Morgan Blackhand: the Legendary Solo Missing from Cyberpunk 2077

Morgan Blackhand is the most famous Solo in Cyberpunk's history: a war veteran with a black chrome cyberarm, a mercenary usually hired by Militech, and the author of a bestselling handbook for his trade. He was also Mike Pondsmith's own character. In the tabletop timeline he's the man who fought Adam Smasher on the roof of Arasaka Tower in 2023, which is why fans notice his absence from Cyberpunk 2077. (Solo of Fortune 2; Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads!!!!; Firestorm: Shockwave)

Who is Morgan Blackhand?#

Morgan is the model Solo, the setting's word for a hired gun. He served as a soldier in Central America, where he lost his right arm, and came home to find nobody wanted a trained killer for a desk job. Living rough in New York, he took apart a boostergang leader so neatly that a watching Militech recruiter hired him on the spot. He became a mercenary for Militech and other clients, usually going to the highest bidder and doing the work his own way. (Cyberpunk 2020; Solo of Fortune 2; Firestorm: Shockwave)

His fame came from doing the job well rather than loudly. Solo of Fortune 2, written as a 2020 trade yearbook, ranks him the number one Solo in the business and credits him with The Enforcer's Handbook, a guide that it says sold over a million copies and raised the standard of the whole profession. Its example of his style is the 2019 attempt to kidnap Kerry Eurodyne: Morgan caught all five kidnappers on his own and handed them over alive, embarrassing the people who'd paid for the job. (Solo of Fortune 2)

The same book has him complaining that being a Solo used to mean something, before every idiot with a big gun started calling himself one. (Solo of Fortune 2)

Mike Pondsmith's character#

Morgan started at the gaming table. Pondsmith, who created Cyberpunk, played him as his own character, and in the Cyberpunk 2020 referee's guide he explains why Morgan has lasted: he isn't alive because he's the best, he's the best because he's alive. Pondsmith plays him like a character he's nurtured for years and doesn't want to lose. That means Morgan doesn't take the sharp end for a group of new players. He lets them go first, watches, and decides whether helping them suits his plans. (Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads!!!!)

Morgan in the Fourth Corporate War#

When the Fourth Corporate War broke out, Militech brought Morgan in to lead special operations in the ocean war. His Militech money let him hire a hand-picked team of freelancers who answered only to him. He also got caught up in the fight over Arasaka's new Soulkiller, which drew in the netrunner Rache Bartmoss and Alt Cunningham, and he tried and failed to stop an Arasaka team from killing Bartmoss. (Firestorm: Stormfront)

The 2023 Arasaka Tower raid and Adam Smasher#

In August 2023 Militech put together a strike on Arasaka's tower in Night City, with Morgan, Johnny Silverhand and others leading teams. Its goals included Arasaka's Soulkiller work and a database it was building, and the team carried a small nuclear device. (Firestorm: Shockwave)

Smasher had wanted a fight with Morgan for years, seeing him as a threat to his belief that metal beats meat, and Morgan had always ignored him. On the roof, as the survivors boarded their aircraft, Smasher appeared in a powered suit. He told Morgan Johnny was dead and taunted him with a captured teammate. Morgan ordered the aircraft to leave without him and turned to face the borg. The book ends the scene there. The tower was then destroyed by the blast, and our Arasaka Tower 2023 page covers the night in full. (Firestorm: Shockwave)

What happened to Morgan after 2023?#

Nobody in the setting knows. Cyberpunk RED passes on rumours that he reported back to the US president and kept working as a secret government asset, and that he was later spotted in several of the cities that recovered first after the war. (Cyberpunk RED)

Cyberpunk 2077 keeps the mystery. At the Afterlife, where drinks are named after dead legends, Morgan has none, because no one is sure he's dead. An in-game news story about a massacre in Japantown quotes the sole survivor describing the killer as a portly man with a black cyberarm. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Why Morgan isn't in Cyberpunk 2077's version of the raid#

Cyberpunk 2077 shows the 2023 attack only through the engram of Johnny Silverhand, and Johnny's version puts himself at the centre. In his memories he leads the assault with Rogue, plants the bomb, and is the one Smasher beats on the way out, before Arasaka soulkills him. Morgan doesn't appear at all. (Cyberpunk 2077)

That's a sharp break from Firestorm: Shockwave, where Johnny is killed by Smasher inside the tower and the rooftop face-off belongs to Morgan. Everything V sees of that night comes from Johnny, so the two accounts never get reconciled on screen. (Firestorm: Shockwave; Cyberpunk 2077)