What's The Best Cyborg Origin?

(By Ben Wan)

Cyborg/Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) is the heart of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. But what comics did they draw from for this version of the character? Join us as we dive into all the different versions of Cyborg’s origin, from his introduction in the Teen Titans from Marv Wolfman & George Perez to his live action debut in Smallville to the Snyder version! CHAPTERS 0:00 Disclaimer- due to technical difficulties, Ben’s audio will not be the same quality as usual until the end. (Yes, it’s ironic that we had tech issues on the most technology-heavy superhero of the Justice League!) 0:12 Greenlit Podcast Network Intro 0:16 Matt Herring GoFund Me Bumper Please donate what you can to our friend and fan of the podcast Matt Herring, who is battling Stage 4 colon cancer. Click here for Matt Herring's GoFundMe 1:57 Sketch: “The Three Keatons” with Ben as Batman, Zachary Brown as Beetlejuice, and Andrew as the Vulture This is a sequel to our sketch from last year where the Keaton Batman met Beetlejuice and went off crime fighting in our coverage on Batman: No Man’s Land. Check out the sketch and that episode here:

7:16 Opening 9:14 What’s Your History with Cyborg? Did Zack Snyder's Justice League Change Your Opinion of Cyborg? 16:35 Cyborg’s Introduction & Origin from Marv Wolfman & George Perez The comics mentioned that explored the origins of Cyborg are the following: - Cyborg’s First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26

Writer: Marv Wolfman Art: George Perez and Dick Giordano Letters: Ben Oda Colors: Adrienne Roy - Cyborg’s First Adventure with the Teen Titans: The New Teen Titans #1

Writer: Marv Wolfman Art: George Perez Finisher: Romeo Tanghal Letters: Ben Oda Colors: Adrienne Roy - The First Dive into Cyborg’s Origins and the Death of Silas Stone: The New Teen Titans #7

Writer: Marv Wolfman Art: George Perez Inks: Romeo Tanghal Letters: John Costanza Colors: John Drake We compared the death of Silas Stone in this comic to his death in Zack Snyder’s Justice League in both this episode as well as the following tweet.

- An expanded version of Cyborg’s origins from June 1982, Tales of the New Teen Titans #1.

Writer: Marv Wolfman Art: George Perez Inks: Brett Breeding This issue is referenced in the Snyderverse as the Mother Box that turned Victor into Cyborg is originally called Object 6-19-82, as in June 1982. 34:30 The First Adaptation of Cyborg- Ernie Hudson's Cyborg in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians We referenced a previous episode mentioning The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians when discussing, “What’s the Best Justice League Origin?”

37:00 Cyborg’s Origin in Smallville Smallville was the first live action version of Cyborg/Victor Stone, as portrayed by the late Lee Thompson Young, in the Season 5, Episode 15 episode “Cyborg” written by future Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries. You can actually view this episode on Hulu here. We mention Mackenzie Grey as the actor playing Alistair Krieg, who creates Cyborg in the Smallville continuity. We mentioned him as Jax-Ur in our Man of Steel coverage and dove more deeply into him in our “Who’s Who of the Phantom Zone” Patreon coverage here.

46:33 Cyborg’s Origin in the Teen Titans Animated Series…Tie-In Comic? Teen Titans Go #45 (2007)

Writer: J. Torres Art: Fabio Laguna Colors by Heroic Age Letters: John J. Hill Editor: Tom Palmer Jr. 55:02 Break: No More Whoppers promo, “Go Home, Hal Jordan, You’re Drunk” sketch with Ben as Hal Jordan, Alfred, and Batman and Andrew as Kid Flash, plus Zachary Brown Bumper This is a promo for another podcast in the Greenlit Podcast Network, No More Whoppers, which you can find here. Hal’s situation in the sketch is a continuation of past sketches where Hal gets harassed by everyone from Damian Wayne, Dr. Doom, and the Riddler (all played by Andrew). Alfred kicking Batman’s ass in the gym is a reference to our opening sketch here (though Andrew was Batman in that one):

And Kid Flash asks Batman to make a Firehouse sub, which is a callback to our opening sketch where Batman vacated a Firehouse restaurant just to reprimand Wally (and J’onn J’onzz) for not showing up during the Steppenwolf fight in Justice League:

1:01:10 Cyborg’s Origin in Justice League: Origin and Justice League: War We compared The New 52’s Justice League: Origin to its adaptation Justice League: War in our Patreon episode here. As we brought up, Snyder adapts a moment right out of the comic where Victor notices his dad’s absence from the football game. We did a direct comparison in this tweet.

Andrew references Ben’s Justice League: The Time Travel Cut from 2018, which also featured the beat of Silas missing Victor’s football game:

1:07:59 Cyborg’s Origin in Doom Patrol 1:17:26 Cyborg’s Origin in Young Justice: Outsiders 1:25:16 Cyborg in Zack Snyder’s Justice League: The Casting of Ray Fisher and the Development of the Character We covered Ray Fisher’s accusations against WB execs and Joss Whedon in our behind-the-scenes coverage episode here:

In an interview with Esquire, Zack Snyder talked about what Cyborg thematically represented in Justice League: “Victor Stone speaks to all of us who are suffering from some depression or self doubt—we all have this massive untapped potential within us.” Chris Terrio discussed the character as well in an interview with Vanity Fair: “Cyborg is the one character who can’t disguise himself. He lives in his skin. His otherness is a constant fact of his life. And that to me—and Ray and I discussed this—speaks about being a Black man in America. You cannot remove the otherness that people force upon you. And therefore Cyborg—when he becomes the hero that he always should have been and was meant to be, that felt like something really strong that we wanted the world to see.” Ray Fisher discussed his workout routine for the role here: "I was in the gym two hours a day, five days a week. There was a lot of heavy lifting. The food, I think, was the hardest part, for sure. I'm usually good at sleeping, sleeping is absolutely essentially if you want to see any sort of gain like that. But diet is maybe 90 percent of it, maybe 95 percent." “A lot of people make jokes to me, 'Man, you did all this training and we can't even see you in the movie. I was like, 'There are bits of Victor Stone, just being able to get into that mindset and there's certain shots that you've seen and certain ones that you'll probably see later on, down the line where he is still a human being.' And to be able to have that body type to play an all-start college quarterback, you've got to try to look the part." 1:30:17 Cyborg’s Origin in Zack Snyder’s Justice League Cyborg co-creator Marv Wolfman tweeted to Ray Fisher: “I really loved the #SnyderCut and your Cyborg was truly the heart and soul of the movie. Thank you.” 1:37:59 What IS the Best Cyborg Origin? Zack Snyder’s quote is from an interview with Deadline: I always figured that by now — we hadn’t done the work, but we just assumed that in a lot of ways. The Cyborg origin movie is Justice League, and then, we just assumed that, you know, Cyborg, by the end of Justice League, is standing on his feet. He’s ready to go for any kind of solo effort you can imagine, right? Like, he’s all set. Chris and I, we just assumed that they would’ve just in success, would just jump right on a Cyborg movie because, you know, he is not only like this amazing character, but I just feel like he kind of comes out the back end of Justice League as fully realized and ready to roll. 1:38:44 Closing: Fan Comments and Social Media Promotion For our $5 Patreon tier members, we did an additional episode focused solely on STAR Labs, which plays a pivotal role in the different versions of Cyborg, The Flash, and Superman:

STAR Labs has been pivotal in the lives of Flash, Cyborg, and Superman. But where did STAR Labs originate? Who actually founded it in the comics? Find out as we dive into STAR Labs and its famous scientists through the comics and adaptations: Dr. Emil Hamilton from Man of Steel, Jenet Klyburn from Batman V Superman Ultimate Edition, and Silas Stone from Justice League, along with a history of adaptations on STAR Labs, featuring the CW Flash. Check out the episode and join our $5 Patreon tier here. THANKS TO OUR GUEST: ZacharyJacksonBrownArt (who also did the art/thumbnail) IG: @zacharyjacksonbrownart https://www.zacharyjacksonbrownart.com/ Please record us a “bumper” saying “You’re listening to Superhero Stuff You Should Know” and send it over to superhousepodcast@gmail.com Also to any animators- we’d love to see our sketches animated. Please include #SuperheroStuffYouShould Know IN the video Become a part of the Shasta Army on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/m/superherostuffpod SuperHouse on iTunes: https://apple.co/3ctz4lN Please leave us a review in iTunes! SuperHouse on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2yq3Kpo INSTAGRAM: @superherostuffpod TWITTER: Twitter.com/SuperhousePod FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/SuperHousePod Please join our Facebook group where you can interact with us and other fans! YOUTUBE: YouTube.com/c/SuperHousePodcast Please email us at: SuperHousePodcast@gmail.com ANDREW’S CHANNEL/WEBSITE: IG: ThunderWolfDrew Twitter: ThunderWolfDrew YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thunderwolflives Website: www.thunderwolflives.com/ BEN'S CHANNEL/WEBSITE: IG: BenWanWriter My Cat’s IG: AlfiePennyworthCat Earl E. Bird- upcoming children’s comic: http://earl-e-bird.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6nG7A354pour2CUw0co3Ug Website: http://www.benwanwriter.com SUPERHOUSE MERCH: http://superhousepod.redbubble.com/ Teepublic Threadless