Derek Powers

Derek Powers is a corrupt businessman who gains control over Wayne Enterprises after merging it with his own company Powers Technologies (in doing so renaming it Wayne-Powers) when Bruce Wayne's health begins to decline. He is the one who inadvertently sets a young man named Terry on the path to becoming Batman. Powers had developed a lethal mutagenic nerve gas and intends to sell it as a weapon. One of his employees, Warren McGinnis, Terry's father, ends up in possession of evidence concerning this plan. Powers quickly has him murdered before he can show it to the authorities, and takes it from Terry when he tries the same. What Powers didn't know was that Terry discovered earlier Batman's secret identity and the Batcave. With this knowledge, McGinnis becomes Batman for the first time to stop Powers' plans, causing him to be exposed to the gas in the process; Powers subjects himself to extreme levels of radiation exposure to save his life, but as a side effect due to the mutagenic properties of the nerve gas, his entire body becomes radioactive, rendering him translucent. (Batman Beyond episode "Rebirth") He is able to hide his state and contain his radiation with special cosmetic skins that, over time, flake off. (Batman Beyond episode "Black Out", Batman Beyond episode "Shriek") The cosmetic skins begin to disintegrate faster and faster as his radiation levels keep rising and his temper becomes more and more uncontrollable.

He first introduces himself as Blight in the episode Meltdown[1]. Dr. Stephanie Lake, a scientist working for Powers, had the idea that, by using Powers' baseline DNA, she could create a new body unaffected by his radioactive condition, and then transfer his mind into that new body. To test the procedure, she located and persuaded Mr. Freeze to participate, because, much like Powers, his DNA had been permanently corrupted by a form of mutation. At first, the procedure appeared successful, but several days later his condition starts to resurface. Powers believes a biopsy of his organs will help them to figure out how to solve this problem with the procedure, and is satisfied when Lake takes the remark as a suggestion to kill Freeze. Freeze escapes, however, and later returns to Wayne-Powers, wearing a cybernetic suit he had "kept in cold storage", ultimately freezing Powers and Lake. Powers survives the attack by melting off his skin and the ice, and attacks Freeze before fighting Batman. When Batman (not recognizing Powers in his radioactive form) asks who the villain is, he identifies himself as "Blight", declaring his powers make him a walking plague. After a fierce struggle, Freeze eventually jettisons him away from the battle.

Over time, Powers discovers his condition is worsening, as the radiation burns off his skin more rapidly with each shedding, and his uncontrolled anger is slowly driving him insane. Unable to maintain his public image, he decides to withdraw from his corporate interests and focus on finding a cure, deciding to have his estranged son, Paxton Powers (voiced by Cary Elwes), known for causing mass pollution, run the company under his own direction; however, Paxton betrays his father during a televised business meeting by hiring a group of actors to pretend to be fishermen, who throw mutated fish in front of the share holders and voice anger at Paxton dumping poison in their river. As his anger grows, Powers' artificial skin starts to flake off, exposing him to the world as Blight. Powers hides inside of an abandoned nuclear submarine, but is discovered by Batman at the request of Paxton so he can have Derek taken into custody for proper medical treatment. Once found, Paxton has Derek subdued using a device called a "Pinch Cell" that drains his father's radiation and by doing so nearly succeeds in killing him, until Batman intervenes upon realizing Paxton's true intentions. Upon freeing himself of the Pinch Cell, Powers goes berserk with massive radiation bursts that sink the submarine with him inside while Batman, Paxton and his minions escape. A later exchange between Batman and Paxton has Batman, unable to expose Paxton's machinations without jeopardizing his own secret identity, hinting that Derek Powers may have survived and now seeks revenge.[2]

Blight returns in the Batman Beyond series, of the “Industrial Revolution” storyline where he seems to have survived from Stalker's attack and escaped from his trophy room. No longer using his artificial skin, Blight now wears a containment suit to keep the radiation he is emitting held back. He also appears to recover a portion of his sanity to the point where he remembers his history as Derek Powers. He anonymously arranged for his son Paxton to be released from prison, then set a trap for him in a former Wayne-Powers facility. Blight apparently gets his revenge when the facility is engulfed by an explosion with Paxton and Batman with it, only to find out later that Paxton escaped with Batman. The elder Powers plans to ruin his former company, then rebuild it from the scraps.[3] It is revealed after his confrontation with Batman and Paxton, Blight has been trapped beneath Gotham Harbor for months and, because of his condition, he no longer needs oxygen and food to survive. After Blight emerges from the water, he comes across a former Wayne-Power scientist, Doctor French, who helps Blight build his suit. However, the suit begins to be as ineffective as his artificial skin and also reveals that Powers' condition is slowly killing him. Eventually, as Batman investigates the identity of the culprit who has been sabotaging Wayne Enterprises and Powers Technology financially, Blight reveals himself and has the young hero at his mercy.[4] Although Batman is almost killed, he manages to escape by puncturing Blight's suit, forcing him to back off. Batman confronts Blight again when he attacks Wayne Manor. He uses the control module on the back of Blight's suit to overload its settings, reducing him to radioactive slime. The slime is taken in by Gotham PD, although it is mentioned that they are not sure whether Powers is actually alive or dead.[5]

Blight made another appearance in the Gotham Academy comics Yearbook. He disguises himself as a visiting lecturer in order to kill Warren McGinnis, the father of his arch-foe. He used a portal located in a clock to travel to the past. However, the students of Gotham Academy manage to push him into the clock and destroy it, sending him back to the future.