Characters / Young Justice (2010) - The Light

Young Justice (2010) Main Character Index
The Team (Season One, Season Two, Season Three, Season Four) | The Outsiders | Justice League | Other Heroes | The Light | Minions of the Light (League of Shadows) | The Reach | Apokolips | Other Villains | New Genesis | Other Characters

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The Light

In General

"The Light", a mysterious council of DC bad guys who seem to be behind almost every major crime the Team encounters in the animated series Young Justice (2010). Their alliances even extend off-planet - Desaad has supplied them with the technology of the New Gods, and they add the Kroloteans' "Competitor", the Reach, to their contacts in season two. The last scene of season two shows that they also know Darkseid. While they control a large number of minor baddies from DC lore who do their bidding and dirty work, the group itself is a mere seven members.

The credits referred to the original seven members as L1 - L7 before their faces were shown, but these are not official in-universe designations they use among themselves.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: While they're not heroes by any normal sense of the word, their motives at least go beyond "world domination" or "kill the Justice League". This version is more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose aim is to make Earth an intergalactic superpower.
• Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, the organization is called the Secret Society of Super Villains, something hinted at in "Revelation" when Batman refers to it. In the comics, "the Light" was an alias Luthor used in one Golden Age story.
• Affably Evil: Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, Ra's Al Ghul, The Brain and Black Manta are all relatively polite to their enemies, when they're not just being smug.
• Ancient Conspiracy: "Evolution" implies that the Light has existed in some form under Vandal Savage's leadership since Bronze Age Mesopotamia, though the shift in focus to developing Earth's metahuman resources and becoming a galactic superpower did not happen until Vandal's time as Genghis Khan, and the "official" formation of the Light in its modern form happened more recently in response to the founding of the Justice League.
• Anti-Villain: Although still horrible people, its individual members are portrayed far more sympathetically than their comic book counterparts, being both more well intentioned visionaries and more human, some of them shown to have sincere concern about certain people—with a few notable exceptions such as Klarion and Queen Bee.
• Badass Crew: They are all among the most powerful and influential individuals on Earth, although Luthor, Queen Bee, the Brain and Baazovi are non-combative (though no less dangerous for it).
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • The Light as a whole are a Legion of Doom consisting of seven individual villains at a time, always with an eighth villain as an enforcer to do their dirty work. Vandal Savage is the founder of the alliance and first among equals.
  • Savage and Darkseid formed a pact centuries ago to conquer the galaxy, with the intent to then fight each other in a final winner-take-all conflict. In modern times this alliance extends to trafficking metahumans to Apokolips in exchange for technology and Boom Tube transportation. Desaad, G. Gordon Godfrey, and Granny Goodness act as representatives for their distant master, with Granny even joining the Light's council for the third season.
  • Invasion: The Light enter into a partnership with the Reach and their Ambassador, aiding their silent takeover of the planet as part of a long-term gambit to gain control of the War World.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • Invasion: The Light and the Reach come into direct conflict after it's revealed that the former have been sabotaging their supposed allies, with Black Beetle overthrowing the Ambassador and attempting to wipe out all life on Earth.
  • Outsiders: Granny Goodness discovers that Violet is the key to the Anti-Life Equation, kidnapping her and betraying the Light to conquer the universe on behalf of her master. Savage is forced to help the Outsiders stop her, although the debacle doesn't appear to have significantly damaged his relationship with Darkseid.
  • Phantoms: On top of the Light's usual machinations (notably Lady Shiva kidnapping her daughter and Orm attempting to take over Atlantis), further conflicts arise from the Chaos Lord Child challenging Klarion for serving Savage's dream of an orderly galactic empire, while Lor-Zod and Ma'alefa'ak scheme to release the former's parents, Dru and Ursa, from the Phantom Zone.
• Breaking the Fellowship: In "Summit", the Brain and Black Manta are captured, Ra's is stabbed and dead for the moment, Savage and Klarion are on the WarWorld, and Luthor and Queen Bee were presumably left on Earth. In Season 3, half of its members have been replaced.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Their plans seem to require the Justice League. It got to the point Vandal Savage had to get Klarion to give up so he wouldn't destroy the Watchtower even after the attempt to take over the League failed.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Averted, the only time they ever do stuff like this is using it as a distraction to their real plan. They also have a benign name instead of the Legion of Doom or the Secret Society of Super Villains, although in a Mythology Gag, Batman uses the latter to describe the then-unknown shadowy puppetmasters, and Savage describes the group as a "secret society" among his partners.
• The Chessmaster: Pretty much effortlessly manipulate the heroes at every turn and usually still manage to profit even when their plans fail.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Throughout Season 2. They betray the Kroloteans to their business rivals the Reach, only to turn on the latter when it was expedient (both betrayals were planned from the start, of course). Their alliance with Darkseid has held up so far for centuries, but both sides fully expect that to end once they've achieved their respective goals.
• Complexity Addiction:
  • Exploited. The Light often stages complicated attacks they expect to fail as distractions for far simpler operations.
  • In "Revelations", they give Count Vertigo the means to form an Injustice League. The IL then proceeds to use the Light's specially-synthesized Kobra Venom in a plan to hold the entire world hostage... which fails, as planned. All this because the heroes are getting too close and The Light needed a Fall Guy.
  • In "Coldhearted", they use floating fortresses (probably constructed by villains they had discretely smuggled out of prison) to cause a mini-ice age across North America and distract the majority of the heroes, leaving only Kid Flash to save their real target, a heart transplant meant for a dying young girl. Their motivation? To repay Count Vertigo for being The Fall Guy back in "Revelations". The Count is unfortunately too incompetent to avoid tipping Wally off.s
  • In "Misplaced", they cast a spell that divides the entire planet into parallel dimensions as a distraction to quietly steal a minor specimen from a lab in Gotham City.
• Cosmopolitan Council: They have members from across the world, united by the common goal of making Earth the heart of a galactic empire.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Black (Black Manta), Middle-Eastern (Queen Bee and Ra's), Cro-Magnon (Savage), White (Luthor, Deathstroke, Baazovi), interdimensional (Klarion), formerly human (Brain, Ultra-Humanite), Atlantean (Ocean-Master), and Apokaliptan (Granny Goodness). They pulled out all the stops.
• Evil Counterpart: You might notice how there are seven members of The Light just like there were seven founding members of the Justice League. There's even a structural similarity. Superman and Batman's Arch-Enemy foes, one female, a joker who's more powerful than you might think, a water guy, a really old member, and someone who uses technology to further their goals.
• Evil Plan: They want to turn Earth into a galactic power, and believe the way to do so is through "survival of the fittest" and playing various other factions against each other.
• Evil Versus Evil: Manta and Aqualad nuke a Krolotean base at the behest of the Reach. Then, after about half a season of co-operation, they start working against the Reach too.
• The Faceless: When they're projected on their view-screens, you can't make out more of each member than a glowing silhouette.
• Faux Affably Evil: Klarion and Queen Bee act polite when it suits them, but it's only a cover for their cold-bloodedness, and both will drop the act in a split second if they don't need it anymore.
• Galactic Superpower: Their ultimate goal, according to Vandal Savage, is to make Earth "take its rightful place at the center of the cosmos," which, according to Aqualad, means instigating a war of conquest that would lead to the Light controlling the entire Milky Way. And according to the Bad Future we’ve seen, this is a terrible idea.
• Godzilla Threshold: They've considered a plan just in case the Justice League becomes too much for them which they've dubbed "The Nuclear Option". Why do they call it that? Said option involves killing the families and children of the Justice League members. The Light, however, are not stupid, and make it clear this is an absolute last resort, precisely because they know the likely results of enacting it. Ocean-Master almost does this on his own without their approval, and Lady Shiva is ordered to execute him for attempting it.
• He Who Fights Monsters: According to Black Lightning anyway, who brings Ra's al Ghul and Vandal Savage himself up as examples of heroes who have become the very thing they fought against in his Season 3 finale speech. Much more debatable for the rest of them however.
• Humanity Is Superior: Part of their ethos- or maybe "Humanity should be superior". Their end goal is to make Earth a dominant political power in the universe; in Season 1, they do this by having the League attack another world as a show of Earth's power. In Season 2, they form several alliances with aliens, only to turn on them in a way that leaves them utterly devastated. Eventually this is revealed to stem from Vandal Savage's personal experience fending off countless alien invasions.
• Identity Concealment Disposal:
  • For whatever reason, they stop using the face-concealing glowing silhouette monitors after the episode "Revelations" and instead use monitors that leave their faces completely visible.
  • Possibly justified: in the Light's appearances after "Revelations," the screens are located within an actual Light member's residence. Presumably, they issue silhouette-only interfaces to their minions, but converse among themselves with regular video.
• The Illuminati: The Light seems to have a lot of Illuminati-characteristics, down to their group's name being similar to "the enlightened ones".
• Ironic Name: In spite of their name (which Vandal Savage thought of in the first place when he was a Mesopotamian god) none of their members have light-based powers; in fact many of their superpowered members and lackeys wield dark magic. Likewise in modern times at least their policy is to operate from the shadows, something Vandal Savage himself notes in the first season.
• Kansas City Shuffle:
  • The Light regularly uses the heroes attempts to "stop the evil plan" to further their real machinations.
  • In "Usual Suspects", The Light stages a fake attack on the Team so the League itself will bring dangerous devices the Light's agents are carrying at the time on board the Watchtower.
• Legion of Doom: Serve as an interesting reconstruction of the concept.
• Light Is Not Good: They're called the Light and they're evil. Simple as that.
• The Man Behind the Man:
  • Make that "The Committee Behind Cadmus". Nearly every villain in the series so far is working for them, or at least somehow connected to the group.
  • In Season 3 it's even lampshaded that this is why they're so effective: The Light works as a puppeteer controlling numerous otherwise-unconnected undertakings, while the heroes are hampered by working as a more-or-less cohesive unit and can only pursue so many leads at once.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Downplayed, yeah they indeed want to ensure humanity evolution by getting rid of the heroes, however it's implied that even if they accomplish their goal they want to make sure they are the ones who lead humanity instead of anyone else.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: They started out this way.
• Order Versus Chaos: Chaos to the Justice League's order. Though in this case, they don't want to destroy the world, just prevent humanity's stagnation from too much peace and status quo.
• Out-Gambitted: In "Summit". Though even then, Savage still succeeded in getting Black Beetle to leave Warworld's key chamber unguarded so he could hijack it.
• Out of Focus: Some of the members tend not to be seen for long stretches of time.
  • Ocean-Master definitely has it worst, being the only team member who never serves as an episode's main villain. He does not even have any lines while in his Ocean-Master identity, the only times he speaks he is either in his concealed L-5 persona or in his civilian identity as Prince Orm. In the second season he has been ousted from the group following his defeat and imprisonment in Atlantis and makes no appearances. He does show up in Season 3, but he dies in the same episode.
  • In the second season the focus is mostly on Vandal, Lex and Manta. The other four members mostly just appear in cameos during the Light's video conferences and have few if any lines.
  • They get especially hard with this in Phantoms. Only Vandal Savage, Klarion, and a cloned Ocean-Master get any serious screen time, and even then the driving conflict for the season is not related to the Light at all.
• Pragmatic Villainy: They're all about this.
  • They have Ocean-Master killed before he could attack a social gathering of the Justice League's family members at their most vulnerable, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention and merciless retribution.
  • They fully expect their partnership with Darkseid and his forces to end in betrayal, and the feeling is mutual. Despite this, they've maintained this partnership for centuries to shared advantage, though as shown by Season 3, they're not above a little bit of sabotage to ensure Darkseid doesn't get too powerful to need the alliance.
• Rule of Seven: They have never had more than seven members at a time so far.
• The Smurfette Principle: They have only one female member in their lineup during most seasons, Queen Bee. Averted in season three where Granny Goodness joins the inner circle, but this only lasts a season.
• The Social Darwinist: Their goal is to advance Earth's status throughout the universe, and seem (or claim) to favor some sort of "survival of the fittest". Since they're willing to do anything to make this happen, they naturally see themselves as the fittest.
• Spell My Name with a "The": THE Light.
• Superhero Speciation: Well, supervillain speciation. Each member fulfills a specific role, and whenever a seat is opened their replacement fills much the same role.
  • Vandal Savage came up with the whole idea in the first place, and generally serves as the mastermind for the Light's overall plan. Which makes sense, as he's had 50,000 years of experience in planning and leading teams, armies, and whole civilizations, as well as building contacts both on-world and off-world.
  • Lex Luthor provides the latest resources, contact with the criminal underworld, and his high-profile public life and positive public image allows the Light to influence public opinion and utilize political influence in ways the other, less reputable members cannot. He's also one of the smartest people on the planet, and with Lexcorp under his control, one of the wealthiest, has access to vast wealth and the most advanced technologies on Earth.
  • Queen Bee, as the monarch of the nation of Bialya, also provides resources, and an entire nation from which the Light can operate without fearing government investigation. In addition, her own mind control powers make her useful for getting the cooperation of otherwise hostile individuals (especially critical in Season 1). The Light often uses Bialya as a base of operations.
  • Klarion is a Lord of Chaos, effectively a magical god. In addition to being The Heavy, he provides magical expertise. In particular, Klarion always has an easy escape route, as chaos cannot be contained for long.
  • Both the Brain and his replacement the Ultra-Humanite are brilliant scientists, with more specialized knowledge in super advanced technology, compared to Luthor's general intellect and vast R&D department.
  • Ra's al Ghul and his replacement Deathstroke are both head of the League of Shadows, providing manpower and specialized assassins, enforcers, ninjas, and other highly trained agents for black ops.
  • Ocean-Master is replaced by Black Manta, who is replaced by Granny Goodness, who is replaced by Zviad Baazovi. Each one however, served different roles in regards to how they aid the Light.
    • Ocean-Master, as Prince Orm, helped run the Atlantean research center where the piece of Starro was being kept, and aided in smuggling it out of there and into the Light's direct hands.
    • Black Manta on the other hand, gave the Light access to a highly-trained, well-disciplined paramilitary force for more difficult missions than could be undertaken by the League of Shadows, directly assaulting and destroying facilities, as well as using his fleet of underwater transports to smuggle Metahumans.
    • Granny Goodness fills dual purposes as both Darkseid's "Ambassador" to the Light, and a second public face for the Light, as Luthor's ascendance to the U.N. moves him from the private to the public sphere. Among other things, her usage of Apokoliptan Boom Tube technology replaces Black Manta's fleet of Subs as the Light's main way of smuggling Metahumans away.
    • Zviad Baazovi's status as a U.N. ambassador give the Light another high-profile public image, while simultaneously being Beneath Suspicion in regards to his connection to the supervillain community. His telepathic abilities also provide a degree of control over Brion, and, by extension, Markovia, giving the Light a second country to freely operate in.
  • The Light's chief enforcer (Sportsmaster then Deathstroke then Lady Shiva) is always a Badass Normal assassin/mercenary, often connected in some way to the League of Shadows.
• Superhuman Trafficking: Throughout a lot of Season 1, they're researching various enhancements and genetic engineering methods. By Season 2, their work with the Reach perfects a method of locating and triggering metagene-holders. In Season 3 they've started turning kids into super-soldiers-for-hire. Implicitly, they think Earth needs a metahuman army (for defense or to use as a commodity) to put it on even keel with other planets in the galaxy.
• Take Over the World: That's just step one. Step two is to rule the best world in the whole universe.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Pointedly averted. The members of the Light, unlike most supervillain alliances in comics or adaptations, work together very well.
• Underestimating Badassery: Kaldur outright calls the Light out on this, stating that the reason his team seems to constantly be in the Light's way and is more than once victorious in ways not even the Justice League is capable of is because the Light is constantly underestimating them, which is their major weakness. Vandal Savage has to concede the point, not that it convinces him to actually make more than a token effort to kill the team.
• The Unfettered: As a group, they allow nothing to interfere with their goals. Threatening millions of innocent lives, hanging their own allies out to dry, aligning with Darkseid... everything's fair play in the Light's book. "Home Fires" reveals that they have one self-imposed restriction: they don't go after the families of the heroes. Not out of any sense of chivalry, but because they know that this would result in the Justice League becoming The Unfettered as well. It's stated to be their nuclear option and an attempt by Ocean-Master to do it for petty revenge results in him being decapitated by Lady Shiva.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Want to fast-track humanity's advancement and put Earth on top throughout the universe. Unfortunately, they're also willing to do almost anything to get there.
• Xanatos Gambit: The Light are experts at these, setting up hedges in nearly every episode that ensures that no matter whether the heroes win or lose, The Light's plans continue moving forward.
• You Are Number 6: Not in-universe, but before the seven members of the inner circle were confirmed in "Revelations," they were listed in the credits as "L-[Number]" to preserve the mystery.

Current Members

"L1": Vandal Savage

Vandal Savage

"50,000 years of life, and nothing ever troubled me as much as the founding of the Justice League."

Species: Metahuman

Voiced by: Miguel Ferrer (Season 1, Invasion), David Kaye (Outsiders, Phantoms)

An immortal supervillain who founded the Light and acts as the group's prima inter pares.

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• Above Good and Evil: The Lords of Chaos (bar Klarion) see him as “all but a Lord of Order” for his ultimate goal of uniting the universe under his orderly rule. The actual Lords of Order on the other hand see him as an agent of chaos for the actions he’s taking to achieve it, not to mention his alliance with Klarion.
• Abusive Parent: Less in the sense of him physically abusing his children, but in that he sees them as tools for his own plan to conquer the galaxy. Best seen by his plan to sink Atlantis, his grandson's kingdom, in order to force any survivors to activate their metagenes. When his grandson, Arion, refuses, Vandal uses Klarion to do it anyway, killing Arion in the process.
• Action Dad: Has had many children throughout his 50,000 years. He uses his own experience as a father to help comfort Black Manta while he was mourning his son's catatonic state and understanding Manta's desire to avenge him.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Sort of. While he's still definitely a villain here, he's more of a Knight Templar visionary as opposed to the horrifically brutal and amoral psychopath of the comics.
• Affably Evil: He's very calm and politely spoken, as well as quite friendly with his fellow villains.
• Ambiguously Brown: He pre-dates modern ideas of ethnicity and had identities in numerous cultures, including Mongolia and Babylonia. In general most of his known disguises have been East or Central Asian for some reason, like Genghis Khan and Sun Tzu, with Blackbeard being a notable Caucasian exception. He himself is clearly designed to not be an Anatomically Modern Human, as he has facial features not found in any modern ethnicities.
• Ancient Evil: At 50,000 years old, Savage is significantly older than modern civilization, most ancient civilizations, and even recorded history itself.
• Arch Nemesis Dad: To Nabu/Doctor Fate. Nabu has no love for his father after his actions nearly destroyed Babylon and got him killed. Nowadays he’s working with the Justice League and the Lords of Order to thwart his plans.
• Badass Boast:
  • Delivers one to Kid Flash in "Coldhearted":
    Savage: You'll "handle" me? Little hero, do you really think you have what it takes to survive Vandal Savage?
  • He delivers one to the Team in "Summit":
    Savage: I've had my fill of your interference. Do not expect to survive.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a dark blue coat without lapels in his every appearance.
• Beard of Evil: Mutton-chops, to be specific.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Vandal Savage, an immortal metahuman, took many names throughout history. One of them was Genghis Khan.
• Big Bad: Founder and first among equals of The Light. The episode "Evolution" reveals he's been in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Darkseid for centuries, the two having allied to conquer the rest of the galaxy with the understanding than once their planets are the dominant ones, Apokolips and Earth will fight for control of the universe.
• Casting Gag: This isn't the first character David Kaye has taken over from the late Miguel Ferrer, nor is it the first character that Kaye has played who's a Manipulative Bastard with a god complex.
• The Chessmaster: While the Light as a whole fits this description, Savage stands out; by his own admission, some of his plans have been millenia in the making.
• Contemplative Boss: His standard pose.
• Contemporary Caveman: Very evident in his design.
• Create Your Own Hero: On a grand scale.
  • He was the original metahuman, and is all but outright stated to progenitor of Homo Meta, a subspecies of humanity that can acquire powers when their meta-gene was activated, usually due to some stress or trauma. This means that almost all super-powered humans (specifically those who do not get their powers from alien or hyper-advanced technology like Green Lantern or Red Tornado) are technically his creation.
  • Savage founded the city of Atlantis circa 10,000 BC, and his unaging grandson Arion became king of Atlantis and, due to the influence of magical crown granted by the Lords of Order, as well as the progenitor of Homo Magi, from which which would eventually give rise to such heroes as Zatanna, Zatara, and other magic heroes.
  • When Vandal Savage had Klarion sink Atlantis, the disaster caused the metagenes in certain Homo Magi to activate, allowing them to survive in their new underwater environment. These survivors became Homo Mermanus, and used their meta-abilities and their magic to build a new Atlantis underwater. From this underwater kingdom would rise heroes like Aquaman and Aqualad.
  • Savage is the father of Nabu in the 2nd millenia in ancient Babylon. After death, Nabu was made a Lord of Order, anchored to the mortal plane via his helmet, and became Dr. Fate.
• Dark Messiah: Savage's daughter Olympia records her father's life story, deeming him Earth's savior and destined ruler.
• A Day in the Limelight: The third season episode "Evolution" stars Vandal Savage in a leading role, and goes in depth to explain his history and motivations.
• Deadpan Snarker: When Kalibak makes a glib remark about Savage calling on Darkseid's aid to save Earth, Savage quips back by expressing his gratitude at Darkseid sending his "favorite son" to help him.
• Deal with the Devil: His go-to tactic when dealing with threats that are beyond his power.
  • His pact with Darkseid amounts to this. Vandal and Darkseid will help each other conquer the rest of the galaxy, but once their planets are the two dominant ones, they will fight to determine who will control the universe.
  • His pact with Klarion.
  • His deal with the Lords of Order and Chaos to stop Child.
• Determinator: Savage has been proceeding with his plans for humanity for tens of thousands of years, and he has allowed nothing to deter him. Of particular note is how he handled meeting forces far beyond himself: faced with Darkseid, who struck him down with casual ease, Savage managed to parlay the New God being impressed with his fortitude into a centuries long alliance, and when he first met Klarion, Savage kept on attacking him despite being slain over and over again for 300 days, managing to outlast Klarion's bloodlust. The Phantom Stranger explicitly notes that Savage "never learned to surrender".
• Diabolical Mastermind: He came up with the idea for The Light, and is often seen planning with other members or setting their plans in motion.
• Earth Is the Center of the Universe: His ultimate goal is to ensure the galactic dominance of the human race and place "at the center of the cosmos".
• Empowered Badass Normal: The meteorite that gave him his immortality apparently also gave him some degree of super-strength and super-toughness. But even before that, he was able to kill a 12-foot-tall cave bear by himself.
• Enemy Mine: Once Darkseid obtains the Anti-Life equation he decides to show up in person to the Outsiders' headquarters and give them the coordinates for Halo's location.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He goes out of his way to console Black Manta after Kaldur is accidentally mind-raped into a vegetative state by Miss Martian, admitting that were he put in the same position, as a father, he would stop at nothing to get back or avenge his child. Some of his children are seen in the episode "Evolution", where he expresses considerable trust and subdued pride in his daughter, Cassandra, as well as grief for his daughter, Olympia, whom he kills once it becomes clear how far gone her mind is, telling Cassandra that any daughter of his deserves a funeral fit for the gods.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has a deep, menacing voice.
• Evil Virtues: Camaraderie, Generosity, Honor, Determination, Creativity, and even a kind of Love. He's a terrible person, but he honors his obligations and is a good ally.
• Fallen Hero: Played with; in ancient times, Savage was a Babylonian hero under the name of Marduk, and successfully saved the world from being conquered by Starro^note Subverted in Season 4, when we learn Marduk had Klarion summon the Starro creature when his soldiers were starting to develop independent thoughts.. Since then, he's taken on the identities of infamous conquerors like Genghis Khan, as well as his modern status as a would-be Galactic Conqueror and supervillain, but through it all, Savage has always regarded himself as a hero of Earth, an opinion echoed by his children. This opinion seems to be echoed by at least some of the proper heroes as well, as Black Lightning mentions him as an example of a person who has become what he fought against.
• Fatal Flaw: As magnificent at manipulations and strategies as he is, Savage has continually made his own life harder because of his Control Freak nature. He is obsessed with having control over everyone and everything he sees and regards everyone he deals with as a potential tool to exploit. This has led him to gravely overestimate how much influence he actually has in his dealings.
  • The episode "Evolution" nearly saw Earth destroyed because Savage had almost all of the Light's resources tied up in other projects and the Justice League was tied up in red tape from his manipulations, which forced him to call on Apokolips for help.
    • Savage handed Halo over to Granny Goodness without a second thought at Darkseid's request, oblivious to the fact that he just gave Darkseid the key to the Anti-Life Equation. Savage actually loses his cool when he discovers that one.
  • Zatanna's arc in Phantoms reveals that Savage's association with Klarion throughout the ages has consisted of him going to the lunatic for help in various schemes, only to find himself regretting it dearly because restraint isn't something that a being obsessed with chaos concerns himself with. In addition, by successfully bending Klarion to his will, he wound up provoking the Lords of Chaos, who sent the far more dangerous Child to correct the problem.
  • Kaldur's arc in Phantoms has Vandal engage in a complex scheme to bring the whole of Atlantis under his thumb, a plan that hinged on obtaining his grandsonson Arion's crown, which was imbued with the power of the Lords of Order. His plan goes off without a hitch... right up until his agent attempts to use the crown, at which point the Lords of Order smite him for attempting to steal their power. Fate even drops by after the fact to subtly mock Savage for thinking the Lords of Order wouldn't respond to such blatant disrespect.
• Genius Bruiser: The genius part is obvious, but he's also a very dangerous hand-to-hand combatant.
• A God Am I:
  • Not explicitly, but his attitude speaks volumes—Savage formed the Light because he thought that the Justice League were thwarting "his" vision for the future of humanity, implying that he thinks the human race basically belongs to him and can be directed as he pleases.
  • It's implied further in the episode "Evolution", which centers around his past and motivations. He and his children have been named after gods throughout history, with Vandal even taking a God Guise as the chief Babylonian god Marduk at one point just to ram home how he sees himself as divine. Vandal himself believes he's an equal to the New God, Darkseid, despite the obvious power imbalance. After the death of one of his daughters, he says any daughter of Vandal Savage deserves a burial worthy of the gods.
  • Phantoms shows that, when push comes to shove, Savage is willing to address the Lords of Chaos and Order as if he were their equal. His argument and audacity manage to impress the timeless beings, but the Lords of Order clearly don't consider Savage an equal; they strike down Ocean-Master for trying to wield their power, and Nabu calls Savage out for thinking their response would be anything less.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has three scars on his face, from a run-in with a cave bear before he gained his immortality.
• Healing Factor: As a result of the meteor radiation that made him immortal, Savage's injuries heal amazingly quickly; soon after getting his powers, he got back up from being impaled with a spear, and during the 13th century, he was quickly back on his feet after being struck down by Darkseid's Omega Beam. It's exaggerated in his first meeting with Klarion, which happened thousands of years ago. The Lord of Chaos spent 300 days killing Vandal in all sorts of different ways, only for him to get back up and regenerate his body every single time, seemingly without any break.
• The Heavy: While the Light is an alliance of equals, Savage is the most prominent member, is considered first among equals, personally spearheads the Light's plots in the first two season finales, and the formation of the Light was his idea, with Savage extending invitations to the rest of the group. Savage isn't the sole Big Bad, but he definitely has the most impact on the plot.
• Heroic Build: Played with. He has a huge, muscular figure, and was considered a hero at various points in history; now he's one of the main villains, albeit a Knight Templar.
• He Who Fights Monsters: According to Black Lightning anyway, which brings him up as an example of a hero who has become the very thing he fought against in his Season 3 finale speech.
• Historical Domain Superperson: Turns out Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Blackbeard, and Sun Tzu were all the identities of someone who has also existed since the dawn of humanity and has dealings with the forces beyond the stars. Who would've thought?
• Historical Rap Sheet: He was explicitly the true identity of who history knows as Genghis Khan, and Word of God has it that he was Sun Tzu and is likely to be Attila the Hun, and Blackbeard.
• Hypocrite: Though he preaches about social Darwinism, in the past he supported stable, orderly systems over a Might Makes Right system championed by any social Darwinist. However it's possible he changed his mind after his encounter with Darkseid.
• Implacable Man: Takes full body rams powered by Super-Speed with as much difficulty as getting breathed on.
• Julius Beethoven da Vinci: Like in the comics, several historical figures were just his aliases, including Genghis Khan, Sun Tzu, and the Babylonian God Marduk.
• Kneel Before Zod: At the end of "Usual Suspects" he makes the entire mind-controlled Justice League bow to him.
• Knight Templar: Savage believes that the Light's efforts are ultimately for the betterment of humanity.
• Large and in Charge: A hulking brute of a man with the brains to match, as well as first among equals for the Light.
• Let Them Die Happy: Before killing Olympia, who's been recording his life story against his wishes, he gently asks her what her favorite part of his history is and listens to her gush about it, then snaps her neck without warning.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to Darkseid; while the two villains have similar ambitions, Savage is arguably a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to uplift humanity by any means necessary, and he does have some humanizing qualities, such as his love for his children and genuine friendships with other villains. Darkseid, on the other hand, is an explicit tyrant who has demonstrated absolutely none of Savage's humanity, and whose ambitions don't even pretend to benefit anyone other than him. In Phantoms, Savage uses this as a point in his favor while bargaining with the Lords of Chaos and Order, pointing out that Darkseid's victory would render such concepts as chaos and order moot, something that can't be said for Savage's own ambitions. The Lords certainly don't like Savage, but they do accept the truth of his argument.
• Lightning Bruiser: Considering he caught Wally by surprise, he clearly qualifies.
• Narcissist: Fundamentally Savage views Earth as his and refuses to consider any vision for humanity that conflicts with his own. One of the few times Savage's composure has broken comes from Nabu telling his father that Atlantis, which Savage had failed to reclaim, would be moving on to a new chapter of its history, "one without Vandal Savage", a remark which made Savage angry enough to break the wooden flute he was holding.
• Not So Stoic:
  • The moment the Ultra-Humanite mentions that Granny has completed the Anti-Life Equation, he gets a distressed look and actually snaps the tablet he is holding, before forcing himself to calm down.
  • The failure of Project Thrinos, and Nabu's taunting about it, makes Savage angry enough to break a wooden flute that had once belonged to his grandson Arion.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: We learn that he was the one who had Starro brought to Earth in the first place, and the reason he did so was he was angry that his soldiers were starting to develop independent thoughts. However, the show otherwise makes it clear that his "heroics" are genuine (if horrifically misguided), so otherwise he truly is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • However due to some of his actions some could argue that his desire to turn earth the biggest force in the universe isn't for the best for humanity but only to make sure he is the one who rule them all.
• Offing the Offspring: When his daughter, Olympia, ages to the point where she's old and senile, he kills her by snapping her neck. Instead of being a normal act of dog-kicking, it's clear Vandal loves her and considers her death a mercy killing, making sure she dies happy. Afterwards he tells his other daughter to give Olympia a burial worthy of the gods.
• Outliving One's Offspring: He's had many children over his millennia-long life, not all of whom gained his immortality. One of his sons died during a war in ancient Babylon against an army of Starro aliens. That son's name? Nabu aka the ancient spirit in Dr. Fate's helmet.
• Papa Wolf: At least implied to be one, what with him seemingly sympathizing with Black Manta's plight and even apparently extending his concern to Kaldur (pragmatic reasons, of course, are also a possibility, but he seemed overly emotional about his betrayal).
• Pet the Dog: When he hijacked the WarWorld, he took the time to send the Leaguers guarding it back to the Watchtower, even though in his mood one would expect him to just murder them. Then again, he may have done it to give the Reach a hard time.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In the episode "Evolution", Vandal uses the WarWorld to protect an oblivious Earth from an unknown alien armada, saying, if he doesn't, many lives will be lost. However, it's clear that he doesn't do this out of moral outrage, but because he considers the planet to be his, and the people living on it can be used for his own purpose.
  Cassandra: Vandal once wrote: "It is better to capture an army than to destroy it." He had learned that more can be gained controlling men in peace, than in the chaos of war. For war is death. Death is waste. And life should not be wasted while it may yet be controlled to serve a greater purpose. ^note Sun Tzu was one of the many identities Vandal took on throughout history.
• Pride: Having lived through the entirety of human history (and strongly influenced his fair share of it), Savage believes that he and he alone knows the best for humanity, which fuels his ambition to see Earth became the most powerful world in the entire universe. Savage's pride is such that it has led to his Control Freak and A God Am I tendencies, which have led him to contend with forces far beyond himself, with mixed results.
• Really 700 Years Old: Really fifty-thousand years old.
• Revenge by Proxy: Subverted. He tried to kill Wally, claiming in order to take revenge against The Flash. According to him, he has a score to settle with the Scarlet Speedster. However, in reality, he was only trying to delay him from his mission.
• Scars Are Forever: He got those scars before he gained his immortality from a meteorite's radiation, meaning that he's had them all his life.
• Shout-Out: His history, goals, and Abusive Parent tendencies are very reminiscent of the Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40,000.
• The Social Darwinist: He is a firm believer in conflict helping to advance the species. He founded The Light because he believes the Justice League's goal of helping humanity is holding mankind back. The reasons for this belief are elaborated on in the episode "Evolution", which shows he made a deal with Darkseid for Earth and Apokolips to ally and conquer the rest of the galaxy. Once that's done, Earth and Apokolips will fight each other to determine which planet is the strongest.
• Sore Loser: Played with. Savage generally takes it well when plans don't go 100% according to plan and his enemies get a win he clearly wasn't expecting them to, largely because he either pulls a Xanatos Gambit where he still walks away with some kind of win or he's able to play the Long Game and set up the dominos for another plan later on. But the ending of Kaldur's arc in Phantoms shows just how much he hates outright losses, given how openly enraged he is about things went.
• The Stoic: Savage is very calm and collected. Even during his Villainous Breakdown, he keeps his cool.
• Superpowerful Genetics: He was the first Metahuman, and that most modern Metahumans are his distant, and not-so-distant descendants.
• Time Abyss: He's somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 years old, which probably means that he's the oldest living being from the planet Earth.
• Touché: When Kaldur's Engineered Public Confession utterly destroys the Reach/Light alliance, he admits that no one has ever set him back so thoroughly in his entire life, and would even be impressed were he not so utterly enraged.
• Tranquil Fury: During his Villainous Breakdown, it's quite clear he's completely enraged, but he keeps a steady tone throughout.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • In "Summit", when the Team manage to completely Out Gambit both the Light and the Reach. While he keeps his composure, he still becomes visibly enraged by the loss they suffered.
  • Later, when his plan to use a clone of Arion with the brain of Ocean Master gets foiled by the Lords of Order, Fate shows up to taunt him for thinking he was on the same level as the rest of them. Savage actually loses it once Fate leaves, as he has nothing to make up for it as he usually does.
• Villainous Friendship: While all of the Light are generally cordial to each other, Savage is shown to be on good terms with several supervillains, including Ra's al Ghul (Word of God refers to Savage and Ra's as "old friends"), Lex Luthor, Klarion, Black Manta, Sportsmaster, and even Darkseid.
• Villain Has a Point: He comes before the Lords of Order and Chaos to convince them to stop The Child's rampage, arguing that he's just as much a protector of Order as the former. They don't buy that argument, pointing out his actions to maintain that order have caused nothing but chaos. Savage doesn't back down, and points out that when his pact with Darkseid ends, or if the Lord of Apokolips gets his hands on the Anti-Life Equation, Order and Chaos will both cease to exist since one will be eradicated, and the other will become redundant. Like it or not, Savage is the only thing right now keeping that from happening, and both groups need him to survive. Both agree, and the Lords of Chaos yank their support from The Child, which he deems acceptable.
• Villain Protagonist: He's the star of his very own episode in Season 3 ("Evolution"), which is all about him and his long backstory.
• Villain Respect: Even though he's consumed with quiet rage, he expresses admiration in Kaldur being the first person to give him a serious setback in his entire life by destroying the alliance of the Light and the Reach.
• Villain Takes an Interest: In his final scene in Season 3 he specifically mentions that the Light needs to keep an eye on Halo.
• Villain Team-Up: Seemingly with Darkseid, considering how casually he greets the God of Evil Physical God. The origin of their alliance is shown in "Evolution": when Darkseid invaded Earth in the 13th century, Savage, then known as Genghis Khan, opposed him alongside two of his metahuman sons. Although Darkseid easily defeated Savage, he was intrigued by the possibilities that the meta-gene presented, which Savage managed to parlay into an alliance of mutual benefit, on the condition that, when Earth and Apokolips were the two most powerful planets in the cosmos, they would have a final battle to determine who would rule the entire universe.
• Visionary Villain: He founded the Light with the vision of putting Earth in its "rightful place at the center of the cosmos". Word of God is that Savage even thinks of himself as a visionary.
• We Need a Distraction: His role in "Coldhearted" amount to this.
• The Worf Effect: Used to great effect in "Evolution"; Savage, who had spent the first two seasons as the show's unchallenged Big Bad, showing no fear and nearly always being in control of the situation, is visibly wary of Darkseid while speaking with him, treading lightly around the New God, something he doesn't even do with Klarion, demonstrating just how fearsome Darkseid himself must be. A flashback in the same episode shows that the one time they'd previously fought, Darkseid struck Savage down without lifting a finger, justifying Savage's wariness of his erstwhile ally. It's later shown that Darkseid gaining control of the Anti-Life Equation is one of the very few things that Savage truly dreads.
• Wowing Cthulhu:
  • Impresses Darkseid centuries in the past with his drive and the potential the Human Metagene holds, convincing the latter to instead ally with Savage, giving him time to build his resources and weaponize the Metagene, rather than simply conquering the Earth.
  • His friendship with Klarion draws from the fact that Klarion couldn't kill him after spending 300 days trying, Vandal regenerating from every wound no matter how severe.
  • He manages to reason with both the Lords of Order and Chaos by pointing out how Darkseid's end goal will eradicate chaos and by consequence make order pointless, and that allowing Child to destroy the Earth will only hasten that outcome, convincing the Lords of Chaos to withdraw their support and level the playing field. That being said, the Lords make it very clear that they really don't like him for how his games with higher powers threaten existence itself and that one successful argument isn't going to change their minds, a fact the Lords of Order make viscerally clear when he has the gall to try to steal their power through Arion's crown.

"L3": Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor

"Oh, I wasn't talking about the weaponry. I myself never go armed. No, the greatest arsenal any man can bring to the party consists of the resources of his own mind. His intelligence, his stratagems, his force of will."

Species: Human

Voiced by: Mark Rolston

CEO of LexCorp, Luthor presents a benevolent public face while using his wealth, intellect, and resources to serve the Light's agenda.

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• Abusive Parents: Luthor qualifies against Superboy. He's never anything less than polite and considerate, but that's the same treatment he gives to everyone else, and doesn't hesitate to emotionally manipulate and outright set his Mooks on him. It's not even made particularly clear whether he thinks of Superboy as a son, or just assumed the role to get his former weapon back in line.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While he is definitely still a villain, this version of Lex is far less an outright Jerkass than his typical comic or animated counterparts. Usually, Lex frequently explodes with rage when his plans are thwarted, openly mocks everyone around him as dumber than he is, is xenophobic to aliens and sometimes openly sexist, and is hell-bent on revenge on Superman and anyone else who thwarts his plans, which frequently ends up biting him in the ass. Here, he almost never loses his temper, he is generally respectful to both friend and foe, and he thinks that revenge is a "suckers' game" and prefers to focus on schemes that actually benefit him in some way. However, season 3 saw Luthor more in-line with the petty vindictive man of the comics, as "Elder Wisdom" depicted Lex Luthor making a tactical error in his P.R. war against the Outsiders when he allowed a vendetta to cloud his judgement resulting in visible anger and Tranquil Fury. Turns out he's Not So Above It All.
• Affably Evil: He's polite, respected, kind to his employees and genuinely wants to make the world a better place, but he's still Lex Luthor, the man who wrote the book on self-centeredness, and is working to carry out The Light's decidedly social darwinist agenda.
• Arch-Enemy: To Superman, i.e he created Kryptonian clones in the hopes of Superman 'meeting his match' and claims Superman lives in a world of black and white. When it is revealed that Lex may be the next Secretary-General, Superman is visibly disgusted. Which makes it a bit humorous that he had a child created from both their DNA.
• Arms Dealer: The "corporate lobbyist" type, as in the DCAU.
• Baddie Flattery: His praise of Arsenal's attempt to kill him was quite flattering.
• Bald of Evil: As is more or less standard with Luthor, this version of the character is an evil bald guy.
• Benevolent Boss: Unlike other incarnations, this Luthor shows genuine concern for his bodyguard Mercy when her artificial arm gets blown off in "Satisfaction".
• The Chessmaster: This version of Lex is one of the most cunning incarnations of the character, able to manipulate outcomes to his favor and quickly adjust his plans as needed when things don't go his way, putting him back on track. The fact that he's now the UN Secretary-General and has made the League practically unable to operate on Earth, effectively causing them to break the fellowship also makes him one of the most successful at that.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He uses the output of Lexcorp to assist the Light's evil plans and other personally evil goals.
• Corrupt Politician: Or rather, a Corrupt Diplomat; by Season 3, Lex Luthor has become the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and uses his position to undermine the Justice League's ability to operate worldwide. Compare and contrast this portrayal with some other continuities, where Luthor runs for or gets elected as the President of the United States.
• Crazy-Prepared: "I don't believe in risk, I believe in preparation." Case in point, his desk is a bomb shelter.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Completely inverted in "Targets", where Lex uses a few well placed super assassins to help sell his most recent advances in cyborg weapons technology to a major government. He also essentially bribes Arsenal into not killing him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Almost half of what he says is snark, and he's never less than 100% deadpan.
  Luthor: Sigh... who knew enabling an Alien Invasion would entail so much paperwork?
• Deal with the Devil: He's fond of tempting heroes by offering them some piece of technology that makes them more powerful in order to make them dependent on him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He seems genuinely surprised that the Runaways would take offense to him using them for his own ends, as if he expected them to assume he was to begin with. He doesn't even make any effort to deny it.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bruce Wayne. He's the Corrupt Corporate Executive who heads an N.G.O. Superpower that is opposed to the League while Wayne is an Honest Corporate Executive who supports the League.
• Evil Is Petty: As UN Secretary, he refused to let the League rebuild the Hall of Justice. This had nothing to do with the Light's goals, he was just being a dick. And while he had valid reasons to set up Infinity Inc. as popular heroes, it says something that one step of the plan boiled down to "out-trend a bunch of kids I hate on social media".
• Evil Versus Evil: Lex and the League of Assassins don't get along... later revealed to be a front, as both Luthor and Ra's al Ghul are members of The Light.
• Expy: This version of Lex Luthor borrows heavily in terms of both personality and methods from David Xanatos, who was also created by Young Justice showrunner Greg Weisman.
  Luthor/Xanatos: Revenge is a sucker's game.
• The Face: As the only member of the Light not to be a known criminal, Luthor more or less runs the public face of the Light, especially in their more overt actions in Season 2, such as their "support" of the Reach, and in Season 3, as Secretary General of the United Nations, hamstringing the Justice League with obstructive laws.
• Fake Assassination: Arranges one on himself with fellow Light member Ra's al Ghul, to help sell his technology to North and South Rhelasia while acting as a negotiator in peace talks between the two countries.
• Fatal Flaw: As in the comics, hubris. He can't seem to resist getting personally involved in everything, even when it might be better to step back. At the end of season 3, this bites him: his decision to put his own genes into Superboy backfires since all Conner has to do is show his DNA test to prove Luthor illegally cloned Superman. Likewise, even though he handed off his company to his sister, he still tries to run it covertly, allowing Cyborg to find files of it and get proof he's been abusing his position for profit.
• Glorified Sperm Donor: Tries for this with Superboy. If he hadn't had that code word to put him in a catatonic state, he'd have gotten his face punched in.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He supplied some of Superboy's DNA, making him effectively Superboy's human father.
• Manipulative Bastard: As displayed in his interactions with Red Arrow, Superboy, Arsenal, and the Runaways.
• Narcissist: As usual for the character, Luthor is a man of tremendous ego and self-importance, even if he's better at keeping his temper in check than most incarnations. He donated his own DNA to help create Superboy, created Infinity Inc. partly to take a petty revenge on the Outsiders, and keeps a large portrait of himself in his office.
• Nerves of Steel: We have yet to see him lose his cool (at least until Season 3).
  Luthor: (after his office has been blown up) And that, my dear, is why I spent top dollar for a customized desk.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Outsiders turns him into a sort-of stand-in for Donald Trump, another businessman turned politician. Luthor directly quotes Trump several times, and he's involved in similar political scandals. This is especially notable when he's ousted for his crimes, as he complains about the entire affair being fake news and demanding a change to libel laws.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Believes physical combat to be beneath him.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Tells Superboy that the hero has far more in common with an Anti-Villain like Luthor than with Superman and his Black-and-White Morality.
  • He also uses this to successfully recruit a team in "Runaways".
• Oh, Crap!: Considerably downplayed considering his ever controlled personality, but one of the very few moments where his cool headedness is very clearly cracking apart is when The Joker infiltrates The UN in order to kill all the representative with Joker venom out of a sense of vengeance for being Locked Out of the Loop of The Lights' plan. All Lex can do is give the mad clown a barely controlled Death Glare and a openly furious grimace.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: In season 3, he uses his position as UN Secretary-General to hamstring the Justice League, making them unable to even assist in humanitarian missions. This eventually drives Batman and numerous like-minded heroes to quit and form their own team.
• President Evil: By Outsiders, he becomes the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: While always portrayed as a Superman villain in most media, here he never directly interacts with the Man of Steel. Instead, he comes off as a major villain to Superboy, as his "father" who he manipulated. Also, quite notably the Arrow Family, due to how he engaged in a Xanatos Gambit against Will and then was revealed to be the one who captured the original Roy Harper, becoming a target of his rage once freed.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He still has his "power suit", i.e. the three piece silk suit and tie.
• Talking Your Way Out: Saves himself from Arsenal's dramatically ironic assassination attempt by simply giving a speech that deconstructs the hero's motivations.
  Luthor: What is you really want son: Revenge? Or satisfaction?
• The Team Normal: Of the third iteration of The Light. Lex is the only one without any sort of powers or augmented abilities, and as always favors planning and preparation over direct combat.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While earlier seasons treated him as an Affably Evil sort, Outsiders emphasizes just how petty and corrupt he can be.
• Trumplica: As the result of the time passed between the productions of seasons 2 and 3, he evolved into this in Outsiders. Much of his quotes and speech patterns in particular borrow from the then-President, he brags about his ownership of numerous international hotels, he engineers Infinity, Inc. because he was unhappy about being upstaged on social media, and when he's exposed, it's revealed he's still running his company rather than having divested it when he took office like he claimed.
• Unwitting Pawn: Invoked as he attempts to recruit the runaways. When he offers them help, Virgil points out that he's been working with the Reach, who the runaways mean to avoid at all cost. Luthor deflects this by claiming that he suspects that they are using him, and they appear to buy it. And to all appearances, Luthor is only in a business partnership with the Reach. Nobody outside of the League or Young Justice knows that they're both with the Light.
• Villain Has a Point: In-Universe, much of his rhetoric that heroes need to be regulated is bought up by the general public, who feel that the League acting outside of the government's authority makes them no better than lawless vigilantes. All that goes out the window when he's exposed as a villain.
• Villain Team-Up: With Ra's al Ghul in "Targets". It's only later that we learn it's because they're both members of The Light.
• Villain with Good Publicity: To the point where he's seen as the most likely candidate to take over as Secretary-General of the United Nations. For two entire seasons, Luthor's walked out of each scheme of The Light with a spotless record and no proof he did anything wrong at all. However, Outsiders saw this take a blow in its finale. First with Black Lightning and Cyborg revealing his continued ties to Lexcorp, his engineering of Infinity Inc., and his ties to metahuman trafficking. Then, when he attempts to refute these claims, Superboy comes public with his existence and origins, and Tempest moves for a vote of no confidence, forcing Luthor to resign.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: This version of Lex Luthor tends towards this, or at least he likes to pretend to.

"L4": Queen Bee

Queen Bee

"Now, your performance... a bit over the top, I think."

Species: Metahuman

Voiced by: Marina Sirtis

The ruler of Bialya with the power to manipulate pheromones to control people based on their attraction to women.

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• Ambiguously Bi: Queen Bee's powers are based on her target's sexual attraction to women, but Bee's own sexuality is ambiguous. Word of God describes her sexual orientation as a spoiler.invoked
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Possibly subverted; nothing about her outfit seems particularly bee-like (except possibly her earrings, which vaguely resemble stingers, and the thin cape that vaguely resemble a bee's wings), and Word of God suggests that "Bee" might just be her real name. invoked
  • Bee also connects to her superpower, pheromone control of men (and some women).
• Cleavage Window: Her shawl and corset-like top can give her the appearance of this.
• Composite Character: There have been four Queen Bees in DC Comics. Two of them were ordinary humans who ruled Bialya (one of whom used brainwashing), and two were aliens with mind control pollen. The YJ Queen Bee is a human with mind control pheromones, who rules Bialya.
• Even the Girls Want Her: According to Batman, she has the ability to put most men and some women under her thrall (no doubt a thinly-veiled reference to her power working on lesbians and bisexuals of both genders, and not working on gay men). This is demonstrated when she uses her powers on Marie Logan to make her commit suicide.
• Evil Is Hammy: Averted, but lampshaded. Queen Bee is actually very subtle and sinister, and critiques M'gann's impersonation of her, complete with cliché Evil Overlord "Qurac WILL be mine!", as over the top.
• Evil Is Petty: She murdered Marie Logan during the timeskip. The only logical reason for her to bother would be to spite M'gann.
• Evil Overlord: We don't know exactly the state Bialya is in, but this is probably the best description of what Queen Bee is. Her main contribution to the Light consists of access to Bialyan soil, where larger scale operations can take place away from most prying eyes.
• Faux Affably Evil: Especially in "Image", where she adopts a polite tone... while blackmailing M'gann and threatening to force Garfield to harm himself.
• Femme Fatale: Invoked. She relies on other people's attraction to her in order to manipulate them.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Even if she wasn't part of The Light, Queen Bee's ruthless behaviour (both on interpersonal and inter-country levels) disqualifies her from being the good kind of queen.
• Manipulative Bitch: Just listen to what she says to M'gann.
• More Deadly Than the Male: As per the trope description, Queen Bee responds with more ruthlessness and bloodlust than her male counterparts to her plans being thwarted: the men (except Klarion) always respond with calm and usually go "all part of the plan"; Queen Bee went (by herself) straight to where the heroes were staying, held a child essentially at gun-point, and told M'Gann she'd ruin her life if she ever interfered with her plans again, like a sociopathic Regina George. The boys of the Light (almost always) have people killed for them; Queen Bee does it herself. Also, while her compatriot in the Light, Lex Luthor, doesn't believe in revenge, Queen Bee certainly does.
• Non-Action Big Bad: While her Mind Control could certainly make someone fight for her, there's no indication that she could take on your average superhero alone. In "Usual Suspects," she's quickly taken out so that the Team won't have to worry about her turning them against each other.
• Qurac: Runs a nation known as Bialya, which is a near-anagram of Libya.
  • Which apparently is right next door to the actual DC Comics fictionation Qurac, as the team infiltrate her country by crossing the border (Qurac is actually a decent country in this continuity, though).
  • However, the tie-in comic indicates that the new Qurac government replacing the previous president during the time-skip now answers to Queen Bee. By season 3, she has successfully annexed the country into "Greater Bialya", leading to a refugee crisis as Quracis flee her regime.
  • Bialya also subverts most of the Qurac stereotypes as it's run by a scantly-clad woman rather than being a No Woman's Land and has an extremely strong and well-equipped military that is capable of giving superheroes a serious fight.
• Out of Focus: Compared to all other members of the Light she hasn't had much to do after Season 1, even as some parts of the plot took place in her nation.
• Personality Powers: A vampy dictator who can literally control men's minds.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: She threatens to make Garfield "damage himself" if M'gann tries to attack her. The final issue of the tie-in comic also reveals that she used her powers to make Marie Logan drive her car off a cliff.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: Queen Bee certainly dresses the part of royalty, with her gold jewelry and regal looking shawl.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Albeit an evil something, but she doesn't send mooks to threaten Gar and blackmail Miss Martian, she does that personally.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female member of the Light until Granny Goodness joins in Season 3. This trope is in play once again after Granny Goodness is replaced by Zviad Baazovi at the end of the season.
• The Sociopath: Queen Bee is a totalitarian dictator with a manipulative and vicious streak, fine with ruining entire countries or threatening children to get what she wants, and willing to murder an innocent woman simply to spite Miss Martian.
• Softspoken Sadist: When she blackmails Miss Martian to reveal her Dark Secret if she doesn't cooperate with her. She's also chillingly courteous to Marie Logan while forcing her to kill herself.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: All signs point to her name actually being Bee.
• The Vamp: Her personality, behavior and powers only further cement this.
• Weaksauce Weakness: In the Targets tie-in comic series, it turns out that people can protect themselves from her pheromones by taking garlic pills. There's also a low-level psychic component to her power, but that can be blocked by a decently-powerful telepath.
• Would Hurt a Child: In "Images", she casually threatens to make Garfield hurt himself if Miss Martian tries anything against her.

"L7": Klarion the Witch Boy

Klarion the Witch Boy

"Order went out of style in the 20th century!"

Species: Lord of Chaos

Voiced by: Thom Adcox Hernandez

A powerful, but immature Lord of Chaos who handles the Light's needs in the field of sorcery.

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• Achilles' Heel: His sole known weakness at this point is that he needs to use a familiar to stay anchored in this world; target the familiar, and he'll be kicked out for a while until he can re-anchor himself. He learned to compensate for that after his first loss, though.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In the comics, he's just a magic user from the Witch-World. Here, he's a Lord of Chaos and the actual Arch-Enemy to Doctor Fate.
  • "Misplaced" shows him effortlessly kicking the team's asses in battle and apparently he is higher ranking than Wotan, Felix Faust, Blackbriar Thorn and Wizard in the magical hierarchy. Not that this is surprising.
  • He has lost to Nabu twice, and it's unlikely Nabu was at full power either time; however, the first time he lost because his familiar was targeted, the second because he was distracted fighting the entire team at once and he wasn't serious because his plan was just a distraction. He has yet to lose in a straight fight.
  • And in the final episode of the first season, Vandal Savage refuses to let Klarion fight aboard the Watchtower, since he believes Klarion would likely take out the entire station and everyone on it. Klarion halfheartedly denies this before admitting that, yeah, he probably would. It's pretty obvious that he's the most powerful villain in the Light, if not the entire show.
• Adaptational Villainy: While he is morally gray in the comics, he's nowhere near this bad.
• All Witches Have Cats: His familiar Teekl.
• Ambiguous Gender: Not him but his cat, which is female in most continuities but male in others. When asked if Teekl was a boy or a girl Word of God said "Yes". In "Teg Ydaer!", he finally confirms that Teekl is a "she".
• Anachronism Stew: Not anymore, but apparently he's been wearing that suit and tie since the Stone Age.
• Attack Animal: Teekl, after being transformed into a Sabertooth-like beast for a short time.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: A bit like a schoolboy outfit to go along with his appearance.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: He may care about Teekl, but that does not make him an Animal Lover. Klarion considers torturing puppies to be more fun than torturing children, and when he sensed Child's arrival, he was apparently slow showing up because he got sidetracked tormenting some birds for his own amusement offscreen.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The natural result of having a Lord of Chaos that has the attitude and temperament of a child.
• Big "NO!": When his familiar Teekl is killed and he loses his corporeal form and is sent back to the Lords of Chaos' domain.
• Breath Weapon: Breathes fire as one of his offensive moves.
• The Brute: He's either this or The Dragon, as while he does act as Vandal's right hand man at the climax of The Light's schemes, his mystic contributions to The Light's goals are mostly rooted in his own raw power, and his position is as much to protect Vandal as anything else.
• Chaos Is Evil: Though he's revealed in Phantoms to be the Lesser of Two Evils compared to his sister Child and he does have a couple redeeming qualities, nevertheless, Klarion is an extremely vicious entity who openly revels in inflicting pain and destruction for their own sakes and boasting about how he'll make chaos topple order's agents, in contrast to Nabu/Dr. Fate's Unscrupulous Hero status as a Lord of Order.
• Child Mage: Though he looks like a teenager, he acts like a child.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Justified since Word of God says as a Lord of Chaos his mind is just as chaotic as the rest of him, which is also why he messes up common phrases and can forget important information so easily.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Teekl, his cat, seems to have the job of keeping him on task.
• Composite Character: A cross between the comic book Klarion and The Child, a Lord of Chaos who fought Hawk and Dove and worked with Mordru against Dr. Fate.
• Creepy Child: Played with. He acts like a child and looks like a teenager despite being an "ageless" Lord of Chaos and could be considered the oldest member of The Light, and in "Misplaced", when the world was split in two, with everyone over 18 in one world and everyone under 18 in another, he wound up in the child's world.
• A Day in the Limelight: "Odnu" from Season 4 brings him back into focus, while also revealing how he came to join the Light.
• Demoted to Extra: In Season 2, Klarion only appears in group meetings of The Light, although he makes a significant appearance in "Summit", and doesn't speak in any of those. While The Brain and Ocean-Master were both severely Out of Focus, Klarion stands out after making several significant appearances in Season 1.
• Deus Exit Machina: Given that he's far and away the most powerful character in the series (with the exception of Nabu) he can't actually be present most of the time without completely destroying any chance the good guys have of winning.
• Devilish Hair Horns: As if he didn't look evil enough without his Game Face, though as a Lord of Chaos this is most likely intentional on his part.
• The Dragon: A good case can be made for him being this to Vandal Savage, as in both finales he seems to be directly at the side of Savage and aiding the other’s man escape. "Odnu" reveals that Klarion is the longest standing member of the Light after Savage, having formed a pact with him in the ancient past. Him being this to Savage is why the other Lords of Chaos send Child to replace him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He almost looks grey in some shots due to how pale he is.
• Eldritch Abomination: He's an immortal and immensely powerful extraplanar Energy Being of chaotic magic who doesn't really have a quantifiable age but has certainly been around since the dawn of our cosmos, has been described as "elemental" and "fundamental to the universe," is not and never was human but wears the form of one like a cheap suit, engages with us almost solely for entertainment value, and thinks in - often childishly malevolent - ways that are massively alien to humanity, and apparently other species in his 'verse.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The question of whether he genuinely cares about his familiar Teekl or only values her as his anchor to the physical realm is firmly put to rest in Phantoms. He cries when she's killed, and he sounds like he's fighting back tears when he acknowledges her as his best friend, showing a very humanizing side to him that's never been seen before.
• Evil Sorceror: He uses magic, and is evil.
• Familiar: His cat Teekl. It serves as his anchor to the mortal world.
• Faux Affably Evil: Quick to joke and laugh, but he's probably one of the most unfettered villains in the show.
• Femme Fatalons: Black, of course.
• Finger Gun: A trick he uses while fighting Doctor Fate in "Denial".
• Forgetful Jones: Can't seem to remember if he already knew about Morrow's coma. Also, Word of God says that the Light already knew about Kaldur and Black Manta's relationship, "Although whether Klarion remembers is a legit question."
• For the Evulz: Word of God is that Klarion joined the Light mostly because "it seemed like fun". Further elaborate upon in "Odnu", where it's revealed that he massacred Vandal's village in the past and only joined up with Vandal out of boredom after the latter kept attacking him despite Klarion killing the Neanderthal over one hundred times.
• Game Face: First seen during his fight with Nabu in "Denial" and used throughout "Misplaced". It helps to show that he's not human at all.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: He's capable of committing mass murder out of sheer boredom or For the Evulz, but when angry or frustrated, the phrase that usually comes out of his mouth is merely "Dangit!"
• Graceful Loser: However in "Misplaced" he looked like he was having a Villainous Breakdown; but after the spell was broken he got a lot calmer. Then he called Teekl back so they could leave. If he had attacked them he would have won, no question, but then there'd be no show, so he just takes the Villain: Exit, Stage Left.
  "Boy, they sure don't make evil immortal sorcerers like they used to. Oh well. (Snaps his fingers undoing Doctor Fate's binding spell) Fun while it lasted."
• Hellfire: He's fond of conjuring balls of bloodred magical fire when he's fighting beings on his level such as Nabu or Child.
• Humanoid Abomination: He is a Lord of Chaos taking a human form, and his unnatural appearance clearly shows his otherworldly origins.
• Immortal Immaturity: He's known as the witch boy for a reason.
• Instant Runes: His magical abilities can cause complex runes to appear on the ground around him.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Teekl's meows are intelligible to Klarion, and indeed the cat at times seems to be more knowledgeable than Klarion himself.
• I Shall Taunt You: Like most children, he enjoys taunting those around him.
• Jerkass: As if being an example of Kids Are Cruel, Teens Are Monsters, and Spoiled Brat wasn't enough of a clue.
• Karma Houdini: As Fate points out, Klarion can't be held, so it's not really worth trying to even stop him from leaving. Zatanna is able to trap him in the Tower of Fate for a while, but even that's not enough to hold him.
• Laughably Evil: He may be an insufferable Jerkass and psychopath, but his childlike immaturity still makes him entertaining to watch.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Shockingly, as chaotic and malevolent as he is, Klarion is described as this by The Phantom Stranger in comparison to The Child, who seems to be far more active in causing destruction on behalf of the Lords of Chaos than Klarion ever was. This is to the point the Stranger summons Zatanna, three of her students and Etrigan to help Klarion defeat the Child.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Teekl, again justified by being his familiar.
• Malaproper: Due to his chaotic mind, Klarion is prone to mixing up words and phrases at random, such as "holy carp" ("holy crap"), "see you later, aramdillos" ("see you later, alligators"), and claiming that he cannot be "constipated" ("contained").
• Nightmare Face: Once his face adopts a more demonic appearance.
• Not So Invincible After All: After spending most of his screentime being impossible to contain or defeat, Klarion spends much of Zatanna's arc in Phantoms being tossed around by Child, of whom he is clearly terrified.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When he realizes that Nabu knows what his cat actually is.
  • Gets very uncomfortable when he realizes that Child has arrived, and it gets worse when Child summons him, because he cannot disobey.
• Order Versus Chaos: In this series Klarion is a Lord of Chaos.
• Out of Focus: Hasn't had as much to do in the second and third seasons as he did in the first.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • Savage refused to let him fight on the Watchtower during the season 1 finale because he would have destroyed the entire station and everyone on it, with him admitting that he would.
  • During the season 3 episode "Evolution", one of Savage's plans to deal with the alien fleet was just sending Klarion to take care of it. Since his mythical equal, Dr. Fate, can stop the planet destroying attacks of the War World, it's certainly not out of left field that Klarion can devastate space fleets by his lonesome.
  • Season 4's "Nomed Esir!" gives context to Savage's reluctance towards letting Klarion participate in fights, since the last time he fully set Klarion on the loose the boy ended up sinking the entire continent of Atlantis. Vandal only intended for him to sink the city of Atlantis, but Klarion went way overboard.
• Physical God: As a Lord of Chaos, he's on the same level as Dr. Fate.
• Playing with Fire: A particular favourite of Klarion's.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His normal outfit and overall colors are black and shades of red.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Teekl's eyes can look downright demonic but Klarion's Game Face has a rather ratlike pair of them as well.
• Right-Hand Cat: Justified. He needs to keep Teekl close at hand, as the cat is his anchor to the earthly plane.
• Running Gag: Occasionally mixes up his words, usually with Teekl correcting him and Klarion getting annoyed over the correction.
  Klarion: Klarion is chaos personified! He cannot be constipated!
  Teekl: Meow!
  Klarion: Ye-yeah, 'contained'. You knew I meant contained!
• Shaping Your Attacks: Into a giant claw at one point.
• Shock and Awe: One of his many magical abilities.
• The Sociopath: In the sense that he views the people around him as toys and he enjoys breaking them.
• Spoiled Brat: His own minions occasionally have to act like frustrated parents.
  Klarion: This isn't T. O. Morrow.
  Sportsmaster: Klarion, this is Professor Ivo.
  Klarion: I didn't order this! Send it back!
  Teekl: (purrs)
  Klarion: Morrow's in a coma? Did I already know that?
• Squishy Wizard: Seeing how despite being a Lord of Chaos all it takes to get rid of him is to attack an otherwise normal house cat, he can still qualify as this. He can make hurting the cat difficult at times, but still.
• Token Non-Human: He's actually a Lord of Chaos, which is basically a god.
• The Trickster: Not a nice one though.
• Unskilled, but Strong: When comparing his magic to Dr. Fate's, he seems to rely more on brute force.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: A justified case. He's an Anthropomorphic Personification of Chaos. Holding him isn't really an option.
• Villainous Breakdown: Quick to start screaming and whining when the heroes get the upper hand.

"L9": Deathstroke (Slade Wilson)

Deathstroke (Slade Wilson)

^{Click here to see him in Invasion}

Species: Human

Voiced by: Wentworth Miller ("The Fix"), Fred Tatasciore ("Complications", "Summit", Outsiders)

Sportsmaster's replacement, hired in anticipation of Sportsmaster's betrayal. Come Season 3, he has take Ra's al Ghul's place as the leader of the League of Shadows and with it, his position in The Light.

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: His relationship with Terra is more of a teacher/student bond rather than the sexual relationship they conducted in the comics.
• Art Evolution: Along with a new costume, Season 3 gives him an altered facial design and haircut that removes his ponytail and makes his features closer to his DC Animated Movie Universe counterpart.
• Blood Knight:
  (in response to Lagoon Boy requesting backup) "See, calling for help like that just pushes up the timetable. Now I can't savor the battle."
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • How does he begin his first encounter with some Team members? Drawing his sword... and using it to reflect sunlight into their eyes.
  • Lagoon Boy throws car door? He kicks it right back at him.
  • He also encourages Terra to take on this philosophy after she accidentally uses her geokinesis in a sparring match with him when they were supposed to be using bo staffs.
• Costume Evolution: Has a new costume by the time of Season 3 that looks much closer to his counterpart's outfit from Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.
• Deadpan Snarker: He gets in a dig at M'gann and La'gann's relationship before attacking them.
  Deathstroke: Hate to interrupt such poignant inter-species romance, but we have pressing business with the Martian.
• The Dragon: He takes Sportsmaster's place as one to the Light as a whole. Luthor himself acknowledges his high position, stating that he's not so much a pawn, but more of a bishop.
• Dragon Ascendant: In Season 3 he is a member of the Light's council.
• Dragon with an Agenda: He wants his own seat at the Light's table, like Manta before him. In Season 3 he has succeeded, and has replaced Ra's al Ghul.
• Evil Mentor: Flashbacks show him training Terra in combat personally.
• Evil Sounds Deep: After Fred Tatasciore takes over the role.
• Eye Patch Of Power: He's missing an eye and wears an eyepatch underneath his mask (which only has one eye hole).
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Shoots a shuriken thrown by Sportsmaster with a handgun.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: An animated (and super villain) example. This Deathstroke wears black body armor instead of a blue and orange costume just like his comic book counterpart.
• Punch-Clock Villain: In a very limited sense. When he has Lagoon Boy at his mercy, he observes that Lagoon Boy is not on his employers' hit list, so he won't kill or abduct him. However, he does enjoy beating people senseless whether it's mission-related or not.
• Truer to the Text: This Deathstroke is much more faithful to his comic book counterpart than his previous animated counterpart was mainly through the fact that just like his comic book counterpart, he is portrayed as a deadly mercenary (as opposed to the very skilled Manipulating terrorist that the Teen Titans version was portrayed as) and mostly addressed by his comic book alias Deathstroke (the Teen Titans version went by his civilian name "Slade" due to Never Say "Die").
• Villainous Breakdown: Gets visibly panicked when the heroes reveal they were on to Terra from the start and try to reach out to her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Sportsmaster warns that Deathstroke will suffer this eventually. Deathstroke counters that he won't if he joins the Light as an equal eventually.

"L10": The Ultra-Humanite

The Ultra-Humanite

Species: Gorilla (with a human brain)

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker (Season 1, Vocal Effects), Greg Weisman (Outsiders)

An evil scientist who transplanted his brain into that of an elderly woman and later that of a male albino gorilla, becoming the Ultra-Humanite. Formerly a member of the Injustice League, as of season three, the Ultra-Humanite has become a member of the Light, replacing The Brain as their scientific head.

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• Ascended Extra: Formerly a minor villain who only appeared in one episode, now a member of the Light.
• Dragon Ascendant: First appeared as one of the Light's proxies on the Injustice League as well as a partner and colleague of the Brain; as of Outsiders, has become a full-fledged member of the Light, presumably stepping into the Brain's position after his capture in "Summit".
• Evil Mentor: Is revealed to be this to Dr. Jace.
• Evil Old Folks: Ultra-Humanite was in the body of an old woman before surgery, and might have lived even longer as a gorilla.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Appears such in the comic book tie-in. His dialogue even serves as foreshadowing for the Light's true motives before it's chronologically revealed in the show itself
• Gender Bender: His former host was an old woman before his brain was transplanted to a male gorilla. According to Word of God, his original human form was male.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a scar across the right side of his mouth.
• Jerkass: Wouldn't be worth mentioning, but Ultra-Humanite contrasts every other member of the Light by being brusque, surly, and not even feigning politeness.
• Killer Gorilla: His current body is that of an albino gorilla.
• Radio Voice: Speaks via a device on his chest, presumably because his gorilla vocal chords don't allow for human speech.
• Suddenly Voiced: After being The Voiceless in season 1, he has his first speaking role in the third season episode "Home Fires".
• The Voiceless: He doesn't have a voice in his debut episode, though ends up having a bigger role come season 3.

"L12": Zviad Baazovi

Zviad Baazovi

Species: Metahuman

Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal

The ambassador of Markovia, who replaces Granny Goodness on the Light at the end of Season Three.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: In the comics Baazovi had very sensitive eyes that required him to always wear sunglasses; here he wears normal eyeglasses, implying that he lacks this problem.
• Adaptational Job Change: In the comics he was the Soviet adviser of Baron Bedlam, but here he is the Ambassador of Markovia to the United Nations.
• Adaptational Nationality: In the comics Zviad was a Georgian, here he's a Markovian.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In the comics he was a Manipulative Bastard who could be a Badass Normal when necessary, while here he has minor Psychic Powers.
• Ambiguously Evil: He convinces Gregor to banish Brion from Markovia after the latter was revealed to be a metahuman. The ambiguity flies out the window when we learn that he's been working for the Light all along.
• Beneath Suspicion: Unlike the rest of the Light, who are famous and established supervillains for both the heroes and the audience, Zvaid is a political official of Markovia, and has no history of being a metahuman or villain. The fact he is so low profile is what makes him so effective at manipulating events in Markovia so that they work in the Light's favor.
• Boomerang Bigot: A metahuman more than willing to exploit hatred against metahumans and metahuman trafficking.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He first appears in the Markovia arc as a minor character, then returns in the Outsiders season finale to corrupt Brion and join the Light.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He is not called "Bad Samaritan" like in the comics (so far).
• Composite Character: Has Zviad's name and is an enemy of the Outsiders, but his telepathy, the way he uses it to brainwash a hero, and Boomerang Bigot tendency against metahumans are from Maxwell Lord.
• The Corrupter: Covertly encourages Brion to kill his uncle using psychic powers. Overtly encourages him to depose his own brother, even stirring up a crowd of Markovian citizens to accept him as the new king.
• Evil Chancellor: Becomes this for Brion after he takes the throne of Markovia.
• Fantastic Racism: He seems clearly biased against metahumans and superheroes and hates Brion just for being one. In truth, he's also a metahuman just like Baron Bedlam.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Due to all the stuff the Markov family went through, he convinces Gregor to make tough decisions as the people of Markovia needs a king more than ever.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's effectively the one who's actually running Markovia, using Brion as a Puppet King thanks to his mental powers.
• More than Mind Control: As psychics on this show go, he's nowhere near as powerful as someone like M'gann and he can only amplify what people are already feeling. He gets a lot of mileage out of that.
• Psychic Powers: Has the ability to "nudge" people into indulging their worst impulses, which he uses to turn Geo-Force against the heroes and convince him to seize Markovia for himself.
• The Power of Hate: According to himself his psychic powers basically ramp up people's negative emotions.
• Weak, but Skilled: Admits that his psychic powers pale in comparison to a Martian's, but he's very good at manipulating people with them anyway. Even Vandal compliments his abilities.

Former Members

"L2": Ra's Al Ghul

Ra's Al Ghul

"Thus, another corner of the world, sees the Light."

Species: Human

Voiced by: Oded Fehr

The centuries-old founder and master of the League of Shadows.

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• Affably Evil: Is quite polite to Tigress, who is just a minion to him. Even when he finds out who she really is, he remains relatively calm while everyone else around him is pissed off. In Outsiders, he takes the heroes' intrusion on Infinity Island in his stride, ribs Nightwing about the debacle like a chiding grandfather, calmly and honestly responds to Brion's furious accusations, and ultimately allows Nightwing's team to depart without issue, treating the whole incident as little more than an amusing diversion.
• Affectionate Nickname: As in the comics, Ra's refers to Batman as "the detective" as a mark of respect.
• Back from the Dead: Lampshaded by Alfred in the tie-in comics, when he notes that Ra's never stays dead.
• Badass Cape: Wears a green one.
• Deadpan Snarker: He shows some inclination towards this, chiding Cheshire for her failure to kill Lex Luthor in "Targets" (although the assassination attempt was just part of a scheme anyway).
  Cheshire: Master.
  Ra's: And client. So... twice disappointed in your failure.
• Death Is Cheap: Over the course of the first two seasons and the tie-in comic, Ra's is killed twice, once by a long fall and once by Black Beetle. The comic depicts him as being resurrected by the Lazarus Pit after the first death, and as he carts his master's body away the second time, Ubu vows that Ra's will rise again.
• A Death in the Limelight: Subverted He has much more of a role in "Summit" than in any previous episode except "Targets" but his death is only temporary. Indeed, the third season depicts Ra's alive and well.
• Diabolical Mastermind: As leader of the League of Shadows, sends assassins on missions across the globe to further the Light's agenda.
• Doting Parent: To Talia in the tie-in comic.
• The Dreaded: In "Rescue Ops", Nightwing describes Ra's as one of the most dangerous men alive, and at the end of the episode, Nightwing's team scarcely hesitate to leave Infinity Island when Ra's graciously allows them to do so.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Ra's clearly loves Talia, and he once had a wife whose fate is unknown.
• Evil Old Folks: At least a few centuries old, and as of "Rescue Ops", an actual grandfather.
• Fallen Hero: Word of God is that Ra's was considered a hero by some at one time or another. Black Lightning's speech in the season 3 finale confirms this.
• He Who Fights Monsters: According to Black Lightning anyway, which brings him up as an example of a hero who has become the very thing he fought against in his Season 3 finale speech.
• Hyper-Awareness:
  • He noticed Red Arrow lurking on a nearby roof, a detail that had slipped the notice of both Cheshire and Sportsmaster.
  • In "Summit," he quickly deduces what Tigress's necklace is actually for, exposing her as The Mole.
• Immortal Life Is Cheap: He's fatally stabbed by Black Beetle in "Summit". His bodyguard quickly takes him off to be resurrected in a Lazarus Pit.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Black Beetle runs him through out of general annoyance with the Light. Ra's being Ra's, this is more of a temporary inconvenience than anything else.
• Really 700 Years Old: Or 600, Word of God hasn't pinned down an exact year yet.
• Retired Monster: When he first appears in Outsiders, Ra's is no longer the head of the League of Shadows nor does he have a seat on the Light, yet he appears perfectly content with it nonetheless. In fact, he's still in contact with Savage, implying that his departure from the Light was consensual.
• Seen It All: Ra's reacts to seeing Halo revive themself from a fatal Neck Snap with a totally calm "curious", which is to be expected; as Ra's himself says, Infinity Island is no stranger to resurrections, although such a feat usually requires a Lazarus Pit.
• Spotting the Thread: In "Summit", he instantly deduces the nature of Tigress's necklace at a glance, and wastes no time exposing her as Artemis.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Weisman has said that Ra's and the Sensei aren't related. When Ra's was resurrected in Batman (Grant Morrison), it was revealed that the Sensei was Ra's's father.
• Wild Card: After leaving the Light and the League of Shadows, he assists both the Justice League and the Light alike as he sees fit.
• Worthy Opponent: As per usual, Ra's has the highest regard for Batman, referring to him as "Detective" out of respect for his deductive mind.
• Villainous Friendship: Word of God identifies Ra's and Vandal Savage as old friends. Even after Ra's leaves the Light, he and Savage remain in touch, with Savage even expanding the Light's emergency evacuation plan (in the event that Earth becomes unsalvageable) to include Ra's and his family, though Savage doubts that Ra's would choose to accept.
• Villains Never Lie: When he claims to no longer be in charge of the League of Shadows or a member of the Light, Nightwing believes him, saying Ra's al Ghul is many things, but a liar isn't one of them. Overlaps with Exact Words as he is still a good acquaintance with the Light. On a similar note, Ra's may not be a liar, but he still keeps quite a few secrets, such as Talia's child (almost certainly Batman's son) and the resurrected Jason Todd.

"L5": Ocean-Master (Prince Orm of Atlantis)

Ocean-Master (Prince Orm of Atlantis)

Species: Atlantean

Voiced by: Roger Craig Smith, David Kaye ("Arion")

Ocean-Master is the secret identity of Prince Orm, the younger brother of King Orin of Atlantis/Aquaman. He was the leader of the Atlantean purists and a former member of the Light.

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• Adaptational Wimp: He suffers pretty heavily from this. In the comics, he can go toe-to-toe with his brother Aquaman and has been the Big Bad of numerous stories. Here, he gets killed in one swift strike by Lady Shiva, a Badass Normal with a sword. Such an attack wouldn't even phase Ocean-Master in the comics. However, this may speak to just how deadly Shiva is more than Orm being weakened, given her comic self's Ambiguously Human nature and Charles Atlas Superpower abilities.
• Ambition is Evil: Orm's supervillain career and hatred for his brother are both driven by his desire to become king of Atlantis.
• Arc Villain: For Act 4 of Phantoms. His clone is sent to cause havoc in Atlantis as a pretext for the real Orm, whose mind was implanted into a clone of Atlantis's former ruler Arion, to take over.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Prince Orm is a murderous supervillain and would-be usurper to the royal throne of Atlantis.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Despite being a disgraced prince who lost everything, it's pretty hard to feel any sympathy for him when Shiva slices his head off. Seeing as how he was going to murder 16 people, the majority being women or little children, including his own sister-in-law and nephew, all in a petty attempt to score Revenge by Proxy, he definitely had it coming... especially considering the possibly apocalyptic results that could've spawned had he succeeded, it's a good thing for everyone he was put down when he was.
  • This happens again in Phantoms, where his efforts to claim Atlantis as Arion, thus making Atlantis a puppet state for the Light, end with Ocean-Master being obliterated by the Lords of Order the moment he dons the real Arion's crown.
• Back for the Dead: He returns in Season 3, but is killed shortly after by Lady Shiva.
• Back from the Dead: Season 4 reveals his original mind was saved to be implanted in a clone of Arion.
• Barrier Warrior: He can only use defensive magic, with his offensive magic being channelled through Neptune's Trident.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As Prince Orm, he acts as a faithful and loving brother to Aquaman, only showing his true loathing for his brother when in his guise of Ocean-Master. The façade seems quite effective; despite having fought Ocean-Master at least twice, Aquaman never realised that his enemy was his own brother.
• Break the Haughty: Six years in an Atlantean prison have left him a broken man.
• Cain and Abel: With Aquaman.
• Character Development: He starts out as a cunning mastermind and a Manipulative Bastard, easily making people do what he wants with deception and manipulations. After spending six years in prison, he becomes an unhinged wreck of a man who has become a more straightforward brute.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Ocean-Master is actually mentioned and appears very briefly in a flashback told as a story in "Downtime." This is before it's revealed that Orm is him or that he's a member of The Light.
• Crazy Homeless People: By Season 3, he’s become a homeless fugitive, and by this point he has become a deranged man absolutely broken by his years in prison.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: As Savage points out, Ocean-Master is proficient in magic, but is too reliant on Neptune's Trident. Savage has him train with Wotan to overcome this after he comes back in the guise of Arion.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: When he returns in season 3 after years of imprisonment, most of the colour from his skin has gone completely pale.
• Evil Is Petty: Is willing to commit mass murder against women and children simply for being jailed for six years over crimes he actually committed.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In Season 1, Ocean-Master spoke in a smooth baritone. In Outsiders, his voice has degraded to a ragged growl and is deeper than ever while he's hit new lows of villainy.
• Evil Uncle: He twice attempted to murder his own nephew (and his sister-in-law) as part of his insane vendetta against his brother.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Both of his deaths weren't pleasant, to say the least. The first time, he gets decapitated by Lady Shiva. The second time around while masquerading as Arion, the Lords of Order completely obliterate him, first by graphically reducing him to a skeleton before destroying the remains altogether.
• Fantastic Racism: In the comic tie-in, he leads the Purists, a cult dedicated to "cleansing" Atlantis from non-fully-human-looking Atlanteans. He actually doesn't give a damn about the Purist cause, but they make convenient minions.
• Foregone Conclusion: A version of Aquaman's brother who seems to be a decent person? That's not gonna last long...
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Season 3 hits him with this HARD. Once with a seat at the Light's table and a member of the Atlantean royal family, he ends up being disgraced and left to rot for six years in prison. When he returns in Season 3, he's forced to resort to hiding out in a house and attacking civilians like any common mook would.
• Impoverished Patrician: Once a powerful nobleman and member of the Atlantean royal family, he was imprisoned for his crimes. After escaping from prison, he was reduced to being a homeless fugitive living in exile, and his appearance looks rather disheveled in Season 3.
• Killed Off for Real: After being brought back to life as Arion thanks to the Light placing his consciousness in a clone of Arion, the Lords of Order make sure he's gone for good by completely destroying his body.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Shiva stops him from attacking the heroes' families on The Light's orders, as he would end up putting the heroes on high alert earlier than The Light would want (not to mention very vengeful and merciless).
• Noodle Incident: We still don't know what happened over the Time Skip that caused him to get kicked out of the Light. It's implied in a season 3 episode that his identity was found out and he was defeated and thrown in an Atlantean prison, though the details are still unknown.
• Off with His Head!: How he meets his end, courtesy of Lady Shiva.
• Out of Focus: Compared to the other members of the Light. Not only is he absent in season two for unknown reasons, but he only speaks in one episode (where Black Manta was The Heavy). In fact, the show never even reveals his real identity; if you were unfamiliar with Aquaman canon and didn't read the tie-in comic, you probably wouldn't realize that he and that nice Prince Orm were the same person.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Ocean-Master does nothing onscreen as a member of the Light, though he does have a larger role in one of the comic tie-in's plotlines. When the second season begins, he's been Put on a Bus during the Time Skip.
• Revenge by Proxy: He wanted revenge on the Justice League for his fall from grace, and saw killing their beloved family and friends as the perfect means to do so. The results would've been terrible for everyone, had it not been for Shiva's timely intervention.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The crown prince of Atlantis, and an active supervillain and member of the Light.
• Sanity Slippage: Six years in prison have taken quite a toll on him.
• The Sociopath: Orm is so power-hungry and hateful towards his brother, that he's perfectly willing to murder his own sister-in-law and nephew (along with dozens of innocent women and their children) out of a mixture of vengeful spite, and entitled desire to regain his lost authority in Atlantis.
• Two Aliases, One Character: The episode "Downtime" makes reference to "the vile Ocean-Master" and features an appearance by Prince Orm. It's not revealed until the tie-in comic that the two are one and the same (though anyone familiar with the Aquaman mythos would have figured it out instantly, presuming there wasn't going to be an example of Not His Sled).
• Uncertain Doom: Post-Time Skip, Ocean-Master is nowhere to be seen, with only word on his fate being that he's been "disgraced". He returns in Season 3, only to be killed by Shiva.
• Unexplained Recovery: He returns again in Season 4, with no explanation or even mention of how he survived being decapitated in Season 3 (since the heroes didn't know it happened) or why he still has Neptune's Trident. It's eventually revealed that this one is a clone created by the Light to draw attention away from the clone of Arion implanted with the real Orm's brain and enable the latter's Engineered Heroics.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: His villainous persona is never seen in action in the entire first season. In season 3 he has a few minutes of screen time before being killed off.
• The Worf Effect: He's killed unceremoniously to show just how dangerous Shiva is.
• Worf Had the Flu: Though to be fair, it's clear that six years in prison took both a physical and mental toll on him, which can explain why Shiva was easily able to get the jump on him.
• Would Hit a Girl: He has no qualms about trying to kill women, including female civilians who cannot defend themselves.
• Would Hurt a Child: Or more specifically, would hurt said child's pregnant mother in an attempt to gain her power, thereby killing said child at the same time; it should be noted that the child was going to be his niece or nephew (luckily, he was stopped). He later tries to kill the Justice League members' wives and children (including his brother's wife and son, yet again) when they're all gathered together.

"L6": The Brain

The Brain

"Sil vous plait, Capitaine, do not struggle- brain extraction is largely painless. Ze benefits are EN-NOR-MOUS. Just look at what it has done for me."

Species: Human brain

Voiced by: Nolan North / Corey Burton

A brilliant French scientist who implanted his brain in a cybernetic shell.

---

• Adaptation Origin Connection: Back when he was still in a human body, he and another scientist who would become Ultra-Humanite did tests on gorillas, which became the inhabitants of Gorilla City. This neatly links all of DC's "Killer Gorilla" villains with its "disembodied brain" villains.
• Brain in a Jar: While quite intelligent, he's called The Brain due to literally being a disembodied brain. His jar is more advanced than most, though.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  The Brain: (About to cut open Captain Marvel's skull) I'm told you have the courage of Achilles, mais non? Perhaps you should have asked for his invulnerability instead.
• Demoted to Extra: In the second season, he only makes silent appearances during the Light's video conferences until "Summit", where he still doesn't get a line. He's no longer a member of the Light by the third season.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's a disembodied brain.
• Evil Genius: His main purpose, since he is just a Brain.
• Faux Affably Evil: He asks Captain Marvel politely not to move while he's dissecting Marvel's brain (with Marvel still awake and fully conscious), and reassures him that it's a "largely painless" procedure.
• French Jerk: Based on his mannerisms, accent and Poirot Speak.
• Lean and Mean: Before his brain transplant.
• Looks Like Cesare: Prior to transferring his brain into a robotic shell, he was a pale man with dark circles under his eyes, a pencil-thin build, and messy black hair.
• Mad Scientist: In his first appearance, he was behind the injection of Kobra venom into wildlife to produce super-monsters and wished to dissect Captain Marvel to have a scientific look at his Solomon-enhanced brain.
• Non-Action Guy: Not a whole lot a Brain in a Jar can do physically. He has some weapons built into his shell, but otherwise, he's dependent on his intellect and Monsieur Mallah to get by in a fight.
• Poirot Speak: He is complètement fluid in English, but still inserts, comment dit-on, random French phrases into his speech, tu sais?
• Put on a Bus: He's captured by the heroes at the end of season two along with Black Manta, presumably explaining why the Ultra-Humanite has replaced him on the Light's council.
• Spell My Name with a "The": The Brain.
• Telescoping Robot: He's got a surprising amount of weapons hidden in his transport unit.

"L8": Black Manta

Black Manta

"It is not in success where true character is revealed, but in failure."

^{Click here to see him unmasked}

Species: Human

Voiced by: Khary Payton

Aquaman's Arch-Enemy and Aqualad's biological father. Manta joins the Light in Season 2 to replace the disgraced Ocean-Master. In Outsiders, he returns as part of the Suicide Squad.

---

• Action Dad: To Aqualad in Season 2.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Manta genuinely loves his son, whereas in the comics he ruthlessly tried to murder him. Furthermore, he's far more honorable in general and is a far cry from the twisted, hateful, vengeance-obsessed psychopath that he is consistently characterized as.
• Affably Evil: To an extent. He even uses an assassination mission as a way to teach his son honesty. He also never raises his voice when talking to his men, whom he doesn't abuse (they don't seem scared of him in the slightest). Unless Aqualad's safety is involved. In "Complications", when Manta goes to rescue Kaldur from Cheshire his men are already trying to reopen the sealed door. Manta blows it up without waiting for any of them to get out of the way.
• Arch-Enemy: It doesn't receive a great deal of focus (as the show focuses on the young heroes, not the Justice League), but Manta is described by Lagoon Boy as Aquaman's greatest enemy. Manta later expresses disappointment that Aquaman didn't die in the explosion that destroyed Malina Island. Even after Orin has retired in Outsiders, Manta maintains his hatred for him, telling Kaldur that it sickens him to see his son in Aquaman's colors.
• Archnemesis Dad: To Aqualad in Season 1. After getting to know him in Season 2, Kaldur's feelings towards his father are more complicated, but he has no illusions about how dangerous Manta is and won't hesitate to fight him if the need arises.
• Artificial Gill: The secondary purpose of his armor, since he isn't an Atlantean.
• Badass Arm-Fold: His default pose. Example◊.
• Badass Normal: With the exception of his artificial gills, he's a completely normal man with a suit of power armor.
• Benevolent Boss: Manta is, at most, stern with his soldiers, never berating or abusing them. The only exception comes when Manta, afraid for his son's life, doesn't wait for his men to move before blasting his way through a door to help Kaldur.
• Boxed Crook: As of Outsiders, Manta has been drafted into Task Force X.
• The Brute: In a sense, while other members of the Light specialize in assassination, technology, magic, or such, he deals in direct military action.
• Characterization Marches On: In "Downtime", he comes across as brash and petty. In the second season onward, he shows a LOT more tact and grace.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Wears Powered Armor but otherwise has no powers.
• Color Character: He is Black Manta, afterall.
• Consummate Professional: Manta's troops are among the most efficient and well-trained mooks of the show and Manta treats them very respectfully.
• Cool Helmet: His visual signature, as in the comics. Its design is a bit more complex here, to follow the pattern of his Powered Armor.
• Dark Is Evil: His intimidating, pitch-black armor makes this abundantly clear.
• Degraded Boss: In Season 2, he was one of the leaders of The Light and a major potential threat to Kaldur and Tigress. In Season 3, because of his capture (and abandonment by The Light), he is now a member of Waller's Suicide Squad and isn't in a position to threaten either of them except by sheer chance.
• Disappeared Dad: To Kaldur, as his son was unaware that Black Manta was his biological father.
• Dragon Ascendant: Is promoted to take Ocean-Master's place on the Light in the 3rd episode of season 2.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His son, Aqualad. This is noted well in "The Fix" where, he is immediately at his son's side when Aqualad—due to being affected by M'gann's Mind Rape sometime back, mumbles his first word in his slowly repaired state: "Father." He is also genuinely conflicted and heartbroken when he discovers Aqualad is a mole for the heroes.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Kaldur attempted to convince his father to undergo a Heel–Face Turn after being outed as The Mole. Manta truly wants Kaldur to do the opposite.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Black Manta is genuinely pained when it's revealed that Kaldur was actually a mole for the heroes.
• Evil Wears Black: Manta wears a full-body suit of black armor with a Cool Helmet that deepens his voice and synergizes with his Color Character motif.
• Eye Beams: His primary form of offense.
• Family-Values Villain: While Kaldur is working for him, Manta is a doting and proud father; he even uses terrorism to teach his son a lesson about honesty.
• A Father to His Men: He seems to treat his men rather well, going with his Noble Demon "virtues".
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: He goes from a member of the Light in Season 2 to a drafted member of the Suicide Squad in Season 3.
• It's Personal: His return in Outsiders has him declaring that him and Tigress have a score to settle.
• Large Ham: At times.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: During the Time Skip Aqualad learned Black Manta was his father, and switched sides... to infiltrate Black Manta's organization.
• Malcolm Xerox: While nowhere near as intense as his comic counterpart (who was actually playing it up as a way to scam people for funds and men, but still), Manta shows subtle signs of it in "Summit" when The Reach state The Light aren't equal partners but simply The Reach's favored agents. Manta comes to blows with Black Beetle over the notion that Manta refuses to be anyone's slave and later on waxes on about how one must be ruthless to truly stay a free man.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Check out the inside of his sub.
• Narcissist: A profile of Manta shown in Outsiders states that he suffers from narcissistic personality disorder.
• Noble Demon: Manta has his own honor code, and is shown to actually be a caring father towards Kaldur in Season 2. Kaldur admits he admires these qualities and tries to convince his father to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: Invoked. Later revealed to be his Plan B.
  IF I CAN'T HAVE IT, NO ONE CAN!
• Offing the Offspring: He attempted it in "Downtime" by shooting at Aqualad and Garth. He didn't care if he killed his own son in an explosion he himself caused. They're working together by Season 2... except not.
• Papa Wolf: His behavior in season 1 notwithstanding, he doesn't take kindly to threats against his son. He absolutely refuses to let Sportsmaster have Aqualad in exchange for the death of Artemis, and swears revenge on Miss Martian for rendering him comatose.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Whenever he's with Kaldur in Season 2. The guy's evil, but he's a great dad. And no, he isn't just putting it on to gain his trust... he shows an equal amount of affection towards a comatose Kaldur, and goes to extreme lengths to restore his mind. Even after a mission that Kaldur is technically successful, but not because of his own actions, he praises his son for the mere act of not taking credit where he did not expressly deserve it.
  • Also, he seems to genuinely appreciate Tigress and her friendship with his son.
• Powered Armor: Without it he couldn't do much underwater since it also acts as scuba gear.
• Put on a Bus: As of season 3 he is no longer a member of the Light, presumably due to his capture and imprisonment in season 2.
  • He returns in "Leverage," as a member of Waller's newly-introduced Suicide Squad, and reveals to them the existence of the Justice League's Covert Ops team.
• Scary Black Man: Masked, but he still counts.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: He knew that Kaldur was his son before the latter did, but kept his knowledge of this a secret for a long while.
• Secret Test of Character: Subjects his son to one, which he passes. But that doesn't mean he should rest easy.
• Shipper on Deck: Seems to think Aqualad and "Tigress" are a couple.
• Spotting the Thread: In "Downtime", he almost instantly noticed one of his men carrying water-bearers and realized that the trooper was Aqualad in disguise.
• Third-Person Person: On occasion.
  Black Manta: No agreement exists that makes a slave of Black Manta!
  Black Beetle: No agreement exists that guarantees the life of Black Manta.
  Black Manta: Manta guarantees that for himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: Manta really loses his cool when it's revealed that Kaldur was working as a spy in his organization.
• Wicked Cultured: Complete with decorative tribal masks and a glass of red wine.

"L11": Granny Goodness (Gretchen Goode)

See Apokolips

Head Enforcers

Villains who serve as The Dragon for the Light as a whole. Not officially members, but high-ranking enough to be let in on the grander plans and are generally treated as equals. For Deathstroke, see his folder above.

Sportsmaster

Sportsmaster (Lawrence "Crusher" Crock)

Species: Human

Voiced by: Nick Chinlund

Sportsmaster (real name Lawrence "Crusher" Crock) is a supervillain, a former member of the League of Shadows, and was the personal enforcer for the Light. He is the father of Artemis and Cheshire, and estranged husband of Paula Crock.

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• Abusive Parents: Word of God is that he was verbally and emotionally abusive to his daughters, and according to Cheshire, he used to make them fight each other. He's easily the worst parent seen in the series, period - even Black Manta, a more devoted agent of the Light with greater aspirations (who does more damage overall) shows his son Kaldur'ahm a lot more genuine love than Lawrence displays towards both his daughters combined. Season 4 makes it clear that the abuse was physical as well, as he beat the crap out of his daughters in their training sessions.
• Action Dad: An evil version — Sportsmaster is a highly trained martial artist with the ability to use a variety of weapons.
• Adaptational Badass: His comic book counterpart is about as hokey as one would expect from someone with the name "Sportsmaster", and essentially never shows up unless writers want a joke villain, and he retired in the same story that Artemis was introduced in. Here, he's a badass mercenary who's about in the same league as Deathstroke.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the comics, Lawrence is a loving father and husband, and Artemis is close with him well into her adulthood. Here he's an abusive jerk, estranged from his wife, and generally an unpleasant person.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He goes from having reddish-brown hair to being blonde like his comic counterpart's successor Victor Gover (after Gover's unexplained Race Lift.)
• Age Lift: In the comic he was an enemy of the JSA back in the 40's and 50's. Here he's much younger and active in the modern day.
• Archnemesis Dad:
  • To Artemis — she works for the good guys while he's employed to The Light. Needless to say, they come to blows often.
  • Downplayed with Jade — she clearly hates him, but since they work for essentially the same organization, she is forced to remain professional with her father.
• Badass Normal:
  • He doesn't have any powers, but he gives the metahumans and other superheroes in The Team a hard time.
  • That part above, about Sportsmaster being a poor man's Deathstroke? He and Slade go head to head at one point. And Crusher gives as good as he gets. And while it's not stated in the series if Slade is augmented like normal, he is actually younger than Crusher! And he only fights Slade after overpowering Black Manta despite the latter's Powered Armor, forcing Manta to be saved by his soldiers.
• Battle Couple: In the past, with Paula — they were married criminals before her injury.
• Composite Character: He's absorbed the role of Jade Nguyen/Cheshire's (unseen) father (as in the original comics she had no blood ties with the Crock family).
• Cool Mask: Vaguely resembles the Jacques Plante/Jason Voorhees style of hockey goalie mask.
• Dangerous Deserter: Deserts the Light with plans of killing Black Manta. Woe to any who gets in his way.
• Dark Is Evil: His usual outfit consists of dark clothing.
• Demoted to Extra: After breaking with the Light, Sportsmaster appears far less, and his importance to the plot (beyond his personal impact on Cheshire and Artemis) is all but gone.
• The Dragon: Acts as one to the Light as a whole, being one of their most frequently appearing operatives.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. Swears to kill Black Manta in response for Manta's son killing his daughter... because Sportsmaster thinks it made him look bad.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Evil and a Jerkass he may be, he takes his status as a professional killer seriously, and no amount of money can repair a soiled reputation. Indeed, he thinks taking a payoff in place of revenge on his daughter's killer makes him look worse.
  • As brutal and abusive as he may have been towards his daughters, both Jade and Artemis are sure that he'd draw the line at the level of abuse Cassandra Wu-San suffered at the hands of her mother, Lady Shiva, and they agree that he wouldn't go as far as to kill them.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: "So I hear you're going by 'Red Arrow' now. More like broken arrow!" "Broken arrow" is later revealed to be a trigger phrase programmed into Roy by Cadmus.
• Evil Versus Evil: His war against Black Manta and the Manta family for murdering his daughter, Artemis.
• Evil Virtues: He has no real redeeming qualities but he does possess a few that you can at least respect in that he takes pride in being a professional mercenary and takes the job seriously to the point where you can't buy him off if it's a matter of personal pride or honor. He's also a Combat Pragmatist, but not a Dirty Coward. In spite of having no powers and taking on beings that do, he doesn't back down and turn tail, and will do anything to complete a mission unless there is literally no feasible way he can succeed.
• Hate Sink: Crusher is a self-interested thug, sociopath, abusive parent, and all-around jerkass.
• Heroic Build: Inverted. He has the build, but none of the heroic qualities.
• Honor Before Reason: While he has very, very few good qualities, he does value his image and reputation more than money. This might also stem from his Pride but as a professional assasin/mercenary, reputation is important for business. So when he targets Black Manta's son in retaliation for the "death" of his daughter, he refuses a generous payoff from his superior's in exchange for dropping the matter.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: When he and Paula were still together: he was the Huge Guy to Paula's Tiny Girl.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: The javelin could be explained as collapsible. His pockets must be Bigger on the Inside if they can hold that big-ass hammer.
• I Know Madden Kombat: He's a recurring mercenary and the Light's main enforcer, with lots of weaponised sports equipment.
• Improbable Weapon User: Some of his many weapons, which include exploding javelins and a discus strong enough to destroy a building.
• It's All About Me: Crusher's only concern when it appears as though his youngest daughter is dead is that her murder reflects poorly on his reputation. The affront to his rep is enough to make him turn on the Light and set out to kill Black Manta.
• Jerkass: Yeah, when you react to your daughter's death with "This is an insult to my professional reputation, everyone will think I'm weak over this." it stands to reason that you qualify for this label. Bonus points when your other daughter is genuinely grieving. Downplayed as he gives up on revenge on the spot when he realizes Artemis is alive, so he does care to some degree, but he's still a horrible parent and person.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Calls Deathstroke a "chump" and tells him that the Light will betray him, too. Considering the way the Light betrayed the Reach over the course of the season, he might not have been wrong.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He's mad about Artemis's death and wants to get back at Black Manta for being responsible, because it makes him look bad by association.
• Lack of Empathy: He doesn't care about Jade's grief over Artemis' death; he only cares about his damaged reputation.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared with his successor, Lady Shiva. While Crusher was physically abusive in training his daughters to be accomplices in his villainy, he never put them through the same kind of hell Shiva did to Cassandra to the point of leaving her covered in scars and cutting her vocal cords to make her better understand body language. Artemis and Jade even agree that as much of a bastard Crusher was to them, they never thought he would actually kill either of them, something they can't say the same of for Shiva regarding Cassandra.
• Manipulative Bastard: Towards his own daughter, no less.
• Meaningful Name: "Lawrence" in French and Latin means "crowned with laurel". A laurel is a wreath used to crown the winners of an athletic contest. And Lawrence's code name, "Sportsmaster" just alludes to his mastery of every type of athletic competition.
• Multi-Melee Master: He uses multiple sports-themed weapons in combat, all to great effect.
• Multi-Ranged Master: His various weapons (javelins, foils, shot-puts, discuses) enable him to be dangerous at any range.
• Older Than They Look: He's sixty by season two, but barely looks half that.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He was an effective and highly competent chief enforcer for the Light in the first two seasons... but his first replacement maneuvered to take a seat on the Light, and the second proudly pulls double duty as Sensei as well, making his current state of affairs as a simple (if very good) gun-for-here in Season 3 seem small beans in comparison.
• Omniglot: Word of God states that Sportsmaster is fluent in Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and possibly many more.
• Papa Wolf: Zigzagged. He's not angry about Artemis being killed. He's angry that she was killed without his permission because it soils his reputation. Chesire tells him he's full of crap and when he finds out that Artemis IS alive, he calls off the mission and leaves his reputation still soiled. It's mainly because he knows that Artemis is working to bring down the organization that screwed him over.
• Parents Know Their Children: Zigzagged. He doesn't recognize Artemis' presence even inside her own mind, but he does recognize the fighting techniques he taught her.
• Reimagining the Artifact: As part of making him an Adaptational Badass, his "sports-themed weaponry" gimmick is given more dignity than usual by having him mostly stick to sports that involve actual weapons, such as javelin throwing, hammer throwing, and fencing.
• Revenge by Proxy: He's pissed that Artemis was killed without his permission since it damaged his reputation, so he leaves Aqualad to Jade, while he gets Black Manta.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In the comics, Sportsmaster primarily fought the JSA, here he's more of a personal foe to Artemis.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: If someone damages his professional reputation, no amount of money is going to stop him from taking them down.
• Slave to PR: His Villain Cred seems to be the only thing he cares about. He'll even take on the Light to keep people from thinking he's an easy mark. Subverted when he finds out Artemis is alive. He leaves with his rep still stained, knowing that she's plotting to take them down from the inside. So he cares more about Revenge than about his rep. Or possibly his daughter, but it’s probably revenge.
• The Sociopath: Enjoys hurting people, distinct Lack of Empathy, self-centered, and manipulative. When he thought his daughter had been killed, Crusher's first thought was that it would be a blow to his reputation.
• Unholy Matrimony: In the past, with his wife as they were both married criminals before Paula's injury. After she decided to go straight, their marriage was over.
• Utility Belt: Wears one to hold his weapons.
• Would Hit a Girl: He didn't hold back in his training of Artemis and Jade. He made Artemis train even when she had a broken arm.
• Would Hurt a Child: Crusher taught his daughters to fight by fighting them himself, and he had no qualms at all about getting brutal, or with forcing Artemis to keep training despite a broken arm.
• Wrestler in All of Us: At one point knocks down Aqualad with a clothesline move.

Lady Shiva

Lady Shiva (Sandra Wu-San)

"There's power to be drawn from grace, from serenity."

Species: Human

Voiced by: Gwendoline Yeo

The Light's new chief enforcer.

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• Action Mom: Though it was never outright stated until season 4, she is Cassandra Cain's mom. She's also the deadliest woman on the planet.
• Adaptational Villainy: As a result of the Composite Character entry below. In the comics, Shiva is, while extremely violent and unpredictable, very much an unconventionally loving mother to her daughter Cassandra (despite their occasional duels to the death), and staunchly opposes anyones efforts to control Cassandra's destiny for her. Here, she was the one who raised Cassandra as a living weapon, to the point that she cut Cassandra's vocal cords as a child so her daughter would understand body language, something that goes wildly against her comic counterpart's moral code.
• Adaptation Personality Change: She seems much more stoic and less of a Blood Knight than her comic self.
• Affably Evil: Shiva is as polite as she is ruthless; she engages in a calm, civil discussion with Ocean-Master, then swiftly kills him when he rejects her offer to settle the matter peaceably.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy:
  • The Light's previous two enforcers, Sportsmaster and Deathstroke, were white men, while she is an Asian-American woman.
  • Also, she takes over as the Sensei. Her predecessor is male.
• Arc Villain: The main antagonist of episodes 5-8 of Phantoms, working with Cassandra Savage to steal intel from the Justice League and kidnap her daughter.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: While calm and controlled at all times, the sheer confidence and pride with which she holds herself screams this. She very specifically wants to beat Katana in a sword fight to demonstrate her superiority as a fighter.
• Badass Normal: While seemingly without metahuman powers, she is able to kill Ocean-Master in seconds. Though in the comics, Shiva and Cassandra regularly push the boundaries of not being meta-humans.
• Blood Knight: Although less evident than in the comics, Shiva, true to form, still clearly enjoys battle. She spends her duel with Katana with a smile on her face as she boasts of claiming the Soultaker for herself.
• Cleavage Window: It's diamond-shaped.
• Composite Character:
  • Is an assassin and wears a similar outfit to her Post-Crisis self, but like her Pre-Crisis counterpart she uses a sword instead of her bare hands.
  • She's also combined with David Cain, Cassandra's father in the comics, as the one to train Cassandra as a living weapon, along with keeping her from being able to read and speak.
• Dark Action Girl: She's noted to be the most dangerous woman alive, and for good reason.
• The Dragon: To the Light now that Deathstroke is the Dragon Ascendant. Also, to Deathstroke himself, as the new Sensei of the League of Shadows.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Is noted to be far more dangerous than her boss within the Shadows, Deathstroke, to the point where he hurriedly apologizes after accidentaly offending her.
• Dragon Lady: As is the norm.
• The Dreaded: Oracle calls her the “Deadliest Woman in the World,” and she lives up to that reputation. Deathstroke, a Super-Soldier who managed to join the Light’s inner circle and is her boss, even quickly apologizes when he accidentally insults her while politely inquiring how she’s juggling being an enforcer and teacher, and even lets her get away with a blatant, if polite, threat.
• Evil Counterpart: Phantoms sets her up to be one to Cheshire. Both are lethal Dragon Lady assassins who are also mothers. Coincidentally, Cheshire's voice actress Kelly Hu had voiced Shiva in previous adaptations. The difference is that Cheshire's love for her daughter was what caused her to renounce her ties to the League of Shadows and her absence from Lian's life was out of fear that her daughter might turn out like her, while Shiva sees her own daughter as nothing more than a killing machine for the Shadows and wants Cassandra to be like her.
• Evil Matriarch: She's the mother of Cassandra Cain, and if her comics counterpart holds true here, Shiva is in the running as one of the worst moms in the DC Universe. Phantoms makes her even worse than her comics counterpart would ever be.
• Evil Mentor: She’s the new Sensei of Deathstroke’s incarnation of the League of Shadows, on top of being the Light’s main enforcer.
• Gone Horribly Right: Sensei laments that in his efforts to create loyal soldiers for the League of Shadows, he had created fanatics like Shiva who have renounced their human connections.
• Lady of War: She carries herself with a tranquil, polite demeanor, fights in a fluid style, and is reputed as a martial arts grandmaster and the most dangerous woman alive. She invokes this when training members of the League of Shadows.
  Lady Shiva: There's power to be drawn from grace, from serenity.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: When she calls out Katana, both of them quietly march over to an open space, bow to each other, and then begin a proper duel. It doesn't last long, as Metamorpho moves in to help Katana when things start going south, but the sentiment was there; Lady Shiva wanted to win a fair fight. This is in line with Shiva's character; for as ruthless as she is, Shiva wants to win a fight properly to prove herself legitimately superior. In many cases, being a Combat Pragmatist is your best bet to outfighting her, as Batman proves.
• Master Swordswoman: Capable of decapitating an Atlantean with a single sword stroke, and she outright states she’s a superior sword wielder to Katana, who not only has to Dual Wield to keep pace, but eventually switches opponents with Metamorpho before they and Batman simply retreat. Katana is a Master Swordswoman hero, and she does better against Deathstroke than she does against Shiva.
• Most Common Superpower: Shiva has a noticeably voluptuous bust that has a diamond-shaped Cleavage Window.
• Not So Stoic: "I Know Why The Caged Cat Sings" sees the usually phlegmatic, unflappable Shiva visibly losing her temper, shouting at the top of her lungs, huffing and puffing in frustration, and even recklessly killing her own subordinates.
  Lady Shiva: (To the Shade) You dare BETRAY ME?!
• Pride: Shiva is quite confident in and proud of her abilities, boasting of her swordfighting skills as she duels Katana. While she handles it calmly, she also proves that she's not fond of any implication that she's not as good as she believes herself to be; when Deathstroke inadvertently questioned Shiva's abilities, she gave him a Death Glare and ended their conversation with a veiled threat. Deathstroke was wise enough not to call her on the comment.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Shiva's outfit is primarily red and black, and she accentuates the look with her dark hair, a black-bladed sword, and black lipstick; all of this helps to sell her as a villain at a mere glance.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Shiva tries to get Cassandra to kill her following their duel in an effort to turn her into the killer Shiva always wanted her to be.

Partners

The Reach

See The Reach

Darkseid

See Apokolips

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