"Lightning strikes twice in this town,
and the second time I strike, it's for keeps!"
Black Lightning
Luke Cage is to Marvel as Black Lightning is to DC. Black Lightning is DCs first African American to receive his own comic series. The special part is he was co created by DC's first African American Artist, Trevor Von Eeden. Trevor started at DC at the old age of 16. Yes he was a major artist before the age of 18. I was just trying to get a license at 16 and here he was creating one of the most iconic characters of all time. Kind of makes you look at your life and wonder where you went wrong.
Jefferson Pierce grew up in the Suicide Slum area of Metropolis. It was obviously too black there for Superman to handle, so it was the worst area in all of Metropolis. But Jeff's parents did the best they could for him and he in turn did his best at everything he could. When Jeff was young his father was shot and killed trying to stop a robbery. Superman didn't hear that robbery going down? But he hears everything?
Peter Gambei a tailor opened a shop below their apartment and took care of Jeff while his mother worked long hours trying to raise him. It was a change because his father had been the main salary bringer in the family. Now Jeff spent most of his time alone with his books. When he wasn't studying he was playing multiple sports.
At age 18 he participated in the Olympics as a reserve. He thought it was a great experience, but little did he know he would make this a regular part of his life. At age 22 he won gold in the decathlon. At age 26 he repeated, again at 30 and yet again at 35. For those of you don't know a decathlon is ten consecutive events.
Back to the present, his participation at 18 and victory at 22 payed his way through, college allowing him to gain a degrees in both English and Teaching. Jeff got a job teaching in New Carthridge but came back to Metropolis for his mother's funeral. He decided to stay in the city because he felt the students needed him more.
While in Metropolis he married a community activist named Lynn and had a daughter Anissa who could control her density and weight. They were shocked but Jeff admitted that he had hidden the ability to control lightning and electricity his entire life. She was saddened by the fact that he hid this and only cared about leaving the hood and not helping people like he could.
Jeff moved back to the Suicide Slums after seeing nothing had changed and Lynn divorcing him and suing for custody of his daughter, it was a messy divorce and because of his Celebrity Status due to his gold medals, it was all public news. Everywhere Jeff went there was paparazzi. Moving back to Suicide Slums was also a way for him to escape the public life, because nobody dared come there.
Jeff decided to start teaching at his old high school. However he could no longer sit in silence. In his first week he kicked several drug dealers off the campus and humiliated members of the local gang the 100s. To retaliate they killed one of Jeff's students, Earl Clifford. Jeff blamed himself for this and took responsibility for this although he didn't pull the trigger he felt as if he had.
Jeff
returned to Mr. Gambei to get a suit and an afro wig, so he could hide
his identity. He started using street slang to hid the fact that he was
a English Teacher. Hiding his abilities most of his life he designed a
belt that would keep them in control. However, in the present he no longer need the
belt as he has full control over his powers now.In very little time he carved up the Suicide Slum and took out majority of the 100s gang including the leader Tobias White. This gained attention and praise from the media. One person that was impressed was Superman. Black Lightning was not impressed with Superman. He asked him how he could leave such a large area unprotected when he had more power than any other superhero. Have I mentioned Black Lightning isn't a fan of Superman?
In fact the first time he met Superman they almost fought. Jimmy Olsen was in the slums trying to get photos for a story. He was attacked by some gang members and of course Black Lightning saved him. When Superman showed up Jimmy was knocked out and Superman tried to blame Black Lightning. Just look at this cover. That cover is pretty lame, Superman threatening another hero because he assumed Black Lightning was a criminal. But that's the cover they went with. In the crossover Superman's artist actually handed Von Eeden this sketch and expected him to be okay with it as the cover. Thankfully he wasn't going to let Black Lightning cower at Superman's sight. In that story Superman actually threatened to take Black Lightning to jail for being a vigilante. I'm serious, Superman was going to take him to jail for doing the same thing his buddy Batman does. I know you think I'm painting Superman as a racist, but that's not the last time they met and a similar situation happened later. Back to our story.
One day Mr. Gambei jumped in front of a bullet that Jeff didn't see coming from behind him. It was at that moment Gambei explained why he did so much for Jeff and his mother. Gambei was the one who shot Jeff's father in the botched robbery. He took care of them because of his guilt for breaking up a good family for a few dollars. During the moment of weakness Black Lightning was stripped of his belt. Dumb move, without it he had no control over how strong his attacks were. He quickly wiped the gang off the map completely in his rage. His rage combined with being unable to control his power allowed him to defeat every gang member that couldn't escape the slums before he ran out of energy.
Jeff's ex-wife moved to the Suicide Slums after he cleaned it up. She became a teacher and became a teacher and quickly figured out Jeff was Black Lightning. She was finally proud of him, however, she still didn't want to get back with him but he was just glad to be able to spend time with his daughter again.
Soon he was investigating a case of continuous child abductions. This lead him to Gotham and Batman to the Suicide Slums because he was also investigating this case. They got along great, Black Lightning stated Batman's work in Gotham inspired him. Batman was honored and impressed with how fast Jeff had turned around a neglected area. The joint investigation lead them to meet with other heroes. First Superman. Have I mentioned Black Lightning still wasn't a fan of Superman? Black Lightning questioned how he could leave one area of the city neglected for so long when he has more power than anyone. Superman tried to claim that he just over looked the area and expected Batman to take his side. Batman's response to Superman "He has point." Superman and Black Lightning didn't get along well at all.
Next they were lead to Star City where
they met with Green Arrow and Black Canary, at this time Batman wasn't
on good terms with Green Arrow and Canary. After some conflict resolution by Black Lightning,
everyone was able to come together. Except Superman, he couldn't explain neglecting the Slums so Black Lightning was still mad and everyone understood why. They solved
the case and Green Arrow nominated him for Justice League Membership. He
was accepted by everyone but declined stating that it wouldn't allow
him to operate the same way he had in the past. He wasn't afraid to go to the underworld to fight it's demons. He wasn't going to wait until they just showed up.This is where it get's fun. Batman was tired of the Justice League being too soft on crime. Batman said that but he still hasn't killed the Joker even after he beat Jason Todd to death with a crowbar and crippled Barbara Gordan. But yeah, the Justice League is soft on crime. He decided Black Lightning would be the leader of his underground group The Outsiders. Batman recruited Black Lightning for a covert mission in Markovia.
Black Lightning pretended to be Lucius Fox' brother but was eventually captured along with Batman. That's when Batman learned that Jeff's powers were gone. He had lost them when a girl was killed by a stray bullet. He blamed himself. After hearing how he lost his powers, Batman realized why Jeff's powers were gone. Batman told Jeff it was just psychological. Batman shared the tale of how he lost his edge and almost died on numerous occasions after Jason Todd's death for blaming himself. Batman's temporary moment of friendship and compassion with Jeff allowed him to use his powers once again. They then proceeded to kick ass through the whole country.
Once returning home Jeff received a letter recruiting him to work at Edison High School in Gotham. A school that was funded by Bruce Wayne. This is when Jeff realized that Bruce Wayne may be Batman, since Batman admired how Jeff had eradicated crime in one of the darkest areas of Metropolis. Jeff kept this to himself because he doubted it. Before Jeff left he had a meeting with the girls parents as Black Lightning and learned that he was forgiven for his failure. Black Lightning was back with a vengeance. During this time Jeff also returned to the Olympics, winning another gold medal.
Alongside the Outsiders Jeff managed to clean up the area of Edison High fast. Batman asked if he would stay in Gotham, but Jeff responded that he wanted to move on. After the Outsiders disbanded, he settled on Brick City. His fathers hometown.
While
in Brick City a Villain named Dominator released a gene bomb that would
cause meta-humans to be seen. Somehow Black Lightning was the
only meta-human there. This bomb caused Black Lightnings power to go out of
his control because they had increased to levels he had no idea he could
reach. At this time Black Lightning realized he couldn't keep
pretending he wasn't a meta human. Jeff learned to control this new
level of power and learned a lot of new tricks he had no idea he could
do. Such as summon actual lightning from the sky and fly. Jeff can fly
but it's much faster for him to summon a lightning bolt and ride it to
his destination. Yes he can do that. Jeff can also convert his body into
pure electrical energy now. He's been know to travel through power
lines as well. But Jeff was injured trying to get control of this new power and was slowly recuperating. During this time a fellow teacher and his best friend was shot and killed by the Royal Flush Gang. After this Jeff began to think about his time as Black Lightning. He thought about all the people that had died due to his failures. He considered quitting completely. However he was forced to step into action to protect a teenager being beaten by drug dealers. This reminded Jeff why he became Black Lightning and he was ready to fully embrace his role as a superhero.
Jeff learned that the outsiders had a disagreement with Batman and had been in a state of turmoil ever since. This lead Jeff to join the team once again. He told them he was the new leader and they agreed. During this time he was being accused of being a serial killer. Jeff may have been vicious towards criminals but he never killed anyone. Broke a few bones of drug dealers? Yes. But killing a man is something he could never do. The team was able to stop the villain who was making those wild claims.
After this Black Lightning tried to keep a low profile and focus on raising his children. However he was finally convinced by Batman and Green Arrow to join the Justice League. During the Maggedon crisis Black Lightning displayed just how powerful he was when he tried. Black Lightning was able to draw electrical energy from the Earth itself.
While this was going on his daughter Anissa graduated medical school [I wrote about here here] She then immediately became a superhero and joined Arsenal's new team of Outsiders. Black Lightning was then forced out of retirement to help the Outsiders battle Sabaac. He tried to get his daughter to quit the team but she was inspired by seeing him in action. Jeff went to work on Monday and they told him he was fired. They had Jeff on tape stealing boxes, I saw the tape it didn't really look like him. In actuality Pete Ross, Luthor's replacement didn't want a "Vigilante" on government payroll.
The next year sucked for Jeff. We talk about struggle a lot but he had to struggle a lot. Black Lightning hooked up with Metamorpho and Katana, two of the original Outsiders. They planned to investigate the reemergence of a human bomb named Fuse. This didn't go bad at all, if you only count the missions. In actuality Metamorpho and Katana were still mad at Jeff for working with Luthor. They were reluctant to listen to anything he said. They accused him of; being brainwashed, turning to evil, betraying them etc. His input was minimum in the mission because of that.
Jeff and Green Arrow's friendship came to an end. Joanna Pierce was Jeff's niece and a lawyer in Star City. She often handled cases related to Green Arrow. On top of that Green Arrow was on top of that, because she was sleeping with Green Arrow. Green Arrow refused to accept that she had been killed due to their relationship so Jeff and Oliver parted ways.
Jeff hunted down his niece's killer, Martin Sommers. They engaged in a fight with Black Lightning simply toying with him the entire time. Deathstroke was watching the entire time and dealt a hidden death blow to Martin that Jeff didn't see. This caused Jeff to believe he killed Martin.
Black Lightning had to work with Green Arrow again when Dr. Light began seeking revenge against the JLA for erasing his memories (The JLA should have killed him, seriously he's a rapist and mass murderer). Although the JLA was still mad at him for working with Luthor he let them know he hid the fact that they frequently erased the memories of villains, he learned this from Luthor. Basically he let them know to get off his back because he knows a lot of stuff they wouldn't want out in the open.
Dr. light ambushed Green Arrow and his apprentice Mia. Black Lightning arrived in time to scare of Dr. Light and restart Mia's heart with his electricity. Dr. Light was able to destroy an entire block of Star City with a bomb before escaping. This allowed Oliver Queen to become mayor of Star City.
During
Infinite Crisis Black Lighting formed a friendship with Mr. Terrific.
Mr. Terrific was invisible to all technology and Black Lighting had the
ability to shut down OMACs. The two eventually got along and became
really good friends. Gold Medalist
shouldn't be arguing anyway. The fact that they hated Booster Gold
didn't hurt either. He also helped Mr. Terrific in mentoring Firestorm. Black Lightning is a teacher so he feels the need to mentor every young superhero he meets.After the death of Superman Jeff was forced to turn himself in for killing Martin, because he didn't know he was innocent and he has such a good heart that black mail is easy. But it's okay because not only is Batman a good friend to Black Lightning but the entire Bat-Family is, even excommunicated members who are sometimes villains. Jason Todd/Red Hood, had uncovered some information t prove that Black Lightning was innocent. He then contacted Oracle who set up a meeting with Nightwing. They then passed this off to Jeff's daughter Anissa. She went to tell him but Jeff refused to believe it. After the Outsiders learned that there was price on Jeff's head they broke him out of jail. The Outsiders also faked their deaths while Nightwing informed the world of Jeff's innocence. Jeff then went on to continue his life.
Eventually Black Lightning crossed paths with Hawkgirl (But she's a grow woman) They were both following Red Tornado whose body had been taken over, his brain was on a hard drive elsewhere. The two then took one of the villains to the Batcave to prove to Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman that the Star Conqueror had returned to crime. The team quickly shut down this plan. They stopped Professor Ivo and Solomon Grundy. They decided to form a Justice League. Black Lightning finally agreed to join. But a funny thing happened, after years of Batman hounding him to join, he was actually the one to send Batman an invitation. WHAT A TWIST.
[Trivia:
Black Lightning was actually supposed to be a part of the Superfriends
tv show. But Hanna Barbara didn't want to pay his creators. They needed a
token black character so they just copied Black Lightning, gave him a
stupid costume and called him Black Vulcan. This caused a serious rift
in the DC hierarchy as his creators stopped working with DC for several
years due to this. However in a recent DC Animated Short, Black
Lightning had the Black Vulcan Costume alongside other previous costumes
he wore. DC stated this was cannon and Black Lightning and Black Vulcan
are the same person. But they aren't, they couldn't afford Black
Lightning. If you want to hear more here's one of his writers talking about the situation.]Abilities and Equipment
- Electrokenisis
- Electric Absorption
- Electric Projection
- Electric Tracking
- Flight
- Riding Ligtning
- Turning body into electricity
- Force Fields
- Reflexes that move at the speed of Lightning
- Hand to Hand Combat
- Originally a brawler Jeff trained with Batman for several years in Gotham
- Physical Fitness
- Olympic Gold Medalist in Swimming and Acrobatics
- Fearless
- Jeff never backed down when he felt he was right, doesn't matter if you're The 100 or Superman
