This post is a nostalgic one, certainly. I recently bought a copy of the trade paperback of the first run of Black Lightning at the mart at the Trades hall in Glasgow. How does the collection of the 70s series compare with the Year One trade I reviewed last summer ? ( http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/struck-by-lightning.html)
Compared to Marvel (with the notable exception of Conan The Barbarian), DC was ground-breaking in the early Seventies. First with the Orlando mystery line at the end of the 60s, then the O'Neil and Adams Batman, Swamp Thing and the Fourth World. By the mid-70s and the oil crisis, however, the company was trading on its old glories with the wonderful packages of Golden and Silver Age material. But, ironically, with the perceived failure of Kirby's grand experiments, the Marvelization of DC began. Gerry Conway, who had brought Peter Parker to the verge of a nervous breakdown, widened the cracks in Reed and Sue's marriage and ramped up the sci-fi elements of Thor was, I'd say instrumental in bringing a Marvel sensibility to staid DC.
This sensibility can be defined as heightened melodrama, soap opera interactions, a more pessimistic authorial voice and most of all a greater sense of continuity from month to month. I think you can see this in Conway's titles: All-Star Comics, Secret Society of Super-Villains, New Gods, even Metal Men. The Marvel Way would ultimately culminate a decade later in Crisis on Infinite Earths, where the DC Multiverse became something of a mirror to the Marvel Universe, even down to its "handbooks".
Black Lightning strikes me as very much in the Marvel vein. One reason, of course, is that creator Tony Isabella had written Luke Cage, Power Man and used the title to launch one of my favourite Marvel heroes Black Goliath. Another reason is that inks are supplied by Vinnie Colletta, who gives Trevor Von Eeden's art a simplified, generic superhero look.
BL's origins as the Black Bomber, a dreadful Freaky Friday parable about a Viet-vet racist in a Afro-American body swap, have been well-documented. Isabella and Von Eeden are to be congratulated for creating a likeable hero with considerable longevity ( and an upcoming tv series) from such awful beginnings.
The premier issue is told as a flashback. That most bizarre of Marvel tropes, the crucifixion, is the motivation for Jefferson's Pierce's heroism. It might interest fans of Arrow to note that Talia and Merlyn the archer feature in the second story. The clash with the monstrous albino villain Tobias Whale in issue 3 prefigures the cultured menace of the Kingpin in Daredevil. I have to say the Year One series does a better job of explaining the relationship of the 100 to the League of Assassins.
I came aboard this series with issue 4's Superman guest appearance. The villain the Cyclotronic Man reminds me of several Marvel creations: Infinitus the Reincarnated Man; Equinox the Thermodynamic Man; Mord the Backwards Man; Stegron the Dinosaur Man; Makhizmo the Nuclear Man ( not to mention Conway's DC heroes Steel the Indestructible Man, Firestorm the other Nuclear Man and Ditko's Shade the Changing Man.) Most of all Ned Creegan reminds me of Blacksun, who became the original Nth Man.
There's a very Super Friends-cameo by Batman and Robin but the arrival of Jimmy Olsen and Inspector Henderson ( from Superman's radio and tv adventures, principally) reminds me of the way Conway imported Peter Parker's cast into the early issues of Ms. Marvel.
There are some hints of a intriguing backstory for a black officer named Jim Corrigan. Was this an Earth-One equivalent of the Spectre's alter ego? We may never know.
My brother bought the issues of Black Lightning that I read next, in Motherwell and East Kilbride.
Issue 6 features more of Lynn, Pierce's ex-wife and Two-Bits the stoolie ( who reminds me of both Huggy Bear and Kid Creole). Amusingly, there are two villains who are parodies of Shang-Chi and Iron Fist. The verbose assassin Syonide may be a gay character, given his nickname "Fruitboots". BL is crucified (!) in the next issue and his mentor Peter Gambi dies. Pierce seems to internalise his powers here, just as Ms. Marvel did.
Issue 8 sees the final clash of BL and the Whale. The art has been increasingly dynamic and the first arc ends on a positive note with a dedication to Isabella's wife. The next issue was my last in the 70s: the terrorist Annihilist and his robot duplicates strike me as a parody of Deathlok (and possibly the androids from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman)
I didn't see the next three issues on sale on the 70s. 10 is an homage to Carmine Infantino's Flash, even down to the "helping hands" in the captions. The Other Black Lightning is a schmaltzy tv -style story about a dim football player at the "Bewsima Bros" circus. James Jesse, the Harlequin of Hocus Pocus makes reference to his SSOV tenure. I've liked the Trickster since Wanted #2.
The next story is a melodramatic and poetic O'Neil script about human trafficking and alcoholism.The last brings back bandana-wearing Dr. Polaris, whom I first saw in the Strange Sports baseball story in 1976. This is a story about child abuse with gritty, muscular art by Mike Netzer/Nasser. And there it ends. I would've liked to see the Ray back-up features by Roger McKenzie; I don't know if there was more than one ( from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade).
It isn't an awful read if you accept the initially sketchy art and the Blaxploitation tropes of the period. I think there are other DC series of 77-78 that are better, of course.
BL would return in the 80s, of course, with Batman and the Outsiders; in 1995, Isabella wrote him in another series and in 2006, he finally accepted JLA membership- although he's subsequently been ousted in favour of the dreary ghetto Ben Grimm, Cyborg, a creation of one of my least favourite writers.
Why did the original series fail? Obviously, it fell victim to the infamous DC Implosion. Perhaps there weren't enough People of Colour reading the comic. Aside from Whale, the villains were feeble but I don't think it was any worse than Power Man three or four years earlier. But perhaps that was the problem: it feels like warmed-over Marvel. I'd argue that DC just wasn't very good at gritty, urban superheroics in the 70s (and worse at Pulp Noir). Space opera and gimmicky science had been the company's stock in trade since the 50s and Black Lightning just wasn't "kozmic" enough, baby.
Coming soon: Lots of Planets Have a North.
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