- For the Dynamite version of the character, see Lamplighter/Comics.
| “ | I just wanted to make my dad proud.
―Lamplighter's last words[src]
|
” |
Lamplighter is a character in the Amazon series The Boys. He was a supe with pyrokinetic abilities and Starlight's predecessor in The Seven. After his "retirement", Lamplighter became an orderly at Sage Grove Center, a psychiatric hospital where Vought would experiment on patients in an attempt to stabilize Compound V. Despite still keeping a position in working for Vought, Lamplighter is very disappointed with his demotion from Seven member, to "clean-up".
The Boys Series
Background
Lamplighter was 4 years old when his powers activated, in which he accidentally burned the house down. Despite this, his dad was immensely proud of him and said he was destined for greatness by being a Supe. At some point, he became one of the original members in The Seven and eventually struck a friendship with The Deep. However sometime before the start of Season 1, Lamplighter was "demoted" from his position due to unspecified reasons (possibly the very same one The Boys used to blackmail him 5 years ago) . While still maintaining connections with Vought he is now simply tasked to "clean up" disobeying patients at the Sage Grove Center, with his member status being taken by Starlight. From now on in his own admission, his father was wrong about him, he's just a guy watching from the sidelines while the real "heroes" do the work.
Season 1
He does not appear in any of the episodes in Season One; however, he is frequently mentioned by other members of The Seven. There is also a mural of him painted on the ceiling of The Seven's headquarters at Seven Tower. In You Found Me, Grace Mallory mentions that Lamplighter killed her grandchildren, forcing her to leave the CIA.
Season 2
Lamplighter makes his first real appearance in Season 2's We Gotta Go Now, where he is seen at the Sage Grove Center where he is working as an orderly, aka a cover up guy for experiments gone wrong. He is talking on the phone with Stormfront discussing about a super-powered boy. He is unsure about the boy, saying the boy is only 17, but Stormfront convinces him the boy is ready.
After The Boys break into the center in The Bloody Doors Off, they are shocked to see Lamplighter there. In a series of flashbacks it was revealed that Lamplighter, while still a member of the Seven at the time, was blackmailed into being a spy for The Boys. In retaliation Lamplighter attempted to kill the leader of The Boys; Grace Mallory but accidentally killed her grandchildren by mistake.
While working at the Sage Grove Center, Lamplighter makes eye contact with Frenchie and recognizes him, because they had met years before after Mallory blackmailed him into working for The Boys. Lamplighter tries to light Frenchie on fire but misses and eventually they have a stand off. However, Lamplighter's miss actually burned down a door, allowing one of the patients, Cindy, to escape and release all the others, so Lamplighter ends up partnering with MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko to get out.
After Frenchie accuses Lamplighter of being an animal, the latter reveals that killing Mallory's grandchildren was a total accident, as since they were under a bed, he mistook them for their grandmother, and by the time he realized he was burning the wrong targets, it was too late to save them. Frenchie also reveals that the reason he stopped trailing Lamplighter and therefore unable to save Mallory's grandchildren, was due to going to save his friend from a drug overdose.
While Frenchie is making a bomb to knock out the patients, Lamplighter later tells the Boys that the patients at the center weren't attempts to create more Super terrorists, but to in fact stabilize Compound V so that adults could take it without any repercussions, though he doesn't know why despite all the marketing problems it would cause, Vought is so interested in creating possibly hundreds of Supers at once.
After the bomb fails to knock Cindy out, Stormfront arrives and shocks her unconscious, Lamplighter saves the Boys by luring her away and blaming another doctor for unleashing the patients, ensuring that Stormfront was unaware that the Boys had been at the facility at all. Lamplighter later goes voluntarily with Frenchie, MM, and Kimiko to see Grace Mallory. When she arrives and points her gun at him, Lamplighter reveals his remorse for what he did to her grandchildren and offers her the chance to kill him to give herself closure. Frenchie though thinks he sees good in Lamplighter and convinces Grace to spare him.
Lamplighter takes a stand
Lamplighter reappears in Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, Grace wants him to speak at the hearings and confess what Vought has done, but at the meantime he must wait for them to return with "supporting evidence". Hughie is forced to stay with Lamplighter due to his injury. The two watch pornographic films while they sit back and wait for the other members of The Boys to return. Hughie is disgusted with Lamplighter's choices, but Lamplighter states he doesn't care because he's going to die if he goes to that hearing. Lamplighter and Hughie both open up to each other about how worthless they both feel. With Lamplighter repeatedly stating he's a failure in his dad's eyes and his life is forever ruined.
As they continue, Hughie grows uncomfortable with the most recent film and changes the channel. On the news, they see Homelander addressing Starlight as a traitor, to Hughie's horror. As a former member of the Seven, who is familiar with the layout of Vought Tower, Lamplighter guesses she's probably being held on 42D if she hasn't been killed yet. Hughie suggest they go rescue her, but Lamplighter says it's pointless and she's already dead. A persistent Hughie then tries to guilt Lamplighter into stopping Vought from ruining another life, however, Lamplighter still refuses, stating his life is already over. Hughie then tries to convince him by referencing the film, telling him stop watching from the side and do something. It seemingly works, as Lamplighter stands up and agrees to go with Hughie. The two arrive at a "back door" to the Seven tower and make it inside. From there, a moment of truth arrives in the form of a security lock. To their fortune, Lamplighter is still in the system and can override the security with his handprint. As they continue deeper, Lamplighter tells Hughie they're getting closer and opens a door onto another floor. Hughie then realizes they're at the Seven conference room and not at the holding cells. Hughie then sees Lamplighter staring at The Seven mural, remarking that they got rid of his statue and he wanted to do "it" in front of his statue. A confused Hughie looks on as Lamplighter says he did it for his dad, before he turns around and lights his lighter, setting himself on fire. Shocked and horrified, Hughie can only watch as Lamplighter is consumed in flames. The sprinklers activate to put out the fire, inadvertently allowing for Starlight to escape her holding cell via the emergency light. Hughie stares at the now charred body of Lamplighter and runs away disappointed, but quickly returns to his body once he remembers that he needs Lamplighter's hand to bypass the locks. Using a broken bottle, Hughie cuts off the hand and uses it to free Donna January. The two then meet up with Starlight and escape the tower.
Grace and M.M are disappointed with Hughie's actions. Remarking their eyewitness is now dead when Hughie only had to sit and wait. Hughie protests that he didn't know Lamplighter would kill himself. Meanwhile, Starlight hugs him and is grateful to Hughie for rescuing her.
Powers & Abilities
- Pyrokinesis: Lamplighter has the ability to control fire with his mind, and create blasts strong enough to melt holes in plate steel and burn normal people to ash. To use this ability, however, he needs access to a fire 'source'. This can include his staff, lighter or likely any other source of fire. It is implied that this power is effective against supes (Lamplighter was deployed regularly to incinerate unruly patients at Sage Grove: "They make me burn the evidence. Okay?"). Despite being able to control fire, he is vulnerable to his own flames.
- Enhanced Attributes: It seems everyone injected by Compound V has at least some varied degree of increased strength, stamina and durability compared to humans, so it is highly likely Lamplighter has this as well. He was also shown to be able to briefly outrun Kimiko, who also possesses enhanced speed. He was sprayed by acid vomit, and although it did burn his skin, he recovered rapidly without too much bother. However, he is not as durable as some of the other supes like Black Noir or Queen Maeve, as he was able to burn himself to death using his own powers, and Hughie was able to break his wrist with a single stomp and used a broken bottle to slice off his hand.
Weaknesses
- Human Weaknesses: Although he has a slight enhancement due to being a Supe, he is fairly weak on the Supe spectrum. He was incinerated and killed by normal fire, and his body is easily broken apart by Hughie.
Personality
At first glance, Lamplighter seemed as corrupt as the other members of the Seven, and before the accident, most likely was, given how Mallory was able to blackmail him with various pictures which instantly shook him up. And years later, it was shown that outside of slight hesitation, he still burns patients at the Sage Grove Center when they become unable to be controlled.
However, Lamplighter later reveals that not only did he not know that Mallory's grandchildren were in the room he targeted believing Mallory herself was in there, but he genuinely felt heavy remorse for doing so. After revealing these things to Frenchie, MM and Kimiko, Lamplighter goes out of his way to help them, telling them the true purpose of the center, then preventing Stormfront from learning of their presence or role in the patients escaping. Then he willingly goes with them to offer his life to Mallory to give her closure, showing that despite knowing she would kill him, he wanted to make things right. Despite this, Lamplighter grows increasingly despondent and fatalistic in the short time he spends in the Boys' custody, believing that he is as good as dead after he testifies against Vought, and reflects upon his failed career. He felt real regret and pain over his past, as a boy his father used to hold him in high regard, and told him he’d do great things, which obviously he didn’t accomplish. This culminates in him committing suicide in the Seven's headquarters, he originally wanted to do in front of his statue, but was heartbroken to find he’d been replaced by Starlight’s. Regardless, Lamplighter proceeded as planned, with his final words being that he only wanted to makes his dad proud.
Relationships
Allies
|
Enemies
Victims
|
Trivia
- In TV Series his costume and profile is a parody of DC's Green Lantern.
- In the comics, he is a more straight forward Green Lantern parody. While still possessing pyrokinesis, these powers are given to him by his lamp.
- Shawn Ashmore also portrayed Iceman in 20th Century Studios' X-Men movies. Coincidentally, his character's arch nemesis, Pyro, has the same pyrokinetic powers as Lamplighter, and a fondness for zippo lighters.
- Occasionally, he will linger on his "s" pronunciations at the end of a sentence; this is reminiscent of the sound fire makes as it dies. This may be a developed tic due to hearing the sound so often or a mere thematic quirk.
- Lamplighter was credited as "Man in Scrubs" in We Gotta Go Now.
- As implied by The Deep, him and Lamplighter are close friends.
Gallery
References
| TV series The Seven members |
|---|
| Current Homelander • A-Train • The Deep • Black Noir II • Sister Sage • Firecracker Former Mister Marathon • Translucent † • Lamplighter † • Stormfront † • Supersonic † • Starlight • Black Noir † • Queen Maeve Associates Madelyn Stillwell † • Ashley Barrett |