Working as a assistant at his father's nuclear power plant, he was delivering some basic supplies to one of the scientists, Dr. Zaxton Regulus, however the machine he is working on explodes resulting in the death of Zarl Hendricks who also worked at the plant.
Dr. Regulus blames the accident, and his subsequent dismissal, on the interruption. He gets his revenge on Dirk Morgna by throwing him in an atomic reactor. This did not kill Dirk as it is revealed that he is a Metahuman with a "one-in-a-million genetic structure", the radiation is absorbed into his body and gives him the power to generate heat and light.
