Why Cyborg Is In The Doom Patrol Show (But Not The Comics)

There are several reasons why Cyborg was added to the roster of the upcoming Doom Patrol show on DC Universe. The announcement that Victor Stone would be numbered among the World’s Strangest Heroes confused many fans who knew the half-machine hero best from his appearances in various Teen Titans animated series and the live-action Justice League movie. Yet there is method to this madness and good cause for the new series defying convention and comic book continuity to place Cyborg in the Doom Patrol.

Created by artist George Perez and writer Marv Wolfman for their legendary run on New Teen Titans, Cyborg was originally a child prodigy named Victor Stone. The child of two scientists, who used him as a test subject for various intelligence enhancement treatments, Victor would grow to resent his parents’ efforts to micromanage every aspect of his life and rebelled by excelling in athletics, becoming a star athlete. Victor’s life was forever changed when an accident at his parents’ lab left his mother dead and Victor himself severely injured. With no time to spare, Victor’s father elected to use a series of prototype medical prosthetics to replace the parts of Victor’s body that were mangled or destroyed by the accident. This left Victor feeling alienated and angry, until he found a new life using the powers granted by his implants to help others as a member of the Titans.

Related: All 53 People Batman Kills in the Titans Finale

While Victor Stone was never a part of the Doom Patrol in any comic book series, he would be a perfect fit for the team thematically. Every member of the classic Doom Patrol had their life endangered by a horrible accident and was saved only by an experimental treatment conceived by Dr. Niles Caulder. It could be argued, however, that death would have been preferable to Dr. Caulder’s cures, which left his patients as something both more and less than human and often wishing that they had been allowed to die. This was the exact same state that young Victor Stone was in immediately following his father’s efforts to save his life.

Though Cyborg was created nearly two decades after the first Doom Patrol comics were published, his origin story fit the same tragic mold as Elasti-Woman and Negative Man. The body horror parallels are particularly strong between Cyborg and Robotman, whose brain was transplanted into a super-strong and almost unbreakable robot body that was also incapable of smelling, tasting or any fine sense of touch. Given that, it is surprising that a connection between Cyborg and the Doom Patrol has never been established before now. This seems particularly strange given that Cyborg’s closest friend in the comics, Beast Boy, was a member of the Doom Patrol before he joined the New Teen Titans.

Beyond the thematic connections, Cyborg’s induction into the Doom Patrol will also serve to attract casual comics fans to the new series and offer them an accessible frame of reference. While Doom Patrol is one of DC Comics’ more persistent properties, it is also one of its weirdest, even ignoring characters such as Crazy Jane and Danny The Street. Viewers who might not give Doom Patrol a second glance due to their unfamiliarity with the source material might be attracted to it based on their recognition of Cyborg from other DC Comics’ productions.

It remains to be seen how closely Victor Stone’s background in the new DC Universe series will stick to the comics and if Dr. Niles Caulder will have a role in saving his life. It is also unclear if the new series will be based more on the original Wolfman/Perez origin for Cyborg or if it will draw upon the 2011 reboot in the Justice League comics, where Victor’s implants were created by the technology of the New Gods (an idea used in Justice League). Whatever his ultimate origins, it cannot be denied that a bold choice has been made in teaming Cyborg with the Doom Patrol.

More: DC’s Titans: 8 Big Unanswered Questions After The Season 1 Finale

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

See also  Tony Stark’s Biggest Spider-Man Lesson Came From Iron Man 3

More From Matt Morrison