Doctor Light (DC Comics supervillain)

Doctor Light
Doctor Arthur Light, from Identity Crisis. Art by Rags Morales.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Justice League of America #12 (June 1962)
Created by	Gardner Fox Mike Sekowsky
In-story information
Alter ego	Arthur Light
Team affiliations	The Society Fearsome Five Suicide Squad Injustice Gang Injustice League Black Lantern Corps Justice League
Notable aliases	Jacob Finley
Abilities	Light manipulation Genius-level intelligence

Doctor Light (Arthur Light) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. He is the third individual to have adopted the persona of Doctor Light with the alias previously been used by a Golden Age foe of Doctor Mid-Nite and later Arthur's associate Jacob Finlay. Light, a long-time enemy of the Teen Titans and the Justice League, has been portrayed both as a serious menace and as a company in-joke for incompetent supervillains.

His stint as Doctor Light is concurrent with that of a superheroine using the same name and nearly identical costume, Kimiyo Hoshi. In 2009, Doctor Light was ranked as IGN's 84th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Doctor Light first appeared in Justice League of America #12 and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.

The first Silver Age Doctor Light was a criminal physicist named Doctor Arthur Light, who first appeared in Justice League of America #12, where he succeeded in capturing the League with light rays after first drawing them in by capturing Aquaman, then sending the League to different planets based on their weaknesses. He sent Superman to a red sun world, and Aquaman to a waterless one using faster light that opened wormholes. He then ordered Snapper Carr to write this down, before imprisoning him in a light field. He had not realised Superman and Batman had impersonated each other after Batman had been concerned about how easily the villain had overcome the other members, allowing Superman to escape the world he was sent to and rescue the other members. However, Light nearly succeeded in taking over the world after fooling the League with three duplicates of himself that were apparently committing robberies of light-associated objects, though they were actually placing devices around the world. Green Lantern realized this trick and faked his death to track Doctor Light, finally stopping him before he pulled the lever that would have set off the light impulses allowing him to take over the world. A retcon introduced in Secret Origins #37 revealed that this character was actually the second Doctor Light. According to the retcon, his predecessor was his partner at S.T.A.R. Labs, a scientist named Jacob Finlay. Finlay created a technologically advanced suit to control light allowing him to be a minor superhero, but was accidentally killed by Arthur Light near the beginning of his heroic career (though Finlay's death may have been caused by hiding his costume in a computer console, causing it to malfunction). Light took the suit and the "Doctor Light" codename, using them for selfish, criminal ends. He has been periodically haunted by Finlay's ghost through the years, but could use the light generated by the suit to drive off this spirit.