It seems that the new 52 Cyborg Superman, who has just been introduced in the pages of Supergirl, is no longer Hank Henshaw, but is actually Banshee from the X-Men Zor-El, Kara’s father and seems to have been created by non-other than Brainiac. You can see the final panel below for the big reveal.
In an interview with Cosmic Booknews, Supergirl writer Michael Alan Nelson revealed a little bit more about our new Cyborg Superman.
Cyborg Superman is, in a word, unstable. Though he is what some consider the perfect Kryptonian, he has conflated perfection and strength, seeing the latter as the pinnacle of the former. And I don’t mean just physical strength. He’s fond of asking people what they’re willing to do to survive. In fact, I think that’s the first question he asked Supergirl when they first met…It’s his subconscious trying to justify the mistakes he made before he became Cyborg Superman, even though he has no recollection of the man he was. And the biggest difference in the New-52 character, and one that I hope is common knowledge by the time this comes out, is that Cyborg Superman is no longer Hank Henshaw. He’s actually Zor-El, Kara’s father. Readers will have to wait until they read the Villains Month issue to learn just how he became Cyborg Superman, but that is the single biggest difference between the new and pre-52 character.
So there you have it, and it looks like with this revelation, Cyber Superman will likely be a Supergirl rogue more typically than Superman’s. While the updated origin, and moving away from Hank Henshaw’s “Fantastic Four lite” origin is fine with me, I’m not sure how I feel about yet another Kryptonian being around. Superman and Supergirl are supposed to be unique, the only survivors of Krypton and their family left, and yet with this new introduction, it just seems like they’re slowly getting watered down.
I don’t know, I honestly don’t read Supergirl, and only checked out this issue for this reveal, I might check out the Villain’s month issue to see what’s going on.
