Cyborg #22 Review

Systems Failing


Written by: Marv Wolfman
Art by: Tom Derenick, Wil Quintana, Pete Pantazis, and Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 2, 2018

“My name is Nijiro Jin, born of flesh and blood, but now encased in steel. I have become N-Jin, who seeks to discard the final traces of frail humanity to become Mekkan-X, the Man-God who will soon wield the power infinite.  All that stands in my way is the construct they call Cyborg. It is for that reason alone that he must regretfully die.”

Introducing Mekkan-X, born in the waning days of the 19th century, who has targeted for destruction not only the Robo Dojo school of giant robot makers, but Vic Stone as well.

We open up this month's issue of Cyborg with a flashback to 1879 Japan where a father is giving his son the gift of...an arm.  Yep, the son is no longer a one-armed bandit, but why are both of them floating in the air?!?  History sure is crazy!

In the present, the good guys (seriously, these guys are so generic, it's tough to remember the good and or bad) have Cyborg restrained, but when they tamper with his Mother Box, he springs back into action.  After they get him back under control, we go off to see the bad guys who have no idea where Cyborg has been taken.

Okay, we are only a few pages in and we have a bunch of nonsense dialogue, some awful transitions between scenes and one reviewer who has no clue why he agreed to take this book off of Eric's hands!

Back with Cyborg, Dr. Bode Levine greets Cyborg as he wakes up and tries to get him up to speed with what is going on.  I wish he could fill me in as well, but I love the dialogue here.  I know that Wolfman created Cyborg just to have him say, "I already know that.  Answer me something I don't." Pure Cyborg right there!

After Vic acts like a total jerk to the people who saved him, we find out who the people are Starlite Original and they make giant robots.  Then we get a little too much explanation of why Starlite isn't like STAR Labs and get to see their handiwork.  After Cyborg acts like a total jerk again, he wants to pilot a giant robo because he was a fan of Go!zinga as a kid.  And...he's in the pilot's seat.

We get some inner monologue showing us that Cyborg doesn't really trust Starlite and then...Robo Battle!  While the fight is going on, Vic gets a call from his dad for a dinner date and figures out these guys are the good guys.

We then see the bad guy for a couple of panels, hear the nonsense way that Starlite began, see that they may not be as good as we think, get a bit of Silas Stone being nefarious and end by seeing what the bad guy is really into.

Well, this was interesting.  I wish I loved the idea that the creator of Cyborg is back on the character, but it feels like he is returning without a story to tell.  We are two issues in and I have no idea what is going on and worse, I'm already too bored to find out.  Tom Derenick's art is good, but it's wasted in a story that is more content to throw more questions at the reader than answer any of them.  This book seemed like it was canceled a couple months ago and after this, I really think it should have been.

Bits and Pieces:

Marv Wolfman is back writing Cyborg, but I'd rather see DC put some effort into finding ANYONE with a fresh take on the character or just shut him down until they do.  The art in this issue is good, but not much else is.  I suggest passing on this and hopefully, Cyborg fans will get their fill in the Justice League books.

4.0/10