With Black Lightning, DC launched its first television show starring a black superhero.
It's a milestone that's been a long time coming, but it's not the first time Jefferson Pierce
has managed to break a long-standing barrier: since first appearing over 40 years ago, he’s
served as a member of the Justice League, the Outsiders, a solo superhero, and even
provided the DC Universe with a legacy of heroic characters.
From his origins on the page all the way to his current status on the screen, here's the
fascinating truth behind Black Lightning.
DC's First Black Superhero
The first three decades of the superhero genre were overwhelmingly white, but in the late
'60s, that began to change.
At Marvel, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Black Panther, and in 1973, Hero For Hire
#1 made Luke Cage the first black superhero to headline his own book.
At DC, however, things moved a little more slowly.
It wasn’t until 1977 that Tony Isabella, a writer who had previously worked on Luke
Cage's adventures, was hired to create their first headlining black superhero.
With Isabella and artist Trevor von Eeden, that year saw the debut of Black Lightning.
Jefferson Pierce was a Gold Medal-winning Olympic decathlete who returned to his old
neighborhood in Metropolis to work as a teacher.
When one of his students was killed in an altercation with the a criminal organization
called the 100, Pierce decided to hit the streets with a high-tech costume to take them
on himself.
The Black Bomber, the hero that almost was
While Black Lightning was the idea that made it to the page, he wasn’t DC’s first thought
when it came to creating a black superhero — and as Isabella revealed on his blog,
the original plan might’ve been the worst idea in comics history.
When Isabella was hired, the editors pitched him a character called the Black Bomber, with
the hook being that he was actually a white racist who turned into a super-powered black
man when he was stressed out, with neither personality being aware of the other.
In other words, DC's first black superhero was not actually going to be black, and would
feature plenty of stereotypes including a basketball uniform costume.
Fortunately for everyone concerned, Isabella talked them out of it.
Thirty years later, though, writer Dwayne McDuffie, well known for making satirical
jabs at the superhero genre, worked him into a story about an alternate reality where everything
had gone so wrong that the Brown Bomber could be on the Justice League.
The Outsiders
The original run of Black Lightning was canceled after only 11 issues, but if it's any consolation,
it wasn't alone.
Instead, it was a casualty of what fans have dubbed the DC Implosion.
All told, DC gave the axe to 20 titles.
It was a move that came so suddenly that most of those series even had completely finished
stories, including Black Lightning #12, that stayed in DC's archives until they were published
in a book called Cancelled Comic Cavalcade to secure the copyrights.
Five years later, Black Lightning got a second chance at stardom.
When Batman quit the Justice League over that team's reluctance to cause an international
incident, he put together a new team called the Outsiders.
The roster included a handful of new characters like Katana, who would go on to appear in
the Suicide Squad movie, but it also revived a few existing heroes, including Black Lightning.
Over the course of the Outsiders' five-year run, everyone on the team got a spotlight
story highlighting their mysterious and/or tortured past, and Black Lightning was no
exception.
In his case, he'd given up his costumed identity and powers due to guilt over the accidental
death of a bystander named Trina Shelton, whose family would eventually return to get
revenge.
I'm the one who taught him to fly!
Black Lightning headlining his own show is a new development, but Cress Williams isn't
actually the first actor to ever play the character in live action.
That honor, believe it or not, goes to stand-up comedian Sinbad, who took a brief turn as
Black Lightning on a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live.
In a sketch set at Superman's funeral, tying into the then-current Death of Superman storyline,
cast members like Chris Farley, Dana Carvey, and Chris Rock appeared as Superman's fellow
heroes.
However, Black Lightning wasn't invited, leading to an altercation with Jimmy Olsen.
And… by the way - SNL effects department - that's not what lightning looks like.
It's not the most flattering portrayal for sure —and the part where Batman doesn't
recognize his old teammate is a real heartbreaker — but it is an interesting bit of pop cultural
prominence for a character who was still pretty obscure for mainstream audiences.
Thunder, Lightning, and Grace
With Black Lightning's ties to the original roster of the Outsiders, it's not surprising
that he'd have a connection to the team when a new version was put together in 2003.
In Outsiders #1, Judd Winick and Tom Raney introduced Anissa Pierce, AKA Thunder, the
oldest of Black Lightning's two daughters.
Like her father, Anissa added some much-needed diversity to the DC Universe when it was revealed
that she was in a romantic relationship with another member of the outsiders, Grace Choi.
Her powers, however, are completely different.
She can control her density, making her nearly invulnerable.
In 2008, Anissa’s younger sister Jennifer — originally introduced as part of another
alternate reality in the pages of Kingdom Come — joined her in the mainstream continuity.
With powers that were similar to her father’s, she took the name “Lightning.”
Joining the Justice League
In 1979, Black Lightning was offered membership in the JLA, but turned it down, becoming only
the second character ever to do so.
30 years later, he finally accepted.
In 2006, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman spent a story arc literally sitting around
a table with a bunch of trading card-style photographs of their fellow heroes, debating
who they should let into a reformed League.
Around that same time, a swamp zombie rebuilt a killer robot so he could turn Red Tornado
human and then tear off his arm and eat it.
Yeah, that really happened… but anyway that was the McGuffin to get Black Lightning, and
the rest, to join up.
The Justice League decided to just keep everyone who showed up to fight the latest crisis,
and he stuck around for the next few years.
After DC rebooted their universe in 2011, and then "rebirthed" it in 2016, he was out
of the League and back to being a solo hero.
The CW's Black Lightning
With the new Black Lightning TV show, the CW is pulling from the entire history of the
character in some pretty interesting ways.
Cress Williams stars as Jefferson Pierce, who still works in education in his TV incarnation.
He's the principal of a high school in the city of Freeland who has dedicated his tenure
to helping kids and eliminating violence.
Like his earliest comics incarnation, the CW's Black Lightning is taking on the 100
and Tobias Whale, and getting his costume and equipment from Peter Gambi.
Like the version that showed up in Batman and the Outsiders, he's been retired from
superheroics, driven to give up on being a vigilante by his aversion to violence.
Anissa and Jennifer have already appeared on the show, both with the powers they have
the comics, and Grace Choi is there as Anissa’s love interest.
The only thing that could really complete the saga is if they managed to get an appearance
by Sinbad.
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