Review: Cyborg Vol. 1: Unplugged

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is interesting and has plenty of action and mystery to keep readers coming back for more. Cyborg himself is well written. The artwork compliments the book well and presents a great design for Cyborg.

Cons: For the most part, the book’s supporting cast is dull and uninteresting. Portions of the book’s plot feel rushed.

Overall: Within this volume, readers will come across a solid portrayal of Cyborg and an interesting story all wrapped up into one. This is a book filled with action as Cyborg’s new powers and enemies lead to some terrific looking fight sequences, which are enhanced by the great artwork. However, a lackluster supporting cast and rushed portions of the story prevent this from being a completely positive reading experience. Nevertheless, this is still an entertaining volume overall and is one that many Cyborg fans out there will enjoy.

Story

Since the beginning of the New 52 era in DC Comics, Cyborg’s status in the world of heroes has never been greater, while his actual character portrayal has never been worse. Relatively isolated in the Justice League series, Victor Stone mostly served in a supporting role on the League, teleporting them where they needed to go and occasionally hacking into computers. To make matters worse, his entire personality was replaced with a stoic and serious one that made his character blend even further into the background.

Cyborg Vol. 1: Unplugged, by David F. Walker, begins to make the first steps in writing a number of these wrongs and presenting one of the first good Cyborg stories in a long time. It is absolutely not perfect, as minor characters are uninteresting and parts of the plot feel rushed, but it is a good start. The story is interesting, there is a good level of humor, and Cyborg is written well. It feels like a solid start to something that could have a lot of potential, as long as the rest of the series builds upon everything started here.

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The book starts off by introducing the two separate, yet vaguely related, storylines that dominate this volume. The first deals with the evolution of Cyborg’s operating system and the effects it has on his body. Only pages into the book, he is literally killed by an invading army, only to have his body restore itself to become better than ever. He then spends the rest of the volume learning what this new body can do and seeing how it has affected him. Though not much is done with it here, the fact that he seems to have been able to grow back his physical tissue has huge implications for the next volume.

The second storyline deals with the invasion of the Technosapiens, robots who are able to infect humans with a virus that turns them into robotic slaves. The Technosapiens’ goal is to capture Cyborg and use the technology in his body to reach the peak of their evolution. This is where the majority of the book’s action and adventure come into play, as this story involves dimension hopping heroes, killer robots, and enough fight sequences to satisfy the most bloodthirsty fans. It is also a well crafted story in general with enough complexity and intrigue to get readers seriously invested in what is going on the entire time. The only negative to this portion of the book comes when the Technosapiens’ invasion happens and the story starts to feel rushed, but other than this, the actual plot is solid.

Outside of the plot, the book’s biggest positive is Cyborg’s characterization. As discussed earlier, Cyborg was dealt the short end of the stick since the New 52 started. Here though, he is no longer just tech support; he is a full-fledged hero who brings plenty of fighting skills and banter into the battlefield. His strenuous relationships with those around him and his struggle with his own humanity are also handled well and give a human element to a book that revolves around machines.

However, the book is not all positives. The biggest negative in regards to the story is the poor implementation of an interesting supporting cast. A host of supporting characters are introduced within the first chapter of this volume, yet none of them are developed in a way that made me care about them. Even Cyborg’s potential love interest seems to be forced into the narrative, rather than a natural progression of feelings. Having the Metal Men return to Cyborg’s life was a move with potential but even this was never elaborated upon enough to be worthwhile. The intense focus on Cyborg makes these lackluster side characters easy to dismiss but every time they enter the story it feels like a wasted opportunity.

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Art

This is a book where the fun and excitement of the story are significantly enhanced by the artwork. Ivan Reis creates a book where action seems to leap off every page and the whole book is filled with energy. In particular, I thoroughly enjoyed the splash pages and thought they did a great job in highlighting the more epic moments in Cyborg’s life. In addition, Cyborg’s redesign looks great and is one of the best versions of the character that I have ever seen.

The only problem is that, while the major aspects of the book look great, there are a number of little details that hamper one’s viewing experience. In small places throughout the book, characters or background imagery will lack the level of detail that one would expect. There is even a moment where it appears that the wrong character is drawn for the dialogue that is being shown. These will not have a huge effect on most readers’ experience but will be noticeable for anyone who really enjoys focusing on the art.

Continuity

Cyborg Vol. 1: Unplugged starts a brand new series from DC Comics, so there are no direct predecessors to this book. However, Cyborg’s adventures thus far have been almost exclusively catalogued in the Justice League series. His origin is detailed in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).

The story here is continued in Cyborg Vol. 2: Enemy of the State.

This volume also references the stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below:

• Cyborg makes a few references to fighting in Atlantis, this happened in Justice League Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (Review).
• Cyborg’s relationship with the Metal Men was first detailed in Justice League Vol. 5: Forever Heroes (Review)