In 1992, Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada introduced a new version of the Golden Age hero, The Ray, via 6-issue mini-series. The character, creatively named Ray Terrill, was the son of the original, but didn't have any idea about that, or his father's past until his father, well, passed.
The first issue I owned was #3, purchased off a spinner rack in a bookstore in a mall. I still can't recall what made me want to buy it; I'd never heard of the character. The cover is probably the least dynamic or eye-catching of the mini-series. But I did buy it, and Ray saving a village from a volcano - plus how cool Quesada, Nichols and Cebollero made his "powered-up" form look - apparently sold me. It took time, but I eventually tracked the rest of the mini-series down.
I discussed this in my Favorite Characters post on The Ray, but in addition to the usual "superpowers as a metaphor for puberty or adolescence," Jack C. Harris is focused on another theme of growing up: "lies my parents told me." Sure there are parts where Ray struggles to control his powers. He tries to chase bank robbers, but goes so fast he lands in front of them without realizing it and gets hit by the van. Also, he burns off his pants in the process. He saves the village by flying into the volcano then carving a tunnel underground into the sea, only to surface and remember he never learned how to swim.
But isn't just superpowers he gains, it's the knowledge so much was held back from him. He spent his entire life up to that point believing the sun would kill him. He was "Night Boy," living indoors, with nothing more than candlelight. His one childhood friend, Jenny, gets hauled away by her mother at his 8th birthday, when a camera flash triggers a reaction in Ray. He learns the truth as his father dies, so there's not even anyone to demand answers from, or to rage at, save his cousin Hank, who shows up at the funeral (and who Quesada draws as basically the Fonz.)
The lies keep coming. The man who died was Ray's uncle. His father shows up and turns out to be the original Ray, but he's a ghost who needs Ray's help, yet keeps running away rather than explaining what he needs help with. Also, he's not actually dead. There's a weirdo with a candle fetish in a mental hospital monitoring Ray through light or flame, because there's something Ray needs to handle, and he ropes Jenny into helping push Ray where he wants him to go. Ray's finally able to go out in the light, but he's still in the dark.
The manipulation gets to the point that, when Dr. Polaris attacks Ray, he thinks this is another kooky test his father lined up. It takes nearly being crushed to death underground to clue him in Polaris really is trying to kill him, but he still thinks Ray Classic set it up.
For all my issues with Quesada as an Editor-in-Chief, as an artist, he's got a distinct style. Ray's eventual costume is a little goofy - the ankle boots and the yellow-on-white pants aren't something I particularly love - but the powered-up form looks great. He shifts to mostly black, with only the yellow highlights on the jacket and gloves for contrast. Where they depict Ray Classic in flight as an upper body with a yellow trail, Ray is a dark form surrounded by a rectangular yellow field with a dark edge, like he flies so fast he cuts the sky.
To this day, I don't really understand the "Light Entity," the threat Ray's meant to confront. There's a whole thing about some wacky scientist in the '30s believing the Light Entity was created with the Earth, and it'll return some day, and that's bad, and they need someone born of the light to communicate. So Ray Classic getting powers was the scientist trying to set that up, because the powers would be passed along to his kid? Ray and the Entity mingle, it's trying to get him to lead it home, but Ray 'shuts the door.'
I think it's supposed to dovetail with the fact, throughout the mini-series, Ray keeps retreating to his childhood home, even as the family lawyer is selling it and finding him a new apartment. The Entity tries to guide Ray by showing him a vision of the home, and Ray rejects it, shutting the door on that part of his past as well? It's the weakest part of the mini-series, which is kind of a bummer, since it occupies the entire final issue.
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