Hank Henshaw (aka the Cyborg Superman) was originally a brilliant scientist and astronaut who had been dosed with cosmic radiation. The radiation altered his being into one of pure energy, making it near impossible for him to die.
Able to possess any machine or technology and manipulate them as though they are living metal. Henshaw can animate machines, construct any technological device, and control any mechanical system. Initially he formed an unfounded hatred for Superman; whom he placed the blame of his circumstance, however, his hatred eventually tired and he now simply wishes to end his seemingly eternal existence as a cybernetic monster.
History[]
Commander Henry "Hank" Henshaw was part of a four-man LexCorp-funded radiation experiment onboard the NASA space shuttle Excalibur. While the experiment was conducted without issue, on the return flight, the crew became caught in a solar flare that fried the ship's circuitry and caused them to crash. While surviving the wreckage Henry and the other crew members, Jim, Steve and Hank's wife, Terri Henshaw, had become exposed to cosmic radiation. As a result, Steve had become a being of living radiation and Jim's body had reformed out of debris from the ship and the surrounding area. While Terri seemed to be fine, Hank himself could feel radiation sickness beginning to physically eat away at him.
Desparate, the crew travels to Metropolis in the hopes of breaking into and using a LexCorp facility to cure themselves but they run into Superman, who mistakes them for supervillains, and become involved in a time consuming fight. While the crew manage to convince the hero of their plight after Steve became unhinged and flew into the sun, by then the radiation's affects on Hank had begun to show as his flesh began falling off his bones.
Allowed to access the facility, Hank began working towards a cure as Terri also starts exhibiting symptoms and began to fade from existence. While he worked, Jim's desparation got the better of him and, in an effort to get the ship debris off of himself, he killed himself using an MRI booth.
As Hank's decaying body faltered, with his wife's life in the balance and with Superman's help, Henshaw was able to use the LexCorp facilities to save Terri but died before he could use it on himself.
Thought dead, Hank's consciousness had actually transferred itself from his body into the Lexcorp facility's mainframe.
Now able to control technology, Henshaw reassembled himself as a robot to see his wife, who had been institutionalised following her traumatic experience. While managing to see his wife, the shock of her husband's bizarre rebirth causes her to finally lose her grip on sanity and jump to her death from the nearest window.
Upset and angry over her death, Henshaw used NASA communications equipment to beam his mind into the birthing matrix which had carried Superman from Krypton. Although Superman tried to stop him, from the matrix Henshaw absorbed vast quantities of knowledge about the universe and created a small exploration craft to depart for outer space.
Spending some time traveling between planets to learn about the culture and history of various worlds, Henshaw would later come to believe that Superman was responsible for the tragedy of the Excalibur after learning that around the time of the accident, the hero had thrown a rogue Kryptonian A.I. into the sun. Believing that this action had created the solar flare that had resulted in the Excalibur crew's transformations, Henshaw became gradually ever more delusional and paranoid to the point that he believed that Superman had intentionally caused the deaths of his crew due to jealousy.
Arriving on a planet controlled by the alien overlord Mongul, Henshaw recruits Mongul as part of a plan for revenge against Superman.
After Superman's death following his battle against Doomsday, Henshaw decided to pose as him in order to destroy his reputation. Returning to Earth, Henshaw claimed to be Superman reborn and used knowledge from Superman's birthing matrix to construct a partially organic body that was genetically identical to Superman; enabling him to pass for the genuine article during identification tests.
After exiling Doomsday to space, preventing a nuclear meltdown and saving the President of the United States from an assassination attempt, the White House endorsed Henshaw as the 'true' Superman.
When an alien ship piloted by Mongul appears over Coast City, Henshaw attacks and severely injures the Eradicator to allow Mongul to destroy the city and spawn an "Engine City" to serve as an engine for the next Warworld.
Convincing the public that the Eradicator was responsible, and after tricking and defeating Superboy, Henshaw prepares to launch a nuclear warhead to convert Metropolis into a second "Engine City" only to be confronted by a united force of Superboy, Steel, Supergirl, Eradicator, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and the resurrected Superman.
While Superboy stops the missile and Green Lantern defeats Mongul, Henshaw lures Superman and the Eradicator to the Engine City's main reactor and attempts to kill Superman with the kryptonite within. However, when Henshaw tries to kill Superman with a blast of kryptonite radiation, the Eradicator intercepts the blast and alters the radiation to fully restore Superman's powers who defeats Henshaw.
After his defeat, Henshaw transfers his consciousness into a device he had installed on Doomsday before exiling him.
As Doomsday is brought onboard a space cruiser and kills the crew, he lands upon Apokolips and proceeds to pillage the planet. When Superman arrives, Henshaw reconfigures an Apokoliptian trooper into a new body and proceeds to lay siege to the planet alongside Doomsday until he was captured by Darkseid's Omega Beams during a battle with Superman. Darkseid eventually frees Henshaw with the understanding that Henshaw is to leave Apokolips and never return.
Some time later, Henshaw eventually aligns himself with an intergalactic tribunal which is seeking to bring Superman to trial for the crimes of his ancestors. Henshaw assists the tribunal in capturing Eradicator, Superboy, Supergirl, Steel, and Alpha Centurion, who had intended to rescue Superman. However, Henshaw betrayed the tribunal and attempted to conquer their planet for conversion into a new Warworld. Superman and his allies stop the Henshaw's plan and, when Henshaw's involvement in the destruction of Coast City is brought to the attention of the tribunal, they find him guilty of genocide and sentence him to death; transporting him beyond the event horizon of a black hole.
Rather than being destroyed, Henshaw is transported to a Marvel Multiverse dimension where he destroys another planet in another attempt to recreate Warworld until his is found by Parallax (Hal Jordan), who has been seeking vengeance for the destruction of Coast City. While Henshaw escapes and returns to the DC Universe, he encounters Hal Jordan again at the brink of the Source Wall and faces representations of the victims of Coast City who proceed to tear his body apart, however, Hankshaw survives by assimilating himself with the Source Wall.
After encountering some Manhunters during his imprisonment, Hank momentarily returns to Earth to make further attempts at killing Superman before being imprisoned within the Phantom Zone.
After escaping, Henshaw travels to the Manhunters' home world of Biot where he gains total control of the robots and becomes their Grandmaster. Upgrading them with organic material and kryptonian technology, Henshaw discovers and takes possession of several Green Lantern Corpsmen who were thought to have been killed by Parallax (Hal Jordan) during his rampage against the corps. When a revived Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner are sent to Biot to investigate the source of the new Manhunters, they free the captive corpsmen, who were being used to power the new Manhunters, and destroy Biot. Henshaw is then brought to Oa for interrogation and imprisonment until he was freed by the Sinestro Corps during their attack on the Oan Sciencells and now serves as a herald for the Anti-Monitor who has also allied with the corps.
Combat Statistics[]
- Hank Henshaw (Assault and Battery)
- Hank Henshaw (Mist Recovery)
- Corrupted Hank Henshaw
- Hank Henshaw (Doomed Metropolis)
Involvement[]
Heroes[]
- Hank and Sinestro are the last bosses in the "Assault and Battery" Operation.
- Hank acts as a boss in the "Mist Recovery" Operation.
- Hank Hensahw is a bounty for heroes in Doomed Metropolis (Weekly Bounty: Reign of Criminals).
Villains[]
- He can be chatted with on Ranx by villain players to learn a bit about his backstory.
- Hank assists villain players in collecting Mist and fighting Kyle Rayner in the "Mist Recovery" Operation.
Trivia[]
- Hank first appeared in Adventures of Superman #465 (April 1990).
- Hank and the crew of the Excalibur were based on the backstory of the Fantastic Four from Marvel comics.
- Henshaw's arrival as "Cyborg-Superman", the Man of Tomorrow, was simultaneous with that of three other contenders who sought to fill the void left by Superman's death: John Henry Irons (the Man of Steel), Eradicator (the Last Son of Krypton), and the clone, Superboy. The endorsement of the President ensured that Henshaw eclipsed the rest of the heroes claiming to be Superman's heir.
- The Cyborg Superman is also one of the few who has wielded both a Green Lantern ring and a Qwardian power ring. He is also one of the few who wields numerous power rings at once (five rings when he wore GL rings, and ten for when he was a member of the Sinestro Corps).
Gallery[]
See Also[]
External Links[]
- Hank Henshaw Wikipedia
- Hank Henshaw DC Database