The legend of Batman lives on! In the far future, crime is rampant in Neo-Gotham. Years after the first Caped Crusader departed, a new hero must emerge to carry on the bat’s legacy! Terry McGinnis is Batman, and his exploits are unparalleled in the history of the planet! With the help of Bruce Wayne, Terry has committed to protecting his family and neighborhood from the maniacs intent on spreading havoc on the streets! In the far future of Batman Beyond, Derek Powers, alias Blight, is a significant antagonist of Terry McGinnis’ Batman.
He was the evil CEO of Powers Tech who was transformed into a monster meta-human after being exposed to a mutagen of his own creation by Batman. The WB Television Network’s animated television series Batman Beyond is set in the future. In some locations, it is also known as Batman of the Future.
Beyond is a post-apocalyptic sequel to The New Batman Adventures, which was dropped in favor of a younger Batman. In Batman Beyond, the final chapters of Bruce and Andrea’s respective paths are portrayed. The Phantasm first appears in the future in Justice League Unlimited’s episode “Epilogue” In this episode, Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the Future, goes to Amanda Waller for answers about his origins. Terry was created from Bruce’s DNA, according to Waller’s top-secret “Batman Beyond” project.
Waller intended to create a new Batman by constructing a character who resembled Bruce. Blight resembles Batman villain Dr. Alexander Sartorius, Doctor Phosphorus, in appearance. The character most likely influenced Blight’s development in some way. Scott Snyder’s run-on Batman, which featured several Powers family members as members of the Court of Owls, including Joseph and Maria Powers, anticipated Blight throughout. Today’s film will focus on Derek Powers, often known as Blight; let us learn more about him.
Blight Backstory Explored
Derek, the head of Powers Technology, secretly created banned technology while hiding from the authorities on many hidden sites. In one of them, he worked alongside Warren McGinnis and experimented on the superfast Splitt. During the Brother Eye battle, he united with Wayne Enterprises in the hopes of producing enough defensive production to counter the cyborgs. Bruce Wayne attempted to shut down all of the Powers’ dark sites during the fusion but was unable to since some remained operational.
Powers had a mishap in one of these experiments, transforming him into a man of pure radiation: now known as Blight, he became a terrible menace to Gotham and battled Batman. Terry just escaped alive from their final battle in a submarine, while Blight was lost in the bay’s waters, presumed to be dead from drowning.
Powers began his career as the CEO of a modest company named Powers Technology, which grew in power and influence after purchasing Wayne Industries in 2019. Despite repeated attempts by Bruce Wayne to avoid the corporate takeover, Wayne was compelled to accept the merger due to his worsening health. Following acceptance of Power’s offer, the firm was renamed Wayne-Powers and placed under Power’s unethical care and control.
After around 20 years, Powers began to take over more of the company, which had grown into a formidable multinational firm. For the countless downsizings, layoffs, and aggressive takeovers of several other industrial enterprises, Powers became renowned in the financial world as a “financier czar” and a “corporate kingpin.”
Powers ousted Lucious Fox Jr., the son of Lucious Fox, from his role as president of the corporation, among other things. Because the Foxes were one of Bruce Wayne’s closest pals during his glory days, Powers acquired Wayne’s suspicion further. Powers would only connect with Wayne indirectly, such as giving baskets of oranges to him at Christmas and just briefly conversing with him.
Aside from his dubious ethics, Powers was abusive to his son, Paxton Powers, whom he frequently neglected. He was finally sent to South America to oversee the local Wayne-Powers branch, a position that Paxton despised as “grunt-work.” Derek’s business techniques, on the other hand, rubbed off on his son. Derek then exiles him to South America to oversee the local Wayne-Powers division, leading Paxton to become just as corrupt and cruel as his father.
Powers has created a hazardous, viral nerve gas that slowly eats away at the victim’s skin in 2039. When a terrorist commander arrived, Derek showed him his nerve gas, which shocked him when he saw the images.
He tried it on animals during the compound’s testing, including a young cow. He infected an employee, Harry Tully (Powers claimed Tully’s infection was accidental). Tully relayed the information to a co-worker, Warren McGinnis. Tully died due to his exposure to the nerve gas, but not before Powers documented the consequences for possible purchasers. Powers dispatched his sidekick, Mr. Fixx, to assassinate McGinnis and make it look like he was the victim of The Jokerz gang to acquire the information.
On the other hand, Fixx did not receive the data disc discovered previously by Warren’s son Terry. Terry presented the DVD to Bruce Wayne, who Terry realized had previously been Batman. Derek Powers intended to send the nerve gas to Kaznia, a Balkan country. They promoted it to Kaznian ambassador and commerce minister Vilmos Egans, showing him terrible images of Harry Tully’s protracted death at the hands of the gas. When Egans accepted the contract, Powers quickly began its shipment timetable.
Terry McGinnis would break into Wayne Manor, grab the most recent version of the Batsuit, and assume the identity of Batman to revenge for his father’s death. Batman prevented the shipment of nerve gas by making the carrier sink in Gotham Harbour while Mr. Fixx was still inside, causing Fixx to drown.
Powers had to go through radiation therapy in secret to preserve himself from the ravages of the gas. And while the radiation had eradicated the infection, the gas was discovered to contain mutagen qualities, which had interacted with the radiation used to cure him, converting Powers into a radioactive metahuman with his skeleton exposed.
Despite delighting in his newly gained skills, Powers regularly masked his ailment by wearing fake skin and engaged physicians to locate a possible solution for his illness. When the government chose to build a new lunar outpost, Wayne-Powers and Foxteca were two potential contractors.
Powers recruited the saboteur Inque [ink]to sabotage Foxteca. When Batman interfered with Inque’s objectives, Powers hired Inque to murder Batman and any of his friends, but she failed and was imprisoned. A mysterious woman who stole Terry’s suit from the Batcave and is acting as protector of Neo-Gotham in his absence triggers the radiation alarm in the laboratory, attracting the attention of Bruce and Matt in the Batcave, but also of the new Batwoman.
Nonetheless, this new heroine was unprepared to meet Blight, who, taking her by surprise, wins the upper hand. Blight survives Batwoman’s effort at trapping him in the building after activating a colossal bomb, underestimating her skills and revealing to her that he’s dying and needs a new body to host him. Following the departure of Batwoman, Blight calls his old sweetheart Constance Gustinov, the only person capable of performing the transfer Derek desires: she informs him that she has the right guy for the job, an amnesiac Terry McGinnis.
The ideal vengeance on Batman and Bruce Wayne is served out on a silver platter. Constance continues seducing and then knocking Terry unconscious, trapping him in the transfer pod. While Constance returns Terry’s memory to prepare for the surgery, Batwoman switches off the power and saves Terry, leaving with him. Blight can’t transmit any longer, since his radiation is out of control, killing even Constance. The guy is furious, but he will not go until he has killed Bruce Wayne.
Derek did, in fact, steal some of Wayne’s secret files during their fusion. In one of them, he discovered information regarding a covert project run by Wayne Manor. With a simple assumption and the knowledge that Bruce was the previous Batman, he deduced that the location must be the Batcave. Blight will be defeated once and for all by Terry McGinnis, back in his Batman suit: using the Batmobile, Terry digs a deep hole in Wayne Manor’s underworld and buries Blight there.
When Powers develops a lethal mutagenic nerve gas and plans to sell it as a weapon, one of his employees, Warren McGinnis, discovers evidence of the gas and is murdered, prompting the vengeful son Terry McGinnis to become Batman, who foils Powers’ plans and exposes him to the gas; Powers is subjected to extreme radiation exposure to save his life, but as a side effect, his entire body becomes radioactive, rendering him translucent.
He can conceal his condition and limit his radiation by wearing a unique cosmetic skin that peels off over time. The cosmetic skin begins to deteriorate as his rage grows increasingly out of control and his radiation levels rise. Given all of Powers’ misdeeds, this is a tiny example.
Still, he doesn’t appear keen on spreading radiation illness and advises people not to come too close to him, when his radioactive form is exposed a few times. Some of this might be attributed to Pragmatic Villainy since many of those individuals who work for him or, in the instance of Inque, are paid to take out Batman for him. As a result, he can’t afford to kill his subordinates and workers who are covering for him, caring for him, or carrying out instructions that he can’t carry out carelessly without considerable danger of exposing himself.
When Powers might be unable to manage his transformation into Blight, he delegated power to his son, Paxton, but only as a puppet, since Paxton would be acting chairman of the board while getting commands from his father. During a meeting of firm shareholders (at which Bruce Wayne was also present) when Derek was announcing his temporary leave of absence, a group of locals from the South American country of Verdeza burst in to oppose Paxton. They had enraged Powers to where his radiation took effect and ripped away from his flesh.
Powers erupted in a frenzy and began hitting the men. Bruce Wayne tried to stop him, but this enraged Powers even more. He attempted to assassinate Wayne right then, which Powers claimed he had always wanted to do. Powers went into hiding following a brief battle with Batman and having his “Blight” side exposed.
Only his aide, Miss Winston, knew where he was – Powers was hiding in an ancient nuclear submarine to hide his radioactive trail. Batman encountered Blight after tracking him to the spot. Blight inquired who Batman was, to which Batman answered, “You killed my father.” But, having killed so many people, Blight deemed this information worthless.
Blight Form DC Animated Universe to Comic
The enemy, better known as the radioactive Blight, went back in time in the New 52 timeline and menaced an unexpected group in the modern DC Universe. Derek was never satisfied with his situation regardless of his newfound abilities or how dangerous he became to the new Batman. Aside from being required to wear a mask to conceal his identity, the powers were inextricably linked to his emotional condition. Blight, who was never a remarkably stable guy, to begin with, was forced to walk on eggshells for the rest of his life, prompting his inclusion in the New 52.
Powers was also in the business of producing weapons, notably a mutagenic gas that he planned to sell abroad to make a fortune. Warren McGinnis, one of his workers, discovered proof of this and sought to bring it to the attention of the authorities. Tragically, Powers realized Warren owned the evidence and had him assassinated, posing the incident as a gang attack. However, this one act of brutality accidentally led Terry McGinnis to take on the role of Batman and try to stop what Powers was doing.
Terry was successful, but Powers was exposed to the mutagen in the process. He got radiation therapy to burn the mutagen out of his system to save his life. The procedure was successful, but Powers was drastically transformed as a result. Powers could now produce and manipulate radiation as Blight, and he assumed the shape of a luminous green skeleton.
Blight went to the past after discovering a means to time-travel, using a vampire’s heart imprisoned within a grandfather clock. Assuming the appearance of a professor at Gotham Academy, Blight began hunting for a young Warren McGinnis to kill the youngster and eliminate him as a potential danger to Blight. If he succeeds, he will be free of Batman, and the fight that converted Powers into Blight would not have happened.
The Gotham Academy Detective Club, on the other hand, was there to stop him. Blight’s radioactive nature gradually made the pupils sick, prompting Gotham Academy’s most interested students to explore him. They discovered his time-traveling device and spared Warren McGinnis’ life, guaranteeing that the future Batman would be born one day. They tricked Blight into returning to the future by leaping through the clock, only to be dragged back when Blight pursued them. They then destroyed the heart that powered the time machine, guaranteeing that Blight would never have the opportunity to return.
It was definitely an unusual way to bring Blight to the New 52, and his defeat to kids seemed out of character. On the other hand, Terry was still in high school when he became Blight’s adversary. While his failure highlighted his ineffectiveness, Blight’s trek to the past demonstrated how cruel he could be. Still, it revealed how ultimately ineffectual he is as a villain in any period.
What Makes Blight also So Dangerous?
Derek Powers, subsequently known as Blight, is the primary antagonist of the Batman Beyond TV series, acting as the main antagonist of the first season, a posthumous adversary in seasons 2 and 3, and a figure featured in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. He’s also a reoccurring villain in a variety of DC comics. Derek Powers was an extremely bright individual, who excelled at economics, commerce, and black-market racketeering.
After taking up other corporations and exacting hefty demands from them, he was able to gain dominance in the financial world. To that goal, he would terminate anybody who disagreed with him but only under the guise of disobedience or incompetence. One significant example was the purchase of Walter Shreev’s sound-based technology enterprise, alleging that Shreev lacked the pragmatism to operate a corporation correctly.
Another instance of corporate takeover occurred when he dismissed Lucious Fox Jr. because of his links to Wayne, with whom Powers had previously severed relations from their shared firm. Powers held a late-night meeting to harangue the owners into selling him their company during one attempted purchase of another company. Under Wayne-legal Power’s revenues, Derek Powers experimented with unlawful waste disposal, such as throwing radioactive items into a Gotham harbor and out at sea.
Powers, as his name implies, has become a living nuclear threat. Giving out hazardous radiation levels even passively, making merely being near him, much alone touching him, fatal without some type of protection. Furthermore, he can control this radiation into powerful blasts, at first simply as beams. Still, as his abilities expanded, he produced wide-ranging waves of energy. Excessive radiation exposure can result in radiation poisoning. According to reports, the radiation energy bullets inflict severe burns and disorientation. Blight can also transmit heat into other materials, as seen when he irradiated Batman’s Batrope and transformed it into a brilliant ray of light. Horror is known to produce massive radioactive explosions around
himself, as he does in most difficult situations. Derek Powers frequently hired thugs, criminals, and even terrorists for his more extreme activities. He hired the muscle, Mr. Fixx, to assassinate Warren McGinnis after discovering that McGinnis was hiding information about his nerve gas. He also hired industrial saboteur Inque to attack the plants of his competitors. Powers was also persuasive and resourceful enough to persuade Walter Shreev to use his sound-based technology for murder.
Powers was also hot in the literal sense, as he burned anything he touched. Since radioactive heat is capable of melting a high-tech Batsuit, he is also immune to melee attacks. Derek Powers, like Blight, was a walking radiation emitter, capable of emitting balls of radioactive fire from his hands or cascading waves of radiation from his entire body. Despite its extraordinary resilience, these blasts were able to melt immense metal structures and even harm Batman’s high-tech armor. Powers was able to use these energy bolts with precise accuracy.
The radiation’s heat could preserve him from dangerously frigid temperatures that would typically kill people. He even escaped from Mr. Freeze’s icy jail without being hurt. As a result of his illness, Powers was unable to keep the radiation at bay on his own and was compelled to wear a suit of prosthetic skin to retain a semblance of normalcy. Worse, the radiation became more intense with rage, peeling away at his prosthetic skin more and more until it could hardly survive a day.