Who would have guessed that a character designed solely for Todd McFarlane’s toy collection would make an appearance in the 38th issue of Spawn? Let us be clear about one thing: the figure of Cy-Gor was not only introduced but his origin story was also told in this issue.
So, who is this human-gorilla hybrid, exactly?
For starters, Michael Konieczni was Al Simmons’ comrade and teammate while the latter was working as a CIA officer. Konieczni had his own intentions to expose Jason Wynn, the director of the United States Security Group, shortly after Al Simmons’ death. But, before he could carry out his plan, Konieczni was arbitrarily detained and forced to participate in Project Sim. The following piece of knowledge is for both Spawn aficionados and those who are not familiar with the world of Spawn: the USSG, or United States Security Group, was also in charge of developing programs linked to biological warfare and genetics. As a result, it should come as no surprise that Project Sim was one of them. To put it another way, the software was the one that built Cy-Gor in the first place.
Project Sim was led by neurologist expert Dr. Frederick Willheim, who was working on a solution to save the life of his wife, Anna Willheim, in private, adding to the program’s stress. Anna had already suffered many miscarriages and appeared to be suffering from some form of neurological problem.
Dr. Willheim sought to save Anna’s life with brain transplants, so after learning that they were possible, he began research on transplanting human brain patterns into an ape in an 80 by 20 ratio. However, due to a mathematical error when programming, the neurologist ended up producing the monster Cy-Gor, short for Cybernetic Gorilla, which began out as 80% gorilla and 20% human.
In today’s video, we will discuss the origins of this violent gorilla cyborg, as well as the issues in which he has appeared in depth. You would better be prepared for this!
Murderous Gorilla Cyborg – Cy-Gor Origins Explained
SPAWN ISSUE #38
Boasting a story by Todd McFarlane and Julia Simmons, Mind Games begins with a mysterious man making his way towards a remote mansion. He is stopped at the gates by the guard who demands to see his id before he lets him in. Upon seeing that the visitor’s card is expired, he tells him to come back the next day with proper documentation. The mysterious man is next seen breaking the neck of the guard before he breaks into the mansion. We get to know the name of the mysterious man – Chris, who is beyond disgusted to see the filthy condition of the house. There’s litter and dust everywhere; somehow, he makes past the decrepit machines that are lying there. As he gets to hear a sudden noise, Chris takes out his gun from its holster and starts walking towards the room.
The man sighs in relief to find no one in the room. In fact, the static noise was coming from the television inside. The readers now get a somewhat clearer picture of Chris. He was apparently looking for files on the unfinished Cy-Gor project. He had strict orders about what he was expected to find. As he rummages through the tapes, each labeled Anna with the year next to the name, he discovers that one of the tapes is already inside the VCR ready to be played. As he clicks the button, the room goes dark.
Somewhere else, Spawn is seen scavenging through heaps of debris. He is looking for something, something that will bring security, vengeance, and peace of course. He is eventually seen recovering his weapons from the exact place where he had last left them. There are no second thoughts about the fact that Spawn is planning something big for Wynn. He addresses him as a ‘slimy pig’ and wishes Wynn to recover soon so that he can blow his head off. As he starts checking his weapons to see that everything is in order, he is met by Cogliostro, who tells him that he has no idea who his real enemy is.
Back at the mansion, Chris chances upon Dr. Frederick Willheim’s last recorded message. The doctor states how he worked as a front-line medic in exchange for training as a physician at the time when war broke out in Europe. It was during his fourth year of service when he met Anna, the woman of his dreams.
He gives her full credit for not losing his sanity, especially at the constant sight of people around him dying because of the war. The readers along with Chris learn that the doctor married Anna after a year. The relentless war came to a halt too but things weren’t looking too bright for Anna. By then, she had gone through two miscarriages as a result of some unknown neurological disorder. Her health was rapidly deteriorating and there was nothing that Dr. Willheim could apparently do at the moment.
But as a neurologist, the doctor stopped at nothing, especially when it came down to saving her life. Very soon, the U.S. Army got a whiff of the doctor’s research and they eventually ended up inviting him to lead their cybernetic simian project.
Or in other words, the doctor was forced to accept their offer and also move to the States. In due course, their demands for instant results affected the life of Anna, especially her recovery. Initially, she slipped into a coma and eventually passed away one morning. Of course, the doctor was devastated but he was more than determined to bring her back to life. He started speeding up his experiments.
After striving for years to implant humans with multiple bionic parts, the researchers finally came to a conclusion that the human mind just couldn’t endure the pain of their implants, and therefore, another vessel was required to carry things ahead. That’s how the simian was selected in the first place thanks to its neurological similarities with human beings.
Dr. Willheim was in charge of merging the cybernetics with the gorilla and thus he began his research to transfer human brain patterns into the ape with a calculated percentage of 80 by 20 human to ape ratio.
Not only did he personally oversee the creation of Cy-Gor but he also did this to bring Anna back to life. Placing a mind into a new body – that is how he wanted to bring his wife back. So, when Cy-Gor moved of its own free will, without any cybernetic enhancements, Dr. Willheim knew that the right time has come for him to experiment on Anna. But unfortunately for the doctor, he suffered a stroke, something that left him physically incapable.
The readers are next taken back to the scene where Spawn’s seen having a heated discussion with Cogliostro. Spawn is bent on taking his revenge; he tells Cog about The Freak and how he wants him to deal with his maker in the first place. Wynn tops his target list followed by Terry Fitzgerald for taking away Wanda from his life and siding with Wynn. Cogliostro warns Spawn that killing Wynn is futile as he happens to be a tiny piece of a much bigger puzzle. He also tells Spawn not to act like a puppet and to start thinking like a free man.
As for Chris, he decides not to go back empty-handed but he is absolutely horrified to find the half-decomposed body of Anna, who is seen sitting with fluids flowing to her brain that’s kept in some kind of a jar. A petrified Chris attempts to leave the mansion only to run into Cy-Gor, who devours him in seconds. It had been three weeks and Cy-Gor was inevitably hungry for some fresh meat.
The issue ends with Spawn paying a visit to his grandmother, Rosemary Blake, who tells him how scared Wanda was to have met a demon the other day.
SPAWN ISSUE #57
Boasting a story by Todd McFarlane, The Beast begins withSpawn communicating with Terry Fitzgerald regarding Major Forsberg. He tells Fitzgerald that he was successful in bringing Major Forsberg back to Rat City.
The readers get to know how Forsberg was in solitary confinement in a foreign prison owned by Jason Wynn for years. It is clear that Terry thinks Forsberg is pretty valuable in taking down Jason Wynn so he tells Spawn to keep a check on the major, especially his mental health and to keep him warm and alive to extract information out of him regarding Wynn. With Wanda returning home, Fitzgerald cuts short the conversation and hangs up abruptly.
Spawn takes a closer look at Forsberg; he seemed like a child in a man’s body. Who would have thought that Forsberg was such a brilliant military strategist once upon a time? Spawn had himself witnessed things when he was working for Wynn. Suddenly the worms Spawn makes use of to regenerate burst out of the box and come towards him.
Cy-Gor makes a surprise attack; bursts out from behind and grabs Spawn. As for Forsberg, he huddles in the background and watches an intense battle taking place right in front of his eyes. Post summoning the creatures of darkness such as worms and bats, Spawn unleashes them on Cy-Gor. They suffocate the beast and drive him into a frustrated frenzy, eventually causing him to pass out but not before murmuring out his own name, Cy-Gor.
The name enkindles a reaction in Forsberg and unexpectedly, he starts talking reasonably. A lot of it actually makes sense too much to the surprise of Spawn. Forsberg tells Spawn all about how the military wanted to build the perfect killing machine. He further divulges information on how Wynn had sent in an operative, someone he thinks was called Al Simmons to hack into the data but he died under mysterious yet suspicious circumstances.
He also tells Spawn about a man called Konieczny, who apparently wanted to blow the whistle on Wynn but was unsuccessful as he was made to be a guinea pig for the cybernetic simian project. It was Konieczny who became Cy-Gor. Later, with Cy-Gor rebooting, he had one objective and that was to track down his creator and destroy him – Al Simmons, in case you guys were wondering.
Meanwhile, Wanda is more than agitated at Terry’s post discovering his spy equipment. She’s fumed that Terry actually held back information from her all this while when she was literally aiding him, frantically looking for clues so as to lead Terry somewhere and bring down Wynn. As much as Wanda wishes to support Terry but she is equally scared of Wynn. She knows how powerful he is and the fact that Wynn knows that they have a child. It would only be a matter of a second for Wynn to destroy them if he comes to know what they have been up to.
What Makes Cy-Gor So Dangerous?
Well, to begin with, Cy-Gor boasts of powers such as cybernetic enhancement, superhuman agility, senses, sight as well as speed. Then there’s Mechanokinesis, which means that Cy-Gor is also capable of removing his own self-destruct and tracking devices so that the rest cannot detect his location.
Too smart for a gorilla, right? Oh well, he is a cyborg, let’s not disregard that. Anyway, next comes Accelerated Healing, which means that he’s able to both repair his wounds as well as run self-diagnostics. Other abilities state how Cy-Gor is cybernetically able to enhance others – Gregor, the small monkey for instance!