WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for RWBY/Justice League #3 by Marguerite Bennett, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade von Grawbadger, Hi-Fi and Gabriela Downie, on sale now from DC.
As the digital-first crossover limited series RWBY/Justice League continues to assemble the World of Remnant's version of DC's premier superhero team, issue #3 debuts RWBY's take on Victor Stone/Cyborg. This new version of the former Teen Titan comes complete with a new origin story that is completely different from any version DC has presented in the past.
Ever since Cyborg was first introduced by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez in DC Comics Presents #26 in 1980, the character's origin story has been revamped a number of times, both on the page and on-screen. However, the gist has more or less always remained the same.
The son of brilliant scientist Silas Stone, star athlete Victor is left mutilated and on the verge of death following a horrible accident. Silas manages to save his son by scientifically rebuilding him. While Victor initially resents his father for turning him into another experiment instead of just letting him die, he eventually comes to accept his new identity as the superhero Cyborg.
RWBY's version of Cyborg joins the fray in the second half of RWBY/Justice League #3 (originally published digitally as RWBY/Justice League Chapter Six). Believing him to be a kidnapping victim, Weiss Schnee and Diana Prince track Victor down to the Schnee Dust Company's Vale headquarters. In reality, Victor hasn't been kidnapped at all. Rather, he's been using the facility's tech to maintain his cyborg body.
Diana, who is an automaton in the RWBY-verse, uses this fact to try and connect with Victor, although he doesn't seem interested in the conversation. His annoyance turns to outright hostility when he learns that Weiss is a Schnee, leading him to think that she and Diana are assassins who were sent to eliminate him. A brief skirmish ensues, during which they trigger the building's automated security system. Weiss suggests they all just talk things out, and the three escape the facility together.
As it turns out, Victor was once an astronaut. This is already a massive revelation in and of itself, as it has long been established in RWBY canon that Remnant has never achieved space travel, due to the fact that Dust -- the planet's primary energy source -- doesn't work in outer space. However, Victor reveals that (in the RWBY/Justice League continuity, at least) a number of Dust conglomerates funded a secret space program in the Kingdom of Atlas.
The smartest and strongest astronaut of them all, Victor was chosen to pilot a rocket into the great beyond. The launch went horribly awry when he broke the atmosphere and learned the truth about Dust in space the hard way. Victor says he has no idea how exactly he survived the explosion, but it is revealed that a Green Lantern came by to make the save.
Embarrassed by the catastrophic failure, the space program's investors denied all involvement, with a pair of assassins being sent to silence Victor. They failed to get the job done and Victor took refuge at the Schnee headquarters, as it was the only place with the tech that would allow him to adequately repair himself.
Weiss is greatly impressed by the machinery Victor was able to craft in order to keep himself alive, though Victor laments that the Dust batteries he's been using to power himself die out much too fast. Weiss then offers to help power the tech with one of her glyphs, finally allowing Victor to use his cybernetic enhancements to their full potential.