Black Lightning Trailer Goes LIVE!

Here's a DC Comics character you could mess up reaaaaally easily. Those of us who read Justice League comics for years growing up may only be familiar with the funky costume changes for one of DC's few stand out black super heroes, so setting up the TV mythology wouldn't be a huge bother...but if the topic isn't treated with the sensitivity and reality a man like this would face today, the project would be doomed to fail. Shows like Supergirl and The Flash tend to fixate on a sunnier DC Universe than their explosive, perpetually gloomy movie counter-Earth, or remain caught up in the drama of love found and lost, never addressing the issues people of color face today. We wondered how the CW might address this very real world in a post Luke Cage climate. This trailer might make you feel a bit better about it all.



It can be argued that DC TV's answer to addressing the very real shadow of racism in society is to not address it at all, so we've been waiting to see if that stance would change for the Black Lightning series. Show crew have stated that Black Lightning does NOT take place in the Arrow-verse (which we can assume includes Supergirl) and that we should not expect a cross-over any time soon. It will be interesting to see what sort of tone Black Lightning adopts and how their reality might bleed into the other DC TV shows. Here's the show synopsis:

Jefferson Pierce is a man wrestling with a secret. Nine years ago, Pierce was gifted with the superhuman power to harness and control electricity, which he used to keep his hometown streets safe as the masked vigilante Black Lightning. However, after too many nights with his life and his family on the line, he left his Super Hero days behind. Almost a decade later, Pierce’s crime-fighting days are long behind him…or so he thought. But with crime and corruption spreading like wildfire, Black Lightning returns — to save not only his family, but also the soul of his community.

Black Lightning is coming soon to the CW!