| “ | Hank Henshaw is dead. I'm Cyborg Superman. | „ |
| ~ Cyborg Superman |
Hank Henshaw, also known as Cyborg Superman, is a former director of the D.E.O and Member of Project Cadmus. He serves as the secondary antagonist of Season 2 of the TV Series, Supergirl.
He was portrayed by David Harewood, who also portrayed Joshua Naismith in Doctor Who, Captain Poison in Blood Diamond, Captain Quinton Cole in Battlefield 3, Thomas Sinclair in Killzone: Shadow Fall, Lane Klaxon in Wendell & Wild and Warlin Door in Alan Wake II: Night Springs.
Personality[]
Henshaw believes his cause to destroy alien life on the planet a righteous one; prompting someone like Supergirl to call him a monster. He is also radically against aliens of all forms to the point of he would kill them regardless whether or not they are a threat to the human race, like when he attempted to kill the Martian Manhunter, despite the fact that he was a refugee, he had no guilt or remorse for this attempted vile act of his. He also proven to have a degree of fear and hatred towards Superman. According to J'onn J'onzz, Henshaw is a sorry excuse for a man.
After 10 years Henshaw is proven to greatly resent J'onn for stealing his life (which is technically no longer stolen) and equally hates Supergirl, believing if he had taken her in as originally planned, none of what happened to him would have occurred. This hatred is seen when, despite Henshaw's dislike for aliens, he complimented the Daxamites for placing J'onn into a coma. He even passed down his radical cause against aliens to Project Cadmus and all those who will follow in Cadmus' path.
Biography[]
Hank Henshaw had served in the U.S. Army, where he met and became best friends with Jim Harper. At some point in his life, Hank was appointed director of the D.E.O..
Director of the D.E.O.[]
While working at the D.E.O., Henshaw learned of J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter, a citizen of Mars, who Superman had claimed was the strongest being on Earth, and became obsessed with hunting him down and killing him, but J'onn would evade him for some years.
In 2004, shortly after Kara Zor-El's arrival on Earth, the D.E.O. became aware of her existence and sought to bring her into custody to study her, and give them better understanding of Kryptonian biology. Visiting Kara's adoptive family the Danvers, her foster father Jeremiah Danvers refused to let Kara be taken away. Instead he offered his assistance to the D.E.O. as he knew everything about Kryptonians, having personally helped Superman discover his abilities, to which Henshaw agreed and recruited Jeremiah into the D.E.O.
In 2005, the D.E.O. remote outpost probes in Peru signaled J'onn's location and Henshaw ordered a team readied to kill him. Jeremiah, however, tried to plead a case to capture J'onn instead insisting that an alien who has lived on Earth for 300 years could have useful information for scientific pursuits, but Henshaw declined and he, Jeremiah, and a team of agents traveled to Peru to carry out the mission. Henshaw eventually caught Jeremiah and J'onn talking in the woods and shot J'onn with specially-made bullets. As Henshaw began to torture J'onn, Jeremiah tried to convince Henshaw that J'onn wasn't a threat, that he was a refuge just like Kara. Henshaw refused to listen and the two men got into a struggle as Henshaw tried to kill J'onn. Though Henshaw managed to stab Jeremiah in the chest which would cause him to bleed to his "death," Jeremiah was able to push Henshaw off the nearby cliff side where he fell to his supposed death.
While being presumed dead, J'onn assumed his identity to reform the D.E.O. and use it to hunt down true alien threats not just refuges and would continue to use his appearance for almost 10 years. In 2016, J'onn was forced to reveal himself in order to save the city from Red-Kryptonite-infected Kara and was finally exposed as an impostor to the D.E.O. Despite his deception, J'onn was cleared of all charges by president Olivia Marsdin herself and he remained Director of the D.E.O. J'onn still continues to use Henshaw's appearance working at the D.E.O. and in public, believing people still feel more comfortable working with someone who looks human.
After his fight with J'onn and Jeremiah, Henshaw was rescued and salvaged by Project Cadmus. His damaged body was repaired with cybernetic parts, which gave him superhuman strength and endurance. He adopted a new alias, "Cyborg Superman". Henshaw now saw Cadmus as a continuation of the D.E.O.'s original mission - to hunt and exterminate aliens on Earth. He remained with Cadmus when it went rogue and cut formal ties with the government.
When Cadmus kidnapped Mon-El to draw out Supergirl, Henshaw met her, fought and defeated her. Later after Cadmus extracted blood from Supergirl, Henshaw went to the Fortress of Solitude and used Supergirl's blood to gain access. He then inquired about "Medusa".
Henshaw went to Al's Dive Bar to plant a bomb (which contained Medusa gas) into it though he was spotted by Mon-El. After fighting him, he fled when the bomb went off and people started screaming in the bar. Henshaw arrived at L-Corp to try and steal the isotope needed for Lillian Luthor's Medusa rocket but was intercepted by Supergirl and the D.E.O.. He dominated the fight until a dimensional breach opened allowing Supergirl to gain the upper hand forcing him to flee. When the Luthors were at the launch site, he appeared to hold off J'onn J'onzz from getting to them. Henshaw managed to beat down the martian until Supergirl crashed into him. When the police arrived to arrest Lillian, he vanished in the commotion.
Henshaw went to L-Corp, where he stole some Cadmus-fabricated synthetic version of Kryptonite and made it look like it came from one of the vaults in the CEO's office. Henshaw later altered the footage to make it seem like Lena had taken it, resulting in the latter being arrested. Henshaw then smuggled the Kryptonite to John Corben/Metallo so that he could break himself and Lillian out of custody, an act that Corben would later repeat with Lena. Henshaw then joined Corben and the Luthors at one of Lex's bunkers and forced Lena to put her hand to the DNA reader to open the cache of anti-alien weaponry. When Metallo's Kryptonite became unstable, Henshaw and Lillian fled in a helicopter before it exploded.
Henshaw was with Lillian Luthor as they were working on a device in a secret location and he told her that it was now complete. When Jeremiah Danvers returned from raiding secret files from the D.E.O. he met up with Henshaw and Lillian in a rendezvous point and he told him that he was late. Jeremiah told him that there was more resistance then he had anticipated but he still got the files they were after. When they were found by Supergirl and Alex Danvers, he triggered an explosive planted on some rail tracks in order to distract them so that they could escape.
After Jeremiah rebelled against Cadmus, Henshaw attacked him. After a harsh fight, Henshaw managed to subdue Jeremiah, knocking him unconscious.
When Rhea led the Daxamite invasion on National City, Henshaw and Lillian temporarily allied with Supergirl's team to rescue Lena, who had been captured. Henshaw transformed the Phantom Zone projector into a teleporter, allowing him, Lillian and Supergirl to board the Daxamite ship. After rescuing Lena, Henshaw and Lillian left Kara and Mon-El behind and returned to the Fortress of Solitude. However, Supergirl had anticipated this and used a fail-safe to allow Mon-El to escape the ship. Once arriving at the Fortress, Mon-El quickly knocked Henshaw out.
Following Lillian's arrest, it is unknown if Henshaw is still active as part of Cadmus.
