| “ | You wanna talk about poison!? Hahaha! I am poison! | „ |
| ~ Derek Powers' villainous breakdown after he is exposed as Blight. |
| “ | It's better to be feared than loved. | „ |
| ~ Derek Powers |
Derek Powers, also known as Blight, is the main antagonist of the animated television series Batman Beyond.
He is a corrupt chairman of Wayne-Powers, the resulting merge of his company Powers Technology and Bruce Wayne's family business Wayne Enterprises, taking over the company after Wayne retired from the public eye. When he develops a nerve gas for the black market, Powers has Warren McGinnis killed to prevent him from exposing his actions, leading his son Terry to become Gotham City's new Batman.
He was voiced by Sherman Howard.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
Past[]
- Took over Wayne Enterprises against Bruce Wayne's wishes by taking advantage of his delicate health.
- Fired Lucius Fox Jr., the son of Bruce's friend Lucius Fox, from Wayne Enterprises, leading the Foxes to found Foxteca.
- Mistreated his son Paxton when he was an adult, essentially "exiling" him to South America so he could handle the Wayne-Powers' businesses there, which he called grunt work.
- Kept the disembodied head of Mr. Freeze inside a freezer all alone for decades until he decided what to do with it.
Batman Beyond[]
- Develops a deadly nerve gas, capable of slowly eating the inhaler's flesh until nothing but dust remained of them, for the black market.
- Tests his nerve gas on his employee Harry Tully, who later deteriorated alone in a hospital room, but didn't care at all and instead took photos of his remains to explain the process to any buyers.
- Has his employee Warren McGinnis, who attempted to expose his actions after being warned by the dying Tully, killed by his right-hand Mr. Fixx and even makes him incriminate the Jokerz (street juvenile gangs inspired by the late Joker). This later led Warren's son Terry to investigate his death and become the new Batman upon realizing Bruce Wayne’s past.
- Offers his nerve gas to the Kaznian Minister of Commerce Vilmos Egans, promising him a shipment of his gas so he could solve some military tensions back in Kaznia.
- Sends Inque to sabotage Foxteca's attempts to build up a new lunar station for the government so Wayne-Powers could get the contract and later to kill Batman and any of his associates.
- Allows Dr. Stephanie Lake to clone Victor Fries into a new human body to see if he could cure himself from his toxic condition through the same procedure using the pretext that he wanted to give Fries the opportunity to reform, but let Lake use Fries as her guinea pig, leading Fries to turn into Mr. Freeze again, kill Lake, and commit suicide.
- Brutally cripples Mr. Freeze, causing a crack on his suit that led to his eventual death.
- Sends his employee Walter Shreeve (under the alias Shriek) to kill Bruce Wayne so he could finally be allowed to bulldoze Gotham City's historical district, including the derelict Crime Alley, for profit, not caring about the sentimental value the place had for Wayne. The resulting attack doesn't kill Bruce, but sends him to the hospital.
- Convinces Shreeve to become Shriek to seek revenge on Batman after being outed as a criminal, telling him that fear is a better method to get respect and requesting him to kill Bruce and Batman.
- Asks his son Paxton to come back to Gotham to replace him as the chairman of Wayne-Powers, but only in the capacity of his "puppet" and not because he truly wanted him to succeed him.
- Attacks South American protestors who rallied against Paxton as Blight just because they angered him too much, unaware that these “protestors” were actually Paxton’s henchmen.
- Tries to kill Bruce Wayne when he transforms into Blight, even admitting that he always dreamed of doing that.
- When he demands to know who Batman is and Terry gives him a hint at his identity by telling him he killed his father, his only response is "do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?", indicating he's had many other people killed in the past who happened to be fathers and that Warren was far from his only victim that fits that description. Considering his corrupt and power-hungry nature, there's also a good chance many of them were innocent or good people and that he had most, if not all of these people murdered for some form of self-gain.
- After finding out that Paxton spitefully engineered his public breakdown to take over his chairman position when he tries to capture and kill him in the submarine where he was hiding out, he retaliates by chasing after and trying to kill his son in a fit of rage before his powers go out of control, seemingly killing himself when the submarine sank because of all the resulting damage.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- In one of the Batman Beyond tie-in comic books, he befriends Dr. French after he nurses him back to health, even attacking Batman for taking away all from him, including French, proving that he genuinely regarded French as his friend, which proves that he cares for him even if he doesn't care for his own son.
Trivia[]
- To highlight his Near Pure Evil status, Derek Powers was described by Batman Beyond writer Paul Dini in an interview with the AnimeFantastique magazine that compared to Lex Luthor, Powers is a bit more overtly evil than Luthor due to lacking a degree of honor, which Luthor had in spite of his faults and his evil nature.
External Links[]
- Derek Powers on the Villains Wiki
- Derek Powers on the DC Animated Universe Wiki
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 Animated Universe Near Pure Evils
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Batman: The Animated Series: Scarecrow | Sewer King | Professor Milo | Arkady Duvall | ||
 Near Pure Evils
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Comics Other Earths Theatrical Movies Direct-to-video Movies Television Novelizations Video Games See Also | ||