Thread 149747849

what is this character's appeal and why is he popular?

Terminator kino

>>149747849 (OP)
He looks dope

>>149747849 (OP)

> his design is dope as fuck.
> original evil Reed Richards.
> meets Reed Richards proceeds to blast him.
> has a death wish but can't die.
> has a tragic origin but is evil.
> has a Black Manta style HATE for Superman.
> His actions caused most of the stories in the 90s in Superman and Green Lantern.
> His villainous actions make him a Green Lantern villain too.

>yet another "what if Superman... was le evil" character
yawn

>>149747849 (OP)
Evil Cyborg larping as Evil Superman, pretty cool if you ask me

Reed Richards turns evil, has it out for Superman. A stellar concept really, underutilized if anything.

>>149748074
>His actions caused most of the stories in the 90s in Superman and Green Lantern.
> His villainous actions make him a Green Lantern villain too
qrd?

Actually, I have a theory:

Hank Henshaw's "origin" is kinda similar to the Fantastic Four, with a twist to evil. Which means Henshaw is like an evil version of Reed Richards.

You know who else is an "evil Reed Richards"? Doctor Doom. Could this mean Hank Henshaw/Cyborg Superman is like a counterpart of Doctor Doom?

>>149748306
he destroyed coast city, leading to hal becoming parallax

>>149747849 (OP)
he's superman with a terminator face

>>149748441
I was hoping for a more informative post desu

>>149748503
Alright I'll try but that's basically the jist of it.
So Hank was running around in space until he found out Superman died, concocting a scheme to impersonate Superman and get revenge, becoming the Cyborg Superman. During Reign of the Supermen, he was revealed to be working alongside Mongul as part of a plan to terraform Earth and create a second Warworld. During this process, they destroyed Hal's hometown Coast City, killing everyone within. This kicked off Emerald Twilight where Hal went insane with grief and tried to drain the Power Battery so he could use the collective power of the Lanterns to remake his hometown, thus becoming Parallax and kicking off Zero Hour.

>>149749036
>Supposed to be the lantern with the most willpower
>Can't even handle a little tragedy like his town being blown up without becoming a deranged supervillain
What a bitch

>>149747849 (OP)
>what
>why
adults who should now know better, were edgelord emo loners once, and money or adulthood doesn't make nostalgia goggles any less potent

>>149749077
I mean it was that and the Guardians being total faggots about it when Hal asked for a break

>>149749085
>ESL

>>149747849 (OP)
He makes for a fun evil Superman for space stories. Plus the whole telepathic control over all technology makes him more of a threat for bigger things.

I liked him as one of the Sinestro Corps leaders and commander of the Manhunters. Sucks that ended.

>>149749077
>a little tragedy
Bro, millions died in nuclear explosions and Hal though all his supporting cast died also. Then as he was trying to cope using his ring the Guardians decided to censure him and tell him to turn in his ring.

>>149750553
He's clearly not fit to deal with cosmic crisis if so few casualties break him, he should have turned in his ring.

>>149747849 (OP)
He needs to fight Vic Stone already.

>>149750573
To be fair, he was like 5-10 minutes away from coming to grips with it all, as even the holo-dad made by his ring was telling him that re-creating everything and everyone out of willpower was a bad idea. The Guardians just picked the absolute worst possible time to butt in.

>>149747849 (OP)
Lex really gave Metallo some upgrades huh

>>149747849 (OP)
He looks dope as fuck.

DC was fucking brilliant. T2 had only just come out about a year or two before and they knew how to ride the hype when they made him.

>>149748503
You asked for a quick run down, say elaborate.

Are we ready to admit that Reign of the Supermen was absolute kino and peak of 90's DC?

>>149750759
my bad broski, elaborate then pls

>>149750674
plot convenience

what's his origin story anyway? I know he appears as a human villain in MAWS but nothing beyond that

>>149750808
it also ruined the industry so no not really

>>149750912

Mr Fantastic, except instead of turning into rubber he got the power to project his mind into computers. Then his body melted, so now he jumps from robot body to robot body at will.

>>149750912
Also the accident that changed him killed his equivalents to Ben, Sue and Johnny in horrifying ways analogous to the powers they would have gotten

>>149747849 (OP)
He cannot die

>>149750890
Nah the Guardians are dicks if anyone was gonna fuck it up it'd be them

>>149750912
>>149752352
>>149752376
he's just a cheap F4 expy + cheap evil Superman gimmick who continues being evil just because he can

Hank is everything readers want to be with Superman powers. He's a robot, he's Superman, he's evil so he does what he wants. We never see HH's life setup. Does he have an apartment somewhere? A bat cave? An arrow-cave? Does he live on the moon? He could, because he's both Superman and a robot. Does he even have any food and laundry needs? Could he beat Batman? Yes, as long as it's an actual fight and not "the status quo says Batman must always win at everything."

>>149753334
sounds like he's just what you want to be, not everybody

>>149748306
Hank Henshaw was a one-off villain in Superman that was created by Dan Jurgans. Basically a tragic version of the FF who's powers were killing them/made them freaks, so much so that Not-Thing and Not-Human Torch KILLED THEMSELVES rather than live after they got their powers that made them freakish monsters. Hank (the Reed stand-in) heroically sacrificed himself to save his wife from fading out of existence from her powers, but the experience and watching her brother/friends kill themselves drove her insane with survivor's guilt. When Jurgans brought Hank back several issues later as a digital ghost, his wife killed herself and Superman was forced to put Hank's digital ghost self into the ship that brought him to Earth and send it into outer space as Hank's reaction to his wife's suicide was to basically threaten to crash all electronic equipment on Earth.

Hank's return as a mega villain was always planned but Jurgans incorporated his return as part of Reign of Supermen when they had to kill off Superman after the Lois and Clark wedding got delayed due to the TV show. Hank could now manipulate/reshape technology and Superman's ship had his DNA in it, so he created a device that birthed a half-machine/half-superman new body which he used to pretend to be the dead Superman so he could wipe out all life on Earth turning it into a new Warworld with Mongul's help. With the first city to be destroyed to create an engine for Warworld being Coast City, Hal Jordan's hometown and it's destruction led to Hal going crazy and becoming Parallax/destroying the Green Lantern Corps.

As for why people like Hank, besides the cool visual look he has, he's basically a really well done well made edgelord villain and I'd make the case he's not Superman's Black Manta but his Joker. Hank Henshaw DOES kill and DOES make good on his pledge to kill, meaning that Superman is dealing with a legit psychopath with all of his powers.

>>149752323
yeah but aura

>>149747849 (OP)
He's like superman but actually interesting

>>149752323
Of all the reasons why the industry imploded in the 90s, it wasn't even in the top 10.

>>149747849 (OP)
>why is he popular?
Is he?

>>149749880
>buzz word incel reply
>tiny peen noticeable even through a keyboard

>>149748074
>> original evil Reed Richards.
That's not true.

>>149750808
>>149750737
For as much as people write the Death of Superman off as a massive marketing stunt, the Reign of the Supermen was a great follow up.

>>149747883
This,. It’s fucking Superman + terminator.

/thread

Legit scary when those civilians die by him telling them there is a monster behind them.
he wasn't wrong

Reminder that Superman had deliberate lethal intent when he defeated him.

>>149752323
You're gonna have to elaborate on this shit because I don't think the two are related.

>>149757848
tl;dr it caused the rise of shock events that "PERMANETLY CHANGE THE UNIVERSE"

He's so freaking cool. One of my top 3 favorite villains of all time. I shitted my pants every issue of the sinestro war.

>>149758013
>Two evil Supermans an an Anti Monitor.
How did you lose this, Thaal.

>>149758057
Name a bigger squad up than this panel

>>149757747
This superman straight up executed alt-universe Zod and co with kryptonite a few years before

>>149747849 (OP)
Interesting backstory and neat design.

>>149758124
>>149757747
Tell that to Zod's snapped neck

>>149758112
This shit should have been an All Hands on Deck, all the heroes and villains need to team up and a good chunk aren't gonna survive sort of villain squad

I feel like Hank is in a weird spot between Superman and Green Lantern books. Bit of an identity crisis.

>>149754046
>he created a device that birthed a half-machine/half-superman new body
you’re telling me the ship that brought infant Kal-El to Earth could somehow do this, create a whole new Kryptonian corpse for some reason? and it happened to have the same enhanced physiology that Superman had after growing up on Earth under a yellow Sun for decades?

>>149754993
>>149757848
I admit I thought he said Death of Superman not Reign of the Supermen, but the hype and buzz around it kinda convinced DC it had to do muh big events every now and then, and it’s evident in their following decades

bump

>>149759498
Tbf, at least until the last decade, DC's events were pretty decent.

Also, they were already toying with event books. Obviously crisis, but Invasion was a few years before Death of Superman.

>>149758057
He don't have guy on his side

>>149752323
Death of Superman ruined the speculator market. Reign of Superman was the follow-up. The weird thing was that they had this "Who is the real Superman?" angle and the answer was none of them.

>>149757747
Post-Crisis Superman killed killers on occasion. It took Superboy Prime punching reality to take it out of his character.

>>149748383
Bit of a stretch

>>149747849 (OP)
>HOLY SHIT IT'S CYBER REGULAR BLACK GUY

>>149753182
So's ya mom, but she still squatted you out, bitch

>>149760452
The speculator market cannot be ruined, it's conceptually awful. The sort of people who bought 10 copies of DoS because they thought it would put their kids through college deserved to be fucking fleeced.

>>149760497
>upset zoomie failing at insults
what else is new

>>149747883
fpbp

>>149747849 (OP)
I prefer it when he has his own red suit to differentiate further from Superman, the blue tights don't make sense after Reign of Supermen

>>149747849 (OP)
He's evil Reed Richards. Tht's it.

>>149761817
so the Maker but edgier and less cooler?

>>149762435
I'd much rather have Henshaw than The Maker. I don't know what you guys see in him.

>>149762449
Henshaw is just a cheap ripoff riding the hype of Terminator, Maker is more interesting especially because we've known him as a good guy for long before he descends into comic villainy

>>149762449
>>149762461
I think both are pretty neat

>>149759468
This was still during the post-Crisis Byrne origin where the rocket was a "birthing matrix" that rapidly grew Clark from an embryo to an infant when it opened on Earth, so it made sense at the time.

>>149762666
right, makes more sense even though this new body shouldn't have the same enhanced physiology but I digress. what's the deal with the modern post-Flashpoint version of the character then? how does he have a Kryptonian body this time?

>>149748248
NOPE, time travel back to 1990 your precious mark millar wasn't born yet, when hank was created.

>First appearance As Hank Henshaw:
The Adventures of Superman #465 (May 1990)

>>149750808
Always had been, I read in 2008-2011 and it is absolute kino, a good story.

>>149748074
This

>>149763889
What are the chances we get Cyborg Supes in the Supergirl movie?

>>149762435
>>149762461

>Namorfags have to resort to a crappy AU comic to witness their fantasy of Susan and even then she still doesn't get together with their fave
I'd kill myself if I was a pathetic Namorcel

Aquaman is way cooler than Namor.

>>149764799
-3%

>>149750808
>>149756413
I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion but I always found the Death of Superman to be extremely disappointing. Maybe it's one of those "you had to have been there" things, but when I read it the only thing that really struck me was how lazy and unimaginative that entire arc was. Literally just "DOOMSDAY HE COMES" repeated over and over, culminating in a "final" battle which was a complete letdown without any visual or narrative flair.

In comparison, Reign of the Supermen was way more fun. The different takes on who Superman is supposed to be, the whole "which one is the real one" angle, the conflicts and manipulations between the various pretenders and other heroes choosing sides (plus Steel just being "NO I'M NOT SUPERMAN I NEVER PRETENDED TO BE SUPERMAN WHY AM I INCLUDED HERE") and of course the ultimate reveal and return of the real Superman. It's just a really solid story IMO.

>>149766030
as much as I don't really fret over Snyder's vision or how he was shafted by the studio or whatever, I really wish we got to see his original intention for the black suit in Justice League with the bright silver emblem instead of the cheap recolor we got in the Snyder Cut version. I know he was excited about the suit and he even teases it with the coffin at the end of BvS having the glossy silver Superman emblem, and it sucks that we never got to see it.

>>149766030
That's basically what it always was, Death was the arc to hype up the mainstream press and normies who weren't reading comics much, but in terms of storyline it was always more important as the setup to Reign. In the context of Superman stories, it was around five years of a serious examination of Superman's character that culminated with his return at the end of Reign.

>>149747849 (OP)
>literal coolest-looking motherfucker ever

What the fuck are you OP?

>>149762952
New 52 Cyborg Superman was Zor-El and after Rebirth 2016 DC just brought back Henshaw.

what metal is his cyborg half made up of anyway? how's it so indestructible?

>>149767497
"Kryptonian alloys." aka Makeshitupium.

>>149764799
Low unless the director pulls secret post credit scene with him making an appearance.

>>149750630
This

>>149765099
Did Land give her panty lines, or was it part of the trace?

>>149768298
What do you think?

bump

when was the last time he appeared anyway? I prefer Sueprboy-Prime as the evil Superman nemesis instead anyway

>>149770574
In the summer special where he faces Cyborg of all people

>>149750890
That was the era they were in.
"Holy Fuck. We killed Superman. Broke Batman's back. Killed Green Lantern's city."
DC was high on their own supply.

>>149772249
It's amazing editorial kind of considered raping Wonder Woman too.

>>149772249
>>149772463
>DC meeting
>"Alright we killed Supes, we broke Batman and we destroyed Emerald City"
>"What else can we do?"
>Millar rises his hand
>"Oy lads, wot if we rape Wonder Woman?"

>>149772524
I can see Ennis seething for not suggesting that

>>149772524
God it's always insane to look back and see how close all that shit was to each othr

>>149747849 (OP)
Outside of being Evil Superman, Hank's appeal is inherently due to him evoking Frankenstein and the classic evil sci-fi super-man as creative influences on Superman's character. Bizarro represents the American Frankenstein depicted in film: a product of super-science who is akin to a baby, a tragic monster born into a world that hates him and fears him.

Hank represents the classic novel Frankenstein as a product of unchecked pride and a walking tragedy. Created by super-science and developing impressive strength and intellect, but ultimately choosing to abuse his power out of hatred, delusion, and selfishness. He goes on a murder spree out of petty revenge and entitlement.

>>149747883
Fpbp

>>149770574
He was the main villain of The Question: All Along the Watchtower.
>>149770815
That's an old one.

Does he still count as a cyborg if he doesn't really have any flesh left? Like, I'm pretty sure he's just a robot now, or am I wrong?

>>149774184
God I actually loved this short run. Hope he appears again soon. Technically he should still have the phantom lantern ring, so maybe he can do something with that.

>>149764799
Very low unless they go the New 52 route of making Jor-El Cyborg Superman.

>>149764799
Very low unless they go the New 52 route of making Zor-El Cyborg Superman.

>>149774234
He still has flesh.

>>149772463
of course when it comes to Wonder Woman these wunderkind DC creatives suddenly lose all talent and pitch the most generic “muh dark and deep character building” pitches

>>149772548
KEK

>>149775003
Really? He's usually drawn as completely mechanical, even the parts that look like they're skin, I don't think he has any actual organs or bones anymore.

>>149770815
>he faces Cyborg of all people
I mean that's a logical fight, after all they're both cyborgs and also called just that so

>>149776129
What if Cyborg was called Android?

>>149776385
But he's not an android...

>>149776393
What's the difference between an android and a cyborg?

>>149776420
Darth Vader and General Grievous are cyborgs

>>149776420
Androids are fully inorganic, think Data om Star Trek TNG. Cyborgs are humans or former humans with cybernetic additions, like Robocop.

>>149776447
Wait, are androids 17 and 18 actually cyborgs?

>>149776499
Jinzoningen translate to artificial human, or something like that.

>>149776499
Since they were once human, yes.

>>149776499
This has been known and commented on since the fucking 90s.

>>149776565
Does that mean the Metal Men are cyborgs?

>>149776385
he's a cyborg not an android

>Cyborg Superman essential readings:

Destruction of Coast City
Reign of the Supermen
Revenge of The Green Lanterns
Sinestro Corps War
Booster Gold issues
Brightest Day Green Lantern Corps
Reign of Doomsday

Genisis look, yay or nay?

>>149776385
Cyborg got renamed 'Cyberion' or something in the 90s because after Reign of the Supermen, Henshaw was just known as 'The Cyborg' for like ten years, and Titans was in such decline that Henshaw was a more important and popular character.

It's entirely Geoff Johns' love of Cyborg that gave him his name back, and rebranded Henshaw as 'Cyborg Superman' so effectively most people don't remember he was ever called anything else. Johns is also the one who changed Henshaw's motivation to wanting to die but not being able to.

>>149777648
This was a great look for after the initial storyline of Henshaw impersonating Superman was over. I like it better than any of the later attempts to imitate the original look from Reign.

>>149777872
>Henshaw's motivation to wanting to die but not being able to
I remember this from the end of Sinestro Corps War when he thanks the Green Lanterns for ending his existence, but as we see in the final pages his head survives and sheds a tear as he gets rescued
but then again if that was the case then why did he bother creating a half-Kryptonian half-robotic body for himself in the first place?

>>149774184
>He was the main villain of The Question: All Along the Watchtower.
I had no idea he was in that. Was that mini any good?

>>149747849 (OP)
Every character that came from Reign of Superman was peak design and looked cool as fuck. Even Superman came back with a nice mullet

>>149777997
Sucks to be Eradicator though, he got less use than the others.

>>149774184
Dayum, Dr Fate AND Etrigan? That’s a crazy team

>>149774184
free my man obsidian from that bullshit

>>149747849 (OP)
Metallo without kryptonite and superman

He was a real jerk.

I wasn't a fan of how stupid his powers got the longer he existed. He's not just a Terminator, he's like an unkillable technopathic ghost, But he still goes by cyborg.