The Flash has always been DC’s number one instrument of change. He introduced half the cast of the Justice Society in Flash Comics #1, kick-started the Silver Age, popularized the multiverse, ran fast enough to cause the New 52, etc etc. The point being, the Flash has always been racing towards DC’s future, but he’s rarely run alone. Wally West especially has always had friends who helped him grow into the beloved hero he is today, and the vast majority of those friends came from his time on the Teen Titans. One just hero and friend is the legendary Cyborg, who made his comic book debut in DC Comics Presents #26, with a cover date of October 1980.
Absolute Flash has a brand-new version of Wally, more alone than ever, racing through a much darker world as he tries to find his place in it. That search kicked into high gear last issue as he battled Hunter Zolomon and met none other than the Atom. The book shows no sign of slowing down, either, as issue #20 has given us our first look at the Absolute version of Cyborg. This Vic might just be the wildest version yet, however, as something else is living in his head, and there might not be any man left in this man-machine combo.
We got our first tease of Cyborg in issue #15 when Wally and Linda looked into the history of Star Labs. All of its founders, which included Mirror Master, Barry Allen, the aforementioned Atom, and Silas Stone, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Silas’s lab looked like it was raided by some very powerful government officials to boot. We’re getting bits and pieces of what went down, and our biggest clue came after the Atom scooped Wally, Linda, and Grodd into his escape vehicle. He let Linda wander while Wally recovered, but warned her not to venture into the bottom layers.
Naturally, Grodd immediately ran for the elevator, saying he sensed something that shouldn’t be there. Among the wreckage of a destroyed robot and hallway, they found Victor Stone trapped in a cage. He begged for Linda to let him out, but also seemed possessed by something technological inside of him and unable to control his anger, with Ray warning Linda to never let him out as the issue ended. This Vic is already a major departure from the norm, as he appears to have the power to shift between a normal appearance and his Cyborg form, with the technological bits living inside of him, potentially as nanobots. Of course, the biggest concern is that this might not be Vic at all, but a machine posing as him.
The biggest piece of evidence for this, besides his obvious anger issues, is that Grodd called Victor an it, not a person. In the past, even with monstrously transformed people like Heatwave in issue #5, Grodd saw the humanity in people’s minds. Here, he directly says that Victor isn’t a person, possibly pointing to the idea that Vic has been totally replaced by the technology that now resides inside of him, and it’s posing as the man who should go on to be one of DC’s greatest heroes.
The biggest question here is whether the Cyborg we see here is the Cyborg we all know and love, and there’s evidence for both sides. Obviously, Vic is dangerous, or he wouldn’t be locked in a cell in the microverse, and Grodd did say there was something there, not someone. However, it’s also possible that Grodd was confused by all the technology inside of Vic’s head and thus couldn’t read him as fully human, which we know for sure he isn’t. Besides, Ray may have saved Team Flash, but his intentions are certainly in question. He seems to be a man who cares about results and science above all else, so even though he sees Silas as a brother, he might have seen an opportunity when Vic was transformed into Cyborg.
At the end of the day, I fully lean towards the idea that Vic is still in there, but is battling against a new technological part of himself that he has no idea how to control. In many ways, his transformation mirrors Wally’s, who struggled to ground himself in the present after getting his powers. Wally will likely choose to free Cyborg and stand by his side, likely leading to some kind of fight against the Atom, and helping Vic to control and accept his new reality as something not entirely human or machine. These two, after all, are made to be friends in every reality. The Absolute Universe might be darker than what these characters are used to, but they are the same heroes at their core, so I see Cyborg firmly staying a hero and working with the Flash, just as soon as he gets out of this cage.
What do you think of Cyborg and this strange new take on the character? Let us know in the comments below!
Absolute Flash #20 is on sale now!
