Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #508: Cyber

So, I was reading the latest Wolverine solo series’s first issue (expect a review in “Noteworthy Issues” eventually), and a bad guy popped up that struck me as a character I hadn’t seen in a while.  And then I got to thinking how unlikely the guy was to reappear, well, anywhere after his first appearance.

I will explain why as I get to Cyber, the man with the adamantium skin.

Cyber, see, he first appeared in a series Marvel used to publish that, by its nature, didn’t spawn a lot of reoccurring characters:  Marvel Comics Presents.  Marvel Comics Presents was an anthology series, usually four stories per issue that appeared, if I remember right, biweekly.  Now, to be clear, there were characters that appeared in Marvel Comics Presents that did go on to appear in other places, and Barry Windsor-Smith’s origin for Wolverine, the “Weapon X” storyline, did appear in that book as well.  That said, it was also a series where lesser-known characters would appear, sometimes by up-and-coming talent that Marvel wasn’t quite ready to give a book to, either the characters or the creators.  Wolverine was the lead character for most of the series’s run, and at some point, the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider also started appearing in every issue.

And there were some really obscure characters in that series.  I remember one multi-part story about the Young Gods.  Who are the Young Gods?  Characters that are so obscure that, if I ever feature them here, be aware I am running out of ideas because I only vaguely remember those guys, and I wasn’t all that impressed by them.

But Cyber, he actually has an interesting pedigree.  First appearing in Marvel Comics Presents #85 in September of 1991, he was the creation of writer Peter David and artist Sam Keith, at a time when both were rising stars at Marvel.  The story had Wolverine visiting Madripoor while his former foe showed up as a drug cartel enforcer.  See, everyone knew Wolverine had an adamantium skeleton.  But see, Cyber had adamantium skin, and both he and Logan had tracking powers of their own.  Logan’s, of course, are enhanced regular senses while Cyber’s are more psychic in nature.  The two had a fight, and Logan prevailed by jamming the drugs Cyber was protecting into one of his eyes because, well, Cyber’s face is actually not covered in adamantium.  He’d later pop up in David’s X-Factor run where he’d use his own sharp-edged fingers to inject poison into the team’s muscle, Strong Guy.

Actually, I didn’t know Cyber’s backstory until I started this write-up, and it turns out he’s a lot older than he looks.  Born one Silas Burr, he was a Pinkerton Detective from Canada sometime around 1912.  He would be put on trial for murder in Iowa but managed to escape.  He met Wolverine for the first time during World War I when he was Logan’s drill instructor.  Later on, he’s kill a woman Logan cared about and gave Wolverine such a beat-down, causing Logan to develop deep-set fear of Silas.  The two would reunite in the second World War where Logan, having no memory of Silas, was again under the other man’s command, and at one point, both were part of a rescue mission of Captain America as led by Nick Fury.

Whew.  That’s a lot.

Anyway, Silas would later go on to train Wolverine’s son Daken in 1959, but Daken would later leave Silas eviscerated.  Silas would be found by Romulus, who would use Silas as a test subject in adamantium-bonding, hence the adamantium-skin.

As it is, Cyber would play a role in the period when Wolverine lost his adamantium and learned he had bone claws.  Shortly after losing the indestructible bones, Wolverine ran into Cyber again, and during the battle, Cyber broke his bone claws.  Logan’s healing factor eventually grew the claws back, and he did take advantage of what he had to maul Cyber’s vulnerable face.  Later on, Apocalypse’s Dark Riders, working without Apocalypse, decided go give Wolverine his adamantium back and kidnapped Cyber.  They used flesh-eating beetles to basically kill Cyber and leave just the adamantium behind.  However, Wolverine’s body rejected the adamantium this time, causing him to mutate further into a more animalistic, noseless form.

And that wasn’t the end of Cyber!  He’d exist as a psychic being, found a strong mutant with a childlike intelligence whose body he could take over, and eventually grafted more adamantium skin to himself.  He’d be killed again later on, but somehow come back, and even posed as something of a hero (sort of) in the Secret Empire storyarc.  He has, as stated, popped up again in the latest Wolverine series, where he was possessed by some sort of thing that can possess people with adamantium parts.  Will he die again?

Probably, but he keeps coming back like an adamantium cockroach.