Superman and Cyborg go through heroic arcs that are surprisingly reflective of each other in Zack Snyder's DCEU movies, including in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Despite both heroes being pillars of the Justice League, both they and every other member of the League had their story dramatically transmuted from what Snyder had envisioned for the Justice League film. Ray Fisher's Cyborg in particular, described by Snyder as "the heart of the movie", has his central story cut off at the knees, while Superman was the subject of the infamous CGI mustache catastrophe that plagued the theatrical cut to no end.
With the Snyder Cut's release, audiences can now see each of the hero's stories as originally conceived. With the movie being Cyborg's introduction into the DCEU (following his brief cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), he benefited immensely by the film's release, with Snyder's movie presenting him as a far more fleshed out and significant character than in the theatrical cut. One interesting detail about the Snyder Cut is that it also highlights that Cyborg's story in the film, and its planned sequels, paralleled that of Superman in numerous ways.
Given their distinctly different powers and origins, this might seem counterintuitive. However, the story of Henry Cavill's Man of Steel not only starts him from a place with some thematic similarity to Cyborg, but the journey both characters take, and were intended to fulfill in the Justice League sequels, made their arcs closer to each other's than any other heroes on the League. Here are the ways in which Superman and Cyborg's stories mirror each other, and where Snyder intended to take them.
Superman & Cyborg Both Begin As Anonymous Heroes
In the story arc established by Snyder, Superman and Cyborg start in a similar place as heroes using their powers to help people in the most clandestine ways possible. In Man of Steel, Clark Kent keeps himself hidden from public view by using pseudonyms and living a nomadic life, changing his identity each time he uses his powers to save people. Despite his efforts to stay hidden, legends of a man with unexplainable strength and invulnerability saving lives before disappearing begin to build up. The franchise's pivotal character Lois Lane (Amy Adams) puts the pieces together after her own rescue in the Kryptonian scout ship, , uncovering the truth about the mysterious hero, before learning from Clark why he chooses to hide himself from the world.
Zack Snyder's Justice League introduces Victor Stone as a young man who loses almost everything he cares about and has to start his life anew. Victor was already using his genius-level I.Q. to help others as a college student, hacking into his University's computers to change a friend's grades after her family lost their home. After the car accident that killed his mother, Dr. Elinor Stone (Karen Bryson), and left his body in tatters, Victor's transformation into Cyborg leaves him horrified and depressed as what he sees as the loss of his humanity. Despite this, Cyborg still proves himself a hero, lending a hand to an impoverished waitress, anonymously transferring $100,000 into her bank account, and he begins to realize there might be more good that can come of his newfound cybernetic nature than he thought.
Superman & Cyborg's Fathers Play Key Roles In Their Stories
Superman is the product of two fathers on Krypton and on Earth, and each plays an equally vital role in shaping him into a hero. After sacrificing himself to send Kal-El to Earth from the doomed Krypton, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) guides his son as an A.I. in the Kryptonian scout ship, telling him that "In time, you will help them accomplish wonders" with the ideal he can embody for mankind. His adoptive father Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) provides another kind of mentorship. Jonathan urges Clark to hide his powers, reasoning that showing himself to the world will be a turning point that can't be undone, and admonishing him that whatever man Clark becomes, "good character or bad, he's going to change the world". Like Jor-El, Jonathan falls on the sword to keeps his son's future safe, Clark understanding, however painfully, that his existence becoming known will change the world overnight in ways that even he can't control.
Victor has a much more strained relationship with his father, Dr. Silas Stone (Joe Morton), holding him responsible for the accident that killed Elinor and destroyed his own body. Despite this, Silas does his best to guide his son through his cybernetic abilities. Like Clark, Victor has potentially world-ending abilities at his disposal, including the power to launch every nuclear weapon on Earth at will and easily manipulate everything from power grids to banking systems (Both Fisher and Snyder have also described Cyborg as among the most powerful DCEU characters). As Jonathan did, Silas places a lot of emphasis on restraint, telling his son "It is the burden of this responsibility that will define you and who you choose to be". Like Jor-El and Jonathan, Silas sacrifices himself for his son to super heat the Mother Box before Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) can get hold of it, and enabling Victor and the League to track it down.
Both Experience A Death & A Resurrection
After Clark stops the Kryptonian plot to terraform Earth in Man of Steel, he faces a new challenge in Batman v Superman in a world polarized over the existence of an alien wielding such massive power. Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is particularly reluctant to trust Superman, twenty years defending Gotham City as Batman instilling in him a cynical outlook over anyone being as pure-hearted as even Superman. In his efforts to destroy the Man of Steel, Batman learns how wrong he was when Superman sacrifices himself to stop Doomsday, and sets about forming the Justice League to defend Earth from the invasion Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) foretells. After realizing the power of the Mother Box as a "change machine" in Zack Snyder's Justice League, the team successfully revives Superman, the Man of Steel donning his new black suit and arriving just in time to stop Steppenwolf, cheerfully declaring himself "Not impressed" by the alien villain.
Though Victor survives the car crash and is kept on life support by Silas, he undergoes a death and return of his own. Victor is declared legally dead after the accident, Silas toiling away in a bid to save his son's life until he finds one of the three Mother Boxes buried in the U.S. government's archives. While Victor gets a new body with technological powers beyond anything on Earth, in his mind, it's anything but a blessing. His perspective gradually begins to change as he learns not only the good he can do as Cyborg, but also that he hasn't been stripped of his human identity, as he once believed himself to be. Victor's realization of this culminates in his separation of the Mother Boxes, which tempt him with the offer of restoring his human body and bringing back Silas and Elinor, Victor rejecting the bargain with the words "I'm not broken, and I'm not alone" as he prevents the Unity.
Each Learns His Potential As A Hero
The essence of Superman and Cyborg's individual stories is about each realizing the good he's capable of, and that they don't need to remain anonymous in order to do so. Clark sees both praise and scrutiny while helping the world as Superman, and his most important victory is in saving Batman from the darkness he's fallen into. In his return, Superman sees that his death was not in vain, the Dark Knight inspired by his heroism to form the Justice League. After the League defeats Steppenwolf, Superman literally lifts Batman into the sun after figuratively doing so, seeing in Batman and the heroes that stand with him the hope he's tried to provide the world personified.
Cyborg was in a much lonelier place than Superman was, and was fully ready to leave humanity to its own devices, but after joining the League at the urging of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Victor comes to see what his father saw in him with the abilities he now has. While Victor never takes on the name Cyborg, he comes to view his cybernetic nature with newfound positivity. Despite the loss of his body, Victor now no longer sees himself as a broken man, but as someone who, like Superman, has been given a second chance. Victor also finally lets go of his grudge against Silas, paying his respects to his parents and flying into the sky with confidence in what he can now do as the hero Silas knew he could become.
Superman & Cyborg Reached Their Heroic Pinnacle In Snyder's Planned Sequels
Superman and Cyborg's stories weren't going to stop here, but were intended to follow each along with the entire League in Snyder's intended Justice League 2 and Justice League 3. The basic outline can be seen in a collection of whiteboards (albeit without the subsequent behind-the-scenes tweaks to the story), and they present a general layout of the two sequels. The essence of the story was to see the Knightmare future of Darkseid's invasion of Earth fully explored after its teases in both Batman v Superman and Zack Snyder's Justice League. The Justice League sequels would also involve Superman being brought under Darkseid's control with the Anti-Life Equation, The Flash (Ezra Miller) running back in time to undo this future, and the League's final battle with Darkseid and Apokolips. Though the whiteboards are more cliff notes than full scripts for the sequels, they also show where each member of the League's story was to conclude, including Superman and Cyborg.
Superman was planned to truly be the Man of Steel fully realized, leading not just the Justice League by the armies of man against Darkseid, the outline describing this as "The entire world becomes a Justice League". After Batman sacrificed himself to defeat Darkseid, Clark and Lois would give birth to a non-superpowered son, whom they would name Bruce Kent. Twenty years later, inspired by his father's leadership and Bruce Wayne's heroic death, Bruce Kent would take up the latter's mantle as the new Batman. Superman's ending was ultimately Snyder's pay off for Jor-El's prophecy in Man of Steel that "In time, they will join you in the sun, Kal", but Cyborg was equally vital to driving back the Apokoplitian invasion, and his ending paid off his arc in its own way.
With the Mother Boxes to return in the Justice League sequels, Cyborg would once again be instrumental in stopping them from remaking Earth into Apokolips. This time, Cyborg gains complete control over the Mother Boxes and finally destroys them, leaving Darkseid weakened and leading to his defeat. After repelling Darkseid and the invasion from Apokolips once and for all, Cyborg would gain absolute mastery over his technological abilities, becoming "a god of the digital age", and even gaining the power to transform his body into a fully human form again. Like Superman, Cyborg reached the peak of his superhuman abilities by the end of Justice League 3, both ending their stories at the opposite end of the spectrum from where they began as heroes fully known to the world.
With Snyder's planned story now 3/5ths finished and interest in Snyder's unrealized sequels remaining alive and well, it's evident that Superman and Cyborg's arcs had the two heroes traveling remarkably similar roads, realizing their heroism in their own ways that still reflected each other. Whether Snyder's Justice League sequels are ever realized, as many continue to campaign for on social media, the two-film conclusion of Zack Snyder's arc now occupies a similarly legendary mantle in nerd culture as the Snyder Cut once did. What Zack Snyder's Justice League shows is that the film and the rest of Snyder's story positioned Superman and Cyborg as two heroes with a lot in common in where their respective stories were taking them, and both realizing the heroism that they are capable of with the lasting impact they've made on others through their selflessness and heroic acts.
