I also failed to point out in the previous post that it was Jeff Smith who reinvented Mary Marvel as an annoying little sister. Mary Bromfield-Batson, historically, had never been a pre-teen to my knowledge and I don't know how I feel about that.
Super-babies and X-Babies have always been presented as cute, comedy relief. In a world of Teen Titans, Mary's, er, thunder has now been stolen multiple times, so de-ageing her makes her more noteworthy. It's interesting, however, to observed that she's most recently been depicted as a teenager.
The meteorological theme continues today with a post on TV's Black Lightning Season One. The CW network, a subsidiary of Warner Bros, has brought numerous DC superhero properties successfully to the small screen beginning with Arrow, then Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl. Although they've all represented diversity, Black Lightning revolves around a primarily black cast, where white and Hispanic characters are in the minority.
Black Lightning, of course, was DC's first solo series headlined by a Person of Colour. Marvel's Luke Cage predated BL both in comics and on tv but Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden's hero had a truncated run, thanks to the DC Implosion at the end of the 70s. While he might've been a bit of an antique "jive turkey" some five years later, BL was a mainstay of the quirky (Batman and) the Outsiders. He was promoted to membership of the mid-Noughties Justice League by Brad Meltzer, having turned them down in 1980.
Unlike Cage or Marvel's Black Panther, Black Lightning has never had much cultural traction.His Super Friends alternate, Black Vulcan is probably better known- ironically created as a result of Isabella's disputes with DC. It's refreshing then to see Black Lightning presented as a character with integrity and gravitas in this series.
School Principal Jefferson Pierce retired from his super-heroic career nine years previously but returns to the streets to combat the drug dealing crime syndicate, the 100, fronted by the albino Tobias Whale.
The city of Freeland has been a testing ground for a shadowy government experiment in creating super-soldiers. This is the in-story explanation for Pierce's super-powers and those of his daughters: Jennifer and the eldest, Anissa, who takes on the super-hero identity of Thunder.
This is all very faithful to the comics, especially the Noughties' Outsiders and Black Lightning Year One. The tragic antagonist Painkiller, meanwhile, was seen in the "Brick City Blues" incarnation of BL: one I can't bring myself to read yet thanks to the Peak Nineties art. Jennifer was first seen in Kingdom Come and then in Geoff Johns Justice Society stories.
Black Lightning's life is more family-oriented than that of Luke Cage but the series is compelling and quite urban and edgy in its tone. I'm not sure if BL occupies an Earth of his own but it's interesting to see a more mature hero in the CW Universe. It's surprising therefore that the version of BL that creator Tony Isabella's most recently wrote for is younger than ever before.
In 2018's Cold Dead Hands, Jennifer and Anissa are Pierce's cousins. He has a half-sister, Police Detective Tommi Colavito and the retired supervillain Amberjack is his trainer/mentor. Flash and Cyborg guest star - and no, I still can't accept one of the Wolfman/Perez Titans as a founder of the JLA. There's also a charming Easter Egg in a recreation of a DCCP cover from December 1979.
Whale is not depicted as an albino in Cold Dead Hands and his appearance is much less cartoony than in his 70s-80s heyday. The plot of the series depends on alien gun runners and this sci-fi note is the only aspect that doesn't really work for me. Otherwise, it's really pleasing to see a veteran comics writer of the Bronze Age deliver a contemporary take on one of their signature creations.
Of course, there's a large part of me that would be delighted to see Isabella's Black Goliath, who predated Black Lightning, get this kind of positive treatment. But wait! There's hope in the form of an upcoming War of the Realms tie-in miniseries.
I may not be invested in the main event yet but I'll investigate this 3-issue spin-off and the assemblage of Asian heroes in Agents of Atlas.
Coming up: The Iron Legion and the Great Refuge
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