Mark Sable On DC Special: Cyborg

Mark Sable speaks to Newsarama about Cyborg: The six issue miniseries DC Special: Cyborg debuts on May 21st, and promises to get underneath the skin (and metal) to find out what makes Cyborg tick. Written by Mark Sable with artwork by Ken Lashley and Jonathan Glapion, the mini promises to look into secrets from Vic Stone’s past that effect him to this day. Dubbed “the greatest Teen Titan of them all” in DC advertisements, what better time than now to find out more?

NRAMA: Cyborg can't be the only familiar face we'll see in the series; who else can we look forward to seeing?

MS: From his private life, S.T.A.R. Dr. Sarah Charles and her fiancée, Vic's friend Sarah Simms, who teaches physically disabled children, and a character once thought dead who he has some unresolved issues with. From the DCU, a villain who's tangled with the Top Guns of the DCU, and the squad of metas he's assembled to take Vic down. There's a team, called "The Phantom Limbs", and whether they're good, bad or something in between is for Vic and the readers to decide.

And there's Titans. Lots and lots of Titans.

NRAMA: For those who haven't kept up with who Vic Stone is, can you tell us about him?

MS: He's a human being who was fascinating even before he became a superhero, one of the most three dimensional African-American characters in comics. He was a lonely, sheltered kid, torn between his upper middle class family (think The Cosbys with a mad scientist for a dad)and the comaraderie of his gangbanging friends (think The Wire).

Vic was not only an Olympic level athlete, he was, as he's said himself, a "human computer", born with a genius IQ. He was and is someone always very much aware of how others perceive him, and constantly trying to escape a stereotypical label, whether it's a home-schooled nerd, a jock who hasn't lived up to his potential, or any number of assumptions people make because of race.

If this wasn't enough, as result of an accident (or was it?) - he had Molybdenum steel grafted to his body and was given cybernetic limbs by his father. This isn't the Six Million dollar man we're talking about, his limbs are interchangeable weapons, the capabilities of which we've yet to fully see in 20 plus years. He was the first Transformer, if you will. But what many might view as a gift, he viewed (and to some extent still views) as a curse.

Read the whole interview here!