Hank Henshaw

Hank Henshaw first appeared in The Adventures of Superman #465 (April 1990), and was created by Dan Jurgens.^[2][3][4] The story was a dark pastiche of the Fantastic Four, with astronauts being mutated by cosmic rays, only for in Jurgens' words, "a tragic, rather than heroic, result". This was later referenced in the 1999 crossover Superman/Fantastic Four, where Henshaw notes the similarities and serves as a replacement for Mister Fantastic during his absence. Originally intended as a one-shot, once the story was finished Jurgens "thought there might be more to play with — that there was an interesting character we shouldn't let go of yet",^[5] leading to his reinvention as Cyborg Superman in the Reign of the Supermen storyline.^[6]

In 2015, as DC started a new continuity with The New 52, Jurgens tried to give a new origin for Henshaw and his subsequent transformation into the Cyborg, considering that the Fantastic Four parallels were better off as "a single event, never referred to again", and that "it's much more fair to the everyone—including all the characters involved—if the stories are distanced."^[5]

Once one of the members of the Excalibur crew, including his wife Terri, Hank Henshaw and his crew were exposed to radiation from a solar flare and crash landed. With his body deteriorating but becoming a being of energy, he attempted to visit his wife (who seemed unharmed) in a different form but is rejected.^[7] Blaming Superman for the ordeal, he re-created himself in Superman's image after his death by Doomsday by using the birthing matrix that carried Superman as an infant, granting him organic parts genetically resembling Superman and impersonated him.^[8][9][10]

First among the various Supermen to replace the Man of Steel following his death (alongside Steel, Superboy, and Eradicator), Henshaw works with Mongul to destroy Coast City and frame Superman.^[11][1] Eventually, he is defeated by the genuine Superman who returned from the dead.^[7][1] He would later re-emerged as a galactic threat by becoming the new Grandmaster of the Manhunters, upgrading them with Kryptonian technology and organic material on their homeworld, Biot. Allowing them to rebuild for unknown reasons as part of his plan, Henshaw is defeated when Biot explodes and his head remains, where it is brought to Oa and interrogated for knowledge of the Manhunters and the multiverse.^[12][13] After their invasion of Oa, Henshaw's head is taken by the Sinestro Corps to Qward. Henshaw reconstructs his cyborg body and joins the Sinestro Corps, hoping that the Anti-Monitor can kill him and allow him to rest in peace.^[14][15] When the Green Lantern Corps detonate Warworld and the central power battery of the Sinestro Corps to destroy the Anti-Monitor, Henshaw allows himself to be trapped behind a shield and is grievously injured in the explosion. His head is recovered by the Manhunters, who reactivate him.^[16]

Henshaw returns to work with the Alpha Lanterns as they attempted to augment every Green Lantern into an Alpha and coerces Ganthet to aid in reversing them, hoping to restore his original body.^[17][18] Henshaw is seemingly killed when the Lanterns separate his life force from his body. His subsequent attempt to possess Alpha Lantern Boodikka fails after she overpowers him. When Boodikka is attacked by Doomsday while investigating the remains of New Krypton, Henshaw is revealed to still be alive inside Boodikka, forming a new body out of her internal circuitry to fight Doomsday.^[19] Doomsday absorbs the nanotechnology from Henshaw's body and heals himself, becoming a new being dubbed "Cyborg Doomsday".^[20]

Hank Henshaw is a "technomorph". Unlike a simple technopath which can physically manipulate technology with their mind, Henshaw can extend his consciousness into any machine.^[23] Through his technomorphic abilities, Henshaw gained Kryptonian powers similar to Superman while editing out weaknesses, such as his vulnerability to kryptonite. Henshaw can commandeer complex alien technology, including power rings and the batteries that fuel them.^[24][25]

• Hank Henshaw appears in the DC/Marvel crossover Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances. This version was pulled from the DC Comics universe and brought to the Marvel Comics universe by Thanos, who sought to test a multiversal rift created during Oa's destruction. After destroying a planet due to the tidal stresses generated when he tried to convert it into a new Warworld, Henshaw battles the Silver Surfer until they are interrupted by Hal Jordan / Parallax, who seeks revenge on the former for destroying Coast City.
  • Hank Henshaw appears in Superman/Fantastic Four: The Infinite Destruction. He seeks out Galactus in the hopes of becoming his herald, only to be transformed into an inanimate metal rod.
• Hank Henshaw appears in JLA: Act of God.^[26]
• In the crossover story Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future, Henshaw learns of the existence of Skynet in the future and uses a salvaged Terminator skull to provide Skynet with information on Superman's weaknesses, subsequently allying with a T-X unit to eliminate John Connor and the Superman family. Despite Henshaw merging with the T-X to battle Superman, he is forced to withdraw when Supergirl infects him with a computer virus that irreparably damages the T-X.

• List of Superman enemies