Review: Cyborg Vol. 2- Enemy of the State

Quick Summary

Pros: Cyborg is still a great character, especially when he is interacting with his friends and family. The book’s penultimate story is one of the best stories in this entire series.

Cons: The end of the first arc is a major letdown that sours everything that came before it. The final story is downright boring.

Overall: This is a collection that will get your hopes up, only to disappoint you in the end. The vast majority of the storylines range from uninteresting to downright bad and make this a hard book to become invested in. The only aspects of the book that save it from total ruin are Cyborg’s entertaining portrayal and one of the book’s short stories. If you are desperate for more Cyborg stories then you’ll find parts of this book to be entertaining. However everyone else might be better off staying away.

Story

While Cyborg Vol. 1: Unplugged (Review) kicked off this series with a shaky start and a lot of promise, Cyborg Vol. 2: Enemy of the State ends the series by failing to deliver on this promise. The book’s first arc keeps the momentum going just long enough to get readers’ hopes up, but falls apart near the end. Things only go downhill from there, and the book’s final story is a boring mess. There are a few bright spots in this collection, as the penultimate story is a beautifully unique take on Cyborg’s powers and the exploration of Cyborg’s personality is as fun as ever. Unfortunately, these positives fail to overcome the negatives and leave this book as a below average end to a series that had only just begun

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The first story in this collection sees Cyborg face off against the remnants of the Technosapiens, the villains from the previous volume. This time they are using the government to legally kidnap Cyborg, with no one aware that they are pulling the strings. However, it turns out that Cyborg wanted to be kidnapped and uses this opportunity to defeat them once and for all.

The problem with this entire storyline is the way it builds up expectations and potential only to bring it crashing down when the story ends. In the beginning, high level concepts, like the value of artificial life and humanity’s role in controlling it are teased. Meanwhile, minor characters from the previous volume are being developed into more threatening villains. Yet, by the end of this arc, none of this potential is used. Those thought provoking concepts are discarded and the minor characters are simply not mentioned again. This abandonment could be due to the shift in writers, from David F. Walker to Marv Wolfman, or due to the impending cancellation of the series; either way, it gives this story a messy conclusion and sours the entire experience along the way.

The only positive here is the human element. Once again, Cyborg, as a character, shines and gives the book the personality that many fans were hoping for. Here we also get to see Cyborg deal with the loss of his mother all over again and, thus, get a deeper glance into what makes him tick. Contrast this with his connection to his father and you have a rather wholesome story all in all.

After the conclusion of the book’s main arc, the series is finished up with two unconnected closing chapters. The first is a fantastic exploration into the digital side of Cyborg’s powers. After detecting a terrorist threat online, Cyborg goes on a detective style hunt through the internet in order to find the perpetrator. While detective stories are always fun, what makes this one truly unique is that the protagonist does not physically move the entire time; Cyborg solves and influences the case while completely stationary. It makes for such an interesting and refreshingly different concept that it turned out to be my favorite moment in this entire series and quite nearly made the entire collection worthwhile.

The second, and final chapter, sees the quality level dip back down for a story that is ultimately below average. Two children break into S.T.A.R. Labs in order to obtain an experimental cure for the disease that is slowly killing them. The duo explain that their mother also died because she was unable to obtain this cure, since it had not been tested yet. Instead of helping the two by running tests or looking for another solution, Cyborg throws caution to the wind and uses the cure on them. To no one’s surprise, it only makes the situation worse and the two are seemingly killed at the chapter’s end. This is a lackluster story with poor motivation and an uninteresting plotline. Unfortunately, this just adds to this collection’s already long list of negatives.

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Art

The departure of Ivan Reis from the series has a major impact on the quality of this book’s artwork, as Reis’ work was one of the first volume’s largest positives. This leaves the book with a creative team consisting of mostly of Felipe Watanabe, Daniel HDR, and Julio Ferreira. Though the book does not look quiet as good as the previous volume, it still maintains a level of style and detail that allows fans to approach it with ease. In addition, this team does a great job in depicting the digital world and Cyborg himself. With both of these being major aspects of the book as a whole, their high level of quality helps elevate the book just a bit higher.

However, lackluster detail on faces and minor errors drag the level of quality back down again. Facial expressions, especially those performed in the background of scenes, tend to look odd and often fail to convey the emotions they should. Plus, small errors in the book confuse the reading; at one point Cyborg’s father asks Cyborg to pass the syrup, despite the fact that he is already holding it. Things like these are very disappointing to see in a comic like this. In the end, this is a book with visual highs and visual lows that ends up feeling overwhelmingly average overall.

Continuity

Cyborg Vol. 2: Enemy of the State continues the story started in Cyborg Vol. 1: Unplugged.

Though this series technically ends here, Cyborg’s story is continued in Cyborg Vol. 1: The Imitation of Life.

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

• A flashback to the fight against Atlantis is shown. This happened in Justice League Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis (Review).
• Cyborg’s friendship with Shazam is something that started in Justice League Vol. 6: Injustice League (Review).