Spoilers for Action Comics Annual 2021 ahead!
Hank Henshaw, AKA the Superman’s greatest villains, but in the future he returns to save Superman’s children! In Action Comics Annual 2021, a number of Superman’s descendants—here called the House of El—are sent to the Phantom Zone by one of their own. Fortunately for them, the Cyborg Superman is on hand to help. The issue is on sale now in print and digital.
destroy Coast City and cement his place as one of DC’s vilest villains. He would return over the year to menace not only Superman, but the Green Lantern Corps as well. Now the Cyborg Superman returns in this year’s Action Comics Annual, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, with art by Siya Oum and Scott Godlewski, colors by Hi-Fi and letters by Dave Sharpe.
The issue sees Pyrrho, one of Superman’s descendants, banish his cousins to the Phantom Zone. They are attacked by a horde of monsters, and one of their number, Khan, is almost killed, but is saved by the Cyborg Superman. They recognize him as one of the House of El’s greatest foes, and after an initial tussle, they agree to work together to in order to break out of the Phantom Zone. The group finds a Mother Box and uses it to teleport back to their reality, but not before Cyborg Superman attempts a double cross. Superwoman (the former Supergirl) also recognizes the Cyborg Superman and attacks, but the other of the House tell her that he helped them. Superwoman gives him a pardon and cautions him not to make her regret it. He then flies off for parts unknown.
The Cyborg Superman is one of the Man of Steel’s most complex foes: a once good man driven mad through no fault of his own; and forced to live in a metal body. Yet he would go on to butcher whole cities, and his evil extended beyond Earth as well. And while he tries to double cross the Els, he is also given a shot at redemption by Superwoman. Will the Cyborg Superman make the most of it, and perhaps atone for his sins? Or will he return to his evil ways? If he does, he will bring the full force of the House of El down on himself.
The Cyborg Superman is terrifying: a grotesque reflection of Superman himself in both body and mind, but in the future, he helps Superman’s children—and maybe sets down a path to redemption.
