of the absolute best (and by 'best', I mean 'worst',) cases of 'tackling social issues' that I can think of when it comes to comics. You have been warned.

edited 3rd Aug '15 12:26:38 PM by kkhohoho

Not even the whole story, but the first scene. It's the first thing Superman did in Action Comics #1.

I agree, the thing about social issues in comics is that it all depends on how well the writers incorporate them into a fantasy world where people have super powers and invasions happen on a daily basis.

If done right, they can be engaging stories which not only flesh out the world but also expand upon the characters dealing with such issues (X-Men during Claremont run and Captain America during WW 2 are good examples of presenting real world problem in a comic book light).

Done wrong and you got yourself a silly attempt at making the stories "real" with anvilicious message that can be rebuked and a story that comes off as trying too hard to be edgy (examples include the Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic and . . . X-Men done by later writers).

Speaking of Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Old Black Guy: "You have helped the orange men and the purple men? But have you done anything for the black men?" Hal: "Which ones? The residents of Karzeks 9, the Crestars or Umberions? Cause I already helped out Karzeks 9 plenty of time from invaders wanting to abuse their resorces, the Crestars are not in my sector and the Umberions are dicks who repeatedly invade Karzeks 9 and sometimes Crestars." Old Black Man: "No I meant black humans? What have you done for our people." Hal: "Besides save the planet numerous times from alien invaders you wish to enslave all of humanity including blacks? Tell me again how helping one specific subgroup of a species is more important than travelling the star ways protecting countless species from various evils in the galaxy?" Old Black Man: "I-I don't know?"

I think the point of that story was that heroes may save the world but they don't make it a better place to live in.

To be honest I'm mixed on that story's quality these days.

That is the message those stories are going for; too bad it comes off as forced and ridiculous once you consider Green Lantern's job as a galactic enforcer having assist many alien species. It makes the guy who call out Hal come off as selfish if you ask me for "white guilting" Hal for not focusing his attention on helping a group of oppressed minorities when his job is to protect all life in the universe as member of the Green Lantern Corp.

But yeah, its mostly the book's quality. Back then it is seen as ground breaking but now it is just funny to see a space hero with strong will like Green Lantern get all mopey and loses his fighting spirit over an injustice he notice in society (he face threats that could end a planet yet something like obvious racism made him weak).

I think that was supposed to be meta commentary on how racism is more real than planet invasions.

In a meta fictional level, yeah, but not in-universe, and unless your character is a Fourth Wall breaker, they're tied to in-universe logics and mechanics.

Also, racism is a constant of most alien stories, especially how the 'superior civilizations' seem to think so lowly of Earthlings in a constant basis.

edited 3rd Aug '15 12:32:19 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Exactly. If it was something like Superman, that would be one thing, (unless we're talking Pre-Crisis Superman, who wound up visiting alien worlds often enough to be in a similar situation to Hal,) or the Flash, or maybe even the freaking Batman. At least those heroes operate on Earth on a regular basis, and I do admit, it took many of them several decades for them to even semi-regularly interact with black people on-page, so if that man were talking to more Earth-based heroes, he'd have a point. Heck, if he just talked to Alan Scott, he could still get away with it, as at least Scott operates on Earth. But for someone who, especially later on in his career, has bigger fish to fry, I think dealing with the racial injustice of one subgroup of people on one little planet is a bit beneath his notice, for better or worse.

And I do understand the idea, which is, sure, you save our lives on a daily basis and that's great, but what about making those lives you saved worth living? What about making the world that those lives live in a better place to live? And there are a number of miniseries and AU stories and independent comics that try and answer that. But I think it'd be a better idea to ask that particular question when there hasn't been another alien invasion in the last day or two. Just sayin'.

edited 3rd Aug '15 12:40:09 PM by kkhohoho

Actually, that very point was made in the letters page that commented on that issue. I give Denny O'Neill points for trying, but in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories he was frequently ham-fisted. You could use a lot of his stories to from that run to help define the term "straw man."

EC's stuff was frequently great for social issues (check out "In Gratitude" by Al Feldstein and Wally Wood, and remember that it was published in a comic book in the early '50's).

I'm just gonna come out and ask this:

What are the DC comics equivalents to;

Wakanda

Latveria

S.H.I.E.L.D.

HYDRA

The Cabal

The Masters of Evil

The Skrulls

and

The Kree?

Wakanda - None? It doesn't really have any DC equivalent.

Latveria - Same, none.

S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Department of Extranormal Operations, Checkmate, or A.R.G.U.S. probably.

HYDRA - Eh, again, none.

The Cabal - None.

The Masters of Evil - The Legion of Doom, maybe?

The Skrulls - Durlans? Probably.

and

The Kree? - None.

You're trying to compare apples and oranges. Marvel and DC are only really similar in that they both have superheroes, but they have different characters and different stories. You can't really make one-to-one comparisons between lots of concepts in them.

From what little I understand of the Cabal, wasn't it a lot like the Infinite Crisis era core Society of Supervillains (Alexander posing as Lex, Talia, Calculator, Black Adam, Deathstroke and Dr. Psycho)?

It depends on which Cabal you are talking about, actually. They were always positioned as the "Dark Illuminati" (the Illuminati being the secret superhero group that made decisions that affected the everyone else), but not all of them were villains. Most of them, yes, but there was also Namor and Emma Frost — really, they were those who used darker methods in order to reach their goals (although Namor and Emma did eventually break away from the Cabal).

The second Cabal, actually, was determined to do the job that the Illuminati couldn't do, i.e. destroy alternate Earths to stop the Incursions from destroying their own. And they were quite ruthless about doing so, killing entire populations.

So, again, there really is no one-to-one comparison.

Ah, thanks.

Wakanda: gorilla city (both cities in africa with advanced tech and mostly shun outsiders)

Latveria: bialya (both monarchies run by clearly evil people yet the populace adores them)

S.H.I.E.L.D. spyrals dcs current shield ripoff but they are dime a dozen in dc

HYDRA: the hive

The Cabal: the secret society for the first cabal the crisis survivors for the second

The Masters of Evil: the injustice league

The Skrulls: durlaans

The Kree: khunds

Wakanda: gorilla city (both cities in africa with advanced tech and mostly shun outsiders)

That's racist.