In DC Comics’ controversial 2004-2005 miniseries Identity Crisis, writer Brad Meltzer revealed that classic Justice League foe Dr. Light, who first came on the scene in 1962 with a plot to send each Leaguer into a different dimension using a disco ball, had once raped Sue Dibny, the wife of superhero The Elongated Man, in the Justice League satellite headquarters.
Violence, even sexual violence, had been part of the DC Universe prior to that series, but it was pretty unusual for it to play such a prominent role in such a prominent series, particularly one featuring the more fantastic, kid-friendly characters like Superman and the Justice League (usually, that sort of thing is relegated to the Vertigo imprint, or the grimmer, grittier, more street-level corners of the DCU, like those in which Batman and Green Arrow move).
Personally, I was never comfortable with the story, and I still feel a bit queasy about it. I can sort of understand how Meltzer got to writing it—he wanted to deal with various Justice Leaguers doing something fairly immoral and keeping it from the others, and he needed an especially heinous act to get the stalwart heroes to betray their ideals, betray one another, and keep a secret for years. I suppose he felt having a supervillain rape the loved one of a superhero was the best way to motivate the chain of events involved in his story.
It sure makes it weird when Dr. Light pops up on cartoons like Teen Titans now, or in DC’s Johnny DC line, teaching at Sidekick Elementary in Tiny Titans or menacing the heroes of Teen Titans Go! or Super Friends.
Meltzer never resolved the issue of Dr. Light within Identity Crisis—he wasn’t killed or brought to justice at the end of the series—and he’s been popping up throughout the DCU ever since. In fact, his appearances have dramatically increased since Identity Crisis; they used to be relatively few and far between, now almost all of DC’s most prominent writers have used him at some point, and he usually makes an appearance in big events.
And all he ever does is talk about rape now. It’s like how Catwoman used to only talk about cat-stuff and speak almost exclusively in cat puns during the Silver Age, only it’s 2009, and the subject is rape.
(After the jump, Dr. Light’s repugnant, probably NSFW appearance from a comic this week.)
Geoff Johns wrote an early post–Identity Crisis appearance, in which Dr. Light threatened various Teen Titans with sexual menace (Hey, those issues were Comic Code Approved, too!). Judd Winick wrote a story arc in Green Arrow which included several scenes of Dr. Light speaking only sentences that have the word rape in them as a verb, noun or adjective (or some combination of all three).
Grant Morrison wrote a scene in Final Crisis where Dr. Light regarded a couple of unconscious teenage superheroines and made a comment about how their costumes meant they were “asking for it.” It wasn’t until Final Crisis: Revelations #1 that someone finally got around to bringing Dr. Light to justice—well, The Spectre’s version of justice, anyway.
Greg Rucka wrote that book, in which The Spectre transformed Dr. Light into a candle and lit him so that he would burn and melt to death. What was Dr. Light doing when he met his fate? Well, there were several women in his room, dressed up as various female members of the Titans over the years…
That went down in 2008, so after several years of Dr. Light appearing throughout the DC Universe talking about rape, we were finally rid of him.
And then came Blackest Night.
Writer James Robinson resurrected Dr. Light in Justice League of Ameria #38, and in this past Wednesday’s #40, we’re treated to Black Lantern Dr. Light’s battle with his heroic successor, Dr. Light II. Who is, of course, female.
And what does Dr. Light I have to say to Dr. Light II?
What else?
Unfortunately, JLoA #40 is an over-sized, 28-page issue, and the Black Lanterns’ modus operandi is to do nothing but say terrible things to their victims in order to elicit an emotional response, which means there’s little more to this comic book that panels like that.
And this.
And this. Jesus. Usually he just talks about it. In this issue, he’s actually trying to rape Dr. Light, and gets her about halfway out of her costume, before Robinson decides to up the repulsive ante:
For God’s sake—this is the conflict in an issue of Justice League of America, a comic in which “*@%#@” is used instead of “the B-word,” and “caca” instead of “the S-word”? (JLoA is still approved by the Comics Code Authority, by the way, despite scenes of attempted zombie rape).
If you’re worried about our heroes, don’t.
The heroic Dr. Light is so horrified by that last comment that she’s able to dig deep and summon more super light-power—so much super-light power that she naturally incinerates her own costume and flies around naked, dissolving the light-averse zombies, until she collapses nude in a pile of injured, crying women:
December 18th, 2009 at 11:59 am
IDC and BM represent what is wrong at DC on so many different levels.
Where is Jim Shooter these days? I’d love to have a stream of good comic books around one more time before I die.
I swear if I’m ever filthy rich I’ll hand him my fortunes just show people how comic book company is supposed to look (Early Valiant, Marvel’s Shooter years).
December 18th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Seriously, at this point James Robinson should just go ahead and light whatever is left of his reputation on fire. This and Cry for Justice are just beyond awful.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I never felt comfortable with the change in Dr. Rape in Identity Crisis, and I totally agree that there should be some lines you should cross in a Comics Code-approved comic. But when was the last time the CCA actually meant anything? It only prevented non-approved titles from being distributed on newsstands and the like, and that hasn’t been the primary distribution model since the 1980s. So the CCA has essentially been a rubber stamp for at least 20 years, and basically been a joke for 10.
And, in retrospect, Meltzer (and everyone who came after) did turn turn Light from a punchline who got kicked out of The Fearsome Five because of his lameness into a legitimate thread that readers don’t even love to hate. More than any other villain I can think of, readers don’t just want Light taken off the table–we want him brought to justice permanently.
And every scene he’s in, despite how much it may distrub us, gives us something a lot more realistic to connect with than the possibility of murder, which super-heroes face every issue. We are a lot more likely to encounter rape or molestation in our lives than we are murder.
So as much as I personally find the direction of his character distasteful, I have to grudgingly admit that–more than any other character in recent memory–Dr. Light creates a visceral reaction in me that draws real emotion, which I think is the intent.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Wesley
Yeah, I’ll give you that. Dr. Light at this point does create a visceral reaction beyond any other villian.
The issue that I, and many other female comics readers have, is tht Dr. Light and his rapes have become a symbol for just how unwelcome we girls are in the DCU. Girls are victims first, everything else second. And Kimiyo burning all of her clothes off to stop him is just ridiculous.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
As someone who both enjoys comics and works for a non-profit that deals with sexual assault, I agree with Wesley that it works in getting an emotional response from readers. However, I do wish the writers would research a bit about sexual violence. I think that’s the problem with Dr. Light, where he essentially rapes to rape, which is rarely ever the case.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Yikes. One of the many reasons I’m glad I’m not reading Blackest Night. I hadn’t realized it was this bad.
One of the things that annoys me about this, is that after Dr Light was killed off in Revelations, I could’ve sworn Dan Didio said that DC was done with the character for a good long while.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Wow. Stay classy, DC.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Evil people do evil things. There’s no reason to shy away from it in any form of story-telling. You could quibble with the quality of writing, but it’s pointless to pretend that such horrible things wouldn’t or can’t happen in the DCU. If a horrifying character does horrifying things it seems appropriate to examine how heroes would deal with it.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Didn’t Jim Shooter write the scene where Bruce Banner was too scared to turn into the Hulk because two gay guys at the YMCA wanted to rape him? And wasn’t he the EIC when Ms. Marvel was brainwashed into sleeping Marcus and gave birth to her own husband? And wasn’t this the time Hank Pym became a wife-beater?
I’m not sure if I’d hail Jim Shooter as the shiny beacon of hope you make him out to be.
December 18th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I prefer Dr. Light as the comic relief loser that John Ostrander wrote him as in the Suicide Squad. The Sue Dibny rape ruined Identity Crisis for me. As if her murder wasn’t bad enough…
December 18th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
thats terribly naive. characters in a comic book aren’t people, nor are they portrayed realistically like people at all. so the “evil people do evil things” should be altered to “lazy people do lazy things,” lazy writers that have no other way to churn out a story than some formula, poor writers who cannot capture or conceive of real motivation or a compelling narrative. what to do? pile on some rape so an equally lazy reader can consciously fantasize about quashing evil and saving the helpless, and of course inferior, woman and then subconsciously fantasize about being that evil monster. hooray. look i like comics: good comics. theres a difference between countdown and 52. cry for justice and blackest night fall into the former, and detective comics fall into the latter
December 18th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I agree with the above, in that rape shouldn’t be completely ignored as an issue, but seriously, it’s getting to the point where it loses all meaning and just becomes the uncomfortable elephant in the room.
It was so horrifying and visceral in Identity Crisis because it was so unheard of, and every time Dr. Light shows up with his “I’mma rape ya!” schtick, it loses the weight that makes it anything but exploitive.
December 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
You know I was looking at that last panel wondering, when am I ever going to see Booster Gold holding a naked Hal Jordan while comforting Batman who quietly sobs for his dead parents and Superman lays unconscious on the ground.
oh that’s right…
I Won’t.
December 18th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
“You could quibble with the quality of writing, but it’s pointless to pretend that such horrible things wouldn’t or can’t happen in the DCU.”
Ah, yes. Because DC stands for “documentary comics,” and their books are faithful retellings of events that took place in the real world, not a goofy made-up place full of magic rings and speed forumlas.
“If a horrifying character does horrifying things it seems appropriate to examine how heroes would deal with it.”
And yet, not a single DC Comic has actually examined how anyone dealt with it. That’s largely because DC’s writers are too busy congratulating themselves on how badass they think Dr. Rape is.
December 18th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
In other news, DC has acquired the rights to the infamous manga character Rapeman. A DC archives Rapeman collection (reprinting the first 7 volumes of the 13 volume series) will be out late next year. DC also has plans to create new stories featuring Rapeman, though it is at this moment unclear whether they will take the same route as the one they are taking Red Circle characters or if they will introduce a Rapeman legacy character into the JSA.
Seriously, though… this shoddy, lazy, facile, sensationalistic use of rape as am edgy, real-world plot device is nauseating.
December 18th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Keep making a big deal out of this and we’ll have rape talk in comics till forever and beyond. Y’know, since it’s so “shocking” and “edgy” that people won’t shut up about it on the Internet whenever it happens.
Too bad, cause I’d love to see Dr. Light getting some decent writing for a change.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Why do people even bother to read DC comics at this point? What are the appealing books from the last 5 years that everyone mentions? 12 issues of All-Star Supes and 3 issues of Bats by Morrison/Quitely, bits of 52, Rucka/Williams III Batwoman, and some people defending Morrison’s Final Crisis “when you read it all together”? I’m convinced that if “The Original Universe” has achieved sentience, it’s trying to commit suicide.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Well said, Evan.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Evan McB — sad but (mostly) true.
Hubert — I was totally believing that until you said you were joking. Just goes to show what the state of affairs is.
Well, comics sure aren’t for kids anymore.
This is a conversation I’ve been having for the past year. I am appalled at the amount of murder, dismemberment, and horrible acts that are part of the norm in comics now. Black Adam dismembers people in full view, Wonder Woman is a murderer (which will probably be wrapped up by nothing more than her feeling remorse, whereas anyone else would be in jail for life), and Ultimate Iron Man just murdered numerous members of the British police in the latest issue because their BOSSES had stolen some of his technology(!)
I didn’t know about the “Dr. Rape” thing until I read this and I find it just as terrible. You can have adult situations in comics, but make those comics that kids don’t buy or ones that are labled (like the Marvel MAX books). I’m horrified when I go into the kids section of a Borders and see X-Men book store-aimed books featuring Wolverine, who just happens to be taking a day off from being a mass murderer (but they’re bad guys he kills, so it’s ok!)…
December 18th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
To me this issue has always been a sort of weird synergy between fans and DC comics when concerning Dr. Light, considering the fans bring it up anytime Dr. Light is in a scene, even at times as a background character. If DC doesn’t make mention of it that fans will speculate what he’s doing when he’s not apart of the main focus.
“All he ever talks about is rape now,” also helps when all you think about when it comes to Dr. Light is rape, funny how that works.
Also hmmm, a person who doesn’t read DC comics can’t find any appealing books. Hmmm….wonder how that works. (WEEEE!!! I don’t watch movies that’s why I know they’re bad!!!)
December 19th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Is he talking about the time in Suicide Squad where he ended up in Kimiyo’s body because she was meditating (and some demon was screwing with him) and then she put her spirit in his body? Cause I just got a copy of that today and he wasn’t in her body long enough (nor was he alone) to do any of what is implied in that one panel. Or was there another time that I don’t know about?
December 19th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
That a supervillain would be a rapist – which I thought was left to the reader to decide in Identity Crisis – doesn’t seem that silly. These people are the bad guys. They do bad things.
That DC’s writers keep harping on it? I really don’t get it. I don’t get why seemingly capable writers want to replay this over and over. Or why there isn’t more of a hue and cry from women in the industry about this (because clearly DC doesn’t care about fans on the Internet swearing off its products). Or what happened to James Robinson’s talents.
That said, the state of the JLA franchise is miserable. One writer after another is turning the flagship team of the DCU into mincemeat, and worse.
December 20th, 2009 at 4:25 am
>Yikes. One of the many reasons I’m glad I’m not reading >Blackest Night. I hadn’t realized it was this bad.
is really not fault of BN
is mostly fault of Robinson
i didnt like Superman:BN either, it was suppose to see how NK and BN interacted and how would Clark react to his Black Lantern Father, yet neither of those things happen, he pull a a barrier to protect 100k supermen from the zombies and we never saw the BL kent
Robinson is obviously so far into his own agenda that he is completely ignoring any other story
he will kill, dismember and rape any superhero he wants just for really low character development and
December 20th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Is being raped by a zombie necrophilia to boot? Not really an advance, folks.
December 21st, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I think James Robinson needs to stop writing women period. For the most part he writes them as victims or whores. This issue was a big dissapointment. Did we forget how bad ass Gypsy was when she was last written by Gail Simone In BoP? Now she’s a quivering thing. :/
December 21st, 2009 at 8:43 pm
A weaponized corpse, no less, reanimated by a “starship on a ring”-type gadget running a copy of Arthur Light’s personality, said copy tailored – programmed – to play mind games with the person it’s intended to victimize. As the other weaponized corpses dug up by Nekron were rebuilt to do with their respective targets. Nekron’s not playing to lose here, and will do anything to anyone (and to their mental health, self-images and – he hopes – their corpses) to win. And these particular dead heroes and villains were picked to be his weapons for maximum effect.
It’s certainly worked on us as readers, hasn’t it? Because we are all enraged or unnerved in one way or another here and now at this point in this tale.
Something else, an aside-thought: These works of fiction might be a natural cultural consequence of each generation taking its heroes into history with them as it ages, people. I wonder if we would not have been reading stories such as these decades earlier, but for the meddling of the likes of Fredric Wertham.
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
That a DCU villain is a rapist, that I can buy.
That this particular DC villain is a rapist, well, I suppose it’s possible, but seriously, look at that first image. I cannot see an image of Dr. Light without imagining him talking like the Monarch from the Venture Bros. I cannot take this man seriously as anyone who commits any crime that doesn’t involve cosmic death rays or exploding robots or needlessly elaborate slow-moving deathtraps.
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I like how we can have a thread where people argue that this is a stab at “realism” because this evil is “out there,” and in the process of describing that realistic evil, phrases like “weaponized corpses dug up by Nekron” pop up.
Guys, this is superhero comics. If you want “realism,” maybe read some other genres, or maybe even read something other than comic books.
This Dr. Light crap? It’s just trashy voyeurism, nothing more. Please don’t act like you’re cresting brave new vistas of fiction with it.
September 22nd, 2010 at 11:51 am
This article is awesome. I know it’s supposed to be condemning, but it’s unintentionally hilarious, too.