superhero
A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
es in the
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
. All versions of the character have the superpower of manipulating
visible light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
in some manner.
The first Ray was Langford "Happy" Terrill, a
Quality Comics
Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company which operated from 1937 to 1956 and was a creative, influential force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books.
Notable, long-running titles published by Qualit ...
character. When DC Comics later purchased Quality Comics, Happy Terrill was
retconned
Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subse ...
as a member of the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X. The character, created by artist
Lou Fine
Louis Kenneth Fine (November 26, 1914 – July 24, 1971)Louis Fine at the United States
Smash Comics
''Smash Comics'' is the title of an American Golden Age comic book anthology series, published by Quality Comics for 85 issues between 1939 and 1949. It became the series '' Lady Luck'' for #86-90 (Dec 1949–Aug 1950).
''Smash Comics'' had the ...
'' #14 (Sept 1940) and continued in the book until issue #40 (Feb 1943).
Following DC altering much of its continuity and history in the storyline ''
Crisis on Infinite Earths
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is a 1985 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. The series, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, was first serialized as a 12-issue limited series from April 1985 to March ...
'', Happy Terrill was now an inhabitant of the mainstream DC Comics universe and his son Ray Terrill became the second Ray. Later, the character Stan Silver briefly operated as the third hero called the Ray.
In 2011's
New 52
The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the " Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new series ...
relaunch of DC Comics, where fictional history was again restructured, a new character called Lucien Gates was introduced as the Ray. Although historically he is the fourth superhero character to use this name, in ''The Ray'' #1 (2012), set in a
rebooted
''Rebooted'' is the third season of the computer-animated television series '' Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu'' (titled ''Ninjago'' from the eleventh season onward). The series was created by Michael Hegner and Tommy Andreasen. The season aired f ...
continuity, he refers to the origin of Happy Terrill as a story he had heard as a child.
Fictional character biography
Langford "Happy" Terrill
Prior to the ''
Crisis on Infinite Earths
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is a 1985 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. The series, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, was first serialized as a 12-issue limited series from April 1985 to March ...
'' reboot, Langford "Happy" Terrill is originally described as having been exposed to lightning and sunlight at the same time while ballooning and gains energy-based superpowers. He is able to emit energy from his body and use it to fly through the air.
According to ''Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes'', "The Ray fights the Hindu mystic Bela Jat, Cadava the Crumbler, the Mongol warrior Khan, and the pied piper of crime, Stradivarius".
His Post-''Crisis'' origin is more involved. Before World War II, the government established a secret group known as RONOL (Research on the Nature of Light). One RONOL member, Dr. Dayzl, theorized that the light that originated millennia ago where Earth now orbits would eventually circumnavigate the universe and return as a dangerous, conscious entity.
The only way to stop the "Light Entity", Dayzl believed, was to talk to it. Tricking a reporter named "Happy" Terrill into joining them, Dayzl and his assistants staged an upper atmosphere ballooning "accident", making certain Terrill was exposed to a genetic "light bomb". Dayzl calculated that Terrill's offspring would be a unification of human and light energy, a potential liaison to the Light Entity. Unaware of the truth, Terrill used his resulting powers to become the superhero the Ray. Simultaneously, RONOL lost government backing due to Dayzl's unorthodox beliefs. Dayzl's fate remains unknown.
In 1950, after learning the truth, Terrill vowed to quit his Ray identity. He and his first wife had a child named Joshua. For a time, Joshua accompanied the Ray on missions as his sidekick "Spitfire". However, Joshua was prone to violent outbursts; he was placed in suspended animation in the 1950s, only to wake up again in the future, still only 10 years old. After a brief association with his old team the Freedom Fighters in the 1970s, he had married and settled down. Everything seemed normal until Terrill saw his newborn son glowing with crackling energy in the hospital nursery. Terrill was convinced Dayzl's theories were correct. He now knew his son would one day have the power to confront the Light Entity. Not wanting to put his wife through torment, Terrill told her that the baby had died and then set up his son with a foster father (his brother Thomas).
In the 2008 ''Freedom Fighters'' series, Terrill is asked by
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...
to ask
Neon the Unknown
Neon the Unknown is a fictional superhero from the Golden Age of Comic Books created by Jerry Iger for Quality Comics. Neon first appeared in a story penciled and inked by Lou Fine in ''Hit Comics'' #1 and was featured on the cover. His stories r ...
for help. When Neon, completely detached from humanity, refuses, Terrill drinks from the waters of his oasis, becoming a new Neon the Unknown, known simply as "Neon".
Ray Terrill
Ray Terrill was told he was hypersensitive to light and exposure to sunlight would kill him. Privately tutored in his window-darkened home, Ray's most earnest wish was for normalcy. The media called him Night Boy. His only friend during his formative years was his neighbor, Jennifer Jurden. When he was 18, at his supposed father's deathbed, Ray learned his life was a lie. He was not allergic to light, nor did he have to live in darkness. Most disturbing of all, he discovered his true father was the 1940s war-time super-hero, the
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...
Ray.
Stan Silver
The reformed Freedom Fighters have a member called the Ray who has similar powers to the Terrills. The new Ray is Stan Silver, and he was described by Justin Gray as being "capable of turning his body into a living laser light" and "the playboy of the group". Stan likes to show off in front of the media.
Working as a
foreign correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
for the Washington Sun, Silver was exposed to upper atmosphere radiation while covering a story, thus gaining power over various forms of light. Recruited by
S.H.A.D.E.
The following is a list of fictional government agency, government agencies, comic book organizations that have been published by DC Comics and their imprints.
A Agency
The Agency was formed by Amanda Waller to serve as a small, quasi-independe ...
, Silver begins using his powers in the service of his government. He is, however, something of a womanizing egomaniac in his civilian persona. Silver later defects from S.H.A.D.E. to join
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...
's new group of Freedom Fighters.
In ''Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters'' #6, Silver reveals that he is a double agent still loyal to S.H.A.D.E. He turns on his teammates and kills the
Invisible Hood
The Invisible Hood is a fictional superhero in the DC Comics Universe. He was originally owned by Quality Comics, but was later acquired by DC Comics, along with other Quality characters. He first appeared in ''Smash Comics'' #1 (August 1939) ...
. Immediately after, the colors of his "costume" were inverted, becoming blue instead of yellow.
In ''Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters'' #7, he battles his former teammates and is defeated by Ray Terrill, and is sent back to
Father Time
Father Time is a personification of time. In recent centuries he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device.
As an image, "Father ...
. He is later seen outside the White House with S.H.A.D.E.'s other super-soldiers, who join Father Time in the timestream after the battle ends.
Lucien Gates
In ''
The New 52
The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the " Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new serie ...
'' rebooted DC's continuity launched in 2011, a character named Lucien Gates was introduced as the Ray in a miniseries titled ''The Ray'', written by Palmiotti and Gray with art duties by
Jamal Igle
Jamal Yaseem Igle . jamaligle.com. Retrieved November 28, 2012. is an American
Korean-American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...
San Diego County lifeguard who, while on duty, was caught in the path of a particle beam. The beam, accidentally fired from a solar energy cannon commissioned by an unnamed government agency, mutated a number of living organisms before striking Gates. The resulting energy transforms him into an energy manipulator, able to fly at superhuman speed, fire various energy beams, and create illusions. Gates is also a Korean-American adoptee.
Distinctively, Gates cannot direct his flight as is common for airborne
superhero
A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...
es, instead traveling in a straight line as a literal ray of light. To change direction, he must strike a reflective surface, though it does not appear he is bound by the normal mechanics of
specular reflection
Specular reflection, or regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface.
The law of reflection states that a reflected ray of light emerges from the reflecting surface at the same angle to the surf ...
and can "reflect" at any angle (perhaps more akin to a swimmer kicking off from the edge of a pool than true reflection). When necessary, he can reduce his speed and even hover.
Powers and abilities
All versions of the Ray can absorb, store, and process pure light and use the energy to fly and create dazzlingly strong and powerful bursts of light. In his Golden Age appearances, Happy Terrill was able to manipulate other forms of energy such as
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
and
magnetism
Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...
.
The Terrills were also capable of manipulating and controlling light externally to create
illusion
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.
Illusions may o ...
s and even solid light constructs, as well as render themselves
invisible
Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology.
Since objects can be seen by light in ...
.
Later in Happy's career (while mentoring/antagonizing his son), he was shown to have a greater mastery of his abilities. For example, by using "solid light vibrations", essentially resonating the target's inner ear, he was able to approximate
telepathic
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
communication.
Ray Terrill is capable of converting his body completely into light energy. No physical harm can come to him in this form.
Stan Silver's full abilities and powers are largely undocumented. As noted above, he is apparently "capable of turning his body into a living laser light".
Lucien Gates can not become immaterial; rather the light forms a protective armor. In order to fly, Gates bounces off of reflective surfaces. His thought processes calculate hundreds of options, allowing him to redirect his path at
light speed
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special relativity, special theory of relativity, is ...
.
Other versions
* In the final issue of '' 52'', a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-10". As a result of
Mister Mind
Mister Mind is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck for Fawcett Comics, he made a cameo appearance in ''Captain Marvel Adventures'' #22 (March 1943) before making his full f ...
"eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the Pre-''Crisis'' Earth-X, including the Quality characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear, but a character visually similar to the "Happy" Terrill version of the Ray appears. Based on comments by
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, w ...
, this alternate universe is not the Pre-''Crisis'' Earth-X.
* The 2007 series '' Countdown: Arena'' introduces several alternate versions of the Ray. On Earth-6, the former
Atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...
(
Ray Palmer Ray Palmer may refer to:
* Raymond A. Palmer, science-fiction writer and editor
* Raymond F. Palmer, medical professor
* Ray Palmer (pastor), American pastor and author of hymns
* Ray Palmer (Arrowverse), a TV show character based on his comic boo ...
) has become his world's Ray, a
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Ray exists on "Earth-10" and his closest Earth-50 parallel is prominent Wildstorm Universe character
Superman
Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
pastiche
A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...
who debuted in the early 1990s. Ray's Freedom Fighters are supposed to be the opposition of the fascist JL-Axis (the fascist Ray's costume matches Ray Terril's new uniform), and Apollo is more commonly viewed as a parallel version of Superman (he is placed with the Rays apparently due to his light-based powers).
* A version of the Ray appears in the book ''
Kingdom Come
" Kingdom come" is a phrase in the Lord's Prayer in the Bible.
Kingdom Come may also refer to:
Film
* ''Kingdom Come'' (1919 film), a Western short featuring Hoot Gibson
* ''Kingdom Come'' (2001 film), a comedy starring LL Cool J
* ''Kingdom ...
'' as one of the heroes loyal to Superman. He is also mentioned in being instrumental in stripping the radiation out of the Kansas soil both for the construction of the Gulag and Superman's reclamation of the land at the end of the story. It is not specified which incarnation of the Ray this is, although in promo art he is referred to as Ray II. In the final issue of ''52'', the setting of ''Kingdom Come'' was designated Earth-22 in the new Multiverse.
* ''New Super-Man'', set in China of the mainstream DC Universe, features a character called the Sunbeam (a Chinese counterpart of the Ray).
Reception
In ''American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944'', comics historian Kurt Mitchell writes that the Golden Age strip "showcased Fine's growing mastery of lighting effects, as well as the wild fight scenes and memorably ugly villains that had by now become trademarks of his style".
In other media
Television
* An unidentified Ray makes non-speaking background appearances in the ''
Justice League Unlimited
''Justice League Unlimited'' (''JLU'') is a 2004–2006 American superhero animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and ...
''. This version is a member of the
Justice League
The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived ...
.
* The Langford Terrill incarnation of the Ray appears in the '' Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' episode "Cry Freedom Fighters!", voiced by
Tom Kenny
Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in ''R ...
The Ray Terrill incarnation of the Ray appears in the
Arrowverse
The Arrowverse is an American superhero media franchise and a shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series on CW Seed. ...
crossover event "
Crisis on Earth-X
"Crisis on Earth-X" is the fourth Arrowverse Crossover (fiction), crossover event, featuring episodes of the live-action television series ''Supergirl (TV series), Supergirl'', ''Arrow (TV series), Arrow'', ''The Flash (2014 TV series), The Flash ...
" and the
CW Seed
CW may stand for:
Science and technology
* centiwatt (cW), one hundredth of a watt
* Cω, a programming language
* CW complex, a type of topological space
* Carrier wave, in radio communications
* CodeWarrior, an integrated development environ ...
animated series '' Freedom Fighters: The Ray'' along with an uncredited appearance in the crossover "
Crisis on Infinite Earths
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" is a 1985 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics. The series, written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, was first serialized as a 12-issue limited series from April 1985 to March ...
", portrayed by
Russell Tovey
Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama '' Being Human'', Rudge in both the stage and film versions of ''The Histo ...
.
Miscellaneous
* The Langford and Ray Terrill incarnations of the Ray appear in issue #17 of the ''Justice League Unlimited'' tie-in comic book. The former is a member of the Freedom Fighters.
* An unidentified Ray makes background appearances in ''
DC Super Hero Girls
''DC Super Hero Girls'' or ''DC Superhero Girls'' (in various countries) is an American superhero web series and franchise Produced by Warner Bros. Animation for Cartoon Network based on characters from DC Entertainment that launched in the thi ...