10 DC Heroes With Surprisingly Tragic Origins

10. Cyborg

To those who were raised on the beloved Glen Murakami Teen Titans cartoon from 2003, the first image of Cyborg that'll come to mind will be him as an outspoken, tofu-loving genius who had a constant back-and-forth with fellow Titan Beast Boy. The years since have painted a much darker portrait of the character however, with Cyborg having made the leap from the Titans to the Justice League, and with it, a slight adjustment in personality.

Even before all of that though, Victor Stone had a tragic origin. Readers would probably be able to discern as much given Vic is half man, half machine, but it wasn't immediately telegraphed by his place on the Titans or by his friendly demeanour; no one could've possibly figured out from appearances alone that Vic fell into a bad crowd when he was young, or that in the same night his mother was killed by an inter-dimensional monster, that he himself would be brutally attacked by the same creature and that he would become half machine in order to survive the encounter.

Yeah... that's a lot to take in.

It's not as if Stone has had it easy since either. He's died multiple times, and creators have even saw fit to introduce the occasional bit of body horror into his comics too. Far from the tofu chowing funny guy from the show, right?