On The Air: Black Lightning (2018)

In the winter of 1976-7, DC Comics introduced Black Lightning, the first series from the company to be headlined by an African-American hero. Jefferson Pierce returned to his hometown of Metropolis to become the principal at Garfield High, and adopts the identity of Black Lightning to fight the 100, an inner city gang fronted by Tobias Whale, posited to be DC's answer to Marvel's plus size mob boss, the Kingpin. Series creator and fellow blogger Tony Isabella has reset the series in his hometown of Cleveland in the current Cold Dead Hands miniseries, which has been met with glowing reviews since its premiere a couple of months back.

Meanwhile, Black Lightning becomes the 5th DC Comics series adapted for television by Greg Berlanti and his staff, and gets the cushy slot behind The Flash. That's the good news. The bad is that the first season is just 13 weeks, and will wrap in mid-April.

In this series, Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams, ex-Hart of Dixie) had been Black Lightning until retiring 9 years ago. The setting is different, too, having shifted to the fictional town of Freeland. Pierce is the principal at Garfield High, where his youngest daughter, Jennifer, is a student, and his oldest, Anissa, is a teacher. They also happen to be metahumans, just like their father, as we will see over the course of the next three months.

Whale is here, too, but, as embodied by rapper Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, isn't a Kingpin wannabe any longer. Bear in mind, too, that it was assumed that a short-term Arrow villain last season, Tobias Church, was meant to be an analogue for Whale, but now we can't be sure.

Pierce is at a crossroads as this series begins. He would rather focus on his day job and keep his kids and the school safe. Of course, gang violence is bound to find its way to Garfield High. He's also looking to make amends with his ex-wife, Lynn. Well, not everything's meant to go according to plan......



For now, Black Lightning will not intersect with the rest of the Berlanti-verse family of shows, but, then, they also said the same thing about Supergirl, and we all know how that went.

What works in this show's favor is that it has the seal of approval of Tony Isabella, who's worked closely with the creative staff. That may make all the difference in the world, considering how the other shows have fallen off the rails, or are threatening to, of late.

Rating: A.