Uncollected Editions: Cyborg Vol. 4 (DC Comics)

DC Comics solicited Cyborg Vol. 4, the fourth volume of the Rebirth series, in their Fall 2018 catalog listings, though the book never saw print. It was said to collect issues #21–26 by “new” series writer Marv Wolfman, following John Semper after a couple issues by Kevin Grevioux. DC published issues #21–23, but then, in what’s a relatively uncommon move, they canceled the book mid-storyline and never released issues #24–26.

That kind of thing hasn’t happened much lately that I can recall. There were a few books that never saw collections of their final issues around Flashpoint in the run up to the New 52 era; also some books at the end of the New 52/DC You era were cut short, but then we saw their unpublished issues released in digital or in the trade only.¹ That Cyborg series' demise came shortly after Dark Nights: Metal — so not on the cusp of a big “sweep everything old under the rug” continuity reboot, though I do think it was a time DC was giving struggling series less margin; among the short-lived “New Age of Heroes” books, not too long after, Damage also had a few final issues never collected.

In realizing there were some Cyborg issues out there that had been solicited for collection but never released, I did some searching online and found mostly panned reviews for the “Steel & Blood” storyline. It is no great shakes, among a series already laboring to find its footing with its previous writers, but also not nearly as troubled as I feared. Wolfman sets up a complicated mystery (for better or worse) and I’d have been interested to see the resolution not in the least just to know what was actually going on.

[Review contains spoilers]

Rather unceremoniously, we join Cyborg Vic Stone in Hawaii, where he’s helping a branch of STAR Labs get to the bottom of “pulse anomalies” and rumors of giant robots. There’s no small amount of deference being paid to mecha anime, and good for Wolfman on a cute concept — later, when Cyborg inevitably goes to pilot a giant robot, the comment is made that why would the robotic Cyborg want to pilot a robot, and his given answer, essentially that giant robots are cool no matter who you are, is spot on.

[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]

I appreciated that Wolfman set up a mystery here, and one with a lot of players. Cyborg is working for STAR, but then there’s a rival group of offshoot STAR scientists and then a seemingly samurai-themed villain, all of whom have their own cadre of robots. That the players aren’t known to one another adds to the intrigue; from our and Cyborg’s perspective, it’s only revealed gradually that there are two parties out there against STAR and not just one, and indeed I’m unsure if there’s not still another group involved.

I can see how what appears a complicated plot might be off-putting, and I think some of the knock against “Steel & Blood” is that, with the rival parties, the story is plain confusing. To my eye, and noting that we only ultimately get three of six parts, some of that seems intentional on Wolfman’s part. There’s a six-panel sequence in issue #22, done as if it’s one continual scene, but the top three panels close out on the villain in shadow, and the bottom three panels open on a shadowed figure, though this is an apparent “good” scientist helping Cyborg. Later, there’s some question whether Vic’s father Silas is involved in all of this, with Cyborg perhaps hallucinating Silas' presence; that is to say, some of “Steel”’s cloudiness may be Wolfman playing with perspective to invoke a sense of paranoia.

Which, absolutely, is not to say “Steel & Blood” doesn’t have its troubles. That many times rival parties are speaking in “intercom” word balloons — but to their own teams and not to each other — very much muddles especially the opening scene. Wolfman has Cyborg saying “hell” three times in two pages (I’m bothered by the repetitious dialogue, not the profanity). For needs of the plot, Wolfman often has Cyborg overreact to situations by fighting or running away rather than asking logical questions. Also, similar to a difficulty Grevioux has in Cyborg Vol. 3: Singularity, Wolfman has Cyborg and Silas at odds, when Semper just penned their reconciliation; likely Wolfman didn’t have that information, but it still speaks to a depiction of Cyborg frozen in repetitive tropes.

I did appreciate a sequence in “Steel & Blood”’s second chapter where, as mentioned above, it seems Marv Wolfman has Cyborg fawning over the robots, but it’s a trick to suss out information about the scientists. It’s clever, and a nice instance of Vic using his smarts as written by the character’s creator. Artist Tom Derenick does some nice work in character close-ups that were unexpectedly polished.

A satisfactory couple issues but you’re not missing anything. Cyborg would next be seen in Justice League Odyssey.

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1. For further reading, see Trade Perspectives: Green Team, Teen Trillionaires and the Argument for Digital Trades.  ↩︎