Cyborg Superman

Context

DC Comics’ Hank Henshaw is a curious character.

He originally appeared (1990) as part of a grimdark spoof of the Fantastic Four in a Superman book.

Then he came back as a Metallo-like character, then as one of the pretenders to the Superman identity after the death of Superman. And he traveled to the Marvel Universe multiple times.

He continued to evolve as an ultra-powerful space villain involved in various Green Lantern cosmic disasters, still looking very much like a T-800 Terminator half-disguised as Superman.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Hank Henshaw is an incorporeal being of living energy. He can only gain physical form by inhabiting a host body. The energy comprising him is corrosive to organic matter, so he can only inhabit machinery.

He attempts to recapture the experience of his lost organic existence by inhabiting robotic bodies which have organic components grafted onto them. But his life-force is actually contained only within the technological components of these bodies and not within the organic components.

When he has access to the necessary resources, Henshaw creates specific bodies for himself. Their technological components are constructed with stolen Kryptonian technology and their organic components are replicated from the genetic code of Superman.

History

The NASA Space Shuttle Excalibur was conducting experiments in Earth orbit with an unusual form of radiation when it was struck by a solar flare. The flare caused an explosion which in turn breached the containment of that exotic energy. It to flooded the shuttle.

The crew barely managed to bring Excalibur down to a crash landing. When they emerged, the crew discovered they were all mutating into inhuman forms. One of them had already become an energy being comprised of the radiation in question. Another had become a golem comprised of shuttle wreckage and debris from the crash site.

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The head of the crew, Hank Henshaw, was progressively deteriorating into what appeared to be an animated corpse. Meanwhile his wife Terri was becoming more and more intangible as her very substance gradually drained away into another dimension.

Henshaw realized that their best option for reversing their conditions would be found at Lexcorp. Lexcorp was the company that had provided the equipment for the experiments. The crew’s desperation and the overall confusion resulted in a fight between them and Lexcorp security personnel. Superman arrived on the scene and eventually sorted out the situation.

Entering Lexcorp, Hank managed to find a cure in time to save Terri. But by the time that cure was proven effective he had finally died. His body been reduced to a fleshless skeleton while the other two crew members had committed suicide.

(The Excalibur crew’s story was an obvious analogue of the Fantastic Four’s origins, albeit with a much darker outcome. For further comparisons, see the Superman/ Fantastic Four timelines on writeups.org.)

Pure Energy

Unknown to anyone at the time, Henshaw’s death only claimed his corporeal form. He remained alive as a disembodied energy nexus inhabiting the Lexcorp computers. Henshaw eventually learned how to create a new physical form for himself by reshaping nearby machinery. He sought only to be reunited with his wife.

However, his bizarre appearance as a mechanical construct drove her from the severe depression she was already suffering into a catatonic state. The energy emitted by his physical manifestations also gravely disrupted communications and electronics along the entire US east coast, presenting an increasing risk of disaster.

Dismayed by the harm his resurrection was causing, Henshaw fled Earth. He briefly inhabited the Kryptonian birthing matrix that had brought Superman to Earth, which at the time had been placed in orbit by Superman. Henshaw then created a miniature vessel for his consciousness, incorporating Kryptonian propulsion technology. He left the Solar System to explore the stars.

(This miniature vessel distinctly resembled the one occupied by Quislet of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This was apparently a mere visual homage rather than actually implying any connection between Henshaw and Quislet.)

Warlord

After months of exploration, Henshaw discovered Mongul. The former ruler of War World was now reduced to lording over a primitive planet. Inhabiting Mongul’s ship, Henshaw subjugated the warlord and then made him his second in command.

By this time, Hank’s growing insanity had warped his memories. He believed that Superman had been responsible for his accident and had killed his crew out of jealousy over their new-found powers. He even believed his wife Terri had committed suicide upon seeing his new machine form, though in actuality he had only left her comatose with shock.

(She did perish later. Henshaw may be conflating two separate events. Or Terri may have died by other means with Hank’s delusions rewriting history even more than usual).

Inspired by Mongul’s history, Henshaw intended to return to Earth, kill the Man of Steel, and remake the planet into a new War World. This would completely obliterate Superman’s legacy by turning his adopted home into an instrument of terror on a galactic scale.

Death of Superman

When Henshaw and Mongul arrived at Earth, Superman was already dead, killed by Doomsday. But Henshaw was still obsessed with destroying all good memory of Superman.

His first step was to create a clone body of Superman. This was done using the knowledge he had absorbed from the matrix chamber, albeit the body had to be riddled with Kryptonian cybernetics. Posing as a reborn Superman, Henshaw (now known as the Cyborg Superman, or simply the Cyborg) threw Doomsday’s body into space. He later saved the US president from an assassination attempt.

Thus he established himself as a superhero – and in many people’s minds as Superman himself. The Cyborg was then called in to investigate Mongul’s ship when it entered the atmosphere over Coast City, California.

With everyone unaware that he was working with the alien vessel, the Cyborg was able to:

• Destroy the Eradicator’s current body.
• Capture Superboy.
• Send the Justice League on a wild goose chase into space.
• Have Mongul’s vessel vaporize Coast City.
• Begin replacing Coast City with an Engine City for the planned War World.

Unbeknownst to the Cyborg, Superman himself had just been revived by the mechanisms within the Fortress of Solitude. Though still greatly weakened by his experience, Superman teamed up with Steel, Superboy (who had escaped), and Supergirl to infiltrate Engine City and foil its leaders’ plans.

The Eradicator reconstituted himself and joined the team in time to help Superman in his final battle with the Cyborg. Sacrificing himself to block a kryptonite radiation blast meant for Superman, the Eradicator altered those same energies to instead restore Kal-El to full power. Superman was then able to destroy Henshaw’s cyborg body and halt the recreation of War World on Earth.

The Doomsday Syndrome

Having anticipated the possibility of defeat, Henshaw had placed a small cybernetic module on Doomsday’s body when he flung it into space. Hiding his consciousness within, he waited until the rampaging creature encountered a suitable place for Henshaw to emerge.

Doomsday’s body was subsequently encountered by a freighter heading to Apokolips. As the beast rampaged upon Darkseid’s world, Henshaw took the freshly-killed body and battle armor of one of Darkseid’s Elite Guards and remade them into another version of his Cyborg Superman body.

The Cyborg attempted to take control of Apokolips while everyone was occupied fighting Doomsday. But Darkseid brought this plot to an abrupt conclusion by reducing Henshaw’s body to a small inert orb with his Omega Beams.

A few months later, Superman returned to Apokolips to help one of Darkseid’s assassins spare his daughter from execution. In retaliation for having his will thwarted by the Man of Steel, Darkseid restored the Cyborg to plague Superman once more. He then made him swear never to return to Apokolips again on pain of death.

Marvelous sidestep

As he traveled through space, Henshaw was inadvertently transported to the Marvel Universe. This was due to a rift in reality left by the destruction of the planet Oa by Green Lantern Kyle Rayner during his battle with Parallax. Undeterred by this diversion, the Cyborg came across an unidentified inhabited planet that he attempted to transform into a new War World.

He was stopped in the midst of his rampage by the Silver Surfer and Parallax. Henshaw managed to escape back to his native universe as the Surfer and Parallax combined their powers to reverse the devastation he had inflicted.

The Trial of Superman

As he continued his journey through space, the Cyborg learned of an intergalactic tribunal. They wanted Superman recaptured after he escaped punishment for the crimes of his ancestor Kem-L. Joining the hunt, Henshaw first encountered and defeated the ad hoc “Superman Rescue Squad” – Steel, Superboy, Supergirl, the Eradicator, and Alpha Centurion.

The Cyborg then captured Superman and returned him to the Tribunal. As they carried out their plans to execute Kal-El, the Cyborg began infiltrating the Tribunal Planet’s infrastructure. His goal was to take complete control of their world. Superman escaped his execution and put a stop to the Cyborg’s scheme with the help of his rescue squad.

Despite Superman’s heroic efforts on their behalf, the Tribunal still wanted Superman executed. The Tribunal Prime used his mental powers to place his mind within the Cyborg’s body and continued his attempts to destroy Superman.

After mistakenly believing he had carried that sentence out, the Tribunal Prime returned to his own body. He likewise sentenced Henshaw to death for his role in the destruction of Coast City. Though Henshaw’s energy form was effectively indestructible, the Tribunal circumvented this by teleporting him into a black hole from which not even energy could escape.

Another Break in the Wall

The Cyborg’s fall into the black hole did not kill him. Instead he found himself transported to the Wall, the final barrier between this universe and the mysterious Source. Parallax tracked down Henshaw once again soon after he arrived at the Wall.

Summoning energy-construct duplicates of the seven million people killed at Coast City, Parallax forcibly melded the Cyborg with the Wall. He imprisoned him alongside the Promethean Giants whose inert forms were forever shackled to the barrier.

Since the Wall is apparently composed of some form of non-metallic circuitry, Henshaw was able to inhabit it. But he could not achieve the same degree of control over it as he could with more conventional technology.

When the Godwave phenomenon threatened universal disaster, Superman (in the energy form he possessed at the time) approached the Wall himself to investigate it. He was promptly attacked by Henshaw, who could not free himself from the wall but was able to manipulate the part of it he was attached to.

Superman defeated the Cyborg. He used the material that his opponent was made of to seal a dangerous breach in the Wall itself. Superman then returned to the heroes awaiting word of his mission, unknowingly carrying Henshaw’s consciousness in the electronics of the containment suit he was then wearing.

Ordinary World

When Superman returned to Earth, Henshaw tried to abandon his vendetta and live a normal life. Using equipment at Lexcorp, he built a new cyborg (or perhaps merely android) body. It had lesser abilities than those of the Cyborg Superman, but with a much more human appearance.

He posed as new art teacher Mr. Sormon at Maggin High School in Metropolis. However, his façade began to wear when his class was required to participate in an art project honoring Superman. He eventually snapped and revealed himself, superspeed-sculpting a vignette of the Cyborg defeating Superman out of clay while inadvertently exposing his artificial hands.

At that same moment, Superman flew into the classroom, having deduced the Cyborg’s plan and where he was at. The Man of Energy attempted to contain the Cyborg in a force field, but Henshaw detonated his new body and escaped.

Unknown to Superman, the Cyborg had fled into circuitry concealed within the clay sculpture he had just created. It was taken home by one of the students, Ashbury Armstrong.

That Christmas, the Toyman was going door-to-door gathering toys under the cover of charity. One of those toys happened to be the clay sculpture the Cyborg was hiding in. The two teamed-up, with Henshaw forming an android body resembling his Cyborg Superman one out of Winslow Schott’s toys. They captured Superman and attempted to dissipate his energy body.

Instead, they inadvertently created two energy Supermen, Superman Red and Superman Blue. Superman Blue captured Toyman while Superman Red defeated the Cyborg. He trapped him in an antenna and then placed him in a stasis chamber at Project Cadmus.

Genie in a Bottle City

The Cyborg eventually escaped. Having analyzed Superman’s unique energy frequency, Henshaw traced it back to Kandor (which had been involved in Superman’s initial transformation). Entering the bottle city, Henshaw created a new Cyborg Superman body that could alter its external appearance.

Posing as a scientist known simply as the Inventor, Henshaw began working on means to free Kandor. All along, he knew that expanding the city would destroy Metropolis. This was a positive as a far as he was concerned. The early results attracted the attention of Superman (now back in his normal flesh-and-blood form), who returned to Kandor to investigate.

Posing as Superman, the Cyborg killed the leader of Kandor and framed the Man of Steel for it. After Kandor’s peacekeepers arrested Superman, the Cyborg revealed his true identity and vowed to free Kandor from its bottle.

Henshaw then dragged Superman along, as Kal-El was weakening due to being isolated from the yellow sun. The Cyborg wanted him to see the dimensional rift that would soon extend Kandor over Metropolis. His gloating was interrupted by the yellow sunlight that flooded through the expanding rift, recharging Superman’s powers.

As Kal-El’s friend Scorn shut off the machinery creating the rift, Superman threw the Cyborg into the closing dimensional doorway. He hoped to neutralize Henshaw by trapping him between dimensions.

Destroyer of Worlds

Instead, the Cyborg emerged elsewhere. While hiding in orbit near a Lexcorp satellite, Henshaw witnessed the arrival of an interdimensional probe sent by Galactus. The probe was only meant to monitor Superman as a possible herald for the world-eater.

The Cyborg altered it to appear to be a final transmission from Jor-El blaming Galactus for Krypton’s destruction. As the Cyborg predicted, Kal-El traveled to the Marvel Universe to seek out the Fantastic Four and obtain more information about Galactus. Henshaw surreptitiously followed him and then attacked all of the heroes with the automated security devices of the FF’s headquarters.

The battle was interrupted by Galactus himself, who had decided to conscript Superman as his new herald. The world-eater transformed Kal-El with the Power Cosmic and altered his mind to make him a loyal servant. Galactus and his new harbinger then teleported away, accidentally taking Reed Richards with them.

The Cyborg was dismayed by Galactus’s departure, as he had hoped to siphon some of the world-eater’s power for himself. Instead, he made a deal to help the rest of the Fantastic Four find the missing parties in question.

Herald no more

The Fantastic Three and the Cyborg were able to track down Galactus. Reed quickly disabled the Cyborg as Superman managed to break Galactus’s control. The five heroes battled the world-eater to a standstill, allowing Reed to sabotage Galactus’s world-draining machinery.

In exchange for his word that he would leave this sector of space and no longer devour inhabited planets, Reed reversed his work. Afterward, it was revealed that the Cyborg had faked the message blaming Galactus for destroying Krypton so he could follow Kal-El and study Galactus’s powers.

In retaliation for the trouble he had caused, Galactus granted the Cyborg’s wish for perfection by condensing him into an inert block of flawless alloy.

Biot of a Space Tyrant

By unknown means, the Manhunter androids acquired and restored the Cyborg (or he somehow restored himself) sometime afterward. Joining the Manhunters on their homeworld of Biot in the forbidden Space Sector 3601, the Cyborg began improving the androids.

The revised Manhunters were to be supported by the Highmasters. These were giant androids drawing energy from the willpower of captured Green Lanterns imprisoned inside the Highmasters’ chests. Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner infiltrated Biot against the orders of the Guardians of the Universe and freed the captured Lanterns.

Severely damaged by the Green Lanterns’ attack, the Cyborg was easily captured. He was imprisoned inside one of the Guardians’ sciencells. He was freed when the Sinestro Corps attacked Oa. Rebuilding Biot as New Warworld, the Cyborg agreed to join the Sinestro Corps. His condition was that their leader, the Anti-Monitor, agreed to grant Henshaw’s death wish upon their victory.

In the course of the battle, the Green Lanterns trapped the Cyborg in a force field surrounding New Warworld as its power core was about to detonate. Thanking the Lanterns for containing him with an explosion certain to annihilate him, Henshaw finally died.

Or so he thought. A remnant of his skull was recovered by the Manhunters. They revived him from this blissfully unaware state, with Hank shedding a tear as he returned to life.

Description

Henshaw’s appearance can vary greatly due to his nature and abilities. In his disembodied form, he is a small point of yellow-white light.

His mechanical constructs usually retain their original appearance except for whatever alterations he has made to facilitate their mobility.

As he became increasingly psychotic, he usually incorporated a skull motif into the “heads” of his constructs.

His Cyborg Superman bodies have thus far displayed three basic variations on a similar theme. The first duplicated Superman’s appearance, with his left leg, right arm and upper torso, and three quarters of his head (excluding the upper right quadrant) replaced with chromed skeletal cybernetics; the cybernetic eye was a glowing red orb.

The second version was as a black-suited humanoid adorned with red metal plating, retaining the same head as the first version (though the metal segments of the head were also red instead of the prior chrome).

The latest version looks much like the first, except that the left leg no longer appears artificial, the blue parts of the Superman outfit have been recolored black (except for the torso, which is now red), and the pentagonal Superman symbol on the chest has been recolored black with a gray Sinestro Corps symbol replacing the red S.

Personality

He was once a brilliant and compassionate scientist. But Henshaw’s mind has been utterly warped by his transformation and the subsequent tragedies he suffered. He was initially driven by the desire to utterly destroy Superman, including his reputation and legacy. This would be his revenge for the wrongs Henshaw believed Kal-El has deliberately inflicted upon him.

This has steadily expanded into a more comprehensive nihilism. Driven by this Henshaw wants to destroy or utterly remake Metropolis, Earth or even the entire universe. The earliest inklings of this can be found as far back as his first return to Earth. He selected Coast City as his first target because that was his wife’s hometown and he wanted to erase everything that reminded him of her.

Henshaw has also demonstrated an increasing wish to die and thus be delivered from the emotional agonies of his past. Unfortunately for Hank, his current state makes his death a near-impossibility to achieve.

For this reason, his death wish often remains unexpressed. But it emerges with great vehemence on those rare occasions when he thinks he might have found a way to end his life. The Cyborg also has a lust for power, not for its own sake but to facilitate his other goals.

All the more tragically, there are moments when the brilliant, caring man Henshaw once was shows through. While he was posing as a high school teacher in an attempt to live a normal life, “Mr. Sormon” was very involved in inspiring his students academically. He also counseled them regarding their personal lives when he could.

An important factor to remember with the Cyborg is that his delusions frequently alter his memories. This creates inaccurate recollections in which he has been grievously wronged. He blames Superman’s hurling the Eradicator into the Sun for the solar flare that damaged the Excalibur, even though Terri confirmed that the flare occurred hours before the Man of Steel’s actions.

He also recalls his initial voyage away from Earth as being a desperate attempt to avoid capture by Superman in collusion with S.T.A..R. Labs scientists. In reality he voluntarily took that step to spare Terri further distress and to end the electronic disruptions caused by his new form.

Quotes

(Communicating with the White House after eliminating a family of Coast City survivors) “Mr. Quinn ? False alarm. Some wounded animals. I put them out of their misery.”

“I’ll write Superman’s legacy — and it’ll be written in blood !”

(Regarding Superman) “The only way to see a man’s true soul is to see him in defeat ! To see him beaten by his betters ! To see him succumb to someone more human than the alien is !”

“Love is the cruel trick of life. Its bond is broken by death and unable to be fixed like my new body. By eliminating organic life, I eliminate the suffering that goes with it.”

“There is no perfection to be found in this world. The only perfection is absolute nothingness. A universe void of… of even a void.”

By Hominid71 and Roy Cowan.

Source of Character: DC Comics.

Helper(s): Chris Cottingham, Alan Wilkinson.