Some call him a machine, others call him a man, but here at DC we call Cyborg a hero. Since his debut in 1980, Victor Stone has been a pivotal pillar of the DC Universe as a member of the Teen Titans and the Justice League alike. Of course, Vic operates just fine on his own as well, and he’s back in the spotlight today with a new Cyborg solo series.  Written by the powerfully talented Milestone Initiative writer Morgan Hampton and drawn by veteran artist Tom Raney, Cyborg #1 is on stands now.

You don’t need to be a Cyborg expert to dive in, but if you’d like to learn a bit more about Victor Stone, we’ve got you covered. Here are twenty facts you might not know about DC’s most tech-savvy superhero.

• The first villain Cyborg fought was a strange living entity from another dimension (DC Comics Presents #26). However, this fight happened in a flash-forward during Cyborg’s first appearance. The first baddie he fought chronologically was his old friend Ron Evers, during a flashback to his origin in 1982’s Tales of the New Teen Titans #1.
• If you’re not counting his origin story, Cyborg’s first solo adventure away from the Teen Titans was Teen Titans Spotlight #13. The story featured a battle between Cyborg and Two-Face. This was the first true super-villain Victor battled without the Titans.

• Have you ever wondered what Cyborg’s first line of dialogue was? It was an insult to Gar Logan! When Beast Boy reminds Robin that he’s calling himself Changeling now, Cyborg pithily replies, “You should’ve called yourself the jerk! It fits you better!” This scene was part of a prophetic dream Dick Grayson had about forming the New Teen Titans (DC Comics Presents #26).

• Actor Khary Payton first voiced Cyborg in the 2003 Teen Titans animated series, and he’s gone on to reprise the role in twenty-six other projects and counting. You can hear him in the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, the animated film DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year, the Justice League Action animated series and many additional games, movies and animated shows.
• Cyborg’s signature catchphrase is “booyah,” but he didn’t say it for the first time until 2003, which was twenty-three years after his first appearance. Where did it come from? Vic first said it in “Sisters,” an episode of the Teen Titans animated series.
• In case you missed it, this year’s DC Power: A Celebration #1 revealed that “booyah” was originally a special phrase shared between Victor Stone and his mother.

• Some of Victor’s cybernetics come from Apokolips technology, including a Fatherbox that merged with him. This piece of mythology was absent from Cyborg’s origin for decades, until it was established for the first time in 2011’s Justice League #3. Since then, it’s been a part of Cyborg’s origin in most of his media appearances, such as HBO Max’s Young Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
• Cyborg’s first on-panel kiss was with Marcy Reynolds in 1982’s Tales of the New Teen Titans #1. Marcy was Victor’s high school girlfriend, who rejected him after he became Cyborg. She was later killed by followers of the Church of Blood.

• Did you know that Cyborg was the first Black man to lead a DC superhero team? This history making moment happened in 1989’s The New Titans #59. At the time, it wasn’t treated as a big deal, but Bumblebee recounted how groundbreaking the moment was in The Other History of the DC Universe #2.
• Here’s an interesting thing to think about the next time you see Cyborg in a modern DC comic book—he’s no longer in his original body. In The New Titans #107, Victor merged his original body with an alien race of sentient computers called Technis. Vic’s head then appeared on a mechanic planetoid, bidding the Titans goodbye before leaving Earth. (It was…strange.) The aliens then downloaded Vic’s soul into a new computerized body called Cyberion (The New Titans #127). You know, like you do.

• In JLA/Titans #3, Vic’s soul was downloaded into a gold Omegadrome battlesuit. Vic was made of solid gold and had the power to shapeshift.
• BUT WAIT, there’s more! Nightwing then transferred Vic into a cloned version of his original body in 2000’s The Titans #20. The new body had shapeshifting capabilities, but in 2002’s The Flash #188, Vic lost those powers while he was in his Cyborg form. This is the body Vic has today—more or less where he was before the Technis transformation.
• Ray Fisher portrayed Cyborg in 2017’s Justice League. The later director’s cut, 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League, greatly expanded his story within the film and has an interesting Easter egg. The Mother Box in S.T.A.R. Labs is labeled as Object 6-19-82, which happens to be the cover date for 1982’s Tales of the New Teen Titans #1, the comic that gave us Cyborg’s origin.

• According to 2017’s Cyborg #17, Victor Stone once went out on a date with Zatanna. The two of them first met when the Teen Titans attacked the Justice League in 1981’s The New Teen Titans #4.
• Cyborg seems to have a thing for women named Sarah. Vic first met Sarah Simms in 1981’s The New Teen Titans #8. Sarah was a teacher at a school for kids with physical disabilities, and Vic spent a lot of time helping her with her students. For a time, it really seemed like they might become more than friends, but Vic’s duties as a superhero kept him busy. Dr. Sarah Charles, on the other hand, was a scientist Vic met in Tales of the Teen Titans #57. The two of them had a passionate love affair, but their romance ended when Vic left Earth to merge with the Technis planet.
• Joivan Wade plays Cyborg on the HBO Max series Doom Patrol. To date, Wade’s Cyborg is the only version of the character who has fought an army of carnivorous butts, but I feel like Teen Titans Go! might get around to that eventually.

• Busting makes me feel good! Ernie Hudson (yes, THAT Ernie Hudson) is the first actor to ever play Cyborg. Hudson voiced Cyborg in the animated series The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, which was a rebranded version of Super Friends.
• Lee Thompson Young (who some ’90s kids might remember as the Famous Jett Jackson) was the first actor to play Cyborg in live action. Young played Cyborg on Smallville, appearing as Vic for four episodes throughout the series’ run.

• Titans together…literally! Cyborg and Beast Boy were once merged into a singular body. Nightwing dubbed them Cybeast (Teen Titans Academy #14).
• Finally, Cyborg may be best known as a Teen Titan, but he’s become an important member of the Justice League as well. Cyborg was first seen on the League in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, but on that early series, the group was calling themselves…well, the Super Powers team. The Smallville version of Vic also joined the Justice League before his comic book counterpart did. That finally happened in 2010’s Justice League of America #41, when he was given the invitation by his old Titans teammate Donna Troy. DC’s New 52 relaunch took things a step farther by establishing Cyborg as a founding member of the team in 2012’s Justice League #6.

Now that you know Cyborg a little better, it’s time to continue your journey with him. For the next chapter in Victor Stone’s life, be sure to grab your copy of Cyborg #1 this week!
 

Cyborg #1 by Morgan Hampton, Tom Raney and Michael Atiyeh is now available in print and as a digital comic book.

Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, "Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Twitter at @TBUJosh.