The Cyborg Superman

39 years ago - Hank Henshaw is born.

21 years ago - 18-year-old Hank starts college.

17 years ago - 22-year-old Hank gets his bachelors degree and begins his masters studies.

14 years ago - 25-year-old Hank begins working for Starr Labs.

12 years ago - 27-year-old Hank begins his astronaut training for Starr Labs, preparing to test their new hyperspace technology.

10 years ago - 29-year-old Hank marries fellow astronaut Terri Henshaw.

9 years ago - 30-year-old Hank's hyperspace experiment goes awry killing or mutating the entire crew. Hank gains the ability to alter his body but is unable to return to his proper form, and saves his own life by uploading his consciousness into a computer. He gains the ability to alter his mechanical form, and threatens to take over all of Metropolis. Superman stops him by uploading his consciousness into a far more complex Kryptonian datanode from his Birthing Matrix, setting it adrift in space.

8 years ago - Hank Henshaw's datacore is found drifting through space by Mongul. His physical body is reconstituted, using elements of the kryptonian DNA. They uses his technology to begin forging the Warseed, a device to begin constructing a new Warworld from the raw material of a city.

5 years ago - Hank poses as Clark Kent after the death of Superman, nearly convincing even Lois Lane. He assists Mongul in the destriction of Coast City, and defeats Superboy, Steel, & The Eradicator before he is finally defeated by the returning Superman.

now - Hank rebuilds his body and begins constructing his own demolition satellite. He is stopped by the Teen Titans, but only after killing Connor Kent. Imprisoned by the Green Lantern Corp, he is secretly stolen by the Manhunters, and his consciousness is unlocked. He is able to manipulate a combination of Kryptonian, Warworld & Manhunter tech.

There are a few villains whose lasting impact will always be from one singular story. They will continue to be in the larger story of DC proper, but they'll never really come back to the same level of prominence that they achieved in that one perfect storm. The Cyborg Superman is probably one of the best examples of this sort of thing; he's shown up in later stories, but it was always in a less recognizeable form.

I happen to think that the best way to use him is to keep him as close to that original visual as possible. There's something twisted about the image of Superman all twisted and Terminatory. If he keeps to this visual, he is far more likely to be remembered as one of the truely great threats in Superman's gallery of enemies.

Hank Henshaw's Comic History

Hank Henshaw was originally a part of a story from the connected Superman comics in 1990. He was part of a space shuttle crew that featured his wife Teri. In an experiment involving a solar flare the crew of thse shuttle was irradiated and mutated, their bodies twisting as they tried to form new physical forms out of rock or out of actual radiation. Teri was slowly phasing out of physical existence, while Hank had to upload his consciousness into the Lexcorp mainframe.

Hopefully, this story seems at least somewhat familiar. It's the Fantastic Four, but treated as a horror story. Hank is essentially Reed Richards, but instead of becoming a handsome immortal superpowered billionare, he turns into an insane monster.

This was basically a self-contained story, and if that was where he stayed, it would have been a good one. Of course it was only a few years later that the same Superman Comics would feature one of the biggest comic events EVER, the Death of Superman. This was followed up by the 'Reign of the Supermen'... which featured four new characters filling the role of Superman. The Cyborg Superman was one of the more mysterious new characters; we were all left to wonder if this was actually THE Superman, but with an new cybornetic body and amnesia. Eventually we discovered that this was actually Hank Henshaw, and the Cyborg Superman became one of the most dramatic reveals in large scale comic events that the 90's gave us.

Our Hank Henshaw Story

I would love to know where the idea for this character came from. Obviously the 'Reign of the Supermen' arc that followed up the death of Superman came from a little bit of a desire to misdirect the readers, and given that everyone was wondering which of the replacement Supermen was the 'real' one (although I'm fairly sure no one thought it was the adolescent clone or the totally unrelated black gentleman). The idea that Superman's corpse had been turned into a robotic cyborg probably seemed like as likely as any other explanation. It would have been completely insane, but these are comics we're talking about.

As it is, the story of Hank Henshaw and Mongul destroying Coast City and driving Hal Jordan insane is probable the absolute pinacle of 90's era comic innovation. This was utter craziness. In the following decades DC started to really lean more and more heavily on nostalgia and this era of balls-to-the-wall innovation seems like a relic now, but this is when I enjoyed reading comics the most.

We are very much basing our use of this character in this original storyline. Hank's original appearance was obviously an attempt to turn the origin of the Fantastic Four into a horror story, and that works very well, and of course we're using him for a few other major story innovations like the murder of Connor Kent, but ultimately it's his roll in the this story that truely makes him such a great villain.

Hank Henshaw's Body

Hank Henshaw's look has evolved quite a bit since he was used as the explanation for this weird terminator Superman creation that came from the Reign of the Supermen For a very long time he was depicted with an almost entirely robotic body that was now orange and black. He only retained his partially human-looking face, and weirdly had adapted Superman's 90's era long hair, only in a much more sinister variant.

When the early 2000's featured a push to make literally every character in DC related to the Green Lanterns, Cyborg Superman was one of the earliest adopters. Long before we ever heard of the multi-color Lantern Corps, Cyborg Superman was already showing up having been adapted as a part of the Manhunters. His look at this point was actually more in keeping to his original Reign of Superman look; he simply changed his normal Superman costume to an entirely red and black variant. He was covered in Oan power rings since the story he was in focused on the Manhunters capturing and imprisioning classic Latern characters, and his overal body was being depicted in ways that made him look much more sinister.

Frankly, my personal favorite version of the Cyborg Superman is the original look, the one that could concievably pass as the actual Superman if he turned out to be a terminator. There's something noteably unsettling about a monster posing as a heroic archetype, and even once we know for a fact that he's a horrible villain, I think this is the look he should keep.

Hank Henshaw's Future

For the most part, we began to abandon the traditional in-continuity timeline in the mid-2000's when DC started to lean into the idea of the various Lantern Corps become the driving force of practically every story being told. Shortly before this happened, however, we saw Hank Henshaw's Cyborg Superman awakened by the Manhunters and battling the Green Lanterns.

This really works as a way to use the character going forward. The level of threat he represents is quickly aproaching a level where he really can't be used on Earth anymore... the last time he was there he destroyed an entire major city. He might be a good threat to throw against a future version of the Justice League, but for now making him part of the threat presented to the Green Lanterns by the Manhunters and by Atrocitus makes for an excellent story.

In the meantime... while his ability to adapt his technology continues to evolve, it MAY be a good idea to expand his ability to adapt his biology as well. Maybe next time he shows up on Earth, he can actually pass himself off as the real deal?

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