Who is Doctor Light?

Doctor Light’s star seems to be in the ascendancy this last year or so. She is one of those characters who has never had their own series, mini-series, or co-feature, yet she exhibits an enduring appeal to fans. She was one of the few new characters to be created out of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and had a few appearances in the 1980s/90s Justice League, but she was recently repowered and introduced back into the League by Dwayne McDuffie.

Background

Numbers: Before we do any further let’s get the numbers straight – Kimiyo is usually called the second Doctor Light with Arthur Light being the first. Both of those are wrong. The first Doctor Light was a Golden Age villain, an opponent of Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider), who first appeared in All-American Comics #82 (Feb 1947). The second Dr Light to appear in print was the classic 1960s JLA villain Arthur Light, but a retelling of his origin in Secret Origins #37 (Feb 1989) by Craig Boldman and Mike Parobeck introduced the character of Jacob Finlay, a heroic Doctor Light that Arthur Light stole his identity from. Kimiyo Hoshi, the Japanese heroine, first appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths #4 (July 1985) and in terms of in-universe continuity was the last Dr Light to appear. In order of first publication appearances its: Mid-Nite villain, Arthur Light, Kimiyo Hoshi, and then Jacob Finlay,  but in the order of appearances in the internal DCU timeline its I: Mid-Nite villain, II: Jacob Finlay, III: Arthur Light, IV: Kimiyo Hoshi.

Kimiyo Hoshi first appeared in “And Thus Shall The World Die!”, Crisis on Infinite Earths #4 (July 1985), by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. The 1990s Who’s Who officially credits Wolfman and Perez as her creators. Her costume is based on Arthur Light’s costume. He had first appeared in “The Last Case of the Justice League!”, Justice League of America v1 #12 (June 1962), by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky where he succeeded in capturing the entire Justice League, but fell to the classic “not-watching-the-deathtrap” cliché. Arthur Light had become something of a joke over the years and was used by Wolfman and Perez as an opponent for the Teen Titans during their seminal run on that series. Perez’s design sketch for the female Doctor Light is reproduced in the Absolute reprint edition of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The sketch (shown above) is dated 10-19-84 and reveals a few details about the character that never made it into the final version. It lists her name as “Miyoshi Ogawa” and gives her height as 5’6″ in heels or 5’2″ in bare feet. An attached note reads:

Costume is black+white with no color highlights. Lipstick is pink. Skintone is standard – NOT – comic book oriental!!

George Perez’s note on his original design sketch for the female Dr Light

Obviously somewhere between this design sketch and the final issue her name was changed to Kimiyo Hoshi. The character played an important role in defeating the Anti-Monitor in the Crisis.

Keith Giffen showed her in Justice League #1-4 (May-August 1987) as a potential Justice League member, a plot device that introduces Maxwell Lords’ manipulations of the League. She continued as an occasional guest star until Gerard Jones picked her as part of his Justice League Europe. Doctor Light’s personality seemed to waver with each appearance. Jones wrote this into this story by introducing the now famous diet soda allergy — a common factor that causes super powered women to random swing from passive sex kittens to aggressive Amazon warriors.

Dwayne McDuffie brought Doctor Light back into the Justice League as the cornerstone of a big-arc that reintroduced the Shadow Cabinet to DCU readers.

Dan [Didio] wanted her in JLA, and I agreed. One of my problems with the team is that everyone in the cast is too nice, so there’s very little interpersonal drama. In addition to having a fresh powerset, Dr. Light’s personality will spice up the mix. I brought her in as soon as I had an opening.

Dwayne McDuffie forum post.

McDuffie was forced out from JLA with the conclusion of that arc, but Dr Light stayed around for the following Len Wein story. Meanwhile, James Robinson had been working Doctor Light’s position at STAR Labs, Metropolis into his run on Superman and has retained the character for his own run on Justice League.

As for Doctor Light, I like the character. I began writing her in Superman because she works at S.T.A.R. Labs in Metropolis. And as you’ll see after her confrontation with Arthur Light Doctor Light in Blackest Night, one of the things I like about her is she’s painted as this sort of hard-assed Asian woman, which I find to be a little bit of a cliché. This sort of emotionless, professional Asian woman, you know? So I want to show the reason why she has that personality and I try to get into that character too and make her less of a one-note character. She is more than her powers and the color of her skin. Let’s make her more of a real person. She’s a mother too, which is something that no one ever really picks up. She has two kids so I want to deal with the fact she’s a superhero while sort of juggling her professional career and her children and the sacrifices that are made along the way because of that.

James Robinson interviewed by Jeffrey Renard @ CBR

Stats

• Codename: Doctor Light IV
• Alter Ego: Kimiyo Hoshi (genderless, assumed name), Kimiko Hoshi (birth name)
• Occupation: Astrophyicist; Director of Research and Development at STAR Labs, Metropolis; former Vice President of Research and Development Division, Kord Tech.
• Known Relatives: Imako (daughter), Yasu (son), Jori Hoshi (father, deceased), unnamed ex-husband (divorced), unnamed mother (divorced from her father)
• Group Affiliations: The Justice League, Outsiders

There is some confusion to Kimiyo’s father’s name. In her first appearance Kimiyo Hoshi’s father is called Dr Hoshi, by the Monitor and Jori by another co-worker. The implication would be that either she isn’t married yet or has gone back to using her maiden name – her children weren’t introduced until a later story. Additionally, her father’s grave in the Showcase ’96 appearance shows the name Raiden Tazu – the name of a different character in the Crisis scenes to the one identified as her father. The mistake appears in the original Who’s Who and seems to have been propagated from there.

Biography

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Kimiyo’s father was a respected scientist who raised his daughter on his own after her mother left them (Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, July 1985). He raised her to respect Japanese tradition. She had married young and bore two children, an elder daughter Imako and a younger son Yasu. At the same time she had her own career as an astronomer and physicist. The strain of the career and raising the children eventually proved too much and Kimiyo’s marriage broke down and, like her mother before, she divorced. After the divorce something changed inside Kimiyo. The previously reserved and traditional Japanese woman, became colder, more career orientated, and critical of her colleagues. It is implied that the divorce was acrimonious – whenever she references her ex-husband it’s always in a negative way.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the battle between the forces of the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor warped space throughout the universe allowing astronomers to study phenomena they otherwise would have been able to observe at close hand. At the time Kimiyo and her father were working in the astrophysics group of Professor Raiden Tazu. They were using those space warps to study the star Vega (Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, July 1985). Eons ago, Psion scientists turned a poor woman into X’Hal – a mad goddess and living embodiment of Vega. During the Crisis, the Omega Man Nimbus battled X’Hal within the core of Vegan triggering powerful solar flares that bathed the Vegan System (Omega Men #26, May 1985).

The Vegan solar system, like the Earth’s solar system, is one of the principal places around which events in the DC Universe revolve. The Vegan System teems with life, boasts a surprisingly diverse range of intelligent species who include the Tamaranians (Starfire’s people). An ancient pact between the Guardians of the Universe and the Larfleeze (Agent Orange, guardian of the orange light of avarice) led to the Vegan system being declared off-limited to the Green Lantern Corps. Thereafter, it became a sanctuary for enemies of the Green Lanterns including the Spider Guild, the Psions, and other belligerent or malignant forces. The Omega Men, a legendary group of freedom fighters, eventually formed to combat these forces.

The Monitor, needing a new warrior, channelled one of those flares into the telescope Hoshi was using to watch Vega. Her laboratory erupted with energy which the Monitor uses to transform her and recreate her as a superhuman with the ability to store, manipulate, and control all forms of light. She would be his weapon against the Anti-Monitor’s shadow demons (Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, July 1985).

Some years previously, Hoshi’s father had collaborated with an American scientist called Jacob Findley to create a superhero costume based on light manipulation technologies (DC Universe Holiday Special #1, Feb 2009). Findley briefly used the suit to become the superhero Doctor Light II, but he was murdered by another collaborator, Dr Arthur Light, who stole the costume (Secret Origins #37, Feb 1989). Arthur used the costume to become the supervillain Doctor Light III and fought the Justice League and Teen Titans. Kimiyo was determined to reclaim the identity her father and Findley had created and adopted the codename and costume of Doctor Light IV.

The new ill-tempered Doctor Light was initially treated with suspicion by the American heroes who assumed that she was connected Arthur Light (Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, July 1985). She joined the heroes when then they attacked the Anti-Monitor’s Fortress in the Anti-Matter Universe. Her experiences there changed her and started to moderate her harsh behaviour. Hoshi began to understand the heroism that drove her comrades and the sacrifices they were willing to make (Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, Oct 1985).

In the original Chronicles the death of Kara Zor-El, the Earth-One Supergirl, had a devastating impact on Hoshi. She blamed herself for Supergirl’s death, but Harbinger proved to her that there was nothing that she could have done (Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, Oct 1985).

Monitor’s true plan for Doctor Light was revealed during the final confrontation with the Anti-Monitor. The anti-matter tyrant had been drawing power from a nearby binary star to fuel his fight with the heroes. It was Doctor Light’s job to weakening the Anti-Monitor by redirecting the energy from the star and storing it until she could unleash it against the him. Her attack was devastating and was very nearly mortal. Her abilities were at their greatest during the Crisis and she has rarely matched that early power-level (Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, March 1986).

Justice League International

The Justice League underwent a reformation after the Crisis and the Darkseid inspired anti-hero riots. The Kilg%re and Maxwell Lord conspired to turn the new Justice League into a true international peacekeeping agency and began a covert recruitment drive without the League’s permission. Kimiyo was the first person who Lord offered a League signal device to. Without her knowledge he arranged for a UN conference she was attending to be attacked by a group of terrorists. She was outnumbered and had to use the signal device to call for backup. The mystified League responded to her distress call and together they defeated the terrorists (Justice League #1, May 1987).

Doctor Light remained with the League while they investigated the origin of her signal device. When Lord tried to repeat his unauthorised recruitment he was rumbled and Doctor Light quit, angry that she had been so easily manipulated (Justice League #4, Aug 1987). Nevertheless, she maintained links with the League and was brought in as an expert when fellow Japanese hero Rising Sun was left in a coma by the Queen Bee (JLI Annual #3, 1989). Kimiyo had her first encounter with Arthur Light when his soul tried possessing her during an astral projection exercise (Suicide Squad v1 #52, April 1991).

She remained a JLI reservist until temporary League administrator Kurt Helmlich recalled her to active duty. He was eventually revealed as a Queen Bee drone, but she stayed on with the Europe/International branch of the League (Justice League America #54-56, Sept-Nov 91; Justice League Spectacular #1, 1992).

Between stints with the League Kimiyo was diagnosed with a rare allergy to certain artificial sweeteners. The condition seems to effect women with the meta-gene and can cause dramatic mood swings between aggressive and passive personalities. Her stabilised personality prompted Doctor Light to re-evaluate her outlook on life. She revealed that she had changed her name from the original female Kimiko to the sexless Kimiyo so that people in her secret identity would recognise her for her work and not her gender. As a Buddhist she equated darkness with the body and light with the mind, so she decided to change her costume from the dark original version to a lighter yellow version created by celebrated costume designer Paul Gambini (Justice League Europe #37, April 1992).

Kimiyo relished the scientific opportunities the League gave her and she made sure the League’s London headquarters had the necessary laboratories. She had intended to analyse alien weaponry confiscated from the Royal Flush Gang, but it was stolen by a disgruntled artist who used it to become the post-modernist super villain Deconstructo (Justice League Europe #37-39, April-June 1992). Light briefly flirted with the disembodied spirit Erewhon and turned down the advances of Rising Sun. She preferred to devote herself to her children and her work (Circa Justice League International #58, Nov 1993; Justice League Quarterly #7, Summer 1992).

Doctor Light often found herself acting as the JLE’s second-in-command and as the rational voice behind Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s more action-orientated leadership. Light inherited the leadership after Hal was possessed by Parallax entity (Justice League International #63, April 1994). During her time with the League she became close friends with Ice of the American branch and they shared an American road trip (Justice League Quarterly #12, Autumn 1993). Doctor Light retired from the Justice League after the tumultuous events of the Overmaster’s second coming and Ice’s death. She realises that she was seeing less and less of her children as she had been leaving them in the care of her mother or with the Erehwon spirit (Justice League International #67, August 1994).

Drifting and powerless

Kimiyo returned to Japan, adopted a new white costume, and began working for the Omnitech corporation developing a solar membrane. The dying scientist Amuro Suriyaki need the membrane to prolong his life, but he died after Dr Light defeated his henchmen. Kimiyo remained conflicted between her dual roles as Doctor Light superhero and as Kimiyo Hoshi mother/scientist, but she found solace in talking about her problems at her late father’s grave (Showcase ’96 #9, October 1996). The date on her father’s gravestone reveals that he must have died immediately after she became Doctor Light.

Despite remaining retired from the Justice League Doctor Light continued to appear irregularly to aid various groups during cosmic emergencies. She fought alongside the Outsiders during the Imperiex War (JLA Our Worlds At War #1, 2001). When Thayer Jost bought the Doom Patrol trademark from Cliff Steele he tried setting up his own Doom Patrol team, Kimiyo, Metamorpho, Beast Boy, and the Elongated Man signed on, but the team disbanded after it emerged that Cliff hadn’t disbanded his own incarnation of the team (Doom Patrol v3 #4-6, March-May 2002).

Dr Hoshi later moved to Chicago to take up the position of Vice President of the Research and Development Division of Kord Tech. Another name for Kord Tech is Kord Omniversal so it is possible that Omni Tech (from the Showcase ’96 story) was a Japanese division of Kord. The company was the family firm of Ted Kord – the second Blue Beetle and Hoshi’s collegue in the Justice League. Kord was murdered by Maxwell Lord after he discovered the truth about Lord’s Checkmate organisation (Count Down to Infinite Crisis, May 2005). With Kord dead Hoshi was tipped to succeed him as the President of Kord Tech (Green Arrow v3 #54, November 2005).

Arthur Light, the previous Dr Light, was a sadistic misogynist who had been a real opponent of the early Justice League until he raped Sue Dibny, the wife of the Elongated Man. The JLA unwisely thought that it was better to mind wipe him, to alter his personality with magic, than to just leave him to the normal justice system. However, something went wrong and he was left a bumbling buffoon. Years later, the mindwipe dissolved and Light’s old personality returned (Identity Crisis #1-7, June-Dec 2004).

Arthur Light swore revenge on the Justice League, and on Green Arrow, in particular. He blew up Green Arrow’s home and then attacked Hoshi at Kord. She was working late one night when she was ambushed by him. The battle between the two Doctor Lights was brutal, but Kimiyo Hoshi was not Arthur Light’s intended target. During her fight he slowly absorbed her power, the starlight she had absorbed over the years, leaving her utterly powerless. Arthur left Kimiyo as bait for Green Arrow and Black Lightning. The extra-power almost doubled Arthur Light’s abilities, but it wasn’t enough (“Heading into the Light,” Green Arrow v3 #54-57 Nov 2005-Feb 2006).

Kimiyo’s physical scars from Arthur Light’s attack healed normally, but it took a long time for her powers to return. Even then they were at best erratic – she helped during the battles of the Infinite Crisis and had a rematch with Arthur Light (Infinite Crisis #1-7, Dec 2005-June 2006). She was one of the solar-powered heroes who unsuccessfully tried to jump start Superman’s powers after the same battle (Action Comics #838, June 2006). Sometime after this the Japanese Kimiyo took US citizen ship (DC Decisions #2, Nov, 2008).

Welcome to Sundown Town

Without her powers Dr Hoshi’s life began to lose focus and she drifted into a job as Director of Research and Development at STAR Labs, Metropolis. She’d later enjoy the position (DC Universe Holiday Special #1, Feb 2009), but she initially hated it. She described her situation as:

I hate my job. Too Specific. I hate my whole miserable life. I have having to work with stupid people. I hate having to live in the United States. I really hate that I had to move the kids here. But mostly I hate that my powers are all screwed up. Oh, yes. I used to have powers. I use to be in the Justice League. But that was before they were stolen from me. For a while, I’d thought my powers were coming back. But that was just a cruel joke. Sometimes they work for bit. Usually they don’t. In my old line of work, undependable powers are a death sentence.

Finally I accepted reality. My superhero days had come to and end. I packed away by costume, I couldn’t quite bring myself to get rid of it. Then I packed up my kids — my while life really. Tool a couple of corporate jobs, just for the money. Guess I’m really bad at being a sell-out, though. They’d probably say I was fired. Eventually, I found myself in Metropolis, working for S.T.A.R. Labs. Backward as they are, they’re still going research that has some value. So, that’s my life now. I’ve mostly accepted my lot. But every once in a while, I do think about flying. And find myself wishing for the excitement of the old days.

Dr Light monolog, Justice League of America #27 (Jan 09), written by Dwayne McDuffie.

Hoshi’s Doctor Light would have remained in retirement if it had not been for the machinations of the entity called Dharma. The Shadow Thief had usurped the Shadowslide, the teleportation gateway through which Dharma’s agents, the Shadow Cabinet, travelled. Hardwire and the Shadow Cabinet surprised Kimiyo at her address in Metropolis. Startled, she activate her Justice League emergency signal precipitating a confrontation between the Justice League and the Shadow Cabinet. Hardwire gave her a new costume covered with nano-antennas that would enhance her ability to absorb starlight. The Spectre had executed Arthur Light by turning him into a candle, but that candle still contained the power that Arthur had stolen from Kimiyo. Her new costume allowed her to reabsorb that power and to defeat the Shadow Thief (“Welcome to Sundown Town”, Justice League of America v2 #27-30, Jan-April 09).

Shortly after Dr Light’s powers returned, the Justice League were left short-handed by Batman’s death (Final Crisis #16, Jan 2009) and by Green Arrow and Green Lantern creating their own splinter group (Justice League: Cry For Justice #1, Sept 2009). Doctor Light returned to active status with the core JLA despite her annoyance with the inexperienced Firestorm. It was only when she and Firestorm interrogated the Shadow Thief that they became aware of the full scope of his plans. The stellar vampire Starbreaker was using the Shadow Thief as a stepping stone back into reality. Once he crossed over he temporarily sated his hunger by draining power from Vega through Doctor Light.

Starbreaker and the Shadow Thief escaped when the rest of the League appeared, but Doctor Light followed them through their portal. She found herself in a lightless, shadow dimension and was almost incapacitated by her nyctophobia (fear of the dark). Kimiyo managed to subdue her fears along enough to exit the shadow portal. She found herself at Dharma’s base where Starbreaker was trying to absorb Dharma’s nearly infinite power. She defeated the Shadow Thief and then used her new solar collectors to strip the stolen energy from Starbreaker allowing Icon and the Justice League to defeat him (“Welcome to Sundown Town”, Justice League of America v2 #31-34, May-August 2009).

Settling into Metropolis/JLA

Doctor Hoshi’s superpowers and her medical experience meant that she was often called upon to assist when Kryptonians, Daxamites, or other aliens who derive their powers from sunlight were injured. Kimiyo is always described as a PhD, but she has been shown assisting in medical cases as far back as JLI Annual #3 (1989). Anti-Kryptonian fever was spreading through Metropolis after the appearance of New Krypton (the former Bottle City of Kandor), but Dr Hoshi refused to support it. She asked by Lois Lane to help the “outlaws” Nightwing and Flamebird when Flamebird was stabbed by a Kryptonite knife (Action Comics #877, July 2009). She helped them again when Nightwing (Chris Kent) began rapidly aging. Her xenogenetcist at STAR Labs, Dr Pillings, assisted them, but they were unaware that he was actually Jax-Ur, a Kryptonian criminal who has escaped the Phantom Zone (Action Comics #883-884, Jan-Feb 2010).

The Daxamite Mon-El had been standing in for Superman whilst he was on New Krypton. Kimiyo first met Mon-El and the Guardian when she asked to examine Mon-El’s erratic powers (Superman #688, July 2009). She returned to Japan so that her children could visit their father – her ex-husband. Whilst there, Mon-El and Kimiyo had their first proper team-up to fight the Robo-Octo-Ape (Superman #689, August 2009). Back in America, Kimiyo began socializing the Jim Harper (alias the Guardian). They were both single parents and their children enjoyed playing together (Superman #690, September 2009). Doctor Hoshi was working late on Christmas Eve when Shimmer and Mammoth attacked her at STAR Labs. They sought to avenge Arthur Light’s execution by the Spectre, but were defeated by Kimiyo (DC Universe Holiday Special #1, Feb 2009).

Doctor Light remained with the Justice League when they fought the Royal Flush Gang despite her annoyance at having to work with Plastic Man (Justice League of America #35-37, Sept-Nov 2009). She also helped Superman and the Samurai fight Steppenwolf (one of Darkseid’s lieutenants) in ancient Japan when they were scattered in time by the Lord of Time (Justice League of America 80-page Giant #1, Nov 2009). She suffered a broken arm when Prometheus attacked the League (Cry For Justice, Justice League of America v2 #38, Dec 2009).

During the Blackest Night event Zatanna recalled the surviving members of the Justice League to the Hall of Justice to face the threat of the Black Lanterns – perverse simulations of the dead created by the Black Rings of Nekron. The moment Kimiyo reached the Hall she sensed that Arthur Light had been reanimated as one of the Black Lanterns and separated herself from the rest of the League to spare them from his onslaught. Black Lantern Arthur Light taunted and bullied Kimiyo, torturing her with racial slurs and accusations about her failures as a mother and as a hero. She was weakened, physically and emotionally, but it was not until he threatened her children that Kimiyo erupted with light. She destroyed the Black Rings animating Black Lantern Arthur Light, Vibe, and Steel, but collapsed unconscious, drained and exhausted from the effort (Justice League of America v2 #39-40, Jan-Feb 2010).

Abilities

Kimiyo Hoshi has the ability to absorb electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light and to expend that energy in every form from brilliant flashes to precise laser beams. She can also form illusions (holograms) and can internaise the energy to allow her to fly. At times she had been shown creating solid, hard-light holograms.

When the Monitor gave Kimiyo her powers he created an unspecified link between her and the Vega star. The vampire Starbreaker was able to drain energy from Vega through her, but it doesn’t appear that she’s able to do this consciously herself.