Episode 05: Sum of His Parts
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"If you take out my biological components, you take out the best part of me - the part that makes me who I am."
- Cyborg
Originally aired: August 23, 2003
Written by David Slack
Directed by Alex Soto


A day of fun in the park is cut short when Cyborg suddenly freezes like a statue. His power cell is dying. And while the problem is easily fixed with a new battery, Cy is reminded of something he doesn't like to think about: he's not completely human. But before Cyborg can get home to fix his power cell, the Titans are called into action. The Amazing Mumbo is on a magical crime spree in the city -- and there's no way Cyborg is gonna let his friends fight alone. But during a wild junkyard battle, Cyborg's battery goes dead; and the Titans think Mumbo has made off with their friend. And while the Titans are searching the city for Mumbo, Cyborg is found by Fixit -- a cybernetic hermit who finds things that are broken and repairs them. Cyborg gets the new power cell he needs; but there's just one problem, Fixit's not done fixing. When repairs are complete, will Cyborg be human at all?


Tom Kenny as Mumbo
Tom Kenny as Fixit


First appearances of Mumbo and Fixit
Fixit was originally conceived as the comic book Titans' villain, Psimon. Psimon was a vicious criminal with psychic abilities


Producer/Story Editor David Slack on SUM OF HIS PARTS: "SUM OF HIS PARTS was a rare thing where the story broke in about 2 minutes. We were behind schedule and we had to come up with an episode quick. We had 4 in the pipeline, but nothing following. Glen [Murakami] and I plotted it out, he kicked me out of his office and then I got home and wrote."

"That was another episode that pushed the boundaries of the how far we could go in the show. The stuff that happens with Cyborg in that episode is really scary and dark. That's actually why Mumbo is that episode. That was a Glen suggestion. Since we were doing something so dark, we came up with this crazy madcap magician character. I think if I did that episode now, I would just let it stay dark. But it was some pretty scary stuff in that episode."

"But it was nice to touch on some of the stuff from the comic book. There's that relationship that Cyborg has with the kids that have prosthetics. The cool thing about SUM OF HIS PARTS was something we heard from a parent. Her son had a friend at school who was diabetic, and when he told his mother, he mentioned "He's just like Cyborg." So we had given this kid a way to understand his friend; Just because he had diabetes, it didn't mean there was anything 'wrong' with him. So that was really cool. "


In New Teen Titans [first series] #8 [1981]: As Vic Stone mused his new cybernetic form, he was struck by a baseball. As the child retrieved it, Vic was surprised that the boy didn't recoil at the sight of him. Instead, the handicapped boy marveled at Vic's metal prosthetics, whereas his were plastic.

Vic then unexpectedly became friends with Sarah Simms, a teacher of West Side School for the Handicapped, and her class of handicapped students - all who were learning to adjust to prosthetic limbs. The children continued to look up to Vic, who had his own 'metal prosthetics,' of a sort.

Mumbo and Fixit were created for the animated series and have not appeared in the comics.

For more information on the comic book versions of the characters - including many images - visit titanstower.com's meeting room page.


A spotlight on Cyborg pushes the dark sensibilities of the series to the forefront. The sequences of Fixit and Cyborg were quiet and dark scenes - and even included a nightmarish sequence where Cyborg is stripped of his humanity. I tend to like when the series gets darker, so I appreciated those bits in this episode.

Since this is an earlier episode, the staff seemed unsure of how dark they would be able to carry the series. So say hello to Mumbo, the wacky magician. Mumbo seems to be operating in an entirely different episode than Cyborg and Fixit. This was of course intentional - a way to balance the dark with the light. The juxtaposition is understandable - albeit a bit jarring.

The bookend segments in the park were nice. And the nod to the prosthetic kids from the comic book series was a sweet   touch. This is probably the best Cyborg spotlight episode of the first two seasons. Grade: B+



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