10 Stupid Attempts At Rebranding Famous Comic Characters

3. Dr. Light Goes From Harmless To Violent Sexual Deviant

Dr. Light is a classic Silver Age supervillain who primarily fought the Teen Titans. He used his titular element for lighthearted schemes. Well, his schemes were lighthearted until the controversial Identity Crisis crossover ret-conned him. During a battle, Dr. Light's suppressed memories of his younger days were reignited. It turns out he was not only a diabolical mastermind that managed to break into Justice League headquarters, but when he got there he raped The Elongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny! He then threatened to kill and rape other hero friends and family too! He was so heinous that the League lobotomised him so he'd forget what he did and be incapable of being that smart again, which explains the Silver Age portrayal. First off, Dr. Light was never portrayed as 'dumb.' At worst he was a bit smug, but he is a supervillain after all. If the point of this story was to make him more of a threat, turning him into a serial rapist was unnecessary. A Dr. Light ripoff called Luminus was a threat to Superman himself, showing how dangerous the character could be. Instead, the character was turned into something he wasn't at the expense of a likeable supporting character. And the rebranding of the character went beyond Identity Crisis: every appearance of Light afterwards had him make a reference to sexual violence. It was so bad that when resurrected as a zombie in Blackest Night, his first act was to dig up and lick the corpse of Firestorm's girlfriend. It's horribly unnecessary, and they should just change his name to Dr. Rape.