Can Cyborg be salvaged?

With all the complains about the comics being PC and changing original characters, no one is willing to support original Black characters like Cyborg. He's part of the Justice League, regularly appear in crossover and promoted in different mediums including Teen Titans, Injustice, etc. With all the pushing, you think he would be more popular, but he's the worst selling Justice member title out there and the bottom of the barrel out of all the mainstream DC comics with only 12k sales. It's not like DC didn't try, comics with 12k sales wouldn't have made it pass 12 issues but DC still keeps the title running. Should DC cut their losses and focus on another Black character and promote him instead?

• Make him a clearer escapist character. Superheroes are wish fulfillment, Cyborg is a guy who is constantly mopping about his situation, which can work but it isn't balanced enough to do so. He should generally enjoy his status as a superhero.
• Give him his DCYou design back. It was the best the character ever had.
• Give him his connection with the Titans back. Former Titan who is now a JL member has more potential than simply pretending he is in any way as important as Green Lantern or Flash, let alone the Trinity.
• Explore his connection with the New Gods and the rest of the Fourth World. Barely anything has been done with that since it was introduced in the New 52.
• Lay off the technology-focused stories for a while. Yes, they seem obvious for the character, but by now it's the only thing he's ever done. Give him something else.
• He's basically a handicapped man with a prothesis, except super. Do something with that that isn't mopping.
• Surely a great racially charged story could be done, but I wonder if anyone in DC (besides Priest, who doesn't want to write more black characters) is capable of doing it tastefully.

I think he could.

Agree with everything you said, but for this one in particular there is great potential. Cyborg the Barbarian was a pretty memorable episode of Teen Titans, so maybe they could do something like that. It doesn't have to be the same thing and if he's going to be an active JL member then I understand not sending him back in time, but wouldn't it be cool to make Cyborg a modern knight after getting caught up in a story where he has to battle knights, demons, and maybe a dragon? Maybe have Etrigan be a temporary foe who taunts Cyborg with the possibility that he might not have a soul. Honestly I think the image of Cyborg with a sword and a bit of armor would be enough to make people at least want to know what's happening with him.

I think it would be pretty difficult, if not impossible, to bring Cyborg up from those abysmal sales numbers to something respectable. I read like the first 6 issues or so of his book and it was pretty unremarkable. In fact, for the last 6 years, Cyborg has been pretty unremarkable in general. DC shoved him into the JL, but didn't really do anything interesting with him. I would probably say that he has actually decreased in popularity since they put him in the JL.

I don't think it is possible to salvage his solo book right now. They should can the book and stick him back in the Titans. Build him up in that book over the next few years with some good characterization and development and then maybe try again when there is some interest in the character.

As for what black character DC should focus on. I don't know if that is the best way of going about things; just picking out a character to be the token black guy. But, if I had to pick one, I would say John Stewart. JL's current two GLs are losers who no one cares about, so it could use a proper GL. As well, John is well remembered from the JL cartoon.

You want John Stewart to replace Hal Jordan as the permanent GL member in Justice League and solo book or do something like Marvel and promote 2 different versions of the same GL?

Focus on another black character for the JL. Cyborg or what I like to call him Cyboring has been bland since the start of the new 52. He has no cosplay potential, which shows favoritism to a character, and they keep him in the same status quo every relaunch. His DCYOU costume was also awesome but nope they changed it. I'll just get rid of him tbh or throw him back with the titans. Or just give him his Teen Titans personality.

So you think people didn't read Cyborg is because of his personality? If he becomes more care-free, people would relate to him more?

I don't get what you mean showing favoritism to a character by not being able to cosplay as him.

As for the status quo, would it be better to have him maining an event or gain some kind of power up to keep up with the Justice League or something?

Some of these things have been tried on by Captain Marvel, they have Carol main a big event, promote her heavily in crossover, increase her tier power, and even give her a new origin, but it still didn't stick with the audience.

Anyway, who should they focus on for the Justice League? Having John Steward as the main Green Lantern? Creating an original Black character (None of the new characters have ever reach an A-lister status)?

@poeticwarrior: Get rid of Simon and Jessica (or make them side characters in a GL corps book) and make John the resident GL of the JL. I can't really speak for the GL books as I haven't really been interested in them since Johns' tenure ended, but I do want a Lethal Weapon-esk buddy cop book with John and Guy.

Make him a trangender lesbian woman who is Jewish and a liberal.

Comic fans don't care much for black characters, at least enough to buy anything staring them. Just write him better in the team book, beyond that, there's not much you can do about it.

@tvc-15: Like how no body cares about Blade , luke cage , Black Panther , storm , static shock , spawn or Falcon ?

lol, every character you've name has been doing cancellation numbers, or solo couldn't/can't even get past 20 issues(excluding Spawn). Like, when was the last time we've even SEEN Static Shock? Face it, with comics costing as much as they do, a black characters only chance to flourish is in a team book, with better known white characters. Maybe in the days of 75 cents - 1 Dollar could Black characters had a chance, but nowadays good or bad, only well known white character truly sales.

@poeticwarrior: Before I gave up comics because of the new trend I did pick up Cyborg but it just wasn't that good. I love supporting other characters but should I keep buying a book that isn't being written in a way that i find interesting just to do that?

While I do like some things like it being centered at Star Labs and working with his father. THere were other thing I didn't like the villains just didn't interest me and it felt they weren't building a universe.

Also Justice League Cyborg seems like a different character than the one I like which is Teen Titans Cyborg. It seems to me they're trying so hard to make him important and on JL level that it's shrunk his importance to me. Sometimes less is more. I don't need or want Cyborg to be on JL level just like I don't need or want Nightwing to be on Batman's level. Truth be told I don't want that for Batgod himself.

So ya we're willing to support books just not ones we think aren't good. It can be turned around but it takes a change and enough attention that a change was made.

Something that is harder to do once the book is already rolling out then it is when it starts new.

@tvc-15: panther has had multiple runs of 40+ in the last 20 years and Falcons current series is close to 25 issues right now and only Blade has had an ongoing and was supposed to get another before the writer left for DC storm hasn't and Luke Cage has been on team books because of his family lately

Cyborg is a Titan, not a JLAer. He will never feel right as a member of the Justice League, no matter how much DC forces him on us.

Bring back MMH!

Also Static isn't being used because DC has to share profits with Milestone which they don't want to do.

They don't even do that with Wildstorm characters and only sometimes get an exception because Jim Lee.

Edit: The truth is it's not because the characters are black and people don't care. It's mostly because non big named characters have a harder time than others. Though it can happen. Keep at it and something might just click. Just look at what happened for Harley Quin. THough I'd argue she's less of a quality character than she was before the popularity.

@kgb725:

Falcons current series is close to 25 issues

and it sales less then half of Steve's (18k) and dwindling every mouth.

Luke Cage

Already at 17k at issue 2

I don't think the minorities could overtake already established White characters, but the issue with Cyborg is that he falls way behind all the other minority characters despite the big promotion DC has for him. He's the lowest anything mainstream DC heroes, way behind people like RiRi (33-35k), Hulk (20-30k), Ms. Marvel (17k-20K). His books are consistently at the bottom and cancellation level despite heavy promotion. No one said he could sell 100k comic like Batman, but mid range like Aquaman (25k) would probably suffice.

@tvc-15: You said none of them have supported a series for more than 20 issues I proved you wrong. And the fact falcon is even supporting a 20 issue run is proof anything is possible

Reading his runs & the things he's in Cyborg is really just a vastly uninteresting character. It really seems like when someone is writing for Cyborg they're doing it more as a chore than actually doing anything interesting with him. I get his inner struggle, but no one wants to see a character moping all the time. Even Batman gets criticized for that.

He's not even progressing as a character in any way, heck at least back in like the 80's he was more of an interesting tragic character. Wanting to be human but as they went he got more & more robotic. Here's Cyborg is just most a robot. Sort of whines about it? But like its boring, less like his humanity is at stake & more like someone knocked over his coffee cup.

If DC really wants to push Cyborg they are going to have to get more energetic writers who might actually want to write him rather than treating it like a punishment & hope the grapevine works. The company can only do so much, like I read Spawn (still) and I think its fantastic as do many other who haven't totally given up on him, but Image isn't going to get people to read him on their own no matter how good he is.

I think Cyborg has a potential especially with any reader who seen the cartoon, but he needs to be treated less like an Oh Yeah he's here too character and more like a Heck Yeah This is in this character by the writers. Until then, odds are he'll stay as small as he is. Either make his tragedy compelling or, give him a better outlook & some conflict.

Rather than pushing him as a solo character, they should feature him in both Justice League and Teen Titans simultaneously.

It would be interesting to see him as the kid on one team and the big brother figure on the other, not to mention the whole team vs family opposing dynamics of the two groups. And if there's a conflict in the future, who does he support?

No. He sucks.

@poeticwarrior: Yeah, his recent personality is putting people off. He doesn't have any flair or dedication like his cartoon counterpart had. In every issue he appears in its juse him spouting out words without any substance.

What I meant about the cosplay part is that, everyother character on the JL has been cosplayed to death and no one wants to cosplay Cycborg. This is obvious because he has complicated design for no reason and people rather cosplay characters they favor.

A good status quo would've been to make him be on the team with the Metal Men like he did in Forever Evil but that was long past. Currently he needs to go back to a team focused character. An event won't help him. I guess they could've did something with him in Darkseid War with him being a mother box and all.

I would rather they have used Vixen or Black Lightning instead of Cyborg. Both characters interest me more and have way better chance to carry a solo title than Cyborg.

If DC wants Cyborg to work they need a Grant Morrison or Morrison himself to write Cyborg.

Dc needs to push cyborg like they mean it give him a rogues gallery or flesh him out. he still feels like a token minority since they made him a justice league founder

No hes a horrible character.

Isn't Grid kinda his rival? Yeah, I notice that other Justice League have a rogue gallery but not Cyborg. Flash has people like Reverse Flash, Captain Cold, and traffic cops, Superman has Lex Luthor, Lobo, and Immigration agents, Wonder Woman has Ares and Cheetah. Cyborg needs more stand out enemies to build off rivalry. His personally needs an upgrade since it's kinda robotic atm.

Make him a villain

What does that have to do with anything?

Oh, yeah. That was basically what I was inferring.

There are other successful minority comic out there. Not blockbuster like selling in the hundreds of thousands but respectable numbers like in the 20-40k racket. If the issue is no one wants to read a non-white comics then why are the other comics more successful compared to Cyborg?

I think it would be pretty difficult, if not impossible, to bring Cyborg up from those abysmal sales numbers to something respectable. I read like the first 6 issues or so of his book and it was pretty unremarkable. In fact, for the last 6 years, Cyborg has been pretty unremarkable in general. DC shoved him into the JL, but didn't really do anything interesting with him. I would probably say that he has actually decreased in popularity since they put him in the JL.

Maybe he needs a focused story like Flashpoint which set him at the center of the conflict.

I can see that, it'd have to very well written of course.