Black Lightning! Jefferson Pierce Appreciation Thread 2020

[4sake Baned]

if DC were building a "Black Lightning Family" like the Flash Family or the Batfamily who would you recruit? Thunder and Lightning are obviously two staples as his literal family but who would you roll over to expand Jefferson's world?

look at it like your populating the city of Freeland, Georgia with characters, like it's his Gotham or Central City. including Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning, you need at least 7 characters minimum.

Tattoos man - I am making him a childhood of Jeff, kind of rival in crime fighting (difference would be if he would be quickier to kill ) Also he be married Constance or Joanna so he be Jeff brother in law or cousin in law. I’m leaning more toward Idea that Jeff is better as only child. I would change Constance & Joanna to his cousins ( maybe twins ) but would still would have a brother/sister type relationship with Jeff.

Grace Cho - Either comic version or the CW one I’m cool with either way

Pain killer or Brandon type character ( I wouldn’t make him Geo Forces son would change his powers around a little) who Jeff would mentor & Jennifer would date

Gravedigger - I really like what the CW did with there version so I’d bring all that into the comics.

For the 7th spot not sure yet.

[king81992]

if DC were building a "Black Lightning Family" like the Flash Family or the Batfamily who would you recruit? Thunder and Lightning are obviously two staples as his literal family but who would you roll over to expand Jefferson's world?

look at it like your populating the city of Freeland, Georgia with characters, like it's his Gotham or Central City. including Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning, you need at least 7 characters minimum.

Geo Force, Terra and the rest of the Outsiders.

[skyvolt2000]

Tattoos man - I am making him a childhood of Jeff, kind of rival in crime fighting (difference would be if he would be quickier to kill ) Also he be married Constance or Joanna so he be Jeff brother in law or cousin in law. I’m leaning more toward Idea that Jeff is better as only child. I would change Constance & Joanna to his cousins ( maybe twins ) but would still would have a brother/sister type relationship with Jeff.

Grace Cho - Either comic version or the CW one I’m cool with either way

Pain killer or Brandon type character ( I wouldn’t make him Geo Forces son would change his powers around a little) who Jeff would mentor & Jennifer would date

Gravedigger - I really like what the CW did with there version so I’d bring all that into the comics.

For the 7th spot not sure yet.

Black Lightning Year one

had his brother in law, sister and their kids. The daughter is dead.

So you have a nephew in Alvin.

Trey who Jefferson busted in issue one.

There are those guys.

if DC were building a "Black Lightning Family" like the Flash Family or the Batfamily who would you recruit? Thunder and Lightning are obviously two staples as his literal family but who would you roll over to expand Jefferson's world?

look at it like your populating the city of Freeland, Georgia with characters, like it's his Gotham or Central City. including Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning, you need at least 7 characters minimum.

Jefferson

Thunder

Lightning.

1 Lynn

2 Grace

3 Alvin Tanner

4 Trey Griffin (who in my version becomes See More since no one is using the Titans version)

5 Gunfire (New 52 version that got screwed over in BLoodlines book)

6 Turbo Charge

7 Phantom Lady

Cast photo to follow later-trying not to work on my birthday...

[Marvell2100]

Issue #16 sets the record straight on a few things with Jeff. He gets a lot of love in this one. Batman has nothing to do with what’s going down. A BL showcase.

I guess the question now is where do they go from here. If Jefferson is as powerful as Bruce says he is("Clark and Diana level") then what's next? If he's going to lead an Outsiders team then the threat level has to be raised exponentially. They can't just do street crimes.

[4sake Baned]

Black Lightning Year one

had his brother in law, sister and their kids. The daughter is dead.

So you have a nephew in Alvin.

Trey who Jefferson busted in issue one.

There are those guys.




Jefferson

Thunder

Lightning.

1 Lynn

2 Grace

3 Alvin Tanner

4 Trey Griffin (who in my version becomes See More since no one is using the Titans version)

5 Gunfire (New 52 version that got screwed over in BLoodlines book)

6 Turbo Charge

7 Phantom Lady

Cast photo to follow later-trying not to work on my birthday...

Yeah read BL year one & overall I like it but would switch certain characters around like the sister & her fam & etc

Who is Trey Griffin & See More TT version?

[skyvolt2000]

Yeah read BL year one & overall I like it but would switch certain characters around like the sister & her fam & etc

Who is Trey Griffin & See More.

See More is the guy on Teen Titans Go with Tri-Klops's helmet.

https://theteentitans.fandom.com/wik...more%20rows%20

Trey was in the Year One and was the guy Jefferson put in the ticket booth and the guy who started the fire at the school on Jefferson's first day.

He would later fix the pipes at the school.

I got the name wrong it was Trey Greer.

[4sake Baned]

See More is the guy on Teen Titans Go with Tri-Klops's helmet.

https://theteentitans.fandom.com/wik...more%20rows%20

Trey was in the Year One and was the guy Jefferson put in the ticket booth and the guy who started the fire at the school on Jefferson's first day.

He would later fix the pipes at the school.

I got the name wrong it was Trey Greer.

Ohhhhh ok to both thanks for the info..

[Iconic]

I guess the question now is where do they go from here. If Jefferson is as powerful as Bruce says he is("Clark and Diana level") then what's next? If he's going to lead an Outsiders team then the threat level has to be raised exponentially. They can't just do street crimes.

Or just add him back to the league.

https://www.cbr.com/black-lightning-full-potential/

[Frontier]

Or just add him back to the league.

https://www.cbr.com/black-lightning-full-potential/

I'm ready for the League to expand beyond 5 people again. Then again, writers struggle with teams at that number anyways...

[Robanker]

if DC were building a "Black Lightning Family" like the Flash Family or the Batfamily who would you recruit? Thunder and Lightning are obviously two staples as his literal family but who would you roll over to expand Jefferson's world?

look at it like your populating the city of Freeland, Georgia with characters, like it's his Gotham or Central City. including Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning, you need at least 7 characters minimum.

The seven makes it a bit harder because it really would just be Jefferson running the Outsiders since a lot of characters he interacts with have their own families, so to speak.

For example, I think him and Oliver Queen could be a very interesting dynamic on The Outsiders, but there's no way Ollie would be in the Black Lightning family if that makes any sense. Or someone with water powers to play with all the lightning getting thrown around, but they're already all Aquaman family.

But as it is:

Black Lightning
Lightning
Thunder
Katana
Gambi (the show convinced me he's more valuable alive than dead)
Grace Choi
Henderson as his Gordon analogue.

Special mention:
Lynn. He needs at least one non-powered person who isn't a tech specialist doing superhero stuff. She's also his built-in love interest and outside of what Hill was setting up with Katana, probably his only real option therein.

I had to really struggle to keep Geo-Force off the team for want of it not just being The Outsiders (I already borrowed enough from there) and that his powers act as a ground to kind of contain the collateral of BL/Lightning's powers. But yeah, obviously he would fit too. For better or worse, The Outsiders really should just be Jefferson's team, but there's no sales draw there as it is. I love Jefferson, but Black Lightning does not rake in the sales the way having Batman on there does and the team originated as Batman's team, so there's that.

The show is a very strong take on Black Lightning, to be entirely honest, so really I'm just throwing Katana in the mix. It's the only CW show I can watch, and I'm more excited for more Black Lightning than I am Superman's own TV show and Superman's my favorite character.

I guess the question now is where do they go from here. If Jefferson is as powerful as Bruce says he is("Clark and Diana level") then what's next? If he's going to lead an Outsiders team then the threat level has to be raised exponentially. They can't just do street crimes.

Make it a control thing. He can reach natural disaster levels of a lightning storm but at that point he just cannot control it and it's not something he can do in an urban environment without probably killing everyone nearby. Even so, Batman takes on Darkseid in the Justice League books and gets stymied by a clown with a chemistry set and pocket knife in his own book, so if we're willing to suspend disbelief for a 1% WASP dude punching the homeless, we can do so for Black Lightning as well. Both are great, versatile characters that can do both.

[lemonpeace]

having seen y'alls I think I have an idea on how I want to do my Black Lightning family dynamic

defaults/literal family:
Black Lightning
Lynn Stewart-Pierce
Anissa/Thunder
Jennifer/Lightning
Peter Gambi - Gambi is one of the few Alfred-types that I think feels natural and the TV show makes a compelling case for Gambi as a mainstay of the family in any expanded capacity.


my idea is based in my idea of Freeland as the metahuman capital of the America, so the Black Lightning family will focus largely on (but not limited to) Metahuman crime in their city. so for my Lightning family, I wanted my roster's niche to largely be Metahumans with elemental based abilities, since Jeff has been described as an elemental from time to time. the Bat family are a collective of ninja detectives, the Arrow family are hunters, trackers and survivalists, the Super family are the powerhouse family, the Flash family are the speedsters and metahumans related to the speedforce; so my Black Lightning family are the elemental and metahuman specialist family. I also wanted to avoid just loading it up full of Outsiders since characters like Katana and Geo-force definitely deserve their own families if we're being honest. lastly, I wanted my picks to be characters that bring something unique to the table and who I felt would also benefit from a new collective

1. Grace Choi (element: none) I feel Grace is Anissa's most prominent love interest and so should be her Lois Lane/Iris West but more like a partnership than a damsel. so I think it's important that she stays a part of the families inner circle once she and Anissa connect. my Anissa and Jennifer are on the younger side (mid and late teens respectively) so I would have Grace be the same and have her be both a metahuman AND and amazon; her strength and stats being amazonian and her enhanced senses being meta.

2. John Stewart (element: light) - I feel that if we are going to go all-in on expanding the Lightning family and their mythology then they should double down on the Stewart-Pierce familial connection. With his new power ring physiology he is technically a metahuman now, plus he's basically an elemental of the Emotional Spectrum as he can now generate and manipulate the Emotional light at will. by linking their family implicitly it primes both John and Jeff for high profile cosmic and otherworldly teams-ups together and, if they bring in Lightning Lad and Tyroc, it could be the start of a new DC dynasty like the Kent, Wayne, or the West-Allen clans.

3. Isaiah Crockett (element: heat and fire) post-New 52 I don't think they have properly reintroduced Hotspot before killing him in Heroes in Crisis, so I tweak his origin to make him a Freeland native and a pure Meta rather than half-alien. How I would square that would be by separateing the Pyre identity from Holocaust (when he was in the DC universe), make him his own character (say Leonard Crockett) and retcon him as a former anti-villain/rival of Black Lightning; then have Isaiah be his son. his Dad has Tattoo man or Tobias Whale bring him back to life and after he comes back he moves away from Hotspot and becomes Joto again because I'm African and I like African names. Have him be his own hero operation with his Dad as support but over time he becomes part of the Lightning family in a similar capacity to like Steel or Batwoman.

4. Duke Thomas (element: sun and shadow) - I feel one of the biggest missed opportunities in Bryan Hill's Outsiders is the chance to have Black Lightning take Duke on as a protege like how he used to have with Static. Pouching Duke from the Batfamily would boost Duke's profile by giving him some distance from the oversaturated Gotham collective and adds a bit more variety to the skillsets of the Lightning family by throwing in a unique and more nuanced element manipulater since Duke's solar powers aren't super straightforward. he can fill a somewhat composite role between Static (his mentorship under Jeff) and Brandon from the TV show (his relationship with Jeff's daughters). I would move Duke and his cousin Jay out of Gotham and base them in Freeland.

5. Jakeem Thunder (element: thunderbolt magic) another protege for Black Lightning similar to Duke. I picked Jakeem because with him now honing his own thunderbolt magic, I feel he needs more connections outside the JSA that'll allow him to grow in autonomy and I felt he'd fit nicely in with Black Lightning since he's always brushed up against magic. the magic he received from the thunderbolt functions as his "element" so to speak and he would act as the direct link between the family and magical threats. I also would retcon him as being related to Lynn and John somehow, maybe a cousin or something.

6. Cyclone/Maxine Hunkel/Red Tornado (element: air) I believe Cyclone and Jeff crossed paths on the All-Star Squadron and I don't think she's been used much in the DC since New 52, so I would reintroduce her as part of the Lightning family as an ally in protecting Freeland (like Azrael or Batwing); alternatively, they could go with the android Red Tornado. by introducing either Cyclone or Red Tornado, that would tie the Red Tornado legacy to the Black Lightning mythos and strengthen the elemental angle for the Lightning family since Red Tornado (I think Maxine too) is straight-up a true blue wind elemental.

7. Amazing-Man (element: any and all) one of the most slept on and forgotten black heroes at DC and I feel his legacy deserves a revival. I would have the Everett family have ties to Freeland, like they were one of first metahumans from the "Green Light experiments" (I'd do like the show and have it be DC's version of the Tuskegee study and the Crack era) in Freeland; explaining why Freeland has a high concentration of metahuman civilizations. I would link the Everett family to the Pierce family by having them both descend from the Green Light experiments and, keeping with the elemental theme, his powers allow him take on the powers of pretty much any element making him a powerhouse within the family dynamic.

family-adjacent
1. Henderson - Jefferson's Commissioner Gordon
2. Blue Devil - Jefferson's partner early in his career and his partner when it comes to magical threats.
3. Painkiller - following the TV show, former villain but eventual ally to the family and love interest for Jennifer. he'll be Freeland's Red Hood, he's the rogue antihero of the collective.
4. LaLa/The Tattoo Man - just like the show but eventually rises up to be a Tobias style kingpin but he's more of a neutral entity who tries to keep the streets in check. occasionally works with Black Lightning as one of the few moral OGs in Freeland but does bump heads with Jeff. Painkiller is his right hand.
5. The remaining Outsiders - I would have Geo-force and Katana regularly work with Black Lightning from their time on the Outsiders. all the Outsiders come to Jeff's aid when need be and are close to the Lightning family.

teams with with certain family members as the focal point

Freeland Freedom Fighters - a team of young heros who fight metahuman trafficking in Freeland: Duke, Jakeem, Anissa, Jennifer, Grace, Painkiller, Cyclone

Black Star - DC's most powerful black duo who deal with the cosmic threats facing Freeland or the earth: Black Lightning & John Stewart.

Black & Blue - the dynamic duo of magic and the occult in and around Freeland: Black Lightning & Blue Devil

Elemental Forces - a team of DC's most powerful elementals: Black Lightning, Cyclone (or Red Tornado), Geo-Force, Joto, Swamp Thing, Mera

Super Predators - Undead and Immortal black male youths aka America's nightmare. This is a black ops team all about exacting righteous black rage through any means necessary. they work well together but each come from a different moral angle: Joto (ambiguous), Duke (righteous), Painkiller (radial)

[9th.]

if DC were building a "Black Lightning Family" like the Flash Family or the Batfamily who would you recruit? Thunder and Lightning are obviously two staples as his literal family but who would you roll over to expand Jefferson's world?

look at it like your populating the city of Freeland, Georgia with characters, like it's his Gotham or Central City. including Black Lightning, Thunder, and Lightning, you need at least 7 characters minimum.

Outside of his actual family Lynn, Thunder and Lightning.

Grace Choi (Thunders GF)
Peter Gambi (his Alfred)
Sonik (Retired hero living in Freeland helping kids stay out of trouble)
Gangbuster (Jeffersons bestfriend and helps out with patrolling)
John Stewart (Lynn's brother Jeff's rival)
Denisse Simms (family friend and detective)
Bill Henderson (police chief)

[9th.]

having seen y'alls I think I have an idea on how I want to do my Black Lightning family dynamic

defaults/literal family:
Black Lightning
Thunder
Lightning
Lynn Stewart-Pierce

my idea is based in my idea of Freeland as the metahuman capital of the America, so the Black Lightning family will focus largely on (but not limited to) Metahuman crime in their city. so for my Lightning family, I wanted my roster's niche to largely be Metahumans with elemental based abilities, since Jeff has been described as an elemental from time to time. the Bat family are a collective of ninja detectives, the Arrow family are hunters, trackers and survivalists, the Super family are the powerhouse family, the Flash family are the speedsters and metahumans related to the speedforce; so my Black Lightning family are the elemental and metahuman specialist family. I also wanted to avoid just loading it up full of Outsiders since characters like Katana and Geo-force definitely deserve their own families if we're being honest. lastly, I wanted my picks to be characters that bring something unique to the table and who I felt would also benefit from a new collective

1. Peter Gambi - Gambi is one of the few Alfred-types that I think feels natural. the TV show makes a very strong case for Gambi as a mainstay of the Lightning family in any expanded incarnation.

2. Grace Choi (element: none) I feel Grace is Anissa's most prominent love interest and so should be her Lois Lane/Iris West but more like a partnership than a damsel. so I think it's important that she stays a part of the families inner circle once she and Anissa connect. my Anissa and Jennifer are on the younger side (mid and late teens respectively) so I would have Grace be the same and have her be both a metahuman AND and amazon; her strength and stats being amazonian and her enhanced senses being meta.

3. John Stewart (element: light) - I feel that if we are going to go all-in on expanding the Lightning family and their mythology then they should double down on the Stewart-Pierce familial connection. With his new power ring physiology he is technically a metahuman now, plus he's basically an elemental of the Emotional Spectrum as he can now generate and manipulate the Emotional light at will. by linking their family implicitly it primes both John and Jeff for high profile cosmic and otherworldly teams-ups together and, if they bring in Lightning Lad and Tyroc, it could be the start of a new DC dynasty like the Kent, Wayne, or the West-Allen clans.

4. Duke Thomas (element: sun and shadow) - I feel one of the biggest missed opportunities in Bryan Hill's Outsiders is the chance to have Black Lightning take Duke on as a protege like how he used to have with Static. Pouching Duke from the Batfamily would boost Duke's profile by giving him some distance from the oversaturated Gotham collective and adds a bit more variety to the skillsets of the Lightning family by throwing in a unique and more nuanced element manipulater since Duke's solar powers aren't super straightforward. he can fill a somewhat composite role between Static (his mentorship under Jeff) and Brandon from the TV show (his relationship with Jeff's daughters). I would move Duke and his cousin Jay out of Gotham and base them in Freeland.

5. Jakeem Thunder (element: thunderbolt magic) another protege for Black Lightning similar to Duke. I picked Jakeem because with him now honing his own thunderbolt magic, I feel he needs more connections outside the JSA that'll allow him to grow in autonomy and I felt he'd fit nicely in with Black Lightning since he's always brushed up against magic. the magic he received from the thunderbolt functions as his "element" so to speak and he would act as the direct link between the family and magical threats. I also would retcon him as being related to Lynn and John somehow, maybe a cousin or something.

6. Cyclone/Maxine Hunkel/Red Tornado (element: air) I believe Cyclone and Jeff crossed paths on the All-Star Squadron and I don't think she's been used much in the DC since New 52, so I would reintroduce her as part of the Lightning family as an ally in protecting Freeland (like Azrael or Batwing); alternatively, they could go with the android Red Tornado. by introducing either Cyclone or Red Tornado, that would tie the Red Tornado legacy to the Black Lightning mythos and strengthen the elemental angle for the Lightning family since Red Tornado (I think Maxine too) is straight-up a true blue wind elemental.

7. Amazing-Man (element: any and all) one of the most slept on and forgotten black heroes at DC and I feel his legacy deserves a revival. I would have the Everett family have ties to Freeland, like they were one of first metahumans from the "Green Light experiments" (I'd do like the show and have it be DC's version of the Tuskegee study and the Crack era) in Freeland; explaining why Freeland has a high concentration of metahuman civilizations. I would link the Everett family to the Pierce family by having them both descend from the Green Light experiments and, keeping with the elemental theme, his powers allow him take on the powers of pretty much any element making him a powerhouse within the family dynamic.

family-adjacent
1. Henderson - Jefferson's Commissioner Gordon
2. Blue Devil - Jefferson's partner early in his career and his partner when it comes to magical threats.
3. Painkiller - following the TV show, former villain but eventual ally to the family and love interest for Jennifer. he'll be Freeland's Red Hood, he's the rogue antihero of the collective.
4. LaLa/The Tattoo Man - just like the show but eventually rises up to be a Tobias style kingpin but he's more of a neutral entity who tries to keep the streets in check. occasionally works with Black Lightning as one of the few moral OGs in Freeland but does bump heads with Jeff. Painkiller is his right hand.
5. The remaining Outsiders - I would have Geo-force and Katana regularly work with Black Lightning from their time on the Outsiders. all the Outsiders come to Jeff's aid when need be and are close to the Lightning family.

teams with with certain family members as the focal point

Freeland Freedom Fighters - a team of young heros who fight metahuman trafficking in Freeland: Duke, Jakeem, Anissa, Jennifer, Grace, Painkiller, Cyclone

Black Star - DC's most powerful black duo who deal with the cosmic threats facing Freeland or the earth: Black Lightning & John Stewart.

Black & Blue - the dynamic duo of magic and the occult in and around Freeland: Black Lightning & Blue Devil

Elemental Forces - a team of DC's most powerful elementals: Black Lightning, Cyclone (or Red Tornado), Geo-Force, Fire, Swamp Thing, Mera

These are great, I love your addition of Amazing Man. I had him in my roster as well but I replaced him with Sonik. I'd also love to flip this idea and give him a rogues gallery.


Tattoo Man (childhood friend turned villain after he came back from the Marines)
Whale (and the 100)
Masters of Disaster (Coldsnap, Shakedown, Windfall, New Wave, and Heatstroke)
Iceberg
Dr. Polaris
Ned Creegan (has the ability to cycle through his different forms Bag O Bones, Cyclotronic Man, and Meltdown)
Roulette (metahuman trafficker that goes after Lightning)
Disruptor (Roulettes enforcer)
Lightweaver (obscure villain from JLI)
White Thunder (alien from his last mini)

[4sake Baned]

having seen y'alls I think I have an idea on how I want to do my Black Lightning family dynamic

defaults/literal family:
Black Lightning
Thunder
Lightning
Lynn Stewart-Pierce

my idea is based in my idea of Freeland as the metahuman capital of the America, so the Black Lightning family will focus largely on (but not limited to) Metahuman crime in their city. so for my Lightning family, I wanted my roster's niche to largely be Metahumans with elemental based abilities, since Jeff has been described as an elemental from time to time. the Bat family are a collective of ninja detectives, the Arrow family are hunters, trackers and survivalists, the Super family are the powerhouse family, the Flash family are the speedsters and metahumans related to the speedforce; so my Black Lightning family are the elemental and metahuman specialist family. I also wanted to avoid just loading it up full of Outsiders since characters like Katana and Geo-force definitely deserve their own families if we're being honest. lastly, I wanted my picks to be characters that bring something unique to the table and who I felt would also benefit from a new collective

1. Peter Gambi - Gambi is one of the few Alfred-types that I think feels natural. the TV show makes a very strong case for Gambi as a mainstay of the Lightning family in any expanded incarnation.

2. Grace Choi (element: none) I feel Grace is Anissa's most prominent love interest and so should be her Lois Lane/Iris West but more like a partnership than a damsel. so I think it's important that she stays a part of the families inner circle once she and Anissa connect. my Anissa and Jennifer are on the younger side (mid and late teens respectively) so I would have Grace be the same and have her be both a metahuman AND and amazon; her strength and stats being amazonian and her enhanced senses being meta.

3. John Stewart (element: light) - I feel that if we are going to go all-in on expanding the Lightning family and their mythology then they should double down on the Stewart-Pierce familial connection. With his new power ring physiology he is technically a metahuman now, plus he's basically an elemental of the Emotional Spectrum as he can now generate and manipulate the Emotional light at will. by linking their family implicitly it primes both John and Jeff for high profile cosmic and otherworldly teams-ups together and, if they bring in Lightning Lad and Tyroc, it could be the start of a new DC dynasty like the Kent, Wayne, or the West-Allen clans.

4. Duke Thomas (element: sun and shadow) - I feel one of the biggest missed opportunities in Bryan Hill's Outsiders is the chance to have Black Lightning take Duke on as a protege like how he used to have with Static. Pouching Duke from the Batfamily would boost Duke's profile by giving him some distance from the oversaturated Gotham collective and adds a bit more variety to the skillsets of the Lightning family by throwing in a unique and more nuanced element manipulater since Duke's solar powers aren't super straightforward. he can fill a somewhat composite role between Static (his mentorship under Jeff) and Brandon from the TV show (his relationship with Jeff's daughters). I would move Duke and his cousin Jay out of Gotham and base them in Freeland.

5. Jakeem Thunder (element: thunderbolt magic) another protege for Black Lightning similar to Duke. I picked Jakeem because with him now honing his own thunderbolt magic, I feel he needs more connections outside the JSA that'll allow him to grow in autonomy and I felt he'd fit nicely in with Black Lightning since he's always brushed up against magic. the magic he received from the thunderbolt functions as his "element" so to speak and he would act as the direct link between the family and magical threats. I also would retcon him as being related to Lynn and John somehow, maybe a cousin or something.

6. Cyclone/Maxine Hunkel/Red Tornado (element: air) I believe Cyclone and Jeff crossed paths on the All-Star Squadron and I don't think she's been used much in the DC since New 52, so I would reintroduce her as part of the Lightning family as an ally in protecting Freeland (like Azrael or Batwing); alternatively, they could go with the android Red Tornado. by introducing either Cyclone or Red Tornado, that would tie the Red Tornado legacy to the Black Lightning mythos and strengthen the elemental angle for the Lightning family since Red Tornado (I think Maxine too) is straight-up a true blue wind elemental.

7. Amazing-Man (element: any and all) one of the most slept on and forgotten black heroes at DC and I feel his legacy deserves a revival. I would have the Everett family have ties to Freeland, like they were one of first metahumans from the "Green Light experiments" (I'd do like the show and have it be DC's version of the Tuskegee study and the Crack era) in Freeland; explaining why Freeland has a high concentration of metahuman civilizations. I would link the Everett family to the Pierce family by having them both descend from the Green Light experiments and, keeping with the elemental theme, his powers allow him take on the powers of pretty much any element making him a powerhouse within the family dynamic.

family-adjacent
1. Henderson - Jefferson's Commissioner Gordon
2. Blue Devil - Jefferson's partner early in his career and his partner when it comes to magical threats.
3. Painkiller - following the TV show, former villain but eventual ally to the family and love interest for Jennifer. he'll be Freeland's Red Hood, he's the rogue antihero of the collective.
4. LaLa/The Tattoo Man - just like the show but eventually rises up to be a Tobias style kingpin but he's more of a neutral entity who tries to keep the streets in check. occasionally works with Black Lightning as one of the few moral OGs in Freeland but does bump heads with Jeff. Painkiller is his right hand.
5. The remaining Outsiders - I would have Geo-force and Katana regularly work with Black Lightning from their time on the Outsiders. all the Outsiders come to Jeff's aid when need be and are close to the Lightning family.

teams with with certain family members as the focal point

Freeland Freedom Fighters - a team of young heros who fight metahuman trafficking in Freeland: Duke, Jakeem, Anissa, Jennifer, Grace, Painkiller, Cyclone

Black Star - DC's most powerful black duo who deal with the cosmic threats facing Freeland or the earth: Black Lightning & John Stewart.

Black & Blue - the dynamic duo of magic and the occult in and around Freeland: Black Lightning & Blue Devil

Elemental Forces - a team of DC's most powerful elementals: Black Lightning, Cyclone (or Red Tornado), Geo-Force, Fire, Swamp Thing, Mera

Some amazing ideas..

[4sake Baned]

Outside of his actual family Lynn, Thunder and Lightning.

Grace Choi (Thunders GF)
Peter Gambi (his Alfred)
Sonik (Retired hero living in Freeland helping kids stay out of trouble)
Gangbuster (Jeffersons bestfriend and helps out with patrolling)
John Stewart (Lynn's brother Jeff's rival)
Denisse Simms (family friend and detective)
Bill Henderson (police chief)

I like the Sonik idea..