This page is for the second Dr. Light, Arthur Light.
For the other Dr.Light, see Kimiyo Hoshi.
Origin
During the Silver Age, Arthur Light was a criminal physicist. He first fought the Justice League and when he lost badly to them, he decided to fight their sidekicks, the Teen Titans. He then organized a small group of super villains who he named the Fearsome Five, but after being defeated by the Teen Titans, Light was expelled from the team quite violently. Each criminal caper led to Light’s defeat, often humiliating him in the process. Light’s most humiliating and scarring defeat was by Little Boy Blue and his Blue Boys, who were a group of children without any superpowers. It was during this age when Dr. Light was considered a joke villain.
Creation
Dr. Light was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. His first appearance was in Justice League of America #12 (June 1962).
Character Evolution
Silver Age: Earth One
During the Silver Age, Arthur Light was a criminal physicist. He first fought the Justice League. He sent each League member to a different planet and nearly took over the world, but Green Lantern Hal Jordan managed to foil his plans. After numerous unsuccessful encounters with the Justice League, Light decided to attack their sidekicks, the Teen Titans. Victory still eluding him, he then organized a small group of super villains he named the Fearsome Five. After being defeated by the Teen Titans, Light was expelled from the Five quite violently.
Modern Age: New Earth
In Secret Origins #37, it was revealed that he was actually the second Dr. Light. The first Dr. Light was his partner at STAR Labs, a scientist named Jacob Finlay. Finlay had used a technically advanced suit to control light as a small-time superhero, but was accidentally killed by Arthur Light while his career was still taking off. Arthur took the suit and the “Doctor Light” name and used them for criminal means. He was then haunted by Finlay’s ghost throughout the years, but usually used the light generated by the suit to drive off Finlay’s spirit.
Because of his self-doubt and guilt, which was forced on him even harder because of Finlay’s ghost, he volunteered for the Suicide Squad, a group of incarcerated super villains who performed dangerous missions for the US government in exchange for clemency. On a mission against the patriotism-themed super-team called the Force of July, during the battle, he managed to kill the youngest member of the crew, Sparkler, who was a mere child.
After the shock of becoming a murderer, Arthur was convinced by Finlay’s ghost to take a turn in the other direction, and try a hero’s path. This did not turn out well at all, as he was murdered by the Parademons on Apokolips. Light was thus sent to Hell, for his corrupted deeds and murder of a child, where he was physically reunited with Finlay. Both men were released from Hell and returned to life, but it seemed to be a prank by the demons of hell, because when they returned they soon died again: Arthur Light suffocated because he was still inside his grave when he came back to life. The rotting corpse, which was Finlay clawed his way out of his grave, only to be killed by a family of religious vigilantes. Arthur Light was then again granted a return to life, but when he did, he was high in the air. He barely survived the fall, which was most likely intended to be fatal.
Dr. Light, now free from Finlay’s hauntings, attempted to rejoin the Suicide Squad, but his appeal was summarily rejected by Amanda Waller. He was briefly trapped in the Green Lantern’s power battery, and because of that he was transformed into living light for a short amount of time. He later joined a short-lived incarnation of the Injustice Gang, in which he assisted Lex Luthor in building holographic duplicates of the JLA.
New 52: Post-Flashpoint
In the rebooted DC universe, Arthur Light is a somewhat kindhearted scientist and the “leading mind on super human energies”. He has an affiliation with homeland security’s offshoot organization, ARGUS, and is a member of Amanda Waller & Steve Trevor’s “Justice League of America”. He was instructed to examine a communication devices in the shape of a coin. The coin was confiscated by Waller & Trevor’s JLA, after infiltrating one of the hideouts of the Secret Society of Super Villains. The coin emits a strange frequency, either biological in origin or extra-terrestrial, that allows the members of Secret Society to communicate with each other. As Dr. Light was examining the communicator, he was engulfed in an explosion of light, granting him with light based abilities.
Major Story Arcs
Identity Crisis
The 2004 series Identity Crisis, revealed that Arthur Light had raped Sue Dibny, the wife of Elongated Man, some time in the past. (Later, it was revealed that Dr. Light is a serial rapist, and Sue Dibny was not the first woman he raped.) The Justice League decided to not only wipe Dr. Light’s mind of the experience so that their loved ones would be protected, but also alter his personality so that he was less dangerous. Zatanna accomplished this, although she was somewhat inexperienced at this time, and accidentally gave him partial lobotomy. This explains how he went from a foe capable of challenging the entire Justice League to being a lower class villain, struggling against the likes of the Teen Titans and the Atom alone. During the events of Identity Crisis, he became aware of the alterations to his memories.
Secret Society of Super Villains (pre-new52)
Dr. Light later kidnapped Green Arrow and used him as bait to start his revenge on the Teen Titans. When the Titans responded to the call and came, Dr. Light attacked without any remorse. No longer hampered by Zatanna’s mental blocks, he nearly managed to kill the Titans. The Titans called in every hero who had even been a Titan to join the battle before Dr. Light was defeated. Batman and Batgirl appeared to take him to prison, but in truth it was Deathstroke and Ravager in disguise. They offered him a place in the new Secret Society of Super Villains, a large villainous organization headed by Alex Luthor, posing as this reality’s Lex Luthor. Dr. Light, hungry for vengeance and power accepted without a second thought.
When he became a Society member, he was able to help Merlyn and Deathstroke defeat Green Arrow in Star City. Dr. Light then attacked and absorbed a great deal of the Doctor Light’s (Kimiyo Hoshi) power, later revealing that this “treatment” was another one of his rape victims. He hired Killer Frost and Mirror Master to distract Green Arrow and Black Lightning while he attacked Green Arrow’s family, Speedy and Green Arrow’s son Connor Hawke, killing a large number of students at Mia’s high school in the process.
Final Crisis
During Final Crisis, Light was one of the members of Libra’s group that killed Martian Manhunter at the behest of the Human Flame. After Manhunter’s death, he felt untouchable by any member of the Justice League. Doctor Light was later hunted down by the new Spectre and literally melted.
Blackest Night
During the Blackest Night event, Dr. Light was one of the deceased villains entombed below the Hall of Justice. He was resurrected as a Black Lantern. He battled Kimiyo Hoshi,who defeated him by generating enough light to incinerate Arthur and his ring.
Trinity War
In the rebooted DC universe, Arthur Light is the “leading mind on super human energies”. He has an affiliation with homeland security’s offshoot organization, A.R.G.U.S., and was asked to examine a strange device by Director Amanda Waller. His tinkering with the device caused him to be engulfed by light, giving him superhuman abilities.
After gaining his abilities, Arthur joined Steve Trevor‘s “Justice League of America” as the costumed hero Dr. Light. He joined the JLA under the pretense that they would help him find a cure to his powers. He had begun to worry about his condition, which caused him to absorb the light from the rooms that he would walk into. After contacting his wife, “Kim” (possibly Kimiyo), he began to express to her the pressing issue, that Waller & Trevor wanted him to use his abilities against Firestorm. What Arthur did not know was, Waller & Trevor knew that he had contacted his wife about JLA classified information. They threatened to have Martian Manhunter use his telepathic abilities to erase his wife’s memories of him out her mind, if he ever told her about ARGUS operations again.
After Rhonda Pineda alerted Trevor that the Justice League was heading into Kahndaq, Waller instructed Trevor to take the JLA to Kahndaq and escort them out. Arthur was instructed to prepare to confront the Justice League and to board the Invisible Plane to get ready for takeoff. When he boarded the jet, he could see that some of the other JLA members (Vibe, Star Girl & Baz) shared his concern about going up against the Justice League. He felt that the Justice League were heroes and that, the JLA should be assisting them, not preparing to fight them. Moments later, the JLA arrived in Kahndaq.
The Justice League had just confronted Shazam, who had briefly fought Superman. While questioning Shazam about his purpose for being in Kahndaq, the JLA confronted the Justice League about their reasoning for being in Kanhdaq! After the two factions got into a verbal altercation, Arthur stepped in as the mediator.
He asked if the two leagues had to fight. Both factions wanted the same thing. He asked if the Justice League and the JLA, could work together to find out what Shazam’s purpose was for being in Kanhdaq. As Arthur stepped forward to speak, his body lit up and he accidentally blasted Wonder Woman. Arthur had just acquired his abilities and struggled controlling them. Superman’s body, being able to absorb sunlight, caused Arthur’s powers to fluctuate. He did not mean to purposely attack Wonder Woman and he quickly began to apologize. He tried to rush to her aid and help her up, but Superman attack him. Using his heat vision, Superman killed Arthur Light. However, it wasn’t by his volition. Rhonda Pineda had used her shrinking abilities to implant herself into Superman’s head. Once there, she implanted a microscopic fragment of Kryptonite, which caused Superman’s heat vision to activate.
Alternate Versions
Nightwing New Order
For more information see: Nightwing: The New Order
In the future, Nightwing takes 95% of Meta-powers away, and through different political means makes it illegal to have Meta-powers. Dr. Light is one of the people unaffected by the initial de-powering and is forced to take a power inhibataing drug. After sometime he doesn’t like the side effects and stops taking his drugs. This causes Nightwing and his team to take him down and send him to a status prison.
Powers and Abilities
Light Projection
Dr. Light has the ability to manipulate light for many purposes, using his suit. Later, he managed to acquire these powers and use them without having the suit on. He can manipulate light around himself to become invisible, create solid blasts of energy, make force fields and constructs, cast illusions and fly. By repulsing photons only using his mind, Dr. Light can make areas of total pitch-black darkness. He can power himself up by absorbing light from the surrounding area, but his limit is not known. He can basically take control of anything that shines light, even dimly. This included Green Lantern’s ring, Superman’s laser eyes, magic lightning from Wonder Girl’s lasso, etc. This control extends so far that he can draw out energy even if it is not being used. For example, he could see Superboy’s heat vision in his body even when it wasn’t being used, and was able to pull it out of his eyes against his will and use it as a weapon. He also showed a feat where he would take away “internal light” from other super powered people, such as the Ray and the heroic Doctor Light.
Intellect
Dr. Light also has a genius level intellect, he is a genius in the field of physics. Although Zatanna’s mind wipe cause his intelligence level to severely drop, it has eventually returned to its previous genius level intellect.
Other Media
Television
Teen Titans
Dr. Light appeared in a number of Teen Titans episodes voiced by Rodger Bumpass. Often used as more of a joke than a real villain. He first appearance in “Nevermore” when he attempted to rob a gold transport. He ended up fighting the Teen Titans. During the fight Raven, became so enraged at him that her dark side manifested, she almost killed him when she attempted to drag him into the darkness under her cloak and left Doctor Light severely traumatized in deep state of shock. Later in “Birthmark” he attempted to drain the oil reserves on an abandoned drilling platform to supercharge his suit, overlooking the fact that the platform was in direct line of sight of Titans Tower. The Titans promptly responded, and when Raven chose to confront him again with the appearance of this form, Doctor Light meekly surrendered. He also makes cameo appearances in “Wavelength“.
Doctor Light was seen in the end of “Homecoming Part II“, appeared as one of the recruits of the Brotherhood of Evil, but did not participate in any of the Brotherhood’s plans, instead deciding to work on his own. In the episode “Kole“, he uses Kole and her crystal powers to power his generator. He captures Kole and throws her friend Gnarrk into a fit of rage. He is soon taken down by the Teen Titans. Doctor Light made another appearance in the episode “Revved Up“, where he was one of the villainous competitors in Ding Dong Daddy’s race for Robin’s most secret possession, but was taken out of the race by the mass crash triggered by Red X. In the episode “Titans Together“, he is seen robbing a bank. Light was not affiliated with the Brotherhood of Evil so he was not taken to jail when the Titans invaded their headquarters. He was presumably taken down from the new larger team of Titans.
Teen Titans Go!
Dr. Light appears in Teen Titans Go! as a recurring villain to the Teen Titans. He also has a dodge ball team called the “Forensic Scientists”.
Arrow
In the episode “The Man Under the Hood”, it’s mentioned that an Arthur Light was fired from STAR Labs because he was “a psycho”. An invention of his was used against Deathstroke.