Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context LightIsNotGood / ComicBooks

Go To

1----
2* Several comic companies, including the [[Creator/DCComics Big]] [[Creator/MarvelComics Two]], have used stories of [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] turned [[KnightTemplar overzealous]].
3* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
4** [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter The White Martians]] are an AlwaysChaoticEvil race with pure white skin.
5** In an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', the Man of Steel confronts seeming angels, standing guard before the gates of Hell. After he works out the truth and throws off their illusions, he asks the {{Space Police}}man who takes them away why they haven't changed. The cop calmly tels him that they really do look like that.
6** Dr. Light, a supervillain with [[LightEmUp light control]], warrants his own entry, given that on top of his villainy, the ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004'' miniseries also [[{{Retcon}} retroactively]] made him a SerialRapist. This is the ''male'' Dr. Light -- DC actually has two. The female Dr. Light (who appears in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'') is at worst a case of GoodIsNotNice. As with [[Manga/DeathNote Light Yagami]], this is also literally as the male Doctor Light's real name is [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Arthur Light]]. His ''ComicBook/New52'' version {{avert|edTrope}}s this, however, [[AdaptationalHeroism being a nice family guy who joins the]] ComicBook/{{Justice League|2011}}.
7** Solaris, the [[AIIsACrapshoot evil, artificially intelligent]] SinisterSentientSun from the future of ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion''.
8** ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' plays with this a little. Certain "colors" in the "Emotional Spectrum" are eviller than others. Red (rage), orange (greed), and yellow (fear) are mostly evil, but green (willpower), blue (hope), indigo (compassion), and violet (love) are mostly good. However, [[EvilerThanThou black is so evil]] it makes all lights look good by comparison, even the evil ones.
9*** In technicality, all colours are neutral, and "good corps" had their own morally inconvenient moments. The Star Sapphires, for example, have a history of LoveMakesYouCrazy and the Guardians have caused many problems. Blue Lanterns are all good, but their light is very limited in terms of power, so they are often incapable of doing much, while the Indigo Tribe has mercy killed many people, and it is composed of sociopaths brainwashed by the Indigo light anyway.
10*** We can safely add the White Light entity to the list now, thanks to the amount of morally ambiguous acts it has made, [[spoiler:such as killing a couple because they love each other and would not obey to its command and separate]].
11*** Blue Lanterns will show you visions of hope, but its really just anything that will make you feel hope whether it has any truth to it or not (though presumably plausible visions are more effective than implausible ones).
12*** Even the Black Lanterns of all people play this up. Their outfits have a lot of white in them, and their powers are basically white/silver light.
13** Snowflame, a one-shot villain from ''ComicBook/TheNewGuardians'', is perhaps the strangest example of this trope. [[AddictionPowered By smoking cocaine]], he uses what appears to be light manipulation/white flames, and has a white motif, notably [[WhiteHairBlackHeart his hair]]. He is also an EnsembleDarkhorse, by the way, thanks to the sheer strangeness of using a drug as fuel for his powers.
14** In one of Creator/AlanMoore's issues of ''ComicBook/SwampThing'', [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] wonders why everyone thinks of [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] as comforting, confessing to the reader that they scare the shit out of him. They do indeed seem to be not so much unalloyed good as merely preferable to the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]].
15*** Actually, in the more [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism cynical]] DC books, the metaphysical battle has nothing to do with Good versus Evil -- it involves [[OrderVersusChaos Order (angels, Lords of Order) versus Chaos (demons, Lords of Chaos)]], with neither side paying any attention to good or evil as humans understand those terms. This has been a major motivation for ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger and ComicBook/{{Deadman}} in their choice to side with humans instead of TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness of the week. This has been standard DC metaphysics throughout the entire line ever since the Kali Yuga plot a decade ago.
16** Rainbow Raider from ComicBook/TheFlash's RoguesGallery. He's kind of dead now, though.
17** ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
18*** In contrast to [[DarkIsNotEvil Batman]], [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]]. He [[BrightIsNotGood dresses in bright colors]], his skin is bleach white and has a sunny disposition. He's also the TropeCodifier for MonsterClown, and the most iconic supervillain there is.
19*** Batman also dealt with a villain who dressed as an angel -- complete with feather wings and a glowing costume -so he could murder the innocent relatives of Batman's RoguesGallery.
20*** ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': "Legend" is set in the far future, in "a stainless-steel city of light" that's deliberately contrasted with the rain-shrouded darkness Batman stories are usually set in. Then, on the final page, there's a wider view of the city which reveals it to be a dictatorship with tanks and soldiers on every street, and no dark corners to hide in. (But wait -- there is ''one'' shadow... a familiar pointy-eared silhouette...)
21** The "Black" and "White" designations in the ComicBook/{{Checkmate}} organization are not intentionally related to good or evil; the entire organization is (supposed to be) good. Instead, the divisions relate to whether they're more concerned with "intel" (White) or "operations" (Black).
22** ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim is nearly killed by the villainous Monsoon, a beautiful pale green woman wearing a long white dress whose powers make her slightly glow when in use.
23* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
24** In ''ComicBook/AvengersTheChildrensCrusade'', Characters/DoctorDoom becomes a white-robed man with holy magic after absorbing the Earth's life energy from the Characters/ScarletWitch.
25** ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'': While currently heroic, Northstar has had a history of [[FaceHeelTurn face-heel turns]], most notably during his time under [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheHand the Hand]]'s [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mental domination]].
26** While Karolina Dean of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' is heroic, her parents, who share her [[LightEmUp light powers]], are supervillains.
27** From the ''ComicBook/XMen'' books:
28*** Vulcan, a.k.a. Gabriel Summers, an Omega-level energy manipulator whose powers frequently manifest as light and flames. It's played to the hilt in his confrontation with [[ComicBook/TheInhumans Black Bolt]] at the climax of ''ComicBook/WarOfKings''.
29*** [[ReligionOfEvil The Dawn of the White Hand]], a brief-lived organization based on Japan, where the color white is associated with death.
30*** The first mutant is called En Sabah Nur, bad Arabic for "The First Light". The fact he's best known as [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]] should be an indicator on how evil he is.
31*** Nate Grey a.k.a. [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan X-Man]], previously an AntiHero with an odd [[AllLovingHero idealistic streak]], ends up crossing the line into a WellIntentionedExtremist in the run-up to ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan''. Before this, he'd spent most of his time in black trousers and coat. After, he switches to full [[MessiahArchetype Jesus-style white and gold robes]], intending to save the world whether it likes it or not. This is intentional -- he wants to invoke the symbolism as [[spoiler:he's dying, trying to use his last efforts to save the world and]] he's Apocalypse's ArchEnemy by philosophy and design (which combined with his raw power makes him one of the very few people who Apocalypse actually [[WorthyOpponent respects]]). Likewise, so is the design of the 'Age of X-Man' -- a conflict-free utopia that is directly opposite to the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse that he'd grown up in. Unfortunately, a combination of being a very intelligent [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] ControlFreak with a hit-and-miss understanding of people means that it is arguably even more horrifying. Unlike most examples, he has a HeelRealisation and [[GracefulLoser lets the X-Men go]].
32*** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] are good contrasts. The former is a brunette AntiHero who tries to be a better person. The latter is considered one of the eviler characters in the Marvel Universe, but is blonde, contrasting most cases where blondes are portrayed as pure/good and the brunettes are more sinister. To contrast further, Wolverine tends to have dark eyes, and Sabretooth is sometimes depicted with CreepyBlueEyes.
33*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] usually {{avert|edTrope}}s the trope, preferring a red-and-purple costume, but briefly wore a rather heroic-looking white-and-blue costume at one point back when he was still a regular villain.
34*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsEmmaFrost Emma Frost]], the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, was more than someone who gravitated towards immoral acts -- in her early days she was a straight up supervillain and quite sadistic. ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' only happened because Frost ''along with'' Mastermind was messing with Jean's head; they just didn't realize that they were out of their league. When she resurfaced, she spent a good while as a recurring foe of the X-Men, the ArchEnemy of the ''ComicBook/NewMutants'' and Xavier's EvilCounterpart -- she recruited newly discovered mutants to train in the use of their powers to become the Hellfire Club's army. During that era -- before we'd met Apocalypse and when Magneto was on the 'face' side of the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor -- Frost was the X-Men franchise's ''foremost'' villain.
35** Lightmaster, a recurring foe of ComicBook/SpiderMan. The Living Laser from ''ComicBook/IronMan'' is another light-themed villain.
36** Air Walker, the angel-themed [[Characters/MarvelComicsHeraldsOfGalactus herald/former herald of]] [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]]. He wasn't that good in a lot of his showings. Overlaps with CyberneticsEatYourSoul -- most of the times that Air Walker appears, he's a robotic rebuild of the original, who was a member of the [[ComicBook/{{Nova}} Nova Corps]] and a decent person before he signed on as Galactus's herald.
37*** Stardust, a being of pure (and bright blue/white) energy and Galactus' latest herald, is also quite AxCrazy, insisting on slaughtering the entire population of any world Galactus consumes, even though Galactus himself has no interest in killing the people (though he has no particular interest in ''not'' killing them either).
38** The Shroud, a DarkIsNotEvil hero who traded his sight for scary shadowy superpowers, once faced an evil preacher with light powers.
39** ComicBook/SuperiorIronMan wears pure white armour, in contrast with his usual red and yellow colour scheme (or occasionally, including immediately before [[ComicBook/{{Axis}} the inversion]], ''black'' and yellow), and is Tony Stark utterly bereft of conscience. The white armour seems to symbolise his [[AGodAmI god complex]].
40** Princess Anjulie in ''ComicBook/ExcaliburMarvelComics'' is, at first glance, [[http://static4.comicvine.com/uploads/original/3/38906/924701-1.4_anjulie___reward_a.jpg a beautiful and voluptuous]] woman wearing white whose introduction has her being threatened by a group of blue-skinned pirates, but in reality, she's a vicious tyrant who had seduced and dethroned the previous king, and the pirates are lead by the rightful princess, Kymri. Nightcrawler is swayed by her superficial grace and charm, assumes her to be a DamselInDistress rather than a cornered tyrant, and ends up saving her from her enemies. He realizes how evil she is when [[DisproportionateRetribution she brutally disfigures a servant for spilling a bit of wine in her hand]], and then discovers that she's secretly worshiping an EldritchAbomination that nearly devours his companions.
41** ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'':
42*** ''ComicBook/UltimateWolverine'': A politician salutes a girl he finds, who was actually a Mothervine subject. She starts attacking with solid light.
43*** ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'': The "Silver wings" (based on Silver Surfer) look like angels and their bodies shine on their own. They are here to help Gah Lak Tus to destroy the planet.
44*** ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Gregory Stark, a blonde teetotaler man wearing white, the man is Tony's physical opposite. [[spoiler:Taken even further with the reveal that he has powers of his own that turn his white suit into a pure blinding light.]]
45*** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Nick Fury found something at the temple that gave a huge bright light. The satellite lost visual, Fury asked for reinforcements, and then was captured.
46* In ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'', Arkaam the White Queen turns out to be a despotic bitch. Her magical artifacts are also definitely light- or fire-based. An earlier villain, Tridart, a servant of Nerissa, was angel themed and white, but his powers were [[AnIcePerson ice based.]]
47** Kandrakar keeps a prison, the Tower of Mists, whose inmates are complete monsters. Their cells are tailor-made to mind rape them into submission with {{Irony}} (the magic stealer Phobos was closed in a magic-absorbing cell, Cedric, the in-universe Prince of Lies, had been imprisoned in a cell made of lies, et cetera). Apparently it's so bad that [[spoiler: Phobos]] preferred a FateWorseThanDeath to return in there...
48* ''ComicBook/NemesisMarkMillar'': The eponymous villain Nemesis wears a pure white costume.
49* The Angelus from the ''ComicBook/TheDarkness''[=/=]''ComicBook/{{Witchblade}}'' universe. Unquestionably a force of light and law. It just so happens that the Angelus is a completely sociopathic entity that believes the world should be run by her light and her laws.
50* ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}}'' story arc ''The Dead'': the villain used a salvaged version of TheSpearOfDestiny to open a gateway to Heaven and released one of the Six-Winged Seraphim. Whilst it ''does'' match every qualifier of the Seraphim, [[EldritchAbomination it's not going to be in the murals at your local Church]].
51* {{Inverted|Trope}} and then played straight in ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark''. Prior to his religious conversion, Sim depicted a creation myth in which the female Light was essentially raped by the male Void in which it resided, causing the Light to completely shatter and form the physical universe. After his conversion, the male void became God and the female Light became YHWH, God's Adversary. [[spoiler:Cerebus is physically dragged into the Light after his death in the last issue, screaming for God to save him.]]
52* In the first issue of ''ComicBook/TheMiceTemplar'', [[DarkIsNotEvil (nocturnal)]] mouse children are told scary stories about the "world of day".
53* One recurring villain in ''ComicBook/RichieRich'' was Dr. NRG, a criminal scientist with a light bulb in place of his head whose crimes revolved around the creation and manipulation of light. And he was not only evil, he was more so than most villains in the comic, in one story, plotting to set ''every'' Christmas tree in America on fire (along with the houses they were in) by controlling their Christmas lights.
54* The sun like creatures known as "thristies" in Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s Kool Aid comic.
55* Taken to its literal extreme in the comic book ''ComicBook/TheLight'', in which looking at any light connected to an external power source (lamps, [=TVs=], your computer...) causes you to, quite painfully, incinerate from the inside out.
56* In ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'', the manifestation of Hope is depicted as a beautiful woman with a shiny aura. She does admit though that both good and evil have hope. Indeed, one of Hope's paladins speculate that darker impulses like revenge are more likely to get motivation from that emotion.
57* Dynamite's 2012 ''ComicBook/TheShadow'' series has both this and DarkIsNotEvil with The Shadow fighting a KnightTemplar woman wearing white nicknamed The Light who glowed bright white.
58* Just like Creator/{{DC|Comics}}'s [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter White Martians]], the Therns in ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'' are a evil Martian race, but [[HumanAliens human-like]] with [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fair-skin, blonde hair and blue eyes]] that fancied themselves [[AGodAmI as divine beings]] behind a PathOfInspiration to lure other races into their domain to serve as slaves and nourishment and looked down on them as inferior beings. More often than not, White Martians antagonized the titular warlord, John Carter. The white apes also qualified, being gigantic and multi-armed gorilla monsters that are extremely pale and one of the greatest predators on Mars, with their viciousness highlighted in a miniseries where the female protagonist and her friends are trapped inside an ancient ruin filled with these monsters.
59* One ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse story has him come back from vacation only to find his friends acting [[OOCisSeriousBusiness weird]] and the whole town illuminated by bright lights. It turns out that a group of spirits that were BarredFromTheAfterlife are controlling them, and they can take over their bodies permanently if they stay close to a bright light for a long enough period of time.
60* The light is the main religion in the [[FrancoBelgianComics Franco-Belgian comic]] ''The Forests of Opal''. It is also TheEmpire, controlling most or all of the world. The local priests make sure that everything is according to The Light. While some of its members are truly good, most have been corrupted by the power they wield. Evil things are done in the name of The Light, under the excuse that it is the will of The Light and for the greater good and all that. For example, their healers heal by transferring the sickness to someone else. They can use animals as the receiver but prefer humans. And this exchange: "Have the intruders been caught yet?" "No, my lord, we have to check all the religious pilgrims, it takes time." "Don't bother with that, just kill everyone that isn't a disciple of the light." This is the in-universe equivalent of the Pope ordering all pilgrims visiting the Vatican executed.
61* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'': Nova Prime, [[HerosEvilPredecessor one of Optimus Prime's predecessors]], was white and gold with wings that fell on the good side of GoodWingsEvilWings. However, underneath that exterior, he was not a good guy at all, planning to conquer and enslave the universe. After his resurrection as Nemesis Prime, his colors got swapped, becoming a classic example of DarkIsEvil.

Top