We got a rather interesting Justice League tidbit yesterday courtesy of Joe Morton’s interview with IGN. The popular character actor (Terminator 2, Scandal, etc.) plays the father of Ray Fisher’s Cyborg in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and this November’s Justice League. In short, he noted how while his reshoots were relatively minor, he was aware that one of the goals in Joss Whedon’s reshoots is to lighten up the movie (which almost goes without saying) and play around with the character of Cyborg. That caught my eye, because of all the featured heroes in group of superior friends, Fisher’s Cyborg has the potential to be the film’s secret weapon.
We haven’t seen much of Victor Stone in the trailers thus far, as most of the marketing has understandably focused on Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. I have no idea how Fisher is used in the finished version, and it’s possible that his role in the final cut will be different than it once might have been before Dawn of Justice was savaged by critics and before Whedon took up the mantle several months ago. But here’s the thing: While older (casual) superhero fans may not be as familiar with the young half-man/half-robot superhero, Cyborg is hugely popular with younger fans.
If you have kids or are young enough to be a kid over the last decade, give or take, then you’ve had plenty of exposure to Cyborg through the various DCAU animated incarnations. The character is a core member of the Teen Titans animated franchise, both the relatively serious Teen Titans show that ran from 2003 to 2006 and the bitingly self-satirical and brutally nihilistic Teen Titans Go! (it really is the Curb Your Enthusiasm of superhero toons) which has aired since 2013, both times voiced by Khary Payton who has made something of a regular gig out of the character.
He was actually the audience-surrogate character in Justice League: War, the 2014 animated movie that essentially reintroduced the Justice League via the New 52 continuity to the direct-to-DVD DCAU films. Created by George Perez and Marv Wolfman in 1980, he’s been around outside of the comics at least since The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, which featured Cyborg saving the world from Darkseid way back in 1987. And that’s not even including just how popular the Teen Titans books have been over the years, including how they more-or-less saved DC Comics in the early 1980’s by bringing a youthful, Marvel-like sensibility to DC.
Point being, Cyborg is a very recognizable character for anyone who doesn’t merely track comic book superhero culture from the live-action movies and/or mainstream video games. Just as comic fans and animated fans have known Aquaman as a relatively modern bad-ass (as opposed to his mocked Super Friends persona) at least since the opening season of Justice League back in late 2001, Cyborg has been quite visible for the last two decades to those who are arguably most excited for an expanded DC Comics cinematic universe. And, I’d argue, that’s partially why he ended up on the team instead of Green Lantern or Martian Manhunter.
And yeah, it does matter that he is a black superhero who made his debut during a time when such a thing wasn’t exactly par for the course, as well as being a black superhero who isn’t necessarily defined by his skin color. It’s no secret that the upcoming movie can do itself plenty of favors by providing showy beats and moments for Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Doing the same for Fisher Cyborg will yield similar rewards in terms of buzz and word-of-mouth. Once again, when you give a starving demographic a filet mignon, they happily come back for more and tell all their friends about it.
That the filmmakers are toying with Cyborg at all is an encouraging sign that they realize the crowd-pleasing potential for the first big-screen live-action appearance of a character who has remained relatively popular with the comics-and-toons crowd for the last few decades. I cannot say if the changes are about making his character less “I am doomed to be more machine than man!” and more “Waffles, waffles, waffles!” As a rare black superhero in a megabucks-bucks motion picture and as a connection to the Teen Titans mythology, Cyborg can be a key selling point for the next three months beyond merely teasing Superman or a theoretical Green Lantern cameo.
Or he may be the film’s hidden surprise (think Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises), used to propel post-debut buzz and word-of-mouth. As noted before, there is indeed great value in holding back some of the buzzier or crowd-pleasing elements for audiences who want to experience the good stuff in a theater. Either optimistic outcome works for me, and I would relish a Justice League movie which focused primarily on Wonder Woman and Cyborg. Anyway, the knights will begin to shine when Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon's Justice League opens on Nov. 17, 2017. As always, we’ll see.
