Category: First Communion

This is the Gospel. Now let your voice be heard!

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I SUPPORT BLACK SUPERHEROES [Part 19]: Luke Motha%$&*^’ Cage!

Multimedia Appearances

The Super Hero Squad Show (2009)

The kiddie version of Heroes For Hire

Luke Cage’s first multimedia appearance was on The Super Hero Squad Show on Cartoon Network. Voiced by comedian Lil’ JJ, this version is a member of Heroes for Hire alongside Iron Fist and Misty Knight in the episode “A Brat Walks Among Us“. He also has a cameo appearance in the very first episode “And Lo… A Pilot Shall Come!“.

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010)

“It’s called ‘ Unbreakable skin’, Fool!”


Luke Cage appeared in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on Disney XD. Voiced by Christopher B. Duncan ( ‘The Jamie Foxx Show‘, ‘Black Lightning‘), this version of Cage is a primary member of Heroes For Hire, using his powers as a way of earning money by working for hire to anyone who needs help. In the episode “To Steal an Ant-Man“, Cage and his partner Iron Fist are hired by Hank Pym to retrieve the stolen Ant-Man suit from Scott Lang.  Pym, in the end, hands the mantle of Ant-Man over to Lang and Lang ends up joining Heroes for Hire. This version dislikes being referred to as ‘Power Man‘. Later on, Cage becomes a member of the New Avengers to help stop Kang The Conqueror and  to fight off Galactus’ invasion of Earth( they charge Tony Stark for their services in these fights). 

Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)

Meet the teenage Luke Cage

A teen version of Luke Cage appears as one of the main characters on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon series on Disney XD. Voiced by actor Ogie Banks, this version is part of Spider-Man’s teenage S.H.I.E.L.D.-sanctioned team (along with Iron Fist, White Tiger and Nova). Luke is the “street-smart” muscle and the most mature member of the team. 

Luke Cage as ‘Power Man’.

“Power Man. If he calls himself Spider-Man, then I’m calling myself Power Man. It’s cool and doesn’t scream I have low self-esteem”

Luke adopts the name “Power Man” as he feels that he should name himself after his powers. He also has an official superhero uniform (a sleeveless suit which is yellow on top and the rest is black, metal plates on his biceps and ankles, yellow boots). He also wears wraparound sunglasses when in ‘Power Man’ mode.

Power Man’s main ability is his enhanced level of super strength (he can stop a moving train and fight The Juggernaut one on one). He is physically the strongest member of the team and is even stronger than Spider-Man and Nova( before Nova tapped into the full power of his helmet). He can lift about 25 tons.  Nick Fury refers to him as ‘the strongest guy this side of the Big Apple without green skin‘.

Luke also has impenetrable skin that’s tougher than titanium and his bones and muscles are denser and much thicker than any human being. On one occasion, Luke’s body demonstrated that vampires can’t penetrate his indestructible skin(Even Count Dracula himself is incapable of biting Luke). The episode “The Parent Trap” reveals that Luke received his powers as a child when he ingested a S.H.I.E.L.D. version of the Super Soldier Serum developed by his scientist parents (Walter and Amanda Cage) during an escape from a plane. Luke Cage is presented here as his actual birth name rather than an alias. He also finds his parents were working for the villain Scorpio because they were lied to about Luke being captured and promised their son in return. He soon reunites with them at the end of the episode. Luke continues to be featured on the series until S.H.I.E.L.D. graduation in the series finale. 

Marvel/ Netflix Shows

Luke Cage as portrayed by actor Mike Colter. Lance Gross and Cleo Anthony had screen tested for Luke Cage before Mike Colter was cast. Mike Colter put on 30 pounds of muscle to play Luke Cage.

Luke Cage’s first live action appearance was in the Marvel/Netflix shows whose lineup included Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist. The interconnected series of shows were all set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These shows gave the viewer the urban streel level perspective of how life has changed in New York after the alien invasion in The Avengers( 2012). NOTE: The invasion is often referred to in the various shows as ‘The Incident’. 

Jeph Loeb, executive producer of the shows, explained that “Within the Marvel universe there are thousands of heroes of all shapes and sizes, but the Avengers are here to save the universe and Daredevil is here to save the neighborhood … It does take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s all connected. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we would look up in the sky and see [Iron Man]. It’s just a different part of New York that we have not yet seen in the Marvel movies.”

Jessica Jones (2015)

The series Jessica Jones was about a hot-tempered, sarcastic, badass female private detective in Hell’s Kitchen. She has been rebuilding her personal life after her short-lived stint as a superhero ended in tragedy. The character of Luke Cage is introduced as a bar owner whom Jones meets during an infidelity investigation.  Luke is introduced already having his powers. His powers are first revealed in a bar fight when he easily holds off half a dozen men and one of them tries to stab him in the neck with a broken bottle. Luke later confirms his powers in Jessica’s apartment when Jessica explains she came to his bar to fix an incident she caused. Luke responds by holding a portable buzz saw to his stomach until it smokes and sparks. After Jessica sees his undamaged skin, Cage says ” You can’t fix me. I’m unbreakable“.

Luke is shown to be a very promiscuous man and he and Jessica start an on and off sexual relationship. However, Luke was formerly married to a woman named Reva Connors. Luke finds out that Jessica Jones was manipulated into killing her. At one point, Luke himself is manipulated into fighting Jessica at full strength by The Purple Man, Jessica’s tormentor. Realizing he had no control of his actions, he forgives Jones for his wife’s murder but stops engaging in an intimate relationship with her.
Despite their rocky relationship, the two superheroes remained friends. They were briefly reunited as part of The Defenders and Luke even returns in that show’s series finale in 2019.

The popularity of Colter’s portrayal of Cage caused the character to spin off into his own show.

Luke Cage (2016)

“You can’t burn me, you can’t blast me, and you definitely can’t break me. You wanna test me? Step up. I’m right here. I ain’t going nowhere. You know where to find me. I am Harlem, and Harlem is me.”
―Luke Cage

Cage next appears as the title character in the 2016 Netflix series, Luke Cage with Cheo Hodari Coker serving as showrunner.

Season One has Luke Cage living as a fugitive trying to rebuild his life in modern-day Harlem, New York City after the events of Jessica Jones. He works quietly as a janitor in Pop’s Barbershop and as a busboy/bartender at the Harlem’s Paradise nightclub. However, he is soon pulled out of the shadows and Luke soon becomes Harlem’s resident superhero/problem solver (Cornell Stokes even refers to Luke as ‘ Harlem’s Captain America’).Luke must fight a battle for his city from the schemes of Cornell ‘Cottonmouth‘ Stokes, his corrupt politician cousin Mariah Dillard and Willis ‘Diamondback‘ Stryker( who is his half-brother in this version). 

Luke is soon a modern day folk hero in the streets with even rapper Method Man dedicating a song in his honor ( ‘Bulletproof Love’). This season also shows the viewer Luke’s past that he had tried to bury including the sabotaged prison experiment that left him with super strength and unbreakable skin. The season ends with Luke’s fugitive status being exposed and him having to return to Seagate Prison.

The Netflix series rekindles the comic book relationship between Luke and Claire Temple (here portrayed as a nurse from Spanish Harlem played by Rosario Dawson). Temple first meets Luke in ‘Jessica Jones’ when she saves his life from a brain hemorrhage caused by a shogun blast to the head. Their relationship flourishes into a full on romance.

Season Two shows Luke Cage has become a celebrity on the streets of Harlem after clearing his name during the events of The Defenders.

One episode features Luke performing athletic feats using his powers that is covered by ESPN. However, being so visible has only increased his need to protect the community and pushes the limits of who he can and can’t save. With the rise of a formidable new foe called Bushmaster, Luke is forced to confront the fine line that separates a hero from a villain. The season ends with Luke becoming the new ‘unofficial’ crime lord of Harlem, inheriting the Harlem’s Paradise nightclub.

For the series, costume designer Stephanie Maslansky changed Luke’s appearance from the comics, which she described as “a little silly”. The show paid homage to the original comic book costume in the episode ” Step In The Arena”. When Cage looks at himself in the mirror in the outfit, he says ” You look like a damn fool”.
Maslanksy made up Cage to look like an everyman. “He’s a working class hero, and that comes across in the clothes he wears. He dresses in rag & bone T-shirts, in Levis jeans. Clothes that already have this beautiful kind of worn, textured look to them.” His frequent use of hoodies was done as a tribute to the tragic shooting victim Trayvon Martin.

Facts

Luke Cage is NOT the first black superhero lead of a TV show (that distinction belongs to M.A.N.T.I.S. on Fox in 1994). Luke Cage is Marvel’s first TV series headlined by a black superhero.
  • In the Netflix series, it is mentioned that he was a former cop in Savannah, Georgia and that he served in Marine Force Recon. In the comic book version, Luke was never a policeman or military serviceman .
  • This is the first Marvel feature to use the ‘N’ word.
  • A number of characters including Pop and Claire Temple refer to Luke Cage by his alias, ‘Power Man‘ in either an affectionate or mocking manner throughout the series. He does not like it.
  • Each episode title of the first season was named after songs by the classic East Coast hip-hop duo Gang Starr. The second season episodes are each named after songs from Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth.
  • For the finale of Season One, executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker had hoped to have Prince perform at Harlem’s Paradise nightclub, but his untimely death quickly dashed those hopes. The swear can located in Pop’s Barbershop is also a reference to Prince ( who had one in his music studio).

The Defenders (2017) 

The Defenders (or, as I call them,” The Avenger’s ‘hood cousins”).

Mike Colter reprised his role in The Defenders, a crossover miniseries that brings Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist all together in one series. The heroes are shown as an unlikely quartet  brought together with one common goal – to save New York City from the ancient organization called The Hand.

Facts

  • In this series, the founding members of the Defenders are Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. In the comics, the Defenders were formed by The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, and Namor the Sub-Mariner.
  • In the first few episodes, the production uses colored light to great effect to separate out each individual Defender story. Each scene involving Daredevil has a hint of red. Jessica Jones is lit with purple. Iron Fist with green and Luke Cage is lit in shades of yellow.
The budding friendship between Luke Cage and Danny Rand in “The Defenders” is a reference to Heroes for Hire from the comics. Both actors have stated their desire to make a Heroes for Hire series and Rand makes an appearance in season two of “Luke Cage”.

Legacy

Luke Cage: Still Kickin’ Ass in 2020!

Luke Cage has left an unbelievable mark, bringing that urban street narrative to the super hero genre:

  • Actor Nicolas Cage was originally named Nicolas Coppola and has admitted that his stage name “Cage” was inspired by Luke Cage.
  • Batman franchise producer Michael E. Uslan once optioned the screen rights to  Luke Cage and it would have been “the first real, true-blue Marvel movie” right after the blockbuster success of Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989.
  • In the ’90s, Quentin Tarantino wanted to make “Luke Cage: Hero for Hire” into a film based in the 70’s, with Laurence Fishburne in the title role, but opted to make Pulp Fiction (1994) instead.
  • In 2003, the late John Singleton was attached to direct a Luke Cage film for Columbia. Jamie Foxx, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne ‘ The Rock’ Johnson, Isaiah Mustafa, and Idris Elba were all considered for the title role.
  • In a 2008 poll, Luke Cage was ranked as the 34th-greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine.
  • IGN also ranked Luke Cage as the 72nd-greatest comic book hero of all time stating that “Cage embodies much of what we love about Marvel’s heroes” and 15th in their list of “The Top 50 Avengers” in 2012.

References

Sacks, J. August  22, 2014. Sweet Christmas! The Creation of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. Comics Bulletin. Retrieved from http://comicsbulletin.com/sweet-christmas-creation-luke-cage-hero-hire/

-JaDarrel Belser

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I SUPPORT BLACK SUPERHEROES [Belser-Verse, Part 17]: Static Shock!!

“I’ll put a shock to your system” – Static

This was the greeting at the end of a cartoon I know a lot of kids in my generation, Static Shock. The show was fresh and vibrant and turned out to be one of the best black oriented cartoon shows ever made.  Let’s get into the history of a very dynamic character that continues that leave audiences electrified: STATIC!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eylzazKebD8

MILESTONE!

Milestone Media is a company founded in 1993 by a collection of African-American artists and writers, consisting of Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. The company is best known for creating Milestone Comics, which were published and distributed by DC Comics, and the Static Shock cartoon series.

The founders had worked for major comics companies like Marvel and DC and all felt that minorities had been underrepresented in American comics.  They wished to address this by creating a new line that showcase heroes from diverse racial backgrounds.
Static was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle.  The character’s first appearance was in Static #1 (June 1993) written by McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III, and illustrated by John Paul Leon.
Though Static would become a main staple of the Milestone line, the character was originally developed for Marvel Comics. It was decided that Static should be a teenage hero, similar to the original run of Marvel’s Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.  Like Spider-Man, the original focus of the character was being a superhero while dealing with real life teenage issues of the day.
The character’s secret identity Virgil Hawkins was named after the late Virgil D. Hawkins, a black attorney and civil rights activist who was denied entrance to the University of Florida’s law school due to his race in 1949.
The character’s superhero name was suggested by writer Christopher Priest (best known for his run on the ‘Black Panther’ comics in late 90’s). The name was inspired by the song “Static” by the late Godfather of Soul, James Brown. The lyrics include the lines  ” Don’t start none, won’t be none!” which became the tagline of the comic series.
The late Dwayne Mc Duffie was the main creative force behind both the initial Static comics and The Static Shock television series. McDuffie described the character as such: “Like any other awkward 15-year-old, Virgil Hawkins worries about pocket money, getting beaten up, and drugs. But recently, he’s had even more on his mind: stuff like his powers, his secret identity, and drugs. Because, when innocents are in danger, and Virgil can slip away from class, the geeky youth becomes Static, the dashing, adventurous superhero!”

The Animated Series 

The animated series “Static Shock”  premiered on September 23, 2000 on  Kids’ WB. Static Shock ran for four seasons from 2000 to 2004 with 52 half-hour episodes overall. Despite its debut in the early 2000’s, the show was still one of the few times that an African-American superhero was the title character of their own animation series. The series was produced by Warner Bros. Animation from a crew composed mostly of people from the company’s past shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series.  This makes  Static Shock part of the acclaimed DC Animated Universe. One major difference was the involvement of two of the comic’s creators, Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan.

Static Shock was changed a bit from the original comic because it was meant to marketed to a pre-teen audience on broadcast television. Nevertheless, the show approached several social issues, which was positively received by most television critics. Static Shock’s episodes handle different issues, including gangs, gun violence, bullying, racism, mental illness, bigotry, and drug use. Other episodes also featured the subject of both Chanukah and Kwanzaa Christmas celebrations.

Static

 

Voiced by actor Phil Lamarr ( “MadTV” “Justice League”) , Virgil Hawkins is a 14-year-old who lives in Dakota City with his father Robert and older sister Sharon. He attends high school with his best friend Richie Foley, and has a crush on a girl named Frieda.  After a gang leader named Wade hopes to recruit him, Virgil is reluctantly caught up in an exchange of violence between gangs on a restricted wharf . As a result of the ensuing ‘Big Bang’ incident, Virgil obtains the ability to create, generate, absorb, and control electricity and magnetism. With Richie’s help, Virgil develops and takes up the alter-ego of “Static“.

    •  Static flies through the air on a disc called the Static Saucer. It was created by Richie who made it out of Mylar, a metalized nylon, a metal stronger than steel. The Static Saucer is lightweight and folds in half for easy storage, but when Static applies an electric charge, the device unfolded into a saucer.
    • Static’s ‘secret headquarters’ was an abandoned gas station (also found by Richie) .  Virgil dubs it the “Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude” ( a play on Superman’s Fortress of Solitude).
Phil Lamarr, the voice of Static. On voicing the character, Lamarr stated the following: “Virgil is what I always wanted as a comic book kid growing up: Black Spider-Man. A good (comic-book) story can make you live it, feel it, and when it does, it resonates on a whole other level. It was so real world, and a textured story removed from the 1930s ‘We are exhibiting the world’. I felt like it was drawn by somebody who lived in a building I could go into. It touched on archetypes as a comic fan that I loved, but also touched on my life as a Black man in the real world.”

The BIG BANG!!

The incident that changed Dakota started as a gang fight on a restricted area at the docks between Wade’s crew and F-Stop’s crew. Unknown to both groups, that area was harboring large vats of a biohazardous material owned by the villainous Edwin Alva (the mutagenic substance was there illegally!). Virgil was onsite as part of a forced ‘gang initiation‘ but ran as it was interrupted by police helicopters. During the dispute, the police fired a tear gas grenade to stop the riot. However, the canister subsequently struck a vat of the bio hazardous material. It caused all the chemical containers to explode, releasing a  purple gas that causes mutations among the people in the vicinity.  In addition to Virgil, the gas also gave the others in the area powers as well. Unfortunately, many of them become supervillains. Following the explosion, the hospitals were flooded with victims.  Some of the victims underwent immediate transformation while others had no physical damage only to mutate later. On some occasions, affected people managed to hold off the mutation under heavy pressure, but transformed once weakened, enraged or distracted. Years later, individuals who were never at the Big Bang also manifested powers, due to being exposed to minute vapor residue by contact with affected people.  The media in Dakota would dub this event “The Big Bang”.

NOTE:  The Big Bang may have been an indirect influence on the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion in Central City on the CW show The Flash. Both events changed their respective cities, spawned a city-based superhero and created a number of mutated heroes and villains.

The mutated people are known as “Bang Babies” and their mutations varied from person to person. One common theme in most of them is the color purple. It appears either in their clothing or ,If they have energy based powers, it manifests as purple in color. Even Static’s electricity has a purple tinge to it.

NOTE: Static Shock is the first DC multimedia property to use the term ‘meta-human‘ to describe people that have acquired superpowers.  The term has been used by all subsequent DC animated and live-action properties.

Virgil’s Family

Robert Hawkins

Voiced by veteran voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, Robert Hawkins is  a social worker who works as head counselor for the Freeman Community Center . A widower and single father, Robert is shown to be strict but caring  parent. He strongly dislikes gangs and the destructive attitudes of the Bang Babies. He is a childhood fan of the superhero Soul Power and eventually learns that Virgil is Static. 

Sharon Hawkins


Voiced by Michele Morgan, Sharon is Virgil’s older sister. She attends college, but she still lives at home.  A very conscious young woman, Sharon volunteers at a hospital and counsels young people at the Freeman Community Center.  Sharon and Virgil argue frequently but really do care about each other when push comes to shove. After their mother died, Sharon took it upon herself to act as the woman of the house, including when it comes to allocating chores between her and her brother.  Sharon likes to cook but is not very good at it. In a move similar to Flash Thompson in the Spider-Man comics, Sharon does think highly of Virgil but she is Static’s #1 fan.  She also has an on and off relationship with Static’s ally, Rubberband Man. 

Allies:

Richie Foley/Gear


Voiced by Jason Marsden, Richard “Richie” Osgood Foley is Virgil Hawkins’ best friend.  Richie acts as Virgil’s partner in his heroics as Static. A highly intelligent kid, Richie comes up with much of the crime fighting gadgetry employed by Static . Richie was not present for the Big Bang. However, in Season 3, it is revealed Static’s clothes still carried some of the gas from the night of The Big Bang and Richie was exposed to it as he saw Virgil the day after. His powers lay dormant until Season Three and gradually manifested as  superhuman intelligence.

Richie soon creates a number of inventive devices to aid Virgil as his crime fighting partner Gear :

  • a robotic computer assistance device called “Back-Pack”
  • Modified roller blades that turn into  thruster-equipped jet boots called “Jet-Blades”,
  • A sensor and neural interface control helmet.

NOTE:  When Richie is coming up with a superhero name for himself,  he contemplates names like “Steel” and “Hardware” but both are taken by other DC superheroes.

Richie’s character was based on Rick Stone, Virgil’s best friend in the comics, who is gay. However, his sexual orientation was never addressed on the show.  McDuffie did considered him gay and make subtle nods to the fact that he is in some episodes.

Rubberband Man


Voiced by actor Kadeem Hardison ( “Dwayne Wayne” from ” A Different World” ) , Adam Evans is also a talented musician with a reading disorder.  As Rubber-Band Man , Adam is a meta-human whose body structure consists of living rubber like Mr. Fantastic from Marvel Comics or Plastic Man from DC Comics. Adam can stretch his limbs to great lengths and shape his body into a wide variety of forms( He can even alter his physical appearance to look like another person).

NOTE: Adam’s superhero name is a nod to the song, “The Rubberband Man“, by the 70’s soul/R&B group The Spinners.

Rubber-Band Man first appears as a villain when he goes after an janky record producer who had stole one of his songs.  After being defeated by Static, Adam subsequently breaks out of prison. Instead of pursuing a criminal career,  Adam uses his powers to take up a new identity, a hot music star named  “Stringer”. In this new form, he also started dating Virgil’s sister Sharon. Due in part to Sharon’s positive influence, Adam decided to not carry on his grudge against Static. He even reforms and becomes one of Static’s allies in crime-fighting. While on patrol, Rubber-Band Man typically acts as an older brother figure to Static, keeping him from showing off and reminding him of consequences in their work.

NOTE: The name “Adam Evans” is derived from the names of former Milestone writers Adam Blaustein and Yves Fezzani, who created the character.

Further complicating things, Adam is the younger brother of Static’s archenemy, Ebon. Prior to the Big Bang, Adam was part of his brother’s gang before he took a stock-clerk job at a music store and started his music career.  Rubber-Band Man and his brother Ebon can both stretch themselves so it is possible that the effects of the gas may have something to do with the person’s genetic code.

She-Bang


Voiced by Rosslynn Taylor-Jordan, She-Bang  is actually a shy girl named Shenice Vale.  Shenice is really the result of a science experiment made by her parents, Jonathan and Dolores, who made her chromosome by chromosome.  Finding the need for freedom, she adopts a superhero identity of “She-Bang” . As She-Bang, Shenice possesses superhuman strength, stamina, agility, reflexes, and endurance( not unlike a Marvel Comics super-soldier). She would assist Static and Gear in crime-fighting but she adopted an arrogant posture as She-Bang that rubbed them the wrong way. That same arrogance caused her to make mistakes that Static and Gear would have clean up. 

Enemies:

Francis “F-Stop” Stone/Hotstreak

Voiced by former child actor Danny Cooksey( ‘ Salute Your Shorts‘, ‘ Tiny Toon Adventures’) Francis “F-Stop” Stone was one of the main gang members at the docks when the Big Bang occurred. After being exposed to the gas, Francis Stone became a pyrokinetic with the ability to create and shoot blasts of fire. His powers are not unlike The Human Torch and Pyro from The X-Men.

Prior to the Big Bang, Francis was a feared school bully and gang leader who went under the nickname of “F-Stop” and often went out of his way to hurt Virgil.  As Hotstreak , Francis was Static’s very first supervillain, giving him a challenge nearly every time they meet. The fights seem to be personal in some way due to  Static and Hotstreak already had history with each other. He seemed to mellow out as the series went on and he actually helped Static on occasion.

Ebon


Voiced by actor Gary Anthony Sturgis( ” Daddy’s Little Girls” , ” Diary Of A Mad Black Woman” ). Ebon is the series’ most frequent recurring villain and is widely seen as Static’ s  main archenemy in this series.  Ebon was born Ivan Evans. Ivan considered himself ‘a nobody‘ and a petty thief.  However,  Ivan was one of the gang members present at The Big Bang. The gas changed him into a powerful trans-morphic being. Taking the name Ebon, Ivan became a living shadow with the ability to control and manipulate pure darkness and shadows. Ebon is a walking inter-dimensional portal , able to transport others to various locations of his choice. His greatest weakness is strong sources of light. Ebon always held a grudge against Static for ruining so many of his plans. Some of his attacks against Static would even become lethal, but Static always defeated him.

NOTE: Ebon’s powers are a nod to the “Shadowslide“, the method of teleportation utilized by the Shadow Cabinet, one of Milestone Media’s titles. They are also similar to the DC villain Shadow Thief and Cloak from the Marvel duo ‘Cloak and Dagger‘.

When the ‘ Bang Baby” cure sprayed over Dakota, Ebon lost his powers. Desperate not to be nothing again like he was before the Big Bang ,he teamed up with Hotstreak and several other Bang Babies to return to the harbor and recreate The Big Bang again. Unfortunately, Ebon and Hotstreak absorbed too much gas and fused together into a giant two-headed monster that possessed both of their powers. The creature was beaten by Static and Gear, and lost at the bottom of the harbor. Neither villain was seen on the series after that . Their fates remain unknown.

The Meta-Breed

The Meta-Breed is a large gangster group of Bang Babies led by Ebon. Ebon is always recruiting newer and much stronger members to add to his crew and has come head-to-head with several other Bang Babies over the course of his life. The most consistent members were:

  • Shiv
    Shiv (voiced by Brian Tochi) is the psychotic member of the Meta-Breed. Shiv’s abilities enable him to generate pure whitish-pink “light energy“, which he  fashion into numerous weapons ( most often, knives or bladed weapons) which he could hold, throw, or fashion around his arms and hands. He is also revealed to be a huge fan of The Joker. When he encountered the Joker in the episode ‘ The Big Leagues’, Shiv tells the villain “Big fan, big fan...”.
  • Talon
    Talon (voiced by Tia Texada)  was a teenage girl named Teresa before exposure to the Big Bang turned her into a humanoid bird. She has a set of feathered wings extending from her scapula to her forearms, which enabled her to fly by flapping her arms. Talon also had clawlike digits on her hands and talon-like digits on her feet. Talon could emit powerful purple-colored hypersonic shrieks from her mouth (like the X-Men character Banshee and DC’s Black Canary). She was really bitter about throughout the series about her physical appearance. When the ‘ Bang Baby” cure was introduced, Talon  was restored to normal, abandoned the name of Talon for her real name, and even helped Static and Gear stop Ebon from setting off another Big Bang.

Celebrity Appearances:

Static Shock featured several episodes also featured the character interacting with real life celebrities. Guest voice actors included basketball legends like Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Steve Nash and musicians, such as the boy band B2K, the Backstreet Boys’ A. J. McLean and child rapper Lil’ Romeo ( who also performed the show’s theme song in the final seasons).

Justice League Crossovers:

As part of the DC Animated Universe, Static would have interactions with the heavy hitters of DC Comics.  Here’s are some notable appearances:

Static teams up with Batman and Robin when The Joker comes to Dakota to recruit Bang Babies in the episode, “The Big Leagues”. Static later teams up with Superman when Toyman appears in Dakota to find and locate his doll Darci after she escaped from him in the episode “Toyz N’ The ‘Hood”
The episode ‘ Hard As Nails’ featured a young meta-human girl from Dakota named “Nails” who travels to Gotham City hoping to find a cure for her condition.  She instead finds supervillains Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn ready to recruit for their own means. Static and Batman once again team up to stop the duo and save Nails.
The two parter “A League of Their Own, ” has Static brought to the Justice League’s Watchtower ( at Batman’s suggestion)to recharge the power core after a major outage. Unknown to all, the outage enabled  the villain Brainiac to infiltrate the station’s computer system. After the Justice League is called away, Static and Gear have to fight of their lives as Brainiac takes over the Watchtower computers and its devices.

Notable Episodes:

“Shock to the System” 


This episode shows the origin of Virgil Hawkins,  a smart, funny teen who tangles with school gang leader “F-Stop.” The leader of another school gang, Wade, protects and asks Virgil to join his gang. Wade tells Virgil to show up at the docks. Virgil is afraid to say “no”, so he shows up. When Virgil arrives at the docks, a gang fight ensues. As soon as the police get there, they start shooting, hitting some gas canisters and causing gas to spread all over the docks. Virgil runs home and discovers he can control and manipulate electricity the next day.He and his best friend Richie pick out a costume and a superhero name for Virgil, as he begins his journey as the teenage superhero Static.

    • One of the costumes Virgil tries on bears a strong resemblance to that of Black Vulcan from Super Friends. Phil LaMarr also played a parody version of him in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

“Jimmy”


After enduring merciless tormenting  from a group of vicious bullies, a disturbed little boy named Jimmy Osgood uses his dad’s gun to protect himself. In the end, he accidentally shoots Richie in the leg. Virgil must deal with the shock of the incident and his feelings of guilt for not preventing the incident.

    • This story unfolds through flashbacks.
    • Dwayne McDuffie and Alan Burnett won the 2003 Humanitas Prize in Children’s Animation for this episode.
    • Lynne Heffley of Los Angeles Times stated that Static Shock “isn’t your typical Saturday-morning cartoon series“, praising its themes and electing the episode “Jimmy“—about gun violence—as an example.
    • At the end of the episode, Static breaks the fourth wall and addresses to the viewers at home about the hazards of firearms falling into the hands of children and youngsters.

“Static in Africa”


The Hawkins family goes on a vacation to Ghana. While there, Static teams up with a legendary African folk hero named Anansi to stop a group of evil African bandits from stealing an ancient African treasure.

    • Several Spider-Man references are made throughout the episode.  The most notable would be when Virgil asks Anansi to “hit [the villain] with a web blast“, and poses his hand in traditional Spider-Man web shooter pose. Anansi’ s response is ” I’m not THAT kind of spider“.
    • The character Anansi appeared again in the episode “Out of Africa“.
    • The title of this episode is a reference to the 70’s blaxplotation film Shaft in Africa.

“Future Shock” 


Static is accidentally sent 40 years into the future, where he has to help the Batman of that era, Terry McGinnis, save a captured superhero: Static’s own future self.

    • Static’s future-self reappeared in the Justice League Unlimited two-parter “The Once and Future Thing” .

“Flashback”
Five years prior to the events of the show, a blackout hit the city, Dakota and the city was hit by gang riots. Virgil is struggling to regain memories of his mother Jean, who was killed that night.  Meanwhile, new meta-human named Time-Zone, seeks out the help of Static and Gear with her time-traveling powers. All three are sent back five years to the Dakota gang riots where Virgil comes face-to-face with his late mother.

    • The Dakota Riots are based on the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
    • Jean Hawkins is voiced by actress Alfre Woodard( ” Captain America: Civil War“, ” Luke Cage” )

Legacy:

Like Spider-Man for Marvel, Static has had the longest and most enduring legacy of any of the other Milestone characters. He has essentially become the face of that franchise and he has migrated to programs other than his own.

Multimedia Appearances:

Young Justice


Voiced by Bryton James (‘ Richie‘ from “Family Matters“),  Static first appears in the Invasion episode “Beneath” as one of the teens abducted by the Reach.

  • He has his first speaking role in the series on the episode “Cornered“, where Virgil  displays his manifested electrical powers for the first time.
  • In the episode “Runaways“, he and his fellow abductees (based on the various ethnic heroes from Super Friends, with Static taking the place of Black Vulcan) run away from Star Labs when they grow sick of the constant testing. The group then are met by Lex Luthor who recruits them.
  • In the episode “The Hunt“, Virgil and his friends destroy everything in sight relating to the Reach until Luthor convinces them to rescue the members of the Team from Warworld (which is now under the Reach’s control), using a Father Box to get there and track down Superboy. After the Team is rescued, Nightwing offers a place on the Team for the runaways, but they refuse when he kicks Arsenal off the Team despite him saving their lives and they leave.
  • In “Endgame”, Virgil meets Black Lightning for the first time. Impressed with Virgil’s skills, Black Lightning tells him  he would like to be his mentor. After the battle, Wonder Girl and Robin welcome Virgil, now going by the name “Static“, to the team. He does not wear his costume in this show, however he is shown with his circled lightning logo on his T-shirt briefly on the Watchtower.
  • In the third season, two years have passed with Virgil under the wing of Black Lightning, who has helped him further develop and perfect his power over electromagnetism. He is later concerned when Jeff admitted that he resigned and hoped that Virgil could find a mentor who was not damaged.
  • He joined Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle and Miss Martian on a mission on New Genesis, in “Away Mission“.
  • In “Illusion of Control“, he expressed his desire to find a girlfriend since many of his teammates, and even enemies like Devastation and Psimon, were an item.
  • In “First Impression“, he becomes a member of the Outsiders alongside Geo-Force, the second Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, Superboy and their leader Beast Boy.

Film


Virgil has a non-speaking cameo in Justice League: War. He can be seen sitting behind Billy Batson during Victor Stone’s football game. His appearance is similar to that of his Young Justice counterpart. This is the character’s first appearance in a DC film.

Static: The Movie?

Michael B. Jordan is looking to bring Static to the big screen

In August 2020, producer/director Reginald Hudlin announced at DC FanDome that a live action Static Shock movie is in development. The project will be a collaboration between DC Films, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Milestone Media. By October of the same year, Michael B. Jordan joined the production team as co-producer alongside Hudlin. Jordan’s company, Outlier Society, will serve as one of the production studios.

-JaDarrel Belser

Posted on

I SUPPORT BLACK SUPERHEROES [Belser-Verse, Part 16]: Soul Power!

“Justice, like lightning, should ever appear to some men hope, to other men fear.”

Today’s article is going make you feel the thunder and bring a shock to your system! I’m running out of lighting puns here so I’ll get into DC’s first African-American superhero with his own series: Black Lightning!

First Appearance and Creation

The Black Bomber? Really???

This is a depiction of The Black Bomber( now named The Brown Bomber). Comics historian Don Markstein  described the character as “an insult to practically everybody with any point of view at all”.

The decision was made by DC Comics to create their first-ever headlining black superhero. The first candidate was an abomination called The Black Bomber, a racist white man who would turn into a black superhero under stress. Thankfully, the editor who had approved the Black Bomber apparently left DC before the character ever saw print.

Tony Isabella, the creator of Black Lightning. Isabella also created other black superheroes like Misty Knight and Black Goliath for Marvel.

The job of salvaging the Black Bomber character was given to writer Tony Isabella. Isabella was chosen due to his previous writing experience on the initial issues of Luke Cage, Hero For Hire at Marvel Comics. Isabella was horrified at the very concept of The Black Bomber and was given three weeks to create his own character. One of the first things Isabella did was make the character a positive role model and someone people can relate to: A school teacher. 

Right before he was about to send the story to DC, Isabella realized he hadn’t named his character yet. As fate would have it, Tony was at home, watching an episode of the CBS Wonder Woman series starring Lynda Carter. Suddenly, he saw a streak of lightning coming from the top of a building nearby. Isabella then said to himself “Aha, Black Lightning”.

Written by Tony Isabella and designed by artist Trevor Von Eeden, the character first appeared in Black Lightning #1 (April 1977).

Isabella wrote the first 10 issues of Black Lightning before handing it over to the late Denny O’Neil. However, only one issue scripted by O’Neil came out before the series was canceled in 1978 during the infamous “DC Implosion” of the late 70’s.

After the cancellation, Black Lightning made a number of guest appearances in various titles over the next few years, including World’s Finest Comics and Detective Comics.

A two-part story in Justice League of America ( then written by Denny O’Neil) had Black Lightning being offered membership in the JLA. As you can see, he declined.
In 1983, Black Lightning began regularly appearing again as a member of Batman’s spinoff superhero team, The Outsiders. When The Outsiders ended, he continued to make sporadic guest appearances in various DC titles.
In 1995, a new Black Lightning series was started with art by Eddy Newell and again written by Tony Isabella. However, Isabella was fired after the eighth issue and replaced with Australian writer Dave de Vries. The series itself was canceled  five issues after Isabella left the title.
“Black Lightning: Year One” was a six-issue limited series written by Jen Van Meter and illustrated by Cully Hamne. It was released  bi-weekly in 2009 and was nominated for two Glyph Awards in 2010.
During the launch of the New 52, a revamped version of Black Lightning appeared in DC Universe Presents that was paired with the Blue Devil.

Origin

Jefferson Pierce was born and raised in Suicide Slum (the “ghetto” of Metropolis). Suicide Slum got its name from the idea that people who lived there only escaped the slum by killing themselves. Jeff and his widowed mother lived there after his father was accidentally shot during a mob hit. An Italian tailor named Peter Gambi opened a shop beneath their apartment and helped The Pierce family through some hard financial times. Peter became a positive father figure and took care for Jeff while his mother worked. Jeff was shown to be a gifted athlete from a very young age.

At the age of 18, Jeff’s prowess allowed him to make it to the Olympic Games, gaining fame from the media due to his rise from Suicide Slum. Jeff received scholarships and endorsement offers which allowed him to go to college and receive both an English major and a teaching degree. Four years after he left for college, he again went to the Olympics and won the Gold in the decathlon.

Upon his return to Metropolis, Pierce decided it was time to make a difference and went back at his old alma mater Garfield High School as a teacher.

Jeff quickly made an impression when he kicked a drug pusher off the school premises and humiliated three members of the criminal organization known as the 100.

In retaliation for Jeff’s acts, the 100 killed Earl Clifford, one of Pierce’s students, and left the body in the school gymnasium. A distraught Pierce told the details of the incident to Peter Gambi, who urged him to fight back. To prevent further counter-attacks, it was decided a new persona would be needed to protect himself and his students.

Gambi presented Jeff with a costume that allowed him to acquire electrical-based superpowers from the suit’s technologically advanced power belt. Jeff puts it to use to clean up crime in his neighborhood as his new identity ‘ Black Lightning’.
To deflect suspicion as to his real identity, Pierce played into the era’s stereotypical depictions of black men by developing a ‘jive-talking’ speech pattern and wearing a mask/wig combo that gave him a large Afro while in costume.  Otherwise, he was just Jefferson Pierce, a well-educated school-teacher.

Over time, Pierce establishes himself as a successful superhero in Metropolis, gaining the trust of high-profile figures like Metropolis PD Inspector Bill Henderson and even Superman himself. Black Lightning’s first meeting with The Man Of Steel had him chastised by for being a vigilante. Black Lightning then asks why Superman never comes to ‘this side of town‘ where it’s clear he’s needed most. Superman has no answer. 

Black Lightning defeats several super-powered underlings of the 100 including the gang’s gigantic albino leader, Tobias Whale. Whale quickly becomes Black Lightning’s archenemy.
In recent years, stories depict Black Lightning as having “internalized” the belt’s powers as a result of a latent metagene in his DNA. In fact, Black Lightning’s origins have been further simplified by showing him as a metahuman with the natural ability to manipulate and generate electricity.

Multimedia Appearances (Animated)

Batman: The Brave and The Bold (2008-2011)


Black Lightning’s first official multimedia appearance was on the Cartoon Network series Batman: The Brave and the Bold in the episode “Enter the Outsiders!” in 2009. Voiced by actor Bumper Robinson, Black Lightning is shown to be the leader of the trio composed of him and two other young heroes Katana and Metamorpho. They work for a sewer dweller named Slug at first, but turn on him when veteran hero Wildcat convinces them to fight for good. Black Lightning is shown to be headstrong and having great contempt for society in general. However, he later uses his electricity to save Wildcat’s life with instructions from Katana when the elder falls victim to a heart attack.

Black Lightning and his comrades are later seen training with Batman as The Outsiders in the teaser of “Duel of the Double Crossers!“. Black Lightning reappeared in the episodes  “Inside the Outsiders!“, “The Siege of Starro! Part One” and “Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!” ( all as a member of The Outsiders). 

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)

Black Lightning makes an appearance in the animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Voiced by actor Levar Burton, Black Lightning is shown as a member of a metahuman task force assigned to capture The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel by President Lex Luthor.

DC Nation Shorts (2011)


Black Lightning appears in the “Thunder and Lightning” short of DC Nation Shorts.  Voiced by actor Blair Underwood, this version shows Black Lightning balancing his superhero life while being a responsible father to his two young daughters Anissa and Jennifer.

Young Justice: Invasion (2012)


Black Lightning appears in Young Justice: Invasion, voiced by Khary Payton. In “Happy New Year“, he is shown as a member of the Justice League five years later from Season One. In “Cornered“, he attempts to remove the force-field that Despero has set in the Hall of Justice. He displays pitch-black electricity when using his powers. In “Endgame“, Black Lightning and Static take down the Magnetic Field Disruptor in Dakota City. Afterwards, Black Lightning offers to be Static’s mentor.

Young Justice: Outsiders (2019)

In the third season,  an incident where Black Lightning’s powers kill a mutated 14 year old meta-human girl causes Jeff to quit the Justice League. Growing out his hair and a beard, Jeff considers quitting  being a super hero altogether until he is convinced to join Nightwing’s team. However,  he soon becomes disgusted when he finds out the secret methods Batman Inc. has been using against the Light and to boost the Outsiders’ popularity.

At the end of the season, he helps to expose Luthor’s illegal metahuman trafficking to the world and is appointed as the new leader of the Justice League. He accepts on the condition that there will be no more secrets and that the heroes will not sacrifice their principles while fighting against the Light.

Multimedia Appearances ( Live-Action)

Saturday Night Live (1992)

Black Lightning’s first live action portrayal was a comedic one. In an episode that aired during the publication of “The Death of Superman” comic book, comedian Sinbad (the show’s guest host) dressed as Black Lightning in a skit about Superman’s funeral. In the sketch, the other superheroes in attendance do not recognize him and he claims to have taught Superman how to fly. As the superheroes leave to confront the Legion of Doom, he is spotted grabbing the shrimp at the buffet table.

Facts:

The skit featured many SNL legends dressed as superheroes from both Marvel and DC including: 

  • Dana Carvey as Batman
  • Chris Rock as Robin
  • David Spade as Aquaman
  • Adam Sandler as The Flash
  • Chris Farley as The Hulk

Black Lightning (2018 to present)

“It is time that people know that Black Lightning is back.”
—Jefferson Pierce

A live-action television series based on the character debuted on The CW on January 16, 2018. The series was developed by Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil, who also executive produce along with Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. The Fox Network gave the series a “pilot production commitment” in September 2016. In January 2017, Berlanti stated the series, if ordered, would not crossover with his other DC Comics television properties on The CW nor would it exist in their established universe. The following month, Fox passed on the series after deciding it was “not a good fit into its already crowded genre drama space.”

Shortly thereafter, it was picked up by The CW with a pilot order. The pilot episode was directed by Akil.  In May 2017, The CW officially ordered the project to series.

Actor Cress Williams plays Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning

In the series, Jefferson Pierce is born and raised in Freeland (which is clearly the DC comics equivalent of Atlanta, Georgia). As a boy, he was given a vaccine which granted him electricity-based powers. Jefferson also witnessed his father Alvin getting killed by gangster Tobias Whale and his men which led to Jefferson getting taken in by Alvin’s friend Peter Gambi.

Jefferson’s powers first manifest at age twelve, when he was chased down an alley by two SWAT officers and accidentally knocked out both of the officers. Jefferson was then found by Gambi, who discovered his powers and then began raising Jefferson, while keeping Jefferson’s powers a secret from him. After this, it would be 15 years before Jefferson’s powers fully manifested.

Jefferson eventually decided to use his powers and became the vigilante superhero named “Black Lightning” (a name he didn’t particularly care for). He was aided by Gambi and fought crime for 10 years against The 100, a street gang running Freeland. However, the war with The 100 took its toll on Jefferson and his wife Lynn implored him to give it up. Jefferson decided to retire as Black Lightning to focus on his family. Jefferson Pierce becomes the principal of Garfield High School where his family has Inspector Bill Henderson as a family friend.

The battle of Black Lightning vs Tobias Whale gets the live action treatment

During the first season, Jefferson resurfaces as Black Lightning when his daughters are kidnapped by members of The 100. After talking to Henderson doesn’t help, Jefferson decides to reclaim the Black Lightning title and dons a new technologically advanced suit designed by Gambi. Jeff fights the 100, a resurfaced Tobias Whale, and A.S.A. agents led by the corrupt Martin Proctor. Meanwhile, his daughters Anissa and Jennifer start to develop their own metahuman abilities.

Black Lightning flanked by his scientist wife Lynn and his superhero daughters Thunder ( Anissa Pierce) and Lightning ( Jennifer Pierce).

In the second season, Jefferson loses his position as principal due to him not being there when the 100 attacks the school which caused a new principal named Mike Lowry to be installed. In addition, Henderson figures out that Black Lightning and Jefferson are one and the same which briefly strains their friendship until Tobias Whale kills a cop that was on his side. By the end of the season, the Pierce family is approached by A.S.A. agent Odell who voices his knowledge of their identities and wants them to help the A.S.A. when the Markovians turn Freeland into a war zone. In the third season, Jefferson has been placed in the Pit, where Tobias is also held, for 37 days where he is experimented on.

Crisis On Infinite Earths (2019-2020)

Black Lightning formally joins the CW Arrowverse in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”

In the third season mid-season finale, Jefferson is recruited by Pariah to help the heroes stop the anti-matter cannon in the CW Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Anti-Monitor erases Jefferson’s Earth but is later bought back to life after Oliver Queen’s sacrifice to reboot the universe. This includes Jefferson’s Earth being merged with the others, now called “Earth-Prime”, and Jeff himself becomes a member of a league of heroes led by Barry Allen in memory of Queen.

Facts

  • At 47 years old, Cress Williams is the second oldest actor to make his debut appearance as a superhero in a live-action production. (The oldest is Ron Perlman, who was 54 when he played the title character in Hellboy (2004)).
  • Williams previously appeared in the series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” as the villain Baron Sunday.
  • Jefferson adopts a more street-wise manner of speaking when disguised as Black Lightning. This is in keeping with the original comic books, where Black Lightning made use of 70’s era slang to disguise his identity.

Legacy

Black Lightning was ranked 85th overall on IGN’s “Top 100 Comic Books Heroes” list in 2011.  Black Lightning was a big influence on the creation of the DC/Milestone hero Static and a number of other electrical powered African American heroes.

The Black Lightning Knockoffs/ Homages

Super Friends (1973-1985)

For the sake of political correctness, the popular Saturday morning cartoon Super Friends on ABC began to display a number of racially diverse superheroes like El Dorado (a Latino), Samurai (an Asian) and Apache Chief (a Native American). As such, Black Lightning was supposed to be included on the show. However, due to a dispute between DC and Black Lightning’s creator Tony Isabella, he could not be used. So, Hanna-Barbera (the show’s producers) created a new black superhero inspired by Black Lightning, Black Vulcan!

Black Vulcan as he appeared on The Super Friends

Black Vulcan had all the same powers as Black Lightning and wore an outfit that was skin tight and had a helmet that resembled the Flash’s. Black Vulcan first appeared in The All-New Super Friends Hour cartoon series episode “The Whirlpool”.

By the way, Black Vulcan’s catchphrase was “Great Lightning!”

Like Black Lightning, Black Vulcan’s main power was his ability to emit electricity from his hands. Unlike Black Lightning at the time, Black Vulcan’s powers were internal and he exhibited powers his comic inspiration had not shown before. For instance, Black Vulcan could fly by charging his lower body with energy. On a few occasions, Black Vulcan had the ability to completely turn his whole body into a form of pure energy( this allowed him to travel at the speed of light and travel back in time).

Facts

  • Tony Isabella hates the character of Black Vulcan and considers his creation as ‘stealing‘. In fact, his last issue of Black Lightning’s original run featured a story called ‘The Other Black Lightning‘ where a villainess named Barbara Hanna ( a swipe at Hanna Barbera) creates a fraudulent Black Lightning.
  • The Cartoon Network series Justice League Unlimited featured a manufactured  group of heroes called The Ultimen (based on the 70’s racially diverse Super Friends). The character Juice is based on Black Vulcan.

  • Black Vulcan has made several appearances on Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law, voiced by Phil Lamarr.  It was revealed that his real name is Michael Jones and he used to go by the name of Supervolt before Aquaman suggested his present name Black Vulcan. A running gag on the show was whenever someone made a double entendre, Black Vulcan will often appear to utter some variation on “…in my pants.”  (Ex: He describes his power as “Pure electricity… in my pants“).
  • Black Vulcan makes a cameo in Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon along with the other Super Friends.
  • Black Vulcan makes a big screen cameo appearance in The Lego Batman Movie as a dancing partygoer at the Justice League Anniversary Party held at the Fortress of Solitude.

Static Shock (2000-2004)

The Kids WB! cartoon series Static Shock featured a character based on Black Lightning named Soul Power (voiced by the late Brock Peters) in the episode “Blast from the Past“.  Back in the 1960s, a young black man named Morris Grant gained his powers in an accident at Hoover Dam.

As Soul Power, Grant protected  the city of Dakota from criminals with “the power of ten turbines“. After a victory, Soul Power would do a ‘ Funky Chicken’-like dance for the public on scene and end it with the ‘Black Power’ fist in the air. Soul Power had a Batcave-like headquarters hidden underground called The Power Pad and drove a car called The Soulmobile.

He also had a mouthy teen sidekick named Sparky whose powers were derived from a suit he originally invented so that he can aid Soul Power in fighting crime. Morris is now an elderly man who lives in a nursing home where Static volunteers as Virgil Hawkins. Also, Static’s father Robert was Soul Power’s biggest fan as a kid. 

Young hero Static joins Soul Power and Sparky as they team up one last time to defeat Soul Power’s greatest foe Professor Menace who disappeared after a battle in 1963.

Facts

  • Soul Power’s outfit and Afro hair style both greatly resemble Black Lightning’s original look.
  • As with Black Vulcan, Soul Power was originally intended to be Black Lightning, but this was not allowed by DC, as it would require paying royalties to his creator, Tony Isabella.

-JaDarrel Belser

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DEMON’S SOULS REMAKE [Review]: No Sweat.

Dee Assassina
@assassinasan

Here I was spending all this time wondering when we will see more from Elden Ring, and then BOOM! Bluepoint comes in and satiates souls’ lovers with a Demon’s Souls Remake for the PlayStation 5. Now, I can finally conquer the one soul’s game I haven’t completed and in its best form ever! Somehow Bluepoint managed to make the least good-looking souls game, into one of the best looking…

Let’s start there! What gets me the most about Demon’s Souls Remake is the lighting. Passageways only lit with torches add to the dread ever-present in souls games. There’s always surprise traps and hidden enemies ready to chunk away at your HP, but now there’s areas with low-light that will make your hands even more sweaty. Then graphical updates freaked me out especially seeing the Dregling (undead looking creatures) have detailed faces and how much more grotesque the Giant Man Centipede or Plague Baby creatures looked. For a game that doesn’t lean into its dark and gothic setting as much as Bloodborne does, there are still many levels in this game that freaked me the hell out. This is thanks to all of the added textures, graphical updates, and superb lighting.

I’m so grateful they added a photo mode so that I can take in all of the gorgeous sceneries as I overlook a tower to see a bright red dragon and his fiery breath in the distance of Boletarian Gate, or gaze at a moon being swarmed by gargoyles in Upper Latria. Actually, I was really grateful for photo mode because it gave me the option to press pause! Something that only Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice actually implemented. This is of course, as long as I was offline or in soul form where I couldn’t be invaded by a player looking for some PVP action.

I even used the damn mode to peak over corners. Clever or Cheesy? Bluepoint also included some quality-of-life changes (aside from photo mode spam), such as allowing items that exceed your inventory load to go automatically in storage, as well as more inventory slots in your menu, the ability to warp between places without always having to go back to the Nexus, and being able to see your weapon durability.

To supplement the amazing visuals is a truly amazing sound design. I didn’t have anything fancy on like the Pulse 3D Wireless Headset for the PS5, yet my auditory senses were constantly activated with eerie sounds. This is most notable in The Prison of Hope where you hear a woman singing and a man begging for help in the distance, on top of groaning Dregling, or the chime sounds from Mind Flayer’s. Then the closer you got to the singing or begging NPC’s, the louder they became. Then when I got to the deepest depths and experienced my first Giant Man Centipede, I heard the cries of a man, a creature, a demon, and a baby all at the same time. It’s both amazing and creepy.

It’s no surprise that Souls games have some of the best enemy and boss designs in video games period, and Demon’s Souls is no different. There are badass armored skeletons, Cthulhu-looking magic users, creatures that look like they’re straight out of the Resident Evil series, a giant wad of leeches, big colorful dragons, gargoyles that look like Ryuk form Death Note, enflamed humanoid demon’s and so much more.

As cool as these creatures look, I hadn’t realized how easy this game is in comparison to the other Souls games. The game is overall shorter, enemy AI aren’t as smart, bosses are mostly push overs that can be exploited with cheesy methods, and magic is more over-powered than ever. Part of this is because at this point, I’m a seasoned souls player, and part of this is because many bosses were easily exploited. It felt as though the challenge in this game was more your strategy instead of reflexes.

What makes this game slightly more challenging than other souls games is the lack of mid-level checkpoints (bonfires), which gives less opportunity for resting, leveling up, and being closer to a boss. If you die, you need to complete the entire level over. There are still several shortcuts available and the levels are overall shorter, but there’s a lot more to go through to get to the area boss. This brings me to the level design of this game. As I think back on how this game initially released in 2009, it blows my mind how ahead of its time Demon’s Souls was in terms of level design. Part of this is the amount of relief you feel from discovering a shortcut and the rest is how each level has its own aesthetic visually and gameplay wise.

There are five worlds available at whichever order you wish, and each of these worlds contains 3 to 4 levels. Each world is distinct and the enemies in each area will have unique abilities and weaknesses, so you can’t just get away with using just one weapon or one tactic (although you’ll probably be okay with magic either way). For example, I generally used a battle axe but for The Smithing Grounds I had to switch to a Crescent Falchion because my axe was barely putting a dent, despite the battle axe being more leveled up.

You really need to pay attention to your stats to get the correct weapon scaling, exploit enemy weaknesses, and bring the correct items to get through. The cool thing about this level design is if you don’t feel ready for one area, you can just go back to it later and try another. In fact, your character may be more suited to approach certain area’s more than another person’s character depending on their starting class and character build.

I loved how in the Valley of Defilement, I descended down narrow paths and landed in a huge open lake of poison water. When I proceeded through that level toward one of the bosses, I ended up in a claustrophobic encampment littered with Depraved One’s that camouflaged with the dark green environment. This small area had many layers to fall down on and climb up, and there were many hidden nooks filled with hidden enemies ready to stab away at you.

As you descend deeper, you fall into a pool of blood and nasty babies that inflict plague to rapidly decrease your health. This is just a description of one world. Each world had their own aesthetic: The Tower of Latria is dark and creepy, with ghosts, iron maiden’s, magic users, prisons, ominous church’s, a bright moon, gargoyles, and grotesque looking creatures. The Stonefang Tunnel is a bright yellow city filled with miners, tunnels, and lava (think Goron Mountain but scary).

The Shrine of Storms is filled with armored skeletons, stormy skies, flying stingray’s, and reapers. The The Boletarian Palace is a kingdom filled with dragons, volatile soldiers, knights, bridges, and towers. The one element to this game that felt really perplexing is the world and character tendency, which is more of a criticism of the original game that From Software eventually did away with in Dark Souls (thank goodness).

It’s a whole thing where you can’t die in human form in any of the worlds if you want pure white world tendency, or you can die multiple times in human form if you want pure black world tendency. Then there’s character tendency which can turn pure white or pure black depending on how many black phantoms you kill, how many people who help in co-op, or how many times you invade, or kill invaders.

Both character tendency and world tendency impact how difficult the enemies are, how many black phantoms show up, what areas within a level you have access too, and loot drops. Both tendencies are manipulated differently and I would honestly recommend you hit up the Demon’s Souls Wiki or Fextralife if you want more information on that because it’s confusing! This was especially vexing from a completionist standpoint as I’m going for the platinum, but you might be able to get away with beating the game without having to worry about tendency too much. You may lose out on important loot, but I would imagine you’ll still be able to beat the game with minimal issues. All to say, Bluepoint needed to keep this in the game to stay loyal to the original game, but I still don’t like it.

The combat overall feels more responsive, which is reflective of how Bluepoint cleaned this game up and implementing the Dual-Sense feedback for when you block or hit. I always loved the methodical combat requiring patience, trial and error. Although, I did feel Demon’s Souls in comparison to Dark Souls felt more like a game of strategy than of good combat reflexes.

The methodical combat style of souls games can leave you feeling rewarded for slaying each and every enemy or boss you face. Yet, somehow the dual-sense feedback and sound design add a bit more satisfaction. While this style of game is not for everyone, if you’re really curious about the game and worried about the difficulty, this is a good start. There is an easy mode. It’s called over-leveling via farming, playing a magic class (which is really fun and damn the spells look good), and you can even summon people to help you for some jolly cooperation!

Demon’s Souls remake is just another example of how well Bluepoint is with remaking games. You can add this to their arsenal on top of the other remakes like Shadow of The Collosus and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. It makes me worried for the visual and performance fidelity of future From Software games like Elden Ring and how spoiled Bluepoint has made us with this new and improved souls experience. They really put heart into this game. 4.5/5 Bibles.

–Dee Assassina

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WWE SURVIVOR SERIES 2020 [Review]: One More ‘Last Ride’.

Here we go again…again.

Dave Beaudrie
@DaveBeaudrie

I’ve always enjoyed the idea of WWF/E’s Survivor Series. The original 4 or 5 man team concept was fun and they got creative in how the matches would play out, but nowadays they rely on a ton of tropes I can do without after 33 years of the damn things.

Following a stretch of Survivor Series events doing mostly away with the elimination matches, the current version finally hit its stride format-wise the last few years with two Raw vs Smackdown elimination tags and then the rest of the card Champion vs Champion on the two brands. That makes the event feel important and have stakes, even with the WWE being terrible about sticking to their own rules of the brand split, and it makes more sense at a major event like SS instead of a secondary throwaway like Battleground.

This years’ Thanksgiving Week Tradition marks yet another tribute to the Undertaker, who has had the longest retirement tour without any actual matches than anyone in any sport ever; but he’s awesome– so I’m not hating on it.

Sidenote: WWE’s Thunderdome is “award-winning” now? If Cuomo can be nominated for an Emmy for his Covid briefings, I guess anything’s possible…

Preshow: Raw vs. SmackDown Battle Royal – Every battle royal you’ve ever seen. If the booking on this thing were any lazier, 2K would turn it into a videogame. Miz gets tossed but doesn’t actually get eliminated. Comes back in at the end and eliminates Dominik Mysterio. Wow. Never seen that before. – 1/5

Men’s Team Raw vs. Men’s Team SmackDown – More paint-by-numbers storytelling — and those godammned colored t-shirts for the idiots at home — where Team Raw can’t get along, because apparantly they’re children and not trained professional athletes in a fight. I actually was enjoying this initially until Rollins tags in for SmackDown and dramatically kneels down and lets Sheamus Brogue Kick him into oblivion for…reasons?

(This is the perfect example of the writing team trying to be too cute for their own good. This is how they write Rollins off of TV so he can go home to his pregnant wife? Didn’t elevate or help anyone.)

Owens hits everyone with Stunners and immediately loses to AJ’s Phenominal Forearm in another trope in these matches. This had some good exchanges, with Otis being a standout. Ends up Jey Uso for SD against the entire Raw team. He loses to Keith Lee and Raw sweeps the match. Blah. – 2.5/5

The New Day vs. The Street Profits – I love the Street Profits when Vince isn’t writing their dialogie for atrocious backstage segments. Interesting thing with New Day is any great match they’ve had that I remember has been Kofi and Big E, while tonight we have Kofi and Xavier. Different dynamic, but all four delivered with classic tag-team storytelling that never fell into “stupid trope” territory. (See above.)

Montez Ford is a star. Great athleticism and story as Ford’s ribs were injured, so he couldn’t do an immediate pin after the frog splash and it cost him. He countered Kofi with his own Trouble in Paradise as well. Awesome. Profits win with a Doomsday Blockbuster. (Street Sweeper?) – 4/5

Bobby Lashley vs Sami Zayn – The heel vs. heel dynamic didn’t work here as Zayn did every cowardly heel trick he could to win by trying to force a Lashley DQ, but Lashley is unsympathetic and legitimately does outnumber Zayne with the Hurt Business at ringside, so who are we supposed to root for? Mostly a squash with Lashley submitting Sami, who is criminally underutilized. Zayn’s antics at least made it the best Lashley match I’ve seen. That’s something, right? – 2/5

Roman is angry at Jey Uso. THIS was the Roman we needed when he first left the Shield. Better late than never, I guess.

Asuka vs Sasha Banks – These two get three Bibles just by stepping in the ring with each other. They’re both so good that I’m immediately more invested than at any time in the show outside of several moments of Profits/New Day. They didn’t disappoint. Maybe not as “blow the doors off” awesome as their SummerSlam encounter, but still enjoyable start-to-finish with great psychology and an actual clean finish. Banks wins with a modified rollup, defeating The Empress one-on-one for the first time. Great stuff. – 4.25/5

Akira Tozowa traps the Gobbeldy Gooker to win the 24/7 title and gets flattened by R-Truth, who regains the belt. 6 Bibles. Greatest match in the history of our great sport.

Women’s Team Raw vs. Women’s Team SmackDown – God, what a mess. So Lana is supposed to be a sympathetic babyface, which she’s never done well, and her entire team hates her and don’t want her there. (Be a Star, WWE!) What little she does in the match is as awkward as a monkey fucking a football, and the much more talented women in the match have to carry her dead-weight to try to do something somewhat passable.

Bayley does a dive where everyone on the outside decides they have somewhere else to be, so she goes splat in a rough moment. She then gets pinned by… Peyton Royce? Bianca Belair and Shayna Bayzler were the big stars here to me, with some great athleticism and clever spots right up until Shayna got disqualified for being a moron.

I despise Nia Jax since she gives no shits about anyone else’s safety and when she and Lana are two of the focuses, the match gets dragged further down than what Bayzler and Belair can pull it out of. Screwy count out at the end means Lana, who has stood on the ringsteps crying for the majority of the match, is the Sole Survivor and she starts celebrating like she just body slammed Andre the Giant. And she’s the babyface? What the hell is happening? – 2/5 (3 Bibles for athleticism, 1 Bible for storytelling.)

Why is there no score tally for Raw vs Smackdown matches this year? This all lacks any sense of stakes.

Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns – I had completely forgotten these two had a match at WrestleMania 35, and that match was just kinda there. What a difference a Covid makes. Drew is one of the only legit stars that WWE has properly elevated/treated seriously in recent times and Roman is finally what he always should have been, and it’s easily the best run of his career. They could realistically main-event Mania 37 minus a hail-mary Rock/Roman match, so I’m surprised they’re doing it here since I thought Orton had briefly won the Raw belt to avoid this confrontation.

As for the match, great, great stuff. They started slow, really built things up and told a story and that’s where Roman has excelled since his return, and McIntyre kept up with him in that regard. The heavy-hitting stuff felt earned, and while WWE does kick-outs of finishers way too often, it felt justified here with these two. Screwy finish made sense in this instance with a ref bump off a Claymore Kick and Uso interfering to help Roman pull it off. They’re primed for a rematch down the road should WWE pull the trigger on it. – 4.5/5

Goodbye, Undertaker. For the Last Time. Again. The Sequel – Taker’s had more retirements than Conor McGregor. A mish-mash of people come out (with full entrances) that are all connected to Undertaker somehow. Some will seem random to casual fans (The Godwins as an example) since they were tight with Taker in real life but never had any significant on-camera interaction with him. Even Kane was there, in the only time he’ll wear a mask these days…

Another video package, but WWE is always so good at these things so I’m here for it. (WWE could release an entire Blu-Ray of all the Undertaker career retrospectives they’ve done at this point.) Ring is now empty except for Vince, who announces Undertaker. Taker has the full entrance, and WWE turned the fan videoscreens into a virtual graveyard in a really cool visual. Paul Bearer appears in hologram form in a welcome surprise. Taker says a few words and walks out. Kind of anti-climactic, but what else could they do? If it meant something to Taker and he wanted to do it, he certainly earned it.

Matches = 2.75-3/5
Entertainment = 3.5/5

Overall: 3/5 Bibles

A couple great matches and some talented performers in otherwise disappointing matches slightly elevate Survivor Series 2020, with the Taker appearance not really affecting anything, but certainly not a waste of time either. I doubt it’s the last time we see Undertaker on WWE TV again, but he’s earned as many Last Rides as they want to give him.

-Dave Beaudrie

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I SUPPORT BLACK SUPERHEROES [Belser-Verse, Part 15.1]: Boo-Yah!!

Part Man! Part Machine! All Hero! No, I’m not talking about Robocop (but it’s damn close). Today’s article is about a young wonder of science who has forged his own path to become one of the most prominent black superheroes out there right now: CYBORG!

Creation and First Appearance

The character was created by writer Mark Wolfman and artist George Pérez and first appears in a special insert in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980).

Origin

A look into the world of CYBORG!

Victor Stone is the son of scientists Silas Stone and Elinore Stone. As a young boy, his parents use Victor as a test subject for various intelligence enhancement projects. While these treatments were successful and Victor’s IQ subsequently grows to genius levels, Victor grows to resent his parents for using him as a guinea pig.

Victor strives for independence, engaging in pursuits of which his parents disapprove, such as athletics. Victor’s life is forever changed when he visits his parents’ lab while they try to access another dimensional. At that moment of his entry, a hostile gelatinous creature was accidentally pulled through and attacks them. Victor’s mother is killed by the creature and Victor himself severely injured before his father was able to send it back to its native dimension.

With his son mutilated, unconscious and near death, Silas Stone uses prototype medical prosthetic equipment to treat Victor. Victor regains consciousness after the extensive artificial limbs and implants were installed  onto his body without his consent.
Victor was horrified at the discovery of the metallic components, which involve most of the left side of his head and face. He screams that he would rather have died than be such a victim of his father’s experimentation.
He found himself rejected by the public because of his appearance. His most painful revelation came from his own girlfriend, who thoughtlessly blurted out that she would prefer he had died instead of being in his current state.
Although his bitterness remained for some time, Victor eventually calmed down enough to successfully adjust to his implants physically.

However, Victor’s heroic side came into prominence when an old friend of his, Robert Evers, tried to manipulate him into participating in a terrorist attack on the United Nations. Victor decided to equip himself with his weaponized attachments and stop Evers on the top of United Nations Headquarters.

The New Teen Titans

Victor finds a new home and a new calling with a group of young superheroes called The Teen Titans. This run of Teen Titans became DC’s best selling title of the early 80’s.
When Raven assembles the Teen Titans, Victor joins initially for the benefit of a support group of kindred spirits and freaks, and has remained with that group ever since.
In addition to the Titans, Victor eventually find acceptance and new civilian friends. In particular, he hangs with a group of kids who are adjusting to their own prosthetics. They idolize him because of his exciting adventures while being like them. It also turns out that their beautiful teacher Sarah Simms, who has often assisted Cyborg and the Titans, admires him as well.
Another person who sees past the cybernetic shell is a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist named Dr. Sarah Charles, who often  helps him with his cybernetic parts. Cyborg and Dr. Charles date for some time.
Vic has gone on to mentor the new incarnation of the Teen Titans, consisting mainly of sidekicks, most of whom have taken over the identities of former members ( like Tim Drake, the third Robin, and Bart Allen, the second Kid Flash),

The New 52

In August 2011, Cyborg is chosen as one of the main characters in a new Justice League ongoing series written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee as part of DC’s The New 52 relaunch. Johns has said of Cyborg, “He represents all of us in a lot of ways. If we have a cellphone and we’re texting on it, we are a cyborg—that’s what a cyborg is, using technology as an extension of ourselves”.

The new storyline takes place five years in the past and features Victor ” Vic” Stone appears as a high school football star who is heavily sought after by a number of college scouts, but has a distant relationship with his father, Silas. After winning a big game, Victor calls his father and angrily telling him that he broke his promise and missed yet another one of his games.

Later, Victor appears at S.T.A.R. Labs where his father and other scientists appear to be working on a Mother Box from Apokolips that Superman came in contact with. Victor has another argument with his father and tells him that many college scouts were at the game to give him full scholarships . When asking if his father will ever appear at any of his games, his father coldly replies “No.” 

After the father and son finish their argument, the Mother Box explodes and kills the other scientists. Victor’s father looks on in horror as the Mother Box destroys most of Victor’s body.

Silas, along with Dr. Sarah Charles, and T. O. Morrow go in “The Red Room“, a special room in S.T.A.R. labs which contains every piece of exotic technology from around the world. Silas attempts to treat Victor with something that has never been attempted before. Silas injects Victor with experimental nanites and has Dr. Morrow put various robotic pieces on Victor including:

  • A skin graft made of the invincible metal Promethium
  • Doctor William Magnus’ responsometer
  • Anthony Ivo’s A-maze operating system
  • Ryan Choi’s White Dwarf Stabilizer

He sees himself for the first time with his robotic parts and is panicked by his new body. Suddenly, Parademons burst into the red room and leap toward Sarah Charles.

The Parademon attack causes Victor’s defense systems to react, automatically weaponizing his arm into a sound cannon from which he fires his powerful white noise cannon, disintegrating the  Parademons.

Soon, Vic sees a woman being set upon by a group of Parademons. He leaps to the woman’s aid and Vic inadvertently absorbs some of the Parademon’s components giving him access to Boom Tube technology.

This new ability automatically teleports Victor to where Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman are fighting the Parademons, moments before Darkseid arrives. Cyborg fights alongside the other heroes against Darkseid and his Parademons

It is soon discovered that the energies from the Mother Box are incorporated into his new form. This allows Victor to access the vast New Gods data library and discover Darkseid’s true invasion plans. Vic is able to reverse engineer the alien boom tube technology and teleports all the invading aliens including Darkseid off the planet, saving the Earth. With this act, Vic helps to found the Justice League, adopting the code name Cyborg.

Multimedia Appearances

The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985)

Cyborg’s very first multimedia appearance was on the ABC cartoon The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (the final incarnation of Hanna-Barbera’s long-running Super Friends franchise).

This version of Cyborg was voiced by actor Ernie Hudson ( Winston Zeddemore from ” Ghostbusters”). Hudson has made other appearances in DC properties like ‘ Superman: The Animated Series” and the CW series ” Arrow” as John Diggle’s stepfather Roy Stewart

Cyborg’s origin on the series was told via a medical journal read by Dr. Martin Stein saying Cyborg was a promising decathlon athlete until an accident destroyed most of his body and his father replaced part of his body with machine parts. Cyborg mentors handicapped children with prosthetic limbs like in the comics and has been using his abilities in secret due to his low self image. He becomes fast friends with teammate Firestorm due to their similar age.

Cyborg as a member of The Super Powers Team on ABC

Cyborg debuts in the episode, “The Seeds of Doom“, when he stops a plot by Lex Luthor using a giant mechanical spider. Luthor is embarrassed by his defeat at the hands of ‘a teenage Tin Man‘. The victory impresses the Super Powers Team (in particular, Wonder Woman and Firestorm). Cyborg abruptly leaves and Superman explains that Cyborg has been offered membership a number of times only for him to refuse.

Cyborg’s abilities help save Earth from the monster seeds of the villain Darkseid. Superman warns that Cyborg has made a dangerous enemy in Darkseid. With encouragement from Firestorm, Cyborg finally accepts the offer and becomes a valued member of The Super Powers Team.

Smallville (2006)

Cyborg as he appeared on ‘Smallville’.

Cyborg’s first live action appearance was in the WB/CW series Smallville, which followed the life of young Clark Kent on his journey to becoming Superman.  Vic debuts in the 15th episode of the fifth season, entitled “Cyborg”.

Played by the late Lee Thompson Young, this version of Victor is a former wide receiver for the Metropolis High School football team who played against Clark Kent (who was the quarterback for Smallville High at one point). He is involved in a car accident that kills him and the rest of his family. However, scientists at a tech company called Cyntechnics began to do cybernetic experiments on humans. Vic’s body was found and is secretly rebuilt by Dr. Alistair Krieg.

Of a group of test subjects, Victor was the only one to survive the experiments. Locked up in a secret facility, Victor escapes captivity and has a full-on vehicle collision with Clark’s girlfriend Lana Lang (he is unharmed; she is injured).  Soon, Cyntechnics was bought up by Lex Luthor who wants to turn Victor into a mindless drone.

Victor’s cybernetic enhancements are entirely endoskeletal instead of exoskeletal as they are in the comics.  One shot of Clark Kent’s X-ray vision reveals that Victor’s cranial armor covers the same-shaped area as it does in the comics.

Victor never referred to by the name “Cyborg” in his first appearance. Instead, Victor refers to his enhancements as “bionic” as the episode explicitly references the 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man. The final shot of the show has Victor reuniting with his girlfriend Katherine.

Victor is shown to be a founding member of Smallville’s teenage version of The Justice League

Victor returns in the Season 6 episode “Justice”, which features Green Arrow gathering together a group of past allies who have encountered Clark Kent to combat Lex Luthor.

In this episode, Victor finally takes the name “Cyborg”, as Green Arrow’s team uses code names. Victor also explains that his mechanical parts put a strain on his relationship with Katherine. After their break up, Victor states that it was Green Arrow who kept him from committing suicide.

The episode also shows Cyborg wearing something of a costume (a stylized silver vest), and utilizing further enhancements Green Arrow gave him. One of his new functions allows him to hack into and disable security systems.
One of his new functions allows him to hack into and disable security systems. While connecting to machines, Cyborg’s left eye glows red, another nod to his comic book incarnation.
Cyborg gets mentioned by codename in the season 9 episode “Checkmate” by Amanda Waller and is last seen in the season 9 finale titled “Salvation”, reporting in to Watchtower of the battle against the Kandorians.

Teen Titans (2003- 2006)

Cyborg was one of the main characters on the Cartoon Network animated series, Teen Titans. Voiced by actor Khary Payton, this version of Cyborg is very similar to his comic book counterpart. His nickname is ‘Cy’ and, like most of his teammates, he is never referred to by his given name. However, he does take the alias ‘Stone’ (based on his real last name) in the Season 3 episode “Deception”. 

The two main differences are his design and that he is more easygoing than his comics counterpart. His head is considerably more rounded and bald (based on his Titans Hunt counterpart), and his mechanical parts are bulkier. His primary weapon is a sonic cannon housed in his forearm; initially he uses only his right arm to fire, but later episodes reveal that his left arm has an identical cannon built into it as well.

Cyborg is the Titans’ chief technician and gadgeteer. He is responsible for the construction of Titans Tower’s electronic and security systems and the team’s main vehicles. His most dominant personality faults featured in the series are his enormous appetite and a tendency to be overly vain about his work.

On occasion, Cyborg acts as the team’s second-in-command, but he tends to butt heads with Robin on rather trivial matters. He also is best friends with Beast Boy.

In “Deception” it is revealed that he never had a chance to finish high school due to the circumstances that made him what he is. The only time Cyborg’s personal history has been discussed is in “Deception” in which he discusses his involuntary cyborg status with Starfire.

NOTE: This series establishes Cyborg’s catchphrase ‘ Boo-Yah’, a phrase made popular by the late Stuart Scott on ESPN SportsCenter. Every subsequent multimedia version of Cyborg  has used the catchphrase including Ray Fisher in Justice League.

-JaDarrel Belser

Stay tuned for the second half of Cyborg’s legacy next week!