"The Rebirth of Cy" Battlestar Galactica Compendium (Maximum Press) Writers: Robert Napton and Scott Devine Art: Hector Gomez Cover A by Robert Scott, Cover B by Dan Parsons

A Cylon centurion damaged by an ion storm questions his programmed hatred for humanity.

Read the story summary at the Battlestar Wiki

Notes from the BSG chronology

Page 2 of the story indicates it takes place in the Colonial yahren 7342. However, according to the BSG Timeline on the Battlestar Wiki, this cannot be correct based on what we know of the TV episodes. The only date given in the TV series is the Colonial yahren 7322, when the Cylons attacked Umbra on Caprica (causing Starbuck to become orphaned), as mentioned in "The Man with Nine Lives". From this it is deduced that the destruction of the Colonies occurs in 7348. Since the yahren stated in this issue is so far off the mark, I've decided to place it after most of the Realm Press stories which take place is "seasons" 2 and 3 of BSG.

Didja Know?

"The Rebirth of Cy" was originally presented in an 8-page story in issue #10 of Asylum, an anthology title published 1995-1997 by Maximum Press. The story was reprinted in Battlestar Galactica: The Compendium from Maximum Press in 1997; the reprint also features an additional page of material, as Apollo and Starbuck prepare to go out on patrol, making the story 9 pages long. The page numbers in this study refer to the 9-page story as printed in Battlestar Galactica: The Compendium.

This story is not actually titled. In issue #3 of Asylum, the BSG story coming up in the next issue (though it actually was not published until issue #10) is advertised as "The Rebirth of Cy", hence the title most fans have given it.

This story is a reimagining of sorts of the Cylon character referred to as Cy by Starbuck in the "The Return of Starbuck" episode of Galactica 1980. Since the entire Galactica 1980 series is generally considered non-canonical (even by creator Glen A. Larson), this may have been Maximum Press' attempt to retell the Cy story in a more-or-less canonical setting. Unfortunately, this plotline was left incomplete when Maximum Press abandoned the BSG license in 1997. So, the title "The Rebirth of Cy" is a misnomer in that this is the first appearance of Cy in the "mainstream" BSG universe.

Realm Press' later-published series of BSG comics (though placed earlier in PopApostle's BSG chronology) also made an attempt to bring in a Cy-like character in "Fire in the Sky", but the company folded without finishing the story.

Didja Notice? 

On page 1, panel 2, notice that Starbuck's Viper appears to have a slide-open canopy instead of the rising one seen in televised episodes of BSG. I guess it's just artistic license, but I like to think that by this time in the chronology, the foundry ship was producing new variations of Viper (as witnessed already in the form of the SuperViper in Surrender the Galactica) and Starbuck is now flying one of these variations.

On page 3, how did the ion storm manage to sneak up on the Cylon squadron? Do the storms move faster-than-light? Or do they form instantaneously? Ion storms are a largely fictional contrivance used in different ways, with different effects, in various science-fiction stories. In the real world, a coronal mass ejection from the sun (a massive release of plasma, effecting magnetic fields for millions of miles) is sometimes referred to colloquially as an "ion storm". So it's possible that the space battle depicted here took place near a sun that experienced a sudden coronal mass ejection.

The Centurion who becomes the Cy character of this story is officially designated as Cylon 8765. Notice that his code number is simply a reverse-chronological order of the numbers 5-8.

The basestar in this story is referred to as Base Ship 127.

On page 5, Cy's damaged Raider is brought aboard the basestar by what appears to be a tractor beam. As far as I can find, this is only the second use of a tractor beam in any BSG story, the first being in "Doomsday Rock", also by the Cylons. It's possible that the Cylons have tractor beam technology, while the Colonials do not.

An IL-series Cylon who appears to be in command of the basestar, places Cy in charge of interrogating the captured human prisoner. It seems odd that the same Cylon who was in charge of a Raider squadron would be placed in charge of interrogating prisoners. Wouldn't they have a specialist in interrogating humans already designated?

On page 7, panel 2, notice that there appear to be two centurions tucked into an alcove of the corridor, with cables plugged into them as if to recharge. This may have been inspired by the Borg of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who step into individual alcoves to rejuvenate aboard a Borg cube.

On page 7, the Cylon computer states that the Cylon Empire attacked the human colonies in 7221. This is only 121 yahrens earlier! The Cylon War is supposed to have been going on for about 1,000 yahrens. It could possibly be argued that the year presented here is a Cylon nomenclature, not the Colonial one. 

Unanswered Questions

What happens to Cylon 8765 and the captured Starbuck? We'll never know.