Black Lightning Appreciation

[Herowatcher]

DC Forum Appreciation Thread rules:

1) No negative comments about the honoree of this thread. It's an appreciation thread, not a non-appreciation one.

2) No negative discussion about any competitors of the honoree of this thread (i.e. John Stewart in the Hal Jordan thread). No ifs, ands, or buts. Find another non-appreciation thread to do that, just not here.

3) No negative comments about other versions of the character. For example, if you like the DCU version of Cyborg, but hate the DCnU version (or visa versa), just appreciate the earlier version and keep your comments about the latter to yourself.

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"Justice, like lightning should ever appear, to some men, hope, and to other men, fear!"
- Jefferson Pierce

[John Venus]

Nice to see Jeff getting some love. I am currently enjoying his character in the original Outsiders comics by Barr and Aparo.

Black Lightning Year One by Jen Van Meter and Cully Hammer is one of the best Black Lightning comics ever, imo and essential reading for any fans of the character or people who just want to introduce to the character.

[Robotman]

I've always liked Black Lightning. Hope to see him more in the New 52. I enjoyed his team up with Blue Devil.

I'm curious to know what African American fans think of Black Lightning. I've seen people on message boards talk about how he is a symbol of the comic book industry's racism and others love him for being a portrayal of a strong intelligent black superhero.

[John Venus]

Have we seen Jeff at all in the Nu 52?

[Anthony Shaw]

I've always liked Black Lightning. Hope to see him more in the New 52. I enjoyed his team up with Blue Devil.

I'm curious to know what African American fans think of Black Lightning. I've seen people on message boards talk about how he is a symbol of the comic book industry's racism and others love him for being a portrayal of a strong intelligent black superhero.

I liked the brief glimpse of Black Lightning & Blue Devil in Justice League. It would be great if they appear in a regular book. I could see those two kinda like Cage & Iron Fist over at Marvel.

BL is a great character.

[Herowatcher]

Have we seen Jeff at all in the Nu 52?

Black Lightning appeared with Blue Devil in DCU Presents, which didn't thrill me at all.
BL's costume is now hideous IMO. I prefer Jefferson as a strong stand alone character not
glued to another character's hip.

[Herowatcher]

It all started with this comic...Black Lightning #1 from 1977

[John Venus]

If BL ever gets his own ongoing or back up story again, I hope he gets to operate in his own city. I've always irked at the fact that he just got a small piece of Metropolis to protect.

Black Lightning appeared with Blue Devil in DCU Presents, which didn't thrill me at all.
BL's costume is now hideous IMO. I prefer Jefferson as a strong stand alone character not
glued to another character's hip.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info.

I haven't read the story you were referring to but I agree with the sentiment that Jeff shouldn't be too tied to another character.

Just googled his New 52 costume:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/...tningnew52.jpg

http://media.comicbookmovie.com/imag...8073/bdev4.jpg

It's not bad but I don't like the placement and flow of the lightning in it. It's the same colour scheme as Static's; blue and yellow. They should have given him a different colour scheme in order to differentiate the two.

The one in the second makes it look like he is wearing the top half of Nightwing's old blue/black costume but with the bird symbol made to look more like a lightning symbol.

The great thing about Jeff's costume was it's resemblance to a tracksuit and it harkens back to the fact that he was an Olympic athlete so it's exactly the kind of the costume someone with that background would design.

This:

http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/im...ne_Vol_1_6.jpg

is a good re design. However, I would lose the dreads as they are too evocative of Static Shock. I would just give him an afro or just have him with short or just go bald.

[Robotman]

Wasn't a fan of the new costume. It was too busy. Sook made it look pretty good but Sook draws everything awesome.

[Starchild]

I wish they'd change his name. We can see that he's black.

[Robotman]

I wish they'd change his name. We can see that he's black.

I don't think they'd be able to change his name. Tony Isabella has been fighting for years to get the rights back to the character he created. If DC changed Black Lightning's name that would bring up new copyright issues.

Maybe Lightning would be a better name. The New God Black Vykin has just gone by just Vykin for a long time now.

[ed2962]

I've always liked Black Lightning. Hope to see him more in the New 52. I enjoyed his team up with Blue Devil.

I'm curious to know what African American fans think of Black Lightning. I've seen people on message boards talk about how he is a symbol of the comic book industry's racism and others love him for being a portrayal of a strong intelligent black superhero.

I like the character. I thought he was portrayed really well in the old Outsiders series. I think he (and GeoForce) improved a bit after Batman left the series.

I don't think Jefferson was done as a racial caricature. Even in the older comics, I think for the most part this was avoided. He's generally a real positive role model. As opposed to "angry black male" or "jive talking sidekick."

I don't think the name is problematic. I've seen Black Lightning used as titles for movies about cars, there's a motorcycle with the name...it just sounds cool.

[John Venus]

I don't mind the Black Lightning name either. They have tried to justify it in various ways like him using black lightning bolts to Pierce saying that he adopted the name because there weren't many black superheroes around when he debuted and in Black Lightning: Year One, he took on the name and ditched the hood he initially wore on recommendation from his family because the mainstream media was white washing him.

I am currently reading the old Outsiders series by Barr/Aparo and yes, I am quite enjoying the portrayal of Jeff. Initially, it felt like every other issue brought up his guilt over accidentally killing a girl but I ended up liking the ultimate resolution of the story arc and I thought he became a much stronger, better character afterwards.

[John Venus]

A good summation of Jefferson Pierce's character:

[Robotman]

Really loved these DC Nation shorts