Cyberpunk 2077 arrives this months after years of anticipation, launching RPG fans into Night City as they battle rival gangs, hackers, hit-men, cyborgs, and Solos – the hired guns of the game’s dystopian future. The new title from Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red will also likely feature famous faces from in and outside of the world of the original pen-and-paper RPG.
Keanu Reeve’s Johnny Silverhand may be the star of Cyberpunk 2077’s show, but the similarly styled Morgan Blackhand is one of the most important characters in the world of Cyberpunk and Johnny’s own checkered past. Blackhand is the most esteemed Solo in the New United States of America, bringing him fame and fostering intense rivalries from those who want to best him. His fate has been tied to Johnny for most of the 21st century, and Johnny’s return could mean big things for the character in Cyberpunk 2077.
Morgan Blackhand, like Johnny Silverhand, takes his name from the cybernetic arm that replaced one of his limbs. Considered one of the best Solos in the world, Blackhand is famously pragmatic, rarely killing people despite his violent line of work. Blackhand got his first taste of combat in the 1980s, while serving in the United States military. Due to the divergence between the 20th century of the Cyberpunk timeline and the real world’s, soldiers were already being equipped with cybernetic enhancements by the time of the real world’s Reagan years.
As a young soldier, Morgan Blackhand found himself transformed into a cyber-soldier using this new technology. He first showed his unique ingenuity and cool-headed, practical approach when disaster struck. Blackhand’s commander succumb to Cyberpsychosis, a dissociative mental illness caused by an abundance of incompatible cybernetic implants. Without a sense of self, those who become victims of Cyberpsychosis in the Cyberpunk universe are often prone to violent outbursts. When Blackhand’s commander began to show signs, Blackhand was the one to take over the unit despite his relative inexperience.
After leaving the army, Morgan Blackhand found himself down on his luck. His skills unsuited to civilian life, Blackhand’s new identity began to be forged after an unfortunate encounter with another cybernetically enhanced human. Boostergangs – street gangs in Cyberpunk that use cyber tech to enhance their bodies – were common by the time Blackhand returned from his stint in the military. The leader of one such gang took a disliking to the veteran. It would be the last mistake he’d ever make. Morgan Blackhand killed the Boostergang leader with such elegant ease that he began to draw attention in high places.
In the pen-and-paper RPG, Morgan Blackhand recounts his story as a Solo as such: “After I got out of the Army, I had this problem. I was good at what I did, but no one was hiring. I mean, what do you do when you’re a highly trained killer with a background in demolitions? Read the wanted ads? After a few months on the Street, I got into a dustdown with a local booster lord. I flatlined him and went back to my drink. Within ten minutes, the recruiter from Militech came up to me and dropped a business card… Now I’m a company man. The Pay’s good, the Work steady, and they pay for my spare parts. So far, I’m still alive. So far, so good.” Clearly, Militech International Armaments, one of the main American megacorporations in the Cyberpunk world, took notice of Blackhand.
Even by 2020, Morgan Blackhand was known as an old-school Solo. His army experience quickly came in useful, and he began to make a name for himself as one of the best in the business. By the events of Cyberpunk 2020, he’d been working as a Solo long enough to begin distrusting the newer generation of corporate mercenaries. Blackhand may have scoffed at these new Solos, many of whom were augmenting themselves far beyond his own enhancements, but one such “gonk with a big gun” would change his life forever.
It was around this time that Adam Smasher, an up-and-coming cyborg Solo, began to consider Morgan Blackhand his arch-rival. In reality, there was little basis for this. Blackhand had little idea who Adam Smasher was at first, and even less reason to care. Smasher had grown up in New York, being rebuilt by a mysterious benefactor after a job-gone-wrong left him next-to-dead. By ignoring Smasher, however, Blackhand only made the cyborg’s hatred of him more intense.
In 2020, a group of kidnappers attempted to take Kerry Eurodyne hostage. Kerry was one of the founding members of Samurai, a rockerboy band with Johnny Silverhand as its lead singer. Blackhand was able to bring Kerry and all five kidnappers back alive.
When the Fourth Corporate War broke out in the world of Cyberpunk, Blackhand and Johnny found themselves reunited as part of a Militech team attempting to raid the Arasaka Tower in Night City in 2023. When Adam Smasher found out that Blackhand was working for Militech, he quickly signed a contract with Arasaka. Smasher intercepted the duo, and in the chaos a “pocket nuke” intended to partially denotate a shielded part of the building went off outside its intended destination. The event was known as the Night City Holocaust, and half a million lives were lost.
The cyborg killed Johnny, and Adam Smasher and Morgan Blackhand were last seen rushing towards each other on top of the Arasaka Tower as it collapsed beneath them. Nobody has seen the legendary Solo since, but with Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand and Adam Smasher both returning for Cyberpunk 2077, fans of the character can likely feel confident that they’ll learn his final fate when the game releases.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be available on December 10 for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions releasing in 2021.
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