Black Lightning on the CW

[Shadowras]

So Jef is going solo without his suite now, and Tobias seems to be making a play for Dr. Stewart. Those two new cops seem to be finding out stuff fast. Also its the first time I've heard them mention Cobra by name.(Lady Eve crew)

[Anarchist]

Premiere was decent, but yeah, I am getting so tired of Tobias Whale. Hope Gravedigger offs him mid-season or something like that.

Tired of Lala also, such a stupid character.

[Huntsman Spider]

So Jef is going solo without his suite now, and Tobias seems to be making a play for Dr. Stewart. Those two new cops seem to be finding out stuff fast. Also its the first time I've heard them mention Cobra by name.(Lady Eve crew)

Technically, it'd be KOBRA, with a K; otherwise, that might be asking for a lawsuit from the G.I. Joe people, since COBRA (with a C) is their nemesis. Funny enough, for a longstanding criminal organization in the DCU, I haven't seen KOBRA getting much play in adaptations aside from Batman Beyond, which had them as a recurring foe late in Season 2 and in Season 3. All that aside, congratulations to the Black Lightning on the CW thread for reaching 100 pages.

[Immortal Weapon]

Premiere was decent, but yeah, I am getting so tired of Tobias Whale. Hope Gravedigger offs him mid-season or something like that.

Tired of Lala also, such a stupid character.

The only dumb thing about Lala is that he gets nothing accomplished. They keep bringing him back for what? He's stagnant.

[j9ac9k]

Lala and Whale hanging around season after season is bringing this show down. Tobias was great as a Big Bad, but the last few years it's like he just manages to stick around and be a thorn in the family's side rather than be a real villain with an agenda.

[Immortal Weapon]

I still enjoy Tobias so I don't mind him sticking around. I don't like that he's operating as a public figure. There's so much legal bullshit and laundry list of crimes attached to his name that simply should not be possible.

[The Darknight Detective]

Lala and Whale hanging around season after season is bringing this show down. Tobias was great as a Big Bad, but the last few years it's like he just manages to stick around and be a thorn in the family's side rather than be a real villain with an agenda.

I still like Tobias, but I'm not gaga over Lala. The latter is really the only thing from the show that I'm not a fan of.

[Shadowras]

I agree Lala is boring, Lady Eve I liked but they barely used her wonder if she's still alive.

[Huntsman Spider]

Tobias doesn't have to destroy Black Lightening because Jefferson is doing a good job of that already.

Alas, yeah. I'm really hoping he can pull it together when the chips are down.

I still enjoy Tobias so I don't mind him sticking around. I don't like that he's operating as a public figure. There's so much legal bullshit and laundry list of crimes attached to his name that simply should not be possible.

Kind of reminds me of the Kingpin becoming mayor of New York City in the current Marvel (particularly Daredevil and Spider-Man) comics and Norman Osborn's stint a little over a decade earlier with controlling the nation's superhuman-related security apparatus in Dark Reign, or more contemporarily running Ravencroft. Somehow, the likes of those guys can get their past records sufficiently cleared up in the eyes of the public and authorities to be entrusted with positions of power and responsibility without batting an eye, but the superheroes are the ones treated with distrust and scorn by the same public and authorities falling all over themselves to embrace the likes of Kingpin and Osborn as respectable public citizens.

[Frontier]

I see the high from the season 3 finale didn't last long .

So Jefferson didn't take Henderson's death well. He's given up being Black Lightning (again), he can't reign in his daughters (again) who are the only ones fighting crime in Freeland, he and Lynn are having marital problems (again), and he's got nothing left but self-doubt and righteous anger that he's taking out on people. Not that they don't deserve it, but he's doing it so thoughtlessly that now the police are on to him and might have burned a bridge with the police that Henderson would've never wanted him to.

Wait, Jefferson can erase peoples memories? He had that power this whole time ?

Freeland PD has gone down the toilet, apparently. I mean, they were never perfect, but I'd like to think Henderson would've run a tight enough ship that two officers wouldn't just accost a kid in a hoodie holding a violin in broad daylight on the possibility that he has drugs (because, seriously, carrying drugs in a violin?) and escalating situations well past what's appropriate. I guess I'm glad the new Chief isn't a white dude, but the new Chief seems anti-Metahuman and likely anti-Black Lightning.

Oh lord, Lynn's a vigilante too? With a medical mask and all those various Meta powers? Can no one in this family remain relatively normal? I don't see this ending well .

Poor Chantal Thuy is now a series regular and Grace is still stuck in a coma.

Jennifer's cut her hair again, or just stopped wearing a wig, I forget what the exact deal with Jen's hair is. Jen with short hair feels weird, but I guess this is to emphasize how she's older and wiser now.

So Gambi reunites with a seemingly old flame. To be honest, I'm just happy knowing Gambi once had someone in his life before all this.

At this point it seems like Gambi is the only who can reach Jefferson now, but I'm not sure if even he can bring Jefferson out of his funk before something serious happens. He wasn't able to throw off the police, after all.

So now it's the 100 led by Lala versus Kobra led by Lady Eve (so them using Lady Eve finally comes full-circle). I'm kind of curious where Tobias will fit into all this.

Now the Pierce's are back to debating whether to kill Tobias again. I guess they're also acknowledging that Anissa killed people as Blackbird and Jefferson is left as the only Pierce who hasn't straight-up killed anyone. Will that last by the end of the series? He's definitely going over the line in how he deals with people.

So we've got this Hassan guy who was apparently really close to Henderson despite the fact that we've never seen him before this episode. He's young, passionate, and seems mixed on Metahumans and working with Black Lightning, but he seems like an honest and determined police officer. I kind of get the sense he's like a young Henderson in that respect.

Is this the first time we've seen the mayor of Freeland? I kind of feel like he would've appeared before.

I feel like Jennifer's overconfidence and focus on her powers is going to end up hurting her in the long run.

I see Tobias is still obsessed with getting into Lynn's pants. Joining the board of Lynn's hospital will probably afford him plenty of excuses to visit her.

[Agent Z]

Alas, yeah. I'm really hoping he can pull it together when the chips are down.



Kind of reminds me of the Kingpin becoming mayor of New York City in the current Marvel (particularly Daredevil and Spider-Man) comics and Norman Osborn's stint a little over a decade earlier with controlling the nation's superhuman-related security apparatus in Dark Reign, or more contemporarily running Ravencroft. Somehow, the likes of those guys can get their past records sufficiently cleared up in the eyes of the public and authorities to be entrusted with positions of power and responsibility without batting an eye, but the superheroes are the ones treated with distrust and scorn by the same public and authorities falling all over themselves to embrace the likes of Kingpin and Osborn as respectable public citizens.

Well it helps that the villains are a lot better at managing pr than the heroes who prefer to stay anonymous. This recent episode is a good example of this. Yes, Jefferson had understandable reasons for putting those people in the hospital but the public doesn't know that. Of course, the cops are going to assume this is just a case of a hero gone rogue. Whale, on the other hand, has been under public scrutiny much of his life and knows how to manipulate the media.

[Frontier]

Well it helps that the villains are a lot better at managing pr than the heroes who prefer to stay anonymous. This recent episode is a good example of this. Yes, Jefferson had understandable reasons for putting those people in the hospital but the public doesn't know that. Of course, the cops are going to assume this is just a case of a hero gone rogue. Whale, on the other hand, has been under public scrutiny much of his life and knows how to manipulate the media.

I don't think it helps that while Jefferson had understandable reasons for doing so as a father, crippling that crook was over the line even by Black Lightning's standards.

[Huntsman Spider]

Well it helps that the villains are a lot better at managing pr than the heroes who prefer to stay anonymous. This recent episode is a good example of this. Yes, Jefferson had understandable reasons for putting those people in the hospital but the public doesn't know that. Of course, the cops are going to assume this is just a case of a hero gone rogue. Whale, on the other hand, has been under public scrutiny much of his life and knows how to manipulate the media.

I don't think it helps that while Jefferson had understandable reasons for doing so as a father, crippling that crook was over the line even by Black Lightning's standards.

Fair enough, and considering that back in the day, the whole purpose of Black Lightning was to kill Tobias Whale for Whale killing Jefferson's father for exposing him as a crime lord . . .

[90'sCartoonMan]

I'm glad this season is setting up many threads and continuing what we've seen before, but all those scenes in the beginning felt rapid fire and disjointed. I did like Jeff zapping those cops because it was horrific and topical. That got him into more trouble than he bargained for, though.

I don't necessarily like Anissa and Lynn being bloodthirsty when it comes to Tobias, but if they toned it down, it would sound practical. I'm eager to see how it ultimately plays out.

The only dumb thing about Lala is that he gets nothing accomplished. They keep bringing him back for what? He's stagnant.

And he barely interacts with any of the main cast.

Wait, Jefferson can erase peoples memories? He had that power this whole time ?

For a second I thought that was him killing the cops. I don't think it's supposed to be any intense mindwipe or anything, just an electric jolt to the brain to erase the newly formed memories.

[Frontier]

I don't necessarily like Anissa and Lynn being bloodthirsty when it comes to Tobias, but if they toned it down, it would sound practical. I'm eager to see how it ultimately plays out.

I think they're still kind of too okay with killing someone even if they have genuine reasons for wanting Tobias taken out. It can easily become a slippery slope if they start applying it to any problem they can't just Superhero their way out of.

And he barely interacts with any of the main cast.

I mean, what's he going to do to the Pierce's at this point? He's still basically a mid-level thug and they're Metahumans. Although I guess hsi gang has anti-Meta weapons now.