CYBORG X

Real Name: Classified, possibly Frank Bohannon (See Comments)

Identity/Class: Human Cyborg

Occupation: Would-be Super Soldier

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Oscar McDonnell and Care Labs, S.H.I.E.L.D., Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

Enemies: Sinister Six (Dr. Octopus/Otto Octavius, Electro/Max Dillon, Hobgoblin/Jason Macendale, Mysterio/Quentin Beck, Vulture/Adrian Toomes);
formerly Ghost Rider (Dan Ketch/Noble Kale), Spider-Man

Known Relatives: Unidentified parents

Aliases: "Psychotic Transformer", "Destructive Shape-Changing Psychopath", possibly "Commando" and "Crimson Commando" (See Comments)

Base of Operations: Care Labs, Manhattan

First Appearance: Spider-Man I#18 (January, 1991)

Powers/Abilities: Cyborg X had superhuman speed, strength (Class 10-25), durability, and was capable of self-repair to a degree.  His cybernetic limbs were capable of elongating and metamorphosing to a limited degree: his arms could become projectile weapons, his legs merged and provided rocket propulsion, and he could extend various tentacles.  He had computerised senses that allowed him to lock onto the biorhythm of an individual and track them.

History:
(Spider-Man I#21 (fb) ) - The soldier who became Cyborg X gave Care Labs the authority to rebuild him after being critically injured in combat.  Cyborg X was to be the first in line of a new breed of super soldiers developed by Care Labs.  An accident during testing affected his computer programming and he began reliving the last few hours prior to his "death".

(Spider-Man I#18) - An out of control Cyborg X fought Spider-Man and the Ghost Rider in a shopping mall.  During the course of the battle, he crashed into a building and the two heroes assumed him to be dead.

(Spider-Man I#21) - Cyborg X's computer programming began to reassemble itself and he sought out Spider-Man for assistance and rescued him from Solo (who believed Spider-Man to be Doctor Octopus thanks to Mysterio's illusions).  He took him to Care Labs, where Oscar McDonnell removed Spider-Mans biorhythm information from his computer memory.  Cyborg X was apparently killed when Care Labs was attacked by the Sinister Six.

Comments: Created by Eric Larsen

Hmm... rebuilding critically wounded soldiers and turning them into Super Soldiers... where have I heard that one before?

Actually, according to Gauntlet Dark Rider, here's the legend behind the original origin for Cyborg X:
 
The story goes that Nicieza had Crimson Commando get maimed in the Freedom Force story in the '91 X-annuals, to set up his becoming a cyborg in the Nicieza/Larsen pitch for X-Factor. P[eter] A. D[avid] got the series instead, and Larsen used the design for Cyborg-X [in Spider-Man a]nd again for his Super-Patriot [in Image's Savage Dragon]...[but] then Crimson Commando came back later as the cyborg Commando.

Cyborg-X's dialogue makes references to names and events from that last Freedom Force story, and seems to have been intended to be Crimson Commando, but Cyborg-X is killed during the story. Are they one and the same? Who can say?

You can read all about it at the Freedom Force site.
http://tatooine.fortunecity.com/bear/353/ffintro.html

Furthermore, Sean Curtin states:

There's a few people over on the X-Fan message boards who've suggested that Cyborg X is actually Frank Bohannon (formerly Crimson Commando of Freedom Force), in an interim form between being crippled in X-Factor Annual#7 and reappearing as the cyborg Commando in X-Men Annual II #2.  There's nothing that explicitly supports the idea, but both are somewhat similar visually and thematically, and it does fit chronologically.

Finally from Kyle Sims, the "X" in Cyborg X could be a reference to the gene, "the X factor",  present within mutants, including Crimson Commando.  Kyle also went straight to the "'Brow" himself, Erik Larsen, creator of the "Savage Fin", the Savage Dragon, Cyborg X, and Super-Patriot to settle this dispute:  

Kyle: Was Cyborg X a Marvel version of Super-Patriot like the "Savage Fin" was for the Dragon?

Erik: Yes--kind of.  Marvel vetoed the SuperPatriot visual because they didn't want a patriotic type shooting up a mall so I redesigned the character.  Once the visual was altered, he was renamed Cyborg-X.  He would have been called Commando.

Kyle:  Was Cyborg X supposed to be the restored Crimson Commando who was severely injured
during the '91 X-title Annuals?

Erik: Yes.  Some of his dialogue was taken from those annuals--he was supposed to be having flashbacks to those traumatic events.

Kyle:  Where you, along with Fabian Nicieza, going to do X-Factor and establish that Cyborg X was Crimson Commando within its pages, but it was given to Peter David instead?

Erik: We put in a pitch, as did several other creators.  I put Cyborg-X into play after we DIDN'T get the gig.

Kyle: Given the similarities of these characters, it kind of seems like you were warming up for Image, or at least drawing upon ideas that would later come to fruition at Image.

Erik: Well, yeah. Do keep in mind, however, that both Dragon and the original version of SuperPatriot predated my Marvel tour of duty.

Posted below is the link to the original questions and answers listed above in their entirety.  

http://www.savagedragon.com/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=48708
  

Profile by Changeling

Profile updated/edited by Kyle Sims

CLARIFICATIONS: 
Cyborg X, who fought the Sinister Six, should not be confused with:

Deathlok (Michael Collins)

Oscar McDonnell and Care Labs

Oscar ran the government owned Care Labs facility in Manhattan, a facility dedicated primarily to developing new weapons.  Also, he was responsible for the creation of Cyborg X.  When Cyborg X brought him a badly injured Spider-Man, McDonnell put the hero's left arm in a special cast that allowed him to maintain full function while simultaneously allowing it to heal a hairline fracture at an accelerated rate.  He also replaced Spider-Man's damaged eyepiece.  He was trying to instill his employees with trustworthiness and restore the notion of an honest government.  In doing so he helped to maintain Spider-Man's secret identity by dumping his biorhythm's from the cyborg's computer memory.  He and Care Labs often worked together with S.H.I.E.L.D.  When Care Labs was attacked by the Sinister Six, 47 people were killed, 162 were wounded, it suffered approximately $4,873,657.22 (+/- 3.235%) worth of property damage, and the villains took much of the weaponry that had been developed there. Presumably Oscar was one of the casualties.  Some of Care Labs employees had previously worked on building Deathlok for Cybertek.

-- Spider-Man I#18 - BTS, 21

 

images: (without ads)
Spider-Man I#18, p1 (head shot)
Spider-Man I#21, p4, pan1 (body shot)
Spider-Man I#21, p7, pan4 (Oscar McDonnell)

Appearances:
Spider-Man I#18 (January, 1992) - Erik Larsen (writer/artist), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spider-Man I#21 (April, 19929 - Erik Lrasen (writer/artist), Danny Fingeroth (editor)

First Posted: 04/10/2003
Last updated: 04/28/2003

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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