Cyborg, a character known to many as a key and integral member of the Teen Titans, in recent years, has had a promotion to the big leagues, the Justice League in fact and from that spanned his own solo series.
“Unplugged” starts abruptly in the middle of a battle where Cyborg, along with Batman, Wonder Woman and Shazam are ambushed by robots who proceed to ‘kill’ Cyborg for the technology he has. The rest of the novel then deals with Cyborg’s newfound ability to heal any damage done to him and this attracts an alien species from a parallel universe. Cue multiple references to the Multiverse and Cyborg finds himself as the only hero that can do anything about this threat.
Speaking from my perspective, I'd say that many of the less well-known heroes rarely get any spotlight shone on them and giving Cyborg a solo series was most likely a good thing. I think “Unplugged” does its best to show us the impact that Cyborg’s accident has had on him; the existential crisis about who he is is something that many people can probably relate to.
The entire novel was illustrated by the legendary Ivan Reis, whose spectacular artwork is impressive not only on the portrait pages but even more so on the landscape pages. His covers were also very good, however, I picked a Kenneth Rocafort variant for this article because his attention to small details is incredible!
Favourite Panel:
This panel just completely sums up each of these four characters perfectly.
Favourite Character:
Technically not one character, but I love the Metal Men, and I'd love to see them either get their own series or be more involved in other series.
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★½
Character Development: ★★★
Artwork: ★★★★
Enjoyability: ★★½
Re-readability: ★★
Level: Beginner