Adnan

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Cyborg's potential in the DCU

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So, Cyborg is in the Justice League now. Lots of people know him from the Teen Titans animated series, though not enough people care about him for a redesign/repositioning for him to cause any real fanrage. I'd like to discuss some of his potential, not only as a JL member, but as a standalone character as well.

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Is it just me, or does he look a lot cooler in Justice League: Doom than he does in the DCnU?
Is it just me, or does he look a lot cooler in Justice League: Doom than he does in the DCnU?

He is most well-known for his iconic Mega Buster Sonic Cannon, though he has other abilities too. Lasers, grappling hooks, shockers, a bunch of techie weapons. In some appearances he can even detach his arm, and control it's actions from a distance. He seems to be a decent enough H2H fighter too, as shown here, here, and here, where he beats down both Ravager and Kid Devil with relative ease. Lots of people are saying he'll just be the tech/computer guy, yet I feel like DC is trying to portray him as a 'frontline fighter', as seen in Justice League Dark #1, where he appeared alongside Superman and Wonder Woman to fight off an unidentified threat. Anyone who has seen the JL covers will know that he looks like a freaking tank at the moment, at the very least he looks like some who could take a hit and give one back. No doubt he will be a techie character though, atleast to some extent. I'm sure there'll be tons of hacking sub-plots and the like that Cyborg will be utilised in. People are saying he'll be JL's Iron Man, which makes sense I suppose. In my opinion, he shouldn't be portrayed as someone with gadgets, but someone with near full-on cyberpathy, something which I think hasn't really been seen in the JL before. One possible danger with this is that writers might simply use him as a high-tech swiss army knife, inventing whatever ability would be useful in the current scenario as an 'easy way out'.

Role as a Justice League member:

The dialogue is a little strange, but this appearance is still worth noting
The dialogue is a little strange, but this appearance is still worth noting

Some people are saying that Batman is a sufficient enough techguy for the JL, and Cyborg can't really bring much to the team. There is a bit of role-clashing there, though I think this'd be a great chance for Batman to become a more focused detective archtype - this very aspect seems to be what many of his fans seem to love the most about him. They could both fill the roles of the tech expert when needed, though I feel Cyborg will be taking on a lot of it for now. Also, I'm biased here, in that I'd like it if Batman wasn't everywhere all the time, as he seems to be these days. I've already stated how I think Cyborg could ending up alongside the likes of Supes and WW, and I think Cyborg could fill a unique niche as someone who could manipulate/take advantage of technology found out on the battlefield. There are a lot of possibilities with that, enough to defend his spot on the JL at the very least.

Strength as a standalone character:

Cyborgirl is perhaps one villain...that is better left forgotten
Cyborgirl is perhaps one villain...that is better left forgotten

Understandably, he doesn't have an ongoing of his own, though I'm surprised he doesn't have a mini yet. He's had a fair number of appearances in comics, though a lot seem to be just background roles. One potentially interesting plot element is...his face. He pretty much can't have a secret/cover-up identity like the other JL members can, can he? I mean, put Aquaman and WW in some normal clothing and you wouldn't even know they are heroes. Martian Manhunter had shape-shifting abilities too. So does that mean he is publicly 'on duty' 24/7? It's a notable distinction from everyone else, at the very least. He doesn't have much of supporting cast, outside of Element Woman, who was confirmed to be appearing in JL eventually. She seems like a fun character in her own right, hopefully they'll retain some semblance of the interactions they had in Flashpoint. Regarding his rogue gallery...well, outside Teen Titan enemies, I found two groups, the Phantom Limbs and the Cyborg Revenge Squad, though they seem quite boring. If they want to capitalize on the fans of the animated series, they should bring in some of the villains from that (perhaps this'd be a good time to bring back Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and the rest of the old Legion of Doom?) In the DCnU he is based in Detroit, the only notable DC character I can think of that's currently there too is Firestorm (I think), so they could easily think up a bunch of new villains for him, if they wanted to.

I think that if DC wants fans to accept Cyborg as a convincing and deserving member of the JL, he'll need some work put into him first. He is a well-known character with enough potential for some fun stories, so seeing how he turns out in the DCnU will definitely be interesting.

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DC Beyond Imprint - Should it/Shouldn't it happen?

Perhaps not anytime soon, due to all the titles we're getting this year from September onwards, but eventually? Marvel has their standard line and 'Ultimate' line, and DC could do something similar with this. The reason I want this to happen isn't really anything Marvel-related though.
 
A user called Amegashita posted a rather insightful blog post regarding children in comics a while back ( check it out if you haven't already), and it got me thinking. This
Flashpoint
Flashpoint
relaunch doesn't seem to be intending to change too much. Yes, some characters will have different roles than before, and there'll be new characters, but I think what it's actually doing is removing a lot of the fluff surrounding characters, to enable us to, atleast to an extent, 'discover' those characters again. But my problem with this is that it's sacrificing some of character-building that was done in recent years - specifically regarding the change of roles that was beginning to happen. Dick Grayson became (Gotham's) Batman, Kyle Rayner was slowly but surely becoming *the* GL in the eyes of fans (despite Geoff Johns supposed efforts to prevent this), Aqualad becoming a surprise hit (well, the Aquaman stuff in general, but him in particular) among fans during Brightest Day heck, I'm sure this was scripted a while back - Lex Luthor meets his demise in Action Comics #900 (and he got one hell of a send off) The DCU was entering a phase the people like Bruce Wayne, Superman, etc could being moving into JSA-like roles, and the younger characters becoming the 'big heroes'. Instead, the DCU is getting shaken up and being made unfamiliar, but the younger characters have seemingly been further cemented in their current roles. That's where Beyond could come in.
 
 Terry & The Justice League
 Terry & The Justice League
Beyond could sorta act as the opposite to this, where the story takes place in the future, where the DCU has changed, along with the characters that inhabit it. Batman Beyond getting an ongoing opened up a huge door of possibilities, and I'm sure DC is aware of it, because they're also planning two more titles, Superman Beyond and Justice League Beyond. I think that they should go the 'Ultimate Universe' route, and release an entire line of Beyond titles. Other than the three titles already mentioned, who could get a Beyond title?
 
Aquaman Beyond? They could make the current Aqualad this time period's Aquaman (lol Blaquaman) They could play on this by having sections of the Atlantean higher-ups against him, since he's not a 'true atlantean' in the first place. Also, Aquaman is supposedly in at the moment.   
Static Beyond? I'm sure some of you remember that Static/Batman Beyond crossover, where it was revealed Static in the Beyond time period was a world-renouned superhero, and very powerful in his own right. Deserving of a one-shot atleast, right? 
Green Lantern Beyond? This would have to happen really, considering how huge GL is. Remember
 Superman Beyond
 Superman Beyond
Kai-Ro, the GL from Beyond's Justice League? The different corps aren't as touched upon in DCAU outside the GL toons, it'd be interesting to see how it's all changed over the course of 30 years.    

Something else that'd make it very exciting if it happened, is to see how much of the Earth-0's continuity they'd implement. Did Batman Inc. exist? Did Damian Wayne exist? If so, what happened to them? Do you agree/disagree? Please feel free to discuss.

P.S. I'm going abroad for about 60 days later today. This will be one of my last posts here for a while.
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