- "I'm going to show you just how real this can be, 'cause this is my house!"
- —Richard Bates to Alex Danvers[src]
Richard Bates is a resident of Opal City who took advantage of a bug within Obsidian Platinum.
Biography[]
Richard Bates is a computer engineer and programmer who married Jennifer. Eventually, their marriage began to deteriorate as she left him alone to do his work and she began to spend time in virtual reality.
While spying on his cheating wife Jennifer hanging out with Trevor Crane in Obsidian Platinum's VR simulation, Bates attempted to use his failsafe button to exit only to fail repeatedly. Ultimately, Kelly Olsen brought him out with an adrenaline shot, at which he began complaining about the system glitch. Kelly assured him that the glitch would be patched as Obsidian employee, Margot Morrison escorted him out.[1]
Later, Richard went to a bar to drown his sorrows; there he discovered that the bartender was an incredible hacker. A friendship developed, where they worked on creating a virtual torture chamber.[2]
Two months later, Bates used his computer expertise to exploit the glitch to imprison Crane in the simulation, torturing him for his own sadistic pleasure by killing him over and over. Eventually, when Alex Danvers comes looking for Crane, Bates catches her after she taught Crane to end his loop. Despite his attempts to stop her, Alex managed to force Bates from the simulation and back into reality. Before he could re-enter the simulation, J'onn J'onzz phased into his hotel room and disabled him. Strangely, Bates becomes unresponsive as his Obsidian lenses turned red. Initially he is taken to a hospital before Margot moves him to a warehouse with other comatose Obsidian users.[1]
Eventually, the comatosed people of the warehouse are awakened by Lex Luthor.[2]
Appearances[]
Supergirl[]
Season 5[]
- "Reality Bytes"
- "Alex in Wonderland" (mentioned)
- "Deus Lex Machina"
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Reality Bytes"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Deus Lex Machina"