Victor Stone Was No Angel

Lucius Illuminux
12 min readFeb 27, 2019
Cyborg: Rebirth (One Shot)

Victor Stone was no angel. Even in his Crisis Era origins, Vic was dehumanized long before the incident that changed him into a cybernetic organism. His parents used him as a guinea pig for intelligence boosting experiments and his acts of rebellion made him a gangbanger and an athlete. Everything before his incident made Victor a caricature of a black boy. Ironically it was his transformation that salvaged his humanity.

It took a horrible accident for Silas Stone to see his son’s humanity, but once he did, he did everything in his power to help his son reclaim his life. He helped Vic walk again, tried constantly to be there in a way he hadn’t before, and when he saw there were other super teens, he did everything he could to make sure his son had a childhood.

Victor Stone was a Titan. A teen among teens who faced adult threats, but still got to explore their adolescence. Victor joined the Teen Titans in order to be around kindred spirits. When Silas found out his son had the possibility to be a kid, he pushed past his rocky relationship with his son and built his son a place to foster the relationship with his new friends.

In the New 52/Rebirth Era of DC comics, the company sacrifices Victor’s history with the Teen Titans to give him a spot on the Justice League. In this continuity, a lot of the focus of his story centered around Victor Stone trying to assert his humanity. To the fault of no single creator, DC never addresses the fact that Victor Stone did not only lose his humanity, but his chance to be a boy. In America, black children don’t get to be children, and unfortunately this is a sad reality that holds true for Victor Stone.

The Adultification of Black Youth

When Trayvon Martin was murdered in 2012, and when Michael Brown was killed in 2014, the fact that they were dead, the fact that they were unarmed, and the fact that they had neither the age nor experience to be considered adults were not the primary talking points of media coverage. All of these indisputable facts fell behind the question of whether or not they were “angels.” This question glosses over the fact that they were boys and held them up against divine beings as a standard. These boys were held to an inhuman standard of virtue in order to judge whether or not they were worthy of their lives.

Confrontation with the police — Cyborg(2016)#5

Several reports, studies, articles, and anecdotes all point to the fact that society at large views black children in a harsh light and as less innocent than their white counterparts. These studies show that black boys and girls are stripped of their childhood in many ways. They are seen as older, over-sexualized, over-criminalized, and more severely punished at school.

In 2014 the American Psychological Association released a study titled “The Essence of Innocence: Consequences of Dehumanizing Black Children.” We tend to only discuss this phenomenon in terms of the most extreme consequences, but in the case of Victor Stone, he has had to assert his humanity long before he had limbs made of metal.

To Be Young, Gifted and Black

Victor Stone starts private school — Cyborg(2015) #5

When you are Black in America, you have to work twice as hard to get half as far. This proverb reflects the social burden Silas and Elinore Stone likely faced as two of the only black faces in S.T.A.R labs. Even with several breakthroughs in biotechnology, the success they worked hard for seemed fragile. The Stone family lived and worked in Detroit, a city that is 83% African-American, yet there were no other black people in their lab.

Parents always want better for their children. So when the Stones had a child, they wanted their son to have all the success they had and more. If he was going to have to work four times as hard to get as far as his white counterparts, he would have to be perfect. So from a young age Victor Stone was pushed toward perfection.

What you do with what you have — Cyborg(2015) #7

So as Victor grew up, he was told what he wanted had little importance. Though the intent of such a notion is positive, there is something disheartening about telling a child what they want is insignificant. His parents’ plans for him overshadowed his actual presence and he was left feeling invisible. He attended a private school so that he could be better than a regular kid. He excelled academically. He was set on a path that was intended to position him for a better life. Victor spent his whole life doing what he could with what he had. Yet what no one made sure he had the space to be a child.

Victor feels invisible — Cyborg(2015) #1

A Physical Specimen

When Victor Stone started playing high school football, he finally got to do something he wanted. His mother, unfortunately passed before the peak of his football career. His father did not care that his son was receiving athletic scholarship offers left and right as a junior. When he excelled on the field people came to watch; he was part of a team.

As it was written, the attention Vic received was limited to his athletic prowess. There were no mentions of his brilliance,even though as Cyborg, the Justice League came to rely on his intelligence. Yet, Victor Stone the boy was never shown to have received the slightest recognition for his academic achievement.

Star WR Victor Stone — Justice League(2011) #1

This whittling down of a black person to their athletic ability is common in high schools. It becomes an added voice among the several that shout “you are not a human being.” “He’s a tank!” one scout yells as he scores. When his white teammates saw the scouts come, they did not see someone who worked their ass off to be seen. They said “Vic’s got it made.” When a room full of white men who could offer Vic a full ride to college line up to speak to him, not one was there to talk about his grades.

The scouts arrive — Justice League(2011) #1

Whether he’s “a beast,” “a monster,” or “a physical specimen” the nouns they use to classify great athletes separate them from their humanity. While in context, these words are used to compliment black athletes with higher than average physical ability; in the case of collegiate athletes and prospects it also devalues their academic abilities. Within the national dialogue around black bodies it feeds the idea of their innate threat. The belief that black people are innately physically superior, no matter the context, contribute to beliefs around the intellectual inferiority of black people and their dehumanization.

Business as Usual

So at 16 years, 7 months, 2 days, 2 hours, 47 minutes, and 56.528 seconds he would awake with the majority of his body replaced by prosthetic parts. When Victor Stone awoke part machine, part human few seemed to mourn his loss. When a team on their way to the state championships lost their star receiver, no one noticed. The college scouts that said they would “take care of him” made it clear that the concern was simply transactional.

Victor reborn as Cyborg — Justice League(2011) #6

On that day he became Cyborg and his life as Victor Stone became irrelevant. He became a founding member of the Justice League and immediately took on an immense responsibility to protect the planet. There would be no more football games for Vic; no more high school, no more friends, and no more fun. Instead he was left with a constantly flowing stream of information, a mostly robotic body, and a home in the isolation of the Watchtower.

While the details changed, it was business as usual for Vic. Before he returned to an empty home because his father was at work. Now, he returns to an empty home because no one lives at the Watchtower. Silas’s work used to take priority over his son. Now his work is his son. The world used to cheer for him when he performed feats on the football field. Now, the world cheers when he performs on the battlefield.

He was exactly what the world made him out to be; the machine that would be grater than his parents and the physical specimen that the high school sports world saw him as. As he was told in his youth, Victor did the best with what he had. Why would he ever question the loss of his childhood when he never got to be a kid?

Cyborg’s rocky relationship with his father — Justice League(2011) #7

The Machine that thinks he’s a kid

Though Cyborg did not mourn the loss of his childhood, he did direct any negative feelings around what he had become towards his father. He resented his father for turning him into a machine. It took a magic spirit showing him his deepest negative thoughts to show him that he wasn’t satisfied with his new life.

Cyborg lives in the watch tower — Justice League(2011) #13

Cyborg begins to show through his actions that he believes he’s a machine who thinks he’s a kid. In order to install an adaptive environmental mode, he gets rid of his only remaining lung. He created a system called “The Grid” that filters information about superheroes on the the web and creates a database of their identities, powers, and locations. Several moves that Cyborg made early in that Justice League run indicated that he embraced the machine at the cost of the things that made him human.

Victor vs The Grid — Justice League(2011) #29

That was until The Grid became sentient. The computer system that tracked and identified every hero on Earth separated itself from Cyborg leaving Victor Stone without most of his body and Grid without emotion. The machine in him turned sentient wanted to feel human emotion and Victor wanted a new body. The whole conflict between them was an allegory for the codependency between man and machine.

The bridge between — Justice League(2011) #29

In order to defeat Grid, Vic asked his father to construct a new cybernetic body for him. This made his transformation into a cyborg his choice and allowed him to reconcile with his father. His confrontation with Grid reveals that in the real world, he felt too robotic to be human, yet in digital space he felt too human to be a robot. This confrontation required Victor to embrace his machine self, and he did so without further sacrifice of his humanity. “I don’t have to choose sides Grid” he exclaims, as he accepts the machine within him as a part of his life.

Faith in Humanity

Though this was a step in the right direction, Vic still had to wrestle with his identity. The question of his existence shifted from “Am I a human or a machine?” to “How human am I?” Some time later he almost died again when an unknown operating system kicked in and he regenerated his body. This body had more flesh, and looked equal parts man and machine yet Vic still felt more machine than man.

More machine than man — Cyborg(2015) #1

The people working at S.T.A.R labs including his father still treated him like a machine, which reinforced his thinking. His old friend Sarah Charles was the only person in the room to remember Victor’s humanity first. Victor is seemingly okay with this and jokes about it often. He’s been more machine than man his whole life and has come to a point where his external matches his internals.

However, his definition of what humanity is shifts when he and the crew at S.T.A.R Labs encounter the Technosapiens, a race of techno-organic creatures that were under the control of the technology that enhanced them. The technology had stripped them of their will and character and they sought Cyborg as the answer to their problems. At the culmination of this arc Victor wipes out the virus that infected the Technosapiens and gave them back their humanity.

Victor heals the Technosapiens — Cyborg(2015) #6

Victor lost most of his body in the process, and when his systems began to regenerate his body heals in human form. The Technosapiens were aliens of various species but in healing them he recognizes their humanity. His systems work through a neuro-link so when Vic regenerates his body, he momentarily recognizes his own humanity and is able to display a human appearance.

Victor forms human body — Cyborg(2015) #6

This is not something Victor is ready to accept. It is not something he thinks the world is ready to accept. The world knows him as a machine and he’s used to being seen as a machine. So he transforms his body into the more machine than man form the world is used to until he is ready.

Societal expectations often shape aspirations. Far too often black men’s worth has been measured in terms of their physical ability and demeanor. Throughout Victor’s interactions with scientists, Justice League members, and even people on the street, he has been seen as a machine. He expects to be seen as a machine and so he presents to the world his expectations.

Vic hides his human form — Cyborg(2015) #6

When the Technosapiens try to trap Cyborg in order to study him, they create an AI based on his memories of his mother. Even though the AI is fake it allowed Vic to explore his humanity with someone who knew him before he was physically machine. This allows him to be vulnerable and open up in a way he hasn’t before. His mother only knew him as human and so she is able to start with an image of Victor as human and ask “How machine is he?”

Cyborg opens up to his mother — Cyborg(2015) #7

This journey of self-recognition begins with him talking to his mother, but ends with him talking to his father. Both Victor and Silas are forced to deal with the pain of losing Elinore Stone again, but find comfort in Victor’s humanity. Silas tells Victor that even though the AI looked and sounded like Elinore Stone something was missing. He then assures his son that there was nothing missing in him that kept him from being human. Silas tell Vic that he’s “not only human inside and out, but the best one [he’s] ever known.”

Conclusion

Though Victor Stone lost his childhood, his existence as Cyborg has been one of him discovering his humanity. He proves to himself that no amount of cybernetics could take that away from him and comes away with a level of self actualization. Yet, external to his world, the creative teams around Victor Stone would continue to question Victor’s humanity run after run.

In a run that started months after the 2015–2016 run, the creative team instantly takes up the question of Vic’s humanity again. They return him to a more robotic design and instantly make a question he just answered months before the center of the story again:

Silas and Cyborg both question Victor’s humanity Cyborg(2016) #1

Then it was questioned by a sentient mother box in 2018:

The mother box tries to convince Cyborg to go all machine- Justice League(2016) #33

The same question returns THIS MONTH in the pages of Justice League Odyssey when Vic calls his existence a curse:

Cyborg calls his existence a curse- Justice League Odyssey(2018) #5

The misrepresentation of Victor Stone serves as an allegory for the frequent and hidden ways black humanity is called into question. From Frederick Douglass who had to continuously assert his humanity as a runaway slave, to LeBron James who was told to “shut up and dribble” when he expressed his views on social issues, the humanity of black people is constantly called into question through subversive narrative. Time and time again black people have had to assert their humanity after being treated as less than.

It seems the story of victor Victor Stone is the story of a man who will always have to prove he is one. Victor Stone was no angel, but all he ever aspired to be was a man.

Cyborg(2016) #1

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Lucius Illuminux

Dealing primarily in the realm of visual fiction. Proud Member of the Comicidal Terrahawks Crew. I’m hoping medium is the perfect “medium” for my long form post