One can argue there is a huge difference between a character wearing a exosuits and character being a cyborg. Since one is wearable technology, while the other is merging with machine.
Iron Man seems to blur the lines here.
None related to Marvel here. But even the Androids from Dragon Ball Z, don’t look like Cyborgs on the surface. But yet they are still considered Cyborgs though.
Comments
Reminders for Commenters:
All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If “watsonian” or “doylist” is new to you, please review the full rules here.
No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to permanent ban on first offense.
We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world.
Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
His heart is more of an advanced pacemaker than a cybernetic implant. And the rest of his body is completely organic. So no, he is not a cyborg.
Technically yes since the reactor is in his chest and keeping him alive. Although all the equipment he used to empower himself beyond human limitations do not need the reactor to be in his chest so he’s not a cyborg in the classical sense.
Someone with a pacemaker or artificial limb that is powered is a cyborg. He is as well.
Yes, technically.
But I think Stark was correct in referring to the suit as a prosthesis.
because of the armor/suit? no.
because of the reactor inside his chest? yes.
Comics Iron Man or MCU?
MCU isn’t a cyborg , he uses nanites to make his exosuit. Comics Iron Man is a cyborg more often than not , but minimally.
In general , Tony Starks prefers using exosuits than going full cybernetic, especially in the comics as we makes modular suits in which it shift around it’s “types” by attaching one or two plates of nanites or other gadgets , so he more-or-less adapts to the problem at hands instead of been “stuck” with the specs implanted in his body.
It honestly depends on where you draw the line. According to some schools of thought, wearing glasses makes you technically a cyborg.
Depends on when you’re asking. Tony Stark had an artificial heart for a while, which made him at least as much a cyborg as people with pacemakers or cochlear implants.
If someone with a pacemaker or cochlear implants is a cyborg, then yes Tony is one as well.
>But even the Androids from Dragon Ball Z, don’t look like Cyborgs on the surface. But yet they are still considered Cyborgs though.
That is because 17, 18, and 20 are not actually androids because they were originally human. All the other androids are not cyborgs because they are just machines.
A cyborg is a CYBernetic ORGanism. To be classified as a true cyborg, one needs to have the cybernetics be a necessary part of keeping the organism alive, alternatively removing the cybernetics will kill the organism. an Android is a machine that is built in the shape of a human.
As long as Tony has cybernetics prolonging his life functions, he is a cyborg. Forge with his cybernetic leg is not a cyborg. Rhodey with his exoskeleton is not a cyborg. Misty Knight is not a cyborg. Armin Zola is a human mind in a android body, but appears to have no organics. Cable is an edgecase because cybernetics are trying to take over his body and using his mutant powers to resist, but I don’t know that he can live without the techno-organic virus. Don’t get me started on Deathlok.
Dude keeps his armour inside his bones. Yeah he is definitely a cyborg.
“Cyborg” means something different in Japanese. There is it is used as a label for any kind of technologically created or modified human unlike English language science fiction and superhero fiction. As for Iron Man, for a while he did turn himself into a cyborg with his latest armour being built into this body, but most of the time he is not a cyborg.
Iron Man isn’t a cyborg in the traditional sense. He’s a human using external tech, not someone who’s integrated it into his body like a true cyborg. But post-Extremis, when he can interface with the suit, he gets a bit closer to that line.
The key point of a cyborg as discussed in 1960 is that the machine aspects of the human-machine system are not under conscious control by the human. A person operating a vehicle is therefore not a cyborg as it requires conscious control, unlike a pacemaker.
Obviously this definition is not entirely ideal when machines can be controlled just by thinking as that potentially blurs the line between conscious and unconscious control.
In iron man 3 he is injecting things into his skin so he could call the suit to himself. Granted that has since become outdated since he since he changed to nano technology for his suits. But did he ever remove those things? If he didn’t then he is definitely a cyborg.
Yes. From the start. Extremes(the one from the ultimate iron man comic) is basically his infinity war suit but it comes out from his body(which houses all the nanites)
Technically, but only in the same sense that someone with a pacemaker or a hearing implant is a cyborg.
That is, I’m not going to say you’re wrong. But I will say that, in this context, it’s a little misleading.
Usually a cyborg is considered someone who has cybernetics integrated into their body, most of the type like Genos or Cyborg from DC. Most version of Iron Man suits are more like wearable tech than they are cybernetics.
Anybody with a technological enhancement, even something as simple as a pair of glasses, is technically a cyborg.
He’s been putting technology into his body to help him interface with his suit since at least the turn of the millennium; he’s well past the point of being considered a cyborg by now.
the suit is removable cyborg tech – literally man+machine making something greater than the sum
Tony stark? Reactor in his chest, Extremis nanotech in his bones Tony Stark? Cyborg
No Iron man transitions between man and costume
At some points (in the comics) he has a bunch of cybernetics and/or nanomachines that make him definitely a cyborg, while others the only thing between him and being a vanilla human is a magnet keeping shrapnel out of his heart.
I don’t think there really is a blurred line. Anyone with internal machinery is a cyborg. It’s been argued that people with pacemakers, and people with levers in their “false” legs are cyborgs. Seems reasonable to me.
Doesn’t Stark have a full suite of implants eventually?