Hank Henshaw - otherwise known as the Cyborg Superman - is a villainous character from DC Comics. Originally a NASA astronaut and scientist, a terrible accident occurred during a space mission that killed Henshaw's entire crew, including his wife Terri, and left Henshaw himself near death with most of his body destroyed. Using the experimental technologies aboard his shuttle, Henshaw was able to transmit his consciousness into NASA's computers, and from there transmit himself into the birthing matrix that had brought Superman to Earth. With the birthing matrix, Henshaw created a new cybernetic body for himself which resembled Superman, although the only organic components he had left were a portion of his brain, scalp and one of his eyes. Having become mentally unstable, and learning that Superman was partly responsible for the accident that killed his crew, Henshaw made it his mission in life to destroy the Man of Steel.
DC Animated Movie Universe[]
The Death of Superman[]
Hank Henshaw (voiced by Paul Fabian) was an astronaut and part of the Excalibur shuttle crew along with his wife Terri. The crew were carrying out maintenance on a satellite when an asteroid appeared, heading towards Earth. The shuttle was in the asteroid's direct path and the crew scrambled to to move to a safe distance, though there wasn't enough time. Hank was adamant that Superman would show up to save them, but he never did and the shuttle was struck by the asteroid. Hank's wife and colleagues were all killed by the impact, and as far as the world knew, Hank had perished too.
Reign of the Superman[]
In the months following Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday, four copycat Supermen had arisen. One of them was Hank Henshaw, who somehow had survived the destruction of his shuttle, only to be reborn as the Cyborg Superman. After first appearing, he performed a number of heroic feats to gain attention, to make them believe that he was Superman reborn. However, this was all part of an insidious plan concocted by the malevolent Darkseid.
What no-one on Earth knew was that the Cyborg Superman was Darkseid's creation. His Parademons had found Henshaw's remains floating in space and his Apokoliptian scientists had managed to save his consciousness and download it into a cyborg body. During the process, Darkseid had conditioned Henshaw into believing that Superman was responsible for what happened to him, instilling within Henshaw an intense desire for revenge against the Man of Steel. Outfitting Henshaw with a Mother Box and advanced nanotech, Darkseid sent Henshaw back to Earth under the guise of Superman to prepare the planet for invasion.
After staging the demise of the Justice League, Henshaw addressed the citizens of Metropolis, inviting people to join his proposed Cyber Corps as a means of defending the Earth. Each volunteer was implanted with a device that transformed them into cyborg super-soldiers, but overrode their personalities, turning them into mindless automatons. When the Watchtower was due to be launched, Henshaw activated a sequence that transformed several of the Cyber Corps cyborgs into a giant portal, one large enough for Darkseid's invasion fleet to pass through.
Aboard the Watchtower, Henshaw was confronted by Lois Lane, who had uncovered the truth about him. Henshaw took Lois prisoner, but before he could do anything else, an alert sounded. On the viewscreen, Henshaw saw that Superboy, Steel, and a Kryptonian rocket carrying the revived Superman were heading towards the launch site. Enraged, Henshaw declared that he would destroy Superman, but Darkseid ordered him to stick to the plan. Henshaw resisted Darkseid's brainwashing, ripping out the Mother Box in his torso and the control device in his brain. With the Cyber Corps under his control, Henshaw closed the portal and ordered the cyborg army to attack Metropolis.
The real Superman's rocket crashed into the Watchtower, but Clark's powers hadn't yet been fully restored. Henshaw attacked Clark as the Watchtower launched into space, but Clark held him off and freed Lois, who accessed the satellite's controls and activated the emergency bulkheads, sealing the hull breach made by Clark's rocket. Clark used a laser rifle in his battle with Henshaw, carving off one of his arms, but the nano-machinery in his body reconstructed it. While Henshaw was distracted with Superman, Lois opened the Watchtower's sun shields, allowing solar rays to flood in and re-energize Superman.
Fully restored, Superman was able to battle Henshaw on equal terms. Though it went against his policy of not killing his opponents, Clark ended the battle by stabbing Henshaw in the head with a Kryptonian data crystal. The crystal contained the program of the Eradicator, an AI that filled in for Superman during his recovery period. Accessing the Cyborg Superman's brain, the Eradicator attacked and destroyed Henshaw's consciousness, erasing him and shutting down his body.