Black Lightning Appreciation 2021

[Vordan]

BL will be in Dark Knights of Steel:

[Frontier]

BL will be in Dark Knights of Steel:

King Black Lightning .

[lemonpeace]

BL will be in Dark Knights of Steel:

King Black Lightning .

King Lightning?

[John Venus]

Well, this is a pleasant surprise.

Though it makes me wonder: what kind of Elseworlds do you want to see BL in?

[SecretWarrior]

There is a Parliament that covers energy, but it doesn't have a name or champion in the comics.

It would probably be similar to this:

[lemonpeace]

Well, this is a pleasant surprise.

Though it makes me wonder: what kind of Elseworlds do you want to see BL in?

not really specific to Black Lightning but I would love an all black Elseworld story featuring every major black hero and villain in an fantastical African continent, like how they do with medieval Europe. something like Black Leopard, Red Wolf meets The Last God or whatever this Dark Knights of Steel series unfolds as. just an epic of Afrojujuism/afromysticism where all of their black heroes are reimagined using mythology from pre-colonial Africa (maybe some Arab ones too iykyk).

The Obvious one would be to reimagine Black Lightning as an analogue for the legends of Shango from the Yoruba mythology, but if we wanna really go crazy with the elseworld I'd go with an horror story where Black Lightning is an Impundulu, he's cursed as the Black Lightningbird.

[SecretWarrior]

Well, this is a pleasant surprise.

Though it makes me wonder: what kind of Elseworlds do you want to see BL in?

1920s Steampunk

[lemonpeace]

In Black Lightning: Year One, we learn that Jeff is effective/resilient against magic in a way that Superman isn't. This isn't ever explained. I always thought it hinted at Jeff's powers being magical in nature, which would explain his ability to conjure black lightning.

Does the Metal series really explain his effectiveness/resilience against magic? Apparently people with a metagene get their powers from Nth metal in the bloodstream, and Nth metal negates/disrupts magic. That could explain Year One, but the larger implication would be that anyone with a metagene would be similarly effective against magic, from Jay Garrick to Duke Thomas. . . Anyway, maybe more of these characters should be on the JLD roster.

I think the implication in Year One was meant to be Jefferson's powers extend into the magical or are somewhat magical in nature, which has persisted in being a subtle implication with him. Metal established that Metas/the metagene get their powers from Nth metal yes but it's more that they derive power from the source via tenth metal (which all the cosmic metals like Nth metal derive from). It is established in the DC universe that a lot of the magic users are homo magi, which is genetic too, so maybe Black Lightning is both metahuman and a homo magi. that would also serve as a fun avenue to explain Jen and Anissa's powers; Jen got the magic side and became an elemental and Anissa got the metagene side and manipulates her density.

See me? I like worldbuilding. I like a mythos. If there can be a parliament for the Green, the waves, the red, etc. I don't see why there can't be one for Lightning.

I mean, we do have the Circle of Eternity.

There is a Parliament that covers energy, but it doesn't have a name or champion in the comics.

It would probably be similar to this:

I like to believe the Living Lightning is like The Red or The Green for lightning, so maybe the Circle of Eternity, as it originally was (different Living Lightning magic users from around the world) acted as it's parliament. they could double down on Jefferson's connection to magic by tying Black Lightning's mythology to that. my headcanon? Have him be DC's Storm, magic & mutant = magic & meta. they can say he's a descendant of an ancient champion of the living lightning who possessed black lightning, but the magic became weak in his family line until their lineage mixed in a metagene holder; which only became active with Jefferson. it gives Black Lightning room to both be the powerhouse he should be and to build a niche/character mythology for him at the intersection of the magic and metahuman corners of the DC universe.

[atomicskull]

Well, this is a pleasant surprise.

Though it makes me wonder: what kind of Elseworlds do you want to see BL in?

Black Lightning during the Harlem Renaissance era. If Sam Marlowe (the first black private eye) had electric powers.

[lemonpeace]

does anyone know what Black Lightning's history has been post-Flashpoint? I know he was teamed up with Blue Devil in his early years, he was offered a position on the League but turned it down, he was part of Batman's secret Outsiders team from Dark Nights Metal, and then re-formed the Outsiders post-No Justice; and somewhere in there he had Jen and Anissa. does anyone have a clearer idea of what he was doing before Outsiders?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

does anyone know what Black Lightning's history has been post-Flashpoint? I know he was teamed up with Blue Devil in his early years, he was offered a position on the League but turned it down, he was part of Batman's secret Outsiders team from Dark Nights Metal, and then re-formed the Outsiders post-No Justice; and somewhere in there he had Jen and Anissa. does anyone have a clearer idea of what he was doing before Outsiders?

I would assume that the broad strokes of all of Black Lightning's history is now in play, particularly after The Other History of the DC Universe did such a good job of giving new and old readers such a great summary of it. The Blue Devil stuff would be during the New 52 time blip, not during his early years though.

[J. D. Guy]

I would assume that the broad strokes of all of Black Lightning's history is now in play, particularly after The Other History of the DC Universe did such a good job of giving new and old readers such a great summary of it. The Blue Devil stuff would be during the New 52 time blip, not during his early years though.

lemonpeace meant "early years" to say "the early years of Jefferson Pierce's Superhero career as Black Lightning", and not "the early years of Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning's real life publication history".

[Aahz]

does anyone know what Black Lightning's history has been post-Flashpoint? I know he was teamed up with Blue Devil in his early years, he was offered a position on the League but turned it down, he was part of Batman's secret Outsiders team from Dark Nights Metal, and then re-formed the Outsiders post-No Justice; and somewhere in there he had Jen and Anissa. does anyone have a clearer idea of what he was doing before Outsiders?

Honestly with the "everything is continuity" thing DC is doing now, I don't think that there is any character where you can really have a clear idea about his history.

I mean take Nightwing for example. In his newest comics it was established that he was at some point a cop in Blüdheaven, which is a part of his pre flashpoint history that wasn't in continuity post flashpoint, but a lot of the other stuff from pre flashpoint seemed not to have happened (Blockbuster is for example still alive, and apart from the villains no other character from that run has appeared sofar).
He also seems to own his apartment building again, which raises the question why he was living as a homeless taxi driver in his last run.
And he was apparently Red X at some point, which is not part of any pre existing continuity.
From what I have heard Infinite Crisis may also have referenced his and Roy's run of Outsiders (haven't read that sofar), which would also require a lot of stuff to be back into continuity to work.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

lemonpeace meant "early years" to say "the early years of Jefferson Pierce's Superhero career as Black Lightning", and not "the early years of Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning's real life publication history".

That's what I'm talking about, too. The New 52 era has been recontexualized as a brief period of timey-whimey-ness wherein everyone in DCU lived new different versions of their early years, but now their Pre-Flashpoint histories have reasserted themselves.

So, while I'm sure Black Lightning remembers being partners with Blue Devil during his New 52 period, he would now remember it in that context, rather than his actual early years. This would be how Lois & Clark view their own New 52 exploits, too. Those events still took place, but their understanding of them has now changed because they now know that that was the result of time shenanigans that made everyone forget their pasts.

At least that how I understand the Post-Death Metal "everything happened" of it all.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Honestly with the "everything is continuity" thing DC is doing now, I don't think that there is any character where you can really have a clear idea about his history.

I mean take Nightwing for example. In his newest comics it was established that he was at some point a cop in Blüdheaven, which is a part of his pre flashpoint history that wasn't in continuity post flashpoint, but a lot of the other stuff from pre flashpoint seemed not to have happened (Blockbuster is for example still alive, and apart from the villains no other character from that run has appeared sofar).
He also seems to own his apartment building again, which raises the question why he was living as a homeless taxi driver in his last run.
And he was apparently Red X at some point, which is not part of any pre existing continuity.
From what I have heard Infinite Crisis may also have referenced his and Roy's run of Outsiders (haven't read that sofar), which would also require a lot of stuff to be back into continuity to work.

Infinite Frontier has established that a lot of people who were dead have been resurrected thanks to the latest reset of time, so that is presumably how Blockbuster is alive again. Red X being part of Titans history is another example of this, as elements from other incarnations are bleeding into the main continuity in the same way that the Donner stuff bled into Superman continuity post-Infinite Crisis