Cyborg #2 – Morgan Hampton, Writer; Tom Raney, Artist; Michael Atiyeh, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Last issue set us off to an interesting start, with Cyborg returning to Detroit and confronting a skeptical public—only to find out that his father just died and deciding to stick around. But Silas Stone may not be as gone as all that—he showed up at the end of the issue in a robot body. Father and Son aren’t exactly having a great reunion, but they work together long enough to figure out that the body came from Solace, the powerful tech corporation that Silas was working with and which is run by Victor’s ex-friend Markus. We only get some vague hints of what Solace is capable of, but it’s a nice creepy extension of what we’re dealing with thanks to social media—an algorithm that takes charge of your life, telling you what to do in every area of your day. It doesn’t take long for Victor to get a bad vibe off the place and head out—with Silas now sharing his brainwaves and becoming his very critical backup in the field.
This is a fun dynamic—imagine if your estranged parent was literally sharing your mind?—and it gives us a much better look at the complex dynamic the two members of the Stone family had. A battle with a pair of C-list supervillains raiding the old Justice League Detroit headquarters shows how difficult it will be for the two to work together, but there are bigger problems—namely, what Solace has planned for Detroit. Overall, this series is off to a really strong start. Hampton doesn’t shy away from some of the edgier dynamics of the relationship and has a good angle for Detroit that sets it apart from other DC cities. The character of the vlogger who mostly seems to exist to rip on Cyborg and his father is probably the weakest part of the series, having only one real note, but overall this book is a breath of fresh air. It’s so much different from any other past Cyborg books, which only seemed to focus on the machine and not the man.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
