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Doctor Cyber

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Cyber Doctor, robot doctor, cyberneticist, or cybernetics.
Doctor Cyber
Doctor Cyber in Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #19 (2017). Art by Liam Sharp.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceWonder Woman (vol. 1) #179 (November–December 1968)
Created byDennis O'Neil
Mike Sekowsky
Dick Giordano
In-story information
Alter egoCylvia Anita Cyber
Dr. Adrianna Anderson
Team affiliationsSecret Society of Super Villains
Godwatch
AbilitiesPreviously (via body armor):
Superhuman strength and durability
Energy blasts
Energy absorption
Invisibility
Currently: Artificial intelligence physiology, able to hijack and control technology

Doctor Cyber is a supervillain appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman.[1] She first appeared late in the Silver Age of Comics in 1968's Wonder Woman (volume 1) #179, written by Dennis O'Neil and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.[2]

In her Silver Age appearances, Dr. Cyber was the brilliant head of a vast global criminal network. Beautiful, vain and possibly British[3] or of Asian descent (or both), she initially blended aspects of the femme fatale and dragon lady character tropes. Subsequent Bronze Age appearances incorporated science fiction elements: after her face was disfigured in an accident, Dr. Cyber donned an eerie muzzle-mask and a technologically advanced exoskeleton.[4] These cybernetic enhancements increased her physical strength, and gave her the ability to absorb energy, as well as to redirect it by firing blasts from her hands. Despite the resulting upgrades to her power, Dr. Cyber's disfigurement also wrought a mounting emotional instability: she became obsessed with recapturing her beauty by transferring her mind into Wonder Woman's body, a project she attempted several times with the help of her operative Doctor Moon.

After DC Comics rebooted its continuity in 1985 (a publication event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths), Wonder Woman, her supporting cast and foes were re-imagined. Though originally absent from this revised mythos, Doctor Cyber would be reintroduced to the DC Comics canon in 2002, not in a Wonder Woman comic, but in issue #1 of Kurt Busiek and Tom Gummett's The Power Company, as the first arch-nemesis of the eponymous super-team. In DC's post-Rebirth era, the character would be reimagined as a powerful artificial intelligence with the memory and blithe personality of Dr. Adrianna Anderson, the deceased research and business partner of Wonder Woman's adversary Veronica Cale.

Fictional character biography

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Pre-Crisis

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The Silver Age Doctor Cyber debuts her muzzle mask in Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #200 (May 1972); art by Dick Giordano and Mike Esposito.

Doctor Cyber is the leader of a global criminal network around the same time when Wonder Woman had relinquished her powers when her fellow Amazons retreated into another dimension. Prior to Cyber's first encounter with the depowered Amazon, her henchmen plunder I Ching's monastery and kill its monks. Colonel Steve Trevor unsuccessfully attempted to infiltrate Cyber's network, but learned of their plot: to create chaos within the US government by sending bombs inside toys to the children of Congressmen. This plot was actually a ruse to divert attention from a London jewel heist, foiled by Wonder Woman and Ching.[5] Doctor Cyber escaped only to resurface in Hong Kong several weeks later.[6]

In Hong Kong, Doctor Cyber's plan was to destroy the city and blackmail the world with a series of devices that could create earthquakes. Cyber lured the non-powered Diana Prince to the Asian city hoping to entice her into joining the organization, which she steadfastly refused. Soon afterward, an attack by the rival Tiger Tong gang resulted in an urn of hot coals spilling onto Cyber's face. The villainess was evacuated to a secret hospital outside of Hong Kong, swearing revenge on Diana Prince for her disfigurement. Prince stopped the earthquake plot and Cyber was believed killed when her final earthquake device exploded.[7]

When Diana Prince teamed up with private detective Jonny Double to stop an organization called the Tribunal, she discovered that Doctor Cyber had survived their previous encounter. Cyber had created the Tribunal to find a suitable woman to transplant her brain and replace her disfigured body. After Prince's capture, Cyber unsuccessfully attempted to have her brain transplanted into Diana by Doctor Moon. During this encounter, Cyber was accidentally impaled by a scalpel and believed killed once again.[8]

On an assignment at a Catskill Mountain resort as Diana Prince, Wonder Woman again discovered that Doctor Cyber had cheated death. While investigating a number of murders at the resort, Cyber battled Wonder Woman after an unsuccessful attempt to graft the Amazon's face onto her own. The ensuing melée ended with Cyber seemingly falling to her death from atop a ski lift.[9]

The Bronze Age Doctor Cyber in Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #287 (January 1982), art by Don Heck, Romeo Tanghal and Carl Gafford.

Doctor Cyber laid low for several months before capturing Wonder Girl in another attempt to capture Wonder Woman for a brain transplant. Wonder Woman agreed to trade her life for her adopted sister, but both were rescued by the Teen Titans. Cyber and her partner, Dr. Moon, were finally captured.[10]

It is unknown if Doctor Cyber was released or escaped from custody, but she disguised herself as Diana Prince, infiltrated the Pentagon, and stole the launch codes to America's nuclear missiles. Wonder Woman averted the attempted nuclear war, but Cyber was killed attempting to flee from her and Steve Trevor (disguised as the god Eros) when her rocket sled crashed into the side of a cliff.[11]

In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Brainiac recruits a past version of Cyber and sends her and several other villains to conquer Earth-S.

Post-Crisis

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The Post-Crisis Doctor Cyber in The Power Company #1 (February 2002); art by Tom Grummett.

The second Doctor Cyber first appeared, chronologically, in post-Crisis continuity in The Power Company #1 (February 2002). She is a living computer and member of the composite cybernetic being Enginehead.[12]

In Infinite Crisis, Doctor Cyber joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains.

DC Rebirth

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In DC Rebirth, Doctor Cyber is Adrianna Anderson, a research scientist for Empire Industries and a friend of its CEO Veronica Cale.[13] After Deimos and Phobos kidnap Cale's daughter Isadore, Adrianna attempts to use the Cyberwalker suit to rescue her, but is killed when it malfunctions.[14]

Over a year later, Cale creates an artificial construct of Adrianna who becomes Doctor Cyber.[15][16][17]

Powers and abilities

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The first Doctor Cyber had no powers but wore an armored suit that allowed her to physically fight Wonder Woman on near-equal terms. The suit enhanced her strength and endurance and also allowed her to redirect energy when fired at the suit. She also used a variety of weaponry that included laser pistols, mind control serum, an invisibility screen, rocket sleds, and myriad robot assassins. After her disfigurement she often used plain and unattractive women as henchmen so as not to be reminded of her lost beauty.

The second Doctor Cyber also wore an armored suit, but while its full abilities and limitations are as yet unknown, in keeping with her name they are more implicitly cybernetic in nature. As her limbs were able to stretch to impossible lengths it does seem that she is a cyborg and not merely a person in armor.

Post-Rebirth, Doctor Cyber developed a device that would enable her to remotely interface with mechanical components. This automated robotics system could physically interface with the neurological mechanics of the brain from a world away, but ran the risk of subsuming a human mind who piloted it in the virtual reality.

After her body died, Veronica uploaded whats left of her neural imprint from the C.Y.B.E.R system into a computer interface, Adriana now functioned primarily as an artificial intelligence being. She used metallic spheres to emit holograms of her physical appearance, often changing them at will to reflect her sarcastic attitude. She had access to the majority of technology in the world, able to transfer into and hack digitized equipment instantaneously.

Other versions

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Doctor Cyber appears in the anthology series Wonder Woman: Black & Gold.[18]

In other media

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Television

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Doctor Cyber makes minor non-speaking appearances in Justice League Unlimited as a member of Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society before being killed by Darkseid.

Film

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Doctor Cyber appears in Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, voiced by Mozhan Marnò.[19] This version is an artificial intelligence and co-leader of Villainy Inc. before being killed by Medusa.

Video games

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Doctor Cyber appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.[20]

Miscellaneous

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. p. 87. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  2. ^ Wells, John (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 217. ISBN 978-1605490557.
  3. ^ Strickland, Carol A. (2021). Star-Spangled Panties: A Guide to the World's Greatest Superhero. Carol A. Strickland. p. 149.
  4. ^ Jimenez, Phil; Wells, John (2010). The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. p. 113. ISBN 978-0345501073.
  5. ^ Ormod, Joan (2020). "The New Diana Prince! Makeovers, Movement and the Fab/ricated Body, 1968-72". Wonder Woman: The Female Body and Popular Culture. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 109. ISBN 978-1788314114.
  6. ^ Wonder Woman #179-182 (November–December 1968—May–June 1969)
  7. ^ Wonder Woman #187-188 (March–April 1970—May–June 1970)
  8. ^ Wonder Woman #200 (May–June 1972)
  9. ^ Wonder Woman #221 (December 1975-January 1976)
  10. ^ Wonder Woman #287 (January 1982)
  11. ^ Wonder Woman #319-321 (September–November 1984)
  12. ^ Enginehead #1-6 (2004)
  13. ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #15 (March 2017)
  14. ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #16 (April 2017)
  15. ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #17 - #21 (April - June 2017)
  16. ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #24 (August 2017)
  17. ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 5) #46 (July 2018)
  18. ^ Wonder Woman: Black and Gold #5 (2021). DC Comics.
  19. ^ "Wonder Woman Bloodlines Gets Synopsis, Art, Voice Cast". Comic Book Resources. July 29, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  20. ^ Eisen, Andrew (October 2, 2013). "DC Characters and Objects - Scribblenauts Unmasked Guide". IGN. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
  21. ^ DC Super Friends #24 (2010)
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