The Journal of Arthur Light

July 20, 1969

I just saw the most fantastic spectacle on the TV. Neil Armstrong climbed down a ladder and was the first man to step on the surface of the moon. What a great day for science! Unfortunately I had to ride my bicycle 5 miles down the road to the Johnson's to watch this historic event. You would think that my parents would be able to understand that this was a monumental event, but you don't know my parents, do you Journal?

My parents grow cotton here in the outskirts of Lubbock, Texas. They aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and they decided that they would rather watch some preacher on TV than experience something as epic as the moon landing. They say that there's no point in getting all worked up about this, as it's clearly a fake. They say they know that it's staged because Pastor Bob told the congregation that scientists are liars and pawns of the Devil. How did he come to this conclusion? Very simple: scientists say that the Earth and the Moon are billions of years old, and we all know that the world was made just 6000 years old. Pastor Bob says it's impossible to go to the moon anyway, and that the whole Apollo project is nothing more than a big Hollywood production.

For the longest time I wondered how they could possibly be my parents? Even though I'm only 7 years old I'm already far more intelligent than they are. Well, let me tell you, Journal, that I found the answer.

It turns out that I'm adopted.

April 17, 1970

We're driving back home from Austin. I'm sitting in the truck's bed while mom and dad are up front in the cab, which is just fine with me. I just won the Texas State Science Fair. My entry was an enhanced solar panel that is 200% more efficient than anything else out there. At first my parents weren't very supportive about this, being that it was "science". I'll tell you what changed their tune, Journal: money. A company in California paid us $200,000 for the rights to my new design, and we paid off the mortgage and all our other debts with that money. Now dad is suddenly proud of me and my parents were more than happy to drive us to Austin for the Science Fair.

The press in Austin even gave me a nickname: The Pharaoh of Photons. I'm also going off to Texas A&M next year on a full ride scholarship. I can't wait to get out of Lubbock, even if College Station isn't much bigger, but hey, it's a college town!

November 20, 1973

Hello Journal, I know it's been months since I've paid you a visit, but here I am. I've been very busy as next semester I'm going off to MIT to work on my PhD. Life has simply been a whirlwind lately as my final semester at A&M is winding down. It's amazing how quickly I've outgrown this place. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the school has done for me. It was basically free. But now I'm leaving the minor leagues behind and I'm off to the majors in Boston. I've already been working on getting rid of that hayseed accent I have. Professor Dowd says that I already sound "east coast", which, believe me, is a relief. That last thing I want people there to think of me is that I'm some kind of bumpkin who fell off the turnip truck!

Speaking of motor vehicles, the oil embargo is really hitting our nation in the gut. It's pathetic that we are so dependent on a 19th century energy source. It simply flabbergasts me that we aren't even trying to find an alternative.

Well, let me tell you something Journal: I am going to make petroleum, at least as a fuel, obsolete. There are so many other better uses for it anyway: plastics and fertilizers come to mind.

Mom and Dad don't get it. They think I've become, get a load of this, a "granola munching hippie". I guess it doesn't bother dad that they might have to ration gasoline if the embargo doesn't end soon. I suppose that since Texxon is paying him a generous lease to drill on his land he likes the status quo. I should have made some commercially viable inventions to sell so he could buy himself another Cadillac, never mind that won't be able to drive it every day if they have to ration fuel. Go figure.

But I promise you Journal, I will make sure that we are never, ever again at the mercy of foreign oil suppliers, even if the Texxon Oil Company doesn't approve.

May 26, 1976

Well Journal, I did it! I was awarded my PhD! My thesis was on how to efficiently collect stray photons and convert them into pure energy. I'm talking about a 99% efficiency rating. This is going to change the world.

There are some details that remain to be worked out, and I will do this during my post doctoral work. I've been offered a position as an adjunct professor here at MIT. This of course means I'll be teaching untalented undergrads, who will ending up teaching high school themselves, but that's a small price to pay as I'll be able to continue my research unencumbered. I am going to change the world, I just know it!

Of course oil is once again flowing freely and the embargo is all but forgotten. What hasn't gone away is the smog and the dependency on capricious foreign suppliers. But I, Dr. Arthur Light will change all that.

September 16, 1978

I received a telegram today from my Aunt Eunice in Lubbock. Mom and Dad were killed today in a car accident. They were coming back from Wednesday Church when a drunk in a pickup truck hit them head on at high speed. She told me that they died instantly.

I know that I have often written of them to you in harsh tones … but now … I don't know what to say. It's true, I was always ashamed of them, and now that they're both gone … maybe I was fool; anyway, I'm flying out to Lubbock tomorrow. Also, my post doc work is almost complete, and I'm taking my photon collector public after I build a functional prototype.

July 12, 1979

The day has arrived Journal! My prototype is complete and it works great! It fits in a suitcase and it can power 100 houses without any fuel! Using decayed photons and reusing their residual energy by performing a quantum plane shift using a 4 dimensional crystal is how I do it!

The timing for this could not be better! The Shah was overthrown in Iran and there is talk of another oil embargo. I'm going to spend the next few months tweaking my power generator. I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of those oil executives when I demo it to them.

November 19, 1979

I have great news Journal! I showed it to the management at Texxon and guess what? They've agreed to buy it from me! And they're going to pay me $50,000,000, setup a research facility in Houston where I'll be in charge of R&D! I only wish my parents were alive to see this.

April 29, 1980

I have been double crossed. Texxon is not going to manufacture my generator, which they now own. I foolishly signed a no-compete agreement so now I can't offer my services to any other company or person.

I should have seen this coming. There's no way they can make the same amount of money selling generators as selling oil. I was a fool! I allowed myself to be bamboozled by these creeps and their shysters.

It doesn't matter, I will not be defeated! The no compete clause in my contract expires in 5 years. I'll use my money to perform purely academic research on my own. I already have an idea for a better generator, and when it's ready I'll sell it on my own. I'll show them!

August 12, 1985

Well Journal, oil is cheap again, at least for now. My no compete clause had expired and I'm actually trying to start my own company: "Dr. Light Energy". My 50 million ran out already and I had to sell the family farm, which was being leased, to raise some seed money for the company. I have also been able to raise some investor cash, but this time I learned my lesson: I will always retain control over the company and my invention (which is far superior to the original generator).

Now I need to raise more cash so we can begin to manufacture them. Wish me luck! Investors are a greedy bunch of jerks. They want control of everything.

December 12, 1985

I don't believe this! Just as I was about to secure a $100 million investment some obscure professor at a University whose name I won't even dignify by writing it here wrote a paper criticizing my reactor. He claimed that my new reactor design is unstable and unsafe. His analysis was clearly flawed so I prepared an airtight rebuttal. As the rebuttal was being published more critical papers began to appear, all written by second rate nobodies. There is no doubt in my mind that Texxon paid them off.

But worst of all, my investor backed out. We are now dead in the water and I'm going to have to lay off most of my staff. Whatever happened to building a better mousetrap?

One thing is certain; I won't roll over and play dead. If there is anyone who will buy this technology, it's the military.

March 24, 1986

Dear Journal, I don't know where to begin.

I am now a fugitive from the law.

Three nights ago I was working alone in the lab after my small staff had already gone home. We were facing a deadline for a demonstration for the Army. I was working on the "manacles" as we call it in the lab. Basically these are gloves that allow one to fire bursts of pure energy. I had just fine tuned them and was about to go outside to the "shooting range" to try them out on a pile of cinderblocks when I heard a sound.

This surprised me as there is always a night watchman at the front desk and the premise's perimeter was supposed to be secure.

The sound was not a false alarm as a man big enough to be a linebacker walked into the lab. Judging from his body language I could tell that this was not a social call.

He was carrying a large caliber pistol which he aimed at me. I raised my hands in front of me, in a vain attempt to persuade him to not shoot me. He grinned as he took aim at me. His words still echo in my ears: "Lights out, Doc."

There was no doubt left in my mind: he intended to murder me. I then had the classical fight or flight reaction. The "manacles" at that moment were fully charged and activated. He never saw it coming and his charbroiled body was dead before he hit the ground.

I killed a man!

This wasn't supposed to happen! I was going to save the world.

Several sheriffs' deputies showed up. Much to my surprise, after I explained to them what happened, they arrested me! My office manager posted the bail bond and I was released from the county jail.

My mind was reeling at this point. Texxon not only sent a goon to murder me, they had the local police paid off. It is fortunate that I was bailed out quickly from the county jail. Something tells me that I would not have survived the night had I stayed there any longer.

The next day I found out that our Pentagon contract was cancelled. And we would soon run out of money. And then I found out that I was going to stand trial for allegedly murdering that hitman and I would probably be convicted and maybe even sentenced to death. This is Texas after all.

My first move was to lay off the staff as I was going to need to save every penny I had to mount my defense. I spoke that afternoon with my attorney, who candidly told me that "it wasn't looking good" for me.

At that point I snapped. The nation that I was trying to help, even save from itself, had turned its back on me. I knew that I had to take care of myself, and that meant that I couldn't rely on anyone.

I returned to my now deserted lab and got to work. By 4 AM the suit was finished. As I put the bulky prototype outfit on it suddenly hit me: Arthur Light was no more. I was now Dr. Light, a villain, unjustly hounded by the law.

After testing the suit I loaded whatever gear and equipment I could fit into a van and drove off to a remote property that was technically owned by someone else (who was deceased) but which I used frequently to perform tests away from prying eyes. After setting up shop I quickly realized that this "hideout" was only temporary in nature and that if I stayed here I would soon be caught.

I would need something more secure, a place where I could continue my research, my expensive research, in total privacy and anonymity. But I had almost no money left.

So I robbed my first bank.

Dec 4, 1986

I found the perfect place for my hideout. It's in a small town in New Mexico which will remain anonymous.

May 16, 1992

I am no longer able to remain underground as the Justice League has decided that I am a threat to society that merits their attention.

What they don't know is that I've been saving my newest technology for them.

They will find it "illuminating" to say the least.

June 5, 1999

The Justice League has upped the ante with me. At first they sent their third tier members after me. After I repeatedly vanquished those incompetents they sent the next tier of heroes after me. These ones I had heard of. They posed more of a challenge but in the end they too were ineffectual.

Now I'm facing their top guns: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, etc.

All I ever wanted to do was help the world, to make it a better place with clean and safe energy that was virtually free. And they thanked me by declaring me a criminal. And why? Because I was going to upset some fat cats' gravy train. It's true: Those with the gold make the rules.

This is why I initially had no qualms about stealing money from the super rich and the banks they own. I still wanted to share my invention with the world. But as time went by I got to where I am today: I'm now a member of the Injustice League. That's right; my new "compadres" are none other than: Lex Luthor, Black Manta, Catwoman, Felix Faust, the Penguin, Sinestro and Agamemno.

I really had no other choice, on my own I would never survive against the Justice League. There really is safety in numbers, and collectively we are a credible opposition to them.

My anger at the injustice that I have suffered has festered within me, growing like a cancer until it has consumed me. Integrity calls out for justice, and if I can't obtain it through the conventional channels, then I will make my own. What the spandex clad do-gooders seldom understand is that more often than not they are the ones who create us, the so called villains. It is ironic, I am considered the villain, yet who robs the average motorist at the gas pump?

January 7, 2003

I suppose that it was inevitable, but it has finally happened: I've been captured by the Justice League.

January 24, 2003

Apparently my captors have been reading my Journal, and rather than send me to jail they are going to rehabilitate me.

February 4, 2003

I was bound to some sort of chair that vaguely resembles a dentist's chair. Zatanna entered the room and explained to me that she was going to use her "magical" powers to erase all of my criminal memories. I wasn't given a choice, they simply decided to do it (and I'm the villain?).

To make a long story short, she botched it and in the process she damaged my mind. I've lost a substantial portion of my intellect. I haven't been reduced to a dribbling idiot, but there is no doubt, the candle no longer burns as brightly as it once did.

March 1, 2003

For some reason, they decided to release me in an insipid town called Jump City. I suppose that they felt guilty after what they did to me. I quickly found a place for my lair, but now there is a question of money: I don't have any.

March 14, 2003

I was in the process of robbing an armored car when 5 spandex clad … children confronted me. For some reason the Justice League allowed me to keep my Mark VII suit and it came in very handy as the children … ok they were teenagers … who called themselves the Teen Titans, were no match for me.

That is until I encountered HER.

She calls herself Raven and she speaks in a gravelly monotone. Journal, this girl is bad news. Then again, I hesitate over even calling her a girl. She is a monster, the very spawn of hell. At first I thought she was a run of the mill sorceress with a very long unlocking key: Azarath Metrion Zinthos.

But I was wrong. I thought I had defeated her with a few photon blasts. The girl is tough, as those shots would have killed a normal human; they certainly did a number on that hitman in Houston. She was lying on the ground, defeated, telling me to 'stay away' and that was when she "transformed". I had never seen anything so horrid in my life. She suddenly grew in stature and spoke in a guttural, otherworldly voice; just hearing it made my skin crawl. But that was just the beginning. Ice cold tentacles emerged from her body and before I knew what happened I was dragged into a void. I believe that day I had a taste of Hell. There was no life, no color and no light in that place. I could literally feel the life being sucked out of me and I would have no doubt perished had Robin not intervened and saved me from his demonic teammate.

This … thing … is to be feared and avoided at all costs.

June 27, 2004

I've been out of prison for 6 months now (I escaped of course). I needed an easy way to obtain source of power and found it on an oil platform that was unfortunately visible from Titans Tower.

As the previous time we encountered each other the Titans were no match for me, that is until I heard her voice. She simply said "Remember me?"

I most certainly did remember the gray monster.

February 16, 2005

Sometimes I just don't understand why I have such bad luck.

I went as far away as possible from Jump City, to a place inside the Arctic Circle to collect the energy from the Aurora Borealis. Things were going swimmingly until the Titans showed up unannounced.

This time I was ready for them, until they destroyed my energy focusing crystal. Then we all fell into a bizarre underground primeval world. It was there that I discovered a young girl who could transform her body at will into a flawless and indestructible crystal. She was just what I needed to complement my aurora machine. With her my newest generator would be able to produce unheard of levels of energy.

And it worked beautifully. This time not even the gray demoness could stop me, I was invincible. If it hadn't been for the monosyllabic Neanderthal …

June 14,2006

The most remarkable thing happened to me today.

I escaped from prison just two weeks ago and today I witnessed a fight between Green Lantern and Flash against Slade.

I don't know if it was some combination of the Lantern's green light and the Flash's hyper speed or if it was something Slade did, but both my memories and full mental faculties suddenly returned. The experience was akin to being in a dark room when the lights were suddenly turned on.

August 15, 2006

Between my recovered intellect and the fact that all the Titans were busy engaging the Brotherhood of Evil it was easy to rob my choice of banks.

Today however, the Titans were back in town.

And I was ready for them.

And it wasn't just the five of them, they had all of their friends with them, not that it mattered.

They tried to sneak up on me as I was robbing a bank. They probably thought that I would roll over and surrender to them, like I did in the past. Raven even had the gall of saying: "He's totally gonna freak this time." … little did she know…

Robin, that self satisfied prick, demanded that I surrender. He is even more insufferable than Raven.

"We all know how this is going to end, Dr. Light, let's just do this the easy way."

The funny thing is, I agreed with him, just not in the way that he was expecting. I intended to do it the 'easy way', and I most certainly did. Just not the easy way for them.

The five original Titans attacked me, with the green fool leading the charge after morphing into Tyrannosaurus Rex. He no doubt felt unstoppable in that that form. Unfortunately for him, he was the first one to taste the new me, the fully restored Dr. Light.

I hit him with my new enhanced photonic cannon. Even with his thick saurian skin he bellowed in pain and collapsed, returning to his human form, still smoldering while he remained unconscious. What was even more interesting was that the gray monster called his name, unable to mask the terror and grief from her voice as she ran to his side. Who would have thought that she actually cared about anyone? That she was capable of feeling love? She even began to weep while she used her powers to heal him. She cast a vicious glare in my direction and I smirked in reply. I'm not afraid of her anymore, as I now know what her weakness is.

Robin of course reacted as he always does, with false bravado. "You'll pay for that!" he thundered at me. As if.

Robin summoned his second tier Titans. I will admit, it was a challenge as there were so many of them. I of course methodically culled the herd, disabling them one by one: Kid Flash, Argent, Jericho, Pantha, Hot Spot. Soon only one third of them were left. Cyborg, Robin and the Tamaranian had murder in their eyes, but they were powerless against me.

That was when the Batwing arrived. Batman and Batgirl emerged from the aircraft and the Dark Knight ordered me to surrender to him. To the surprise of the remaining Titans I did surrender to Batman, who muttered something about taking me to Arkham Asylum. The poor Titans didn't even protest, they were relieved to be rid of me.

The best part of it all is that I fooled the Titans with my departure. You see Journal, it wasn't the Dark Knight who came to collect me … it was Slade and his daughter Ravager. I hired Slade in advance to do this in case the Titans returned. Oh, I suppose I could have destroyed them once and for all back there, but where would the fun be in that? I intend to make them suffer, the way they made me suffer; but they need to be alive to suffer, right?. From now on I will be the one who has the upper hand.

Oh, and before I forget to tell you Journal, I sent Raven a letter, congratulating her on saving Beast Boy's life, along with a reminder that if she ever messed with me again … that I would kill him. I won't be worrying about her anymore.

Until next time, Journal. It's a new dawn. Dr. Light is back!