50 Fun Facts About Black Lightning

Which 1970s cartoon invented the hero Black Vulcan so DC could avoid paying royalties for Black Lightning?

Super Friends used the lookalike Black Vulcan, who throws bolts of electricity from his hands, and the real hero stayed out of DC's screen adaptations for many years.

Which network developed Black Lightning and then passed on its pilot before The CW picked the series up?

Fox judged the drama a poor fit for its crowded genre line-up, so The CW threw out the original pilot script and shot a short presentation instead.

Which former star of Disney Channel's A.N.T. Farm plays Jennifer Pierce, the younger daughter on Black Lightning?

China Anne McClain left early in the final season, so Laura Kariuki took over the part until McClain returned for the series finale.

When Black Lightning begins, which job does retired hero Jefferson Pierce hold at his daughter Jennifer's school?

Principal Pierce stands up for his community so effectively that a former student reveals locals have nicknamed him Black Jesus.

Black Lightning's showrunner called Jefferson Pierce's family the superhero world's version of which famous family?

The Obamas were the comparison he reached for, adding that the Pierces' powers, like their race, are only part of who they are.

Which Grammy-winning soul singer plays the funeral parlour owner Lady Eve in the first season of Black Lightning?

Jill Scott's Lady Eve ties the city's gang boss to a secret board of corrupt leaders, is murdered by his men, and then turns up alive two seasons later.

Which improv comedian and host of Let's Make a Deal plays the World War II super-soldier Gravedigger on Black Lightning?

Wayne Brady's Gravedigger, Tyson Sykes, is the lone survivor of a wartime project, and a DNA test shows he is related to Jefferson Pierce.

On Black Lightning, which hero name does Jefferson Pierce's elder daughter Anissa adopt after gaining super-strength?

Thunder can also create powerful shockwaves, and critics hailed the character as television's first Black lesbian superhero.

Black Lightning's showrunner likened Jefferson Pierce to Martin Luther King Jr. and his alter ego to which leader?

Malcolm X stood for the side of the hero that will not turn the other cheek, while the daytime Pierce would rather love and keep the peace.

Which actor, who was Lavon Hayes on Hart of Dixie, stars as Jefferson Pierce on Black Lightning?

Cress Williams had guest parts on Lois & Clark and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the 1990s, long before he landed a superhero lead of his own.

Which fictional city, plagued by gang violence, is the setting of Black Lightning and home to the Pierce family?

Freeland spends the third season under martial law, imposed by a government agency that rounds up anyone suspected of having powers.

On Black Lightning, crime boss Tobias Whale is an African-American man with which inherited condition?

Albinism marked Tobias Whale from his 1977 comics debut, though DC's later Rebirth relaunch redrew the crime boss without it.

On Black Lightning, which street gang's kidnapping of the Pierce sisters forces their father out of retirement?

The 100 is secretly run by Tobias Whale, who was handed the gang after the underworld came to believe he had killed the hero years earlier.

On Black Lightning, Peter Gambi hides his secret workshop for Jefferson Pierce's gear inside which kind of business?

A tailor shop is cover for Gambi, a former government agent who took the young Pierce in after the boy's father was murdered.

On Black Lightning, which codename does track star Khalil take once a spinal implant turns him into a cyborg?

Painkiller was popular enough for The CW to develop a backdoor pilot for his own spin-off, although the network passed on it in 2021.

On Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce's ex-wife Lynn Stewart studies metahumans in which professional role?

Neuroscientist Lynn divorced Jefferson because his vigilante nights kept sending him home battered, and she persuaded him to hang up the suit.

On Black Lightning, which addictive street drug briefly gives its young users a frenzy of enhanced strength?

Green Light is traced not to low-level gang members but to a secret government programme experimenting on the city's young people.

In the original DC comics, Black Lightning defends the Suicide Slum district of which famous fictional city?

Metropolis is better known as Superman's home, which made the schoolteacher hero a street-level neighbour of DC's biggest star.

DC hired Black Lightning's creator after a successful run writing which Black Marvel hero with a solo title?

Luke Cage won the writer the job, and the writer then talked DC out of the Black Bomber, a white racist who turned into a Black hero under stress.

Black Lightning's 2018 premiere aired straight after which other superhero series, holding almost all of its audience?

The Flash handed over a lead-in that the newcomer kept in full in the key adult demographic, giving The CW its best-rated series premiere in two years.

In DC comics, Black Lightning is a founding member of which superhero team first assembled by Batman?

The Outsiders formed around a rescue mission abroad, and Batman first had to help the hero recover abilities he had lost in a crisis of confidence.

In a famous DC comics story, Black Lightning declines an offer to join which team, preferring street-level work?

Justice League membership came years later; at first he offered only to serve as a reservist, and he was called up when the android Amazo returned.

In his earliest DC comics stories, Black Lightning has no inborn abilities and draws his electricity from which device?

A belt generated his force field and electric bolts until later writers decided the abilities had been inside him all along.

In DC comics, Jefferson Pierce won Olympic gold in which event before becoming the hero Black Lightning?

Decathlon gold came before his return to his old neighbourhood school, where the public murder of a student pushed him into costume.

In DC comics, President Lex Luthor appoints Black Lightning's Jefferson Pierce to head which cabinet department?

Education Secretary Pierce took the post believing he could do more good inside the system, then resigned as his secret identity leaked out.

Black Lightning's creator says which 1970s sitcom inspired Jefferson Pierce's return to teach at his old high school?

Welcome Back, Kotter gave the hero his day job, and the same writer scripted an issue of DC's tie-in comic of the sitcom in 1977.

The name Black Lightning came from a line of dialogue on a comic cover starring which DC heroine?

Wonder Woman's cover hung on editor Julius Schwartz's wall, and the phrase stuck with the writer because so many films of the era had 'Black' in the title.

Black Lightning is credited with starting a trend in Black superheroes' powers that includes which Milestone teen hero?

Static even becomes his student in a later DC animated series, where the older hero mentors the teenager.

A version of Black Lightning's daughter Lightning first appeared in which 1996 DC miniseries painted by Alex Ross?

Kingdom Come was written by Mark Waid; in the regular DC universe Jennifer Pierce later took the same codename as a teenage recruit to a veteran super-team.

Which stand-up comedian played Black Lightning in a Saturday Night Live sketch about the death of Superman?

Sinbad's cameo came in a sketch based on DC's The Death of Superman storyline, long before the hero had a series of his own.

Which Star Trek: The Next Generation actor voices Black Lightning in the animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies?

LeVar Burton's version of the hero works for President Lex Luthor, a nod to the comics, where Luthor hands him a seat in the cabinet.

In the fighting game Injustice 2, Black Lightning is a premier skin for which guest fighter from Mortal Kombat?

Raiden lends the DC hero his moves, and the mobile version of the game adds a separate playable fighter based on the CW series incarnation.

Black Lightning was filmed in and around which city, on a back lot once used by The Vampire Diaries?

Atlanta kept the production apart from the other CW superhero shows, so its star took a week out to shoot his crossover scenes in Vancouver.

Black Lightning's two comics creators both made cameo appearances in the TV series playing which kind of official?

Judges were the parts given to the writer and to artist Trevor Von Eeden, who designed the hero's original costume and drew his first eleven issues.

Which showrunner developed Black Lightning for television after making The Game and Being Mary Jane with his wife Mara?

Salim Akil kept it in the family: his son, the musician Godholly, performs the track heard over the main title sequence.

Black Lightning's showrunner likened the first season's plot, about a drug's hidden origins, to which real scandal?

The Tuskegee experiment suited an arc he built around African-American paranoia, as the trail of a street drug leads far above the gangs who sell it.

Black Lightning's second season is organised into smaller story arcs known by which name, echoing its comics roots?

Books gave the season its shape, beginning with one themed around consequences, and one critic noted the religious ring of the episode titles.

Which actor, known as Dexter Morgan's father Harry on Dexter, plays Peter Gambi on Black Lightning?

James Remar's Gambi hides a past as Peter Esposito, a government agent whose leaked information got Jefferson Pierce's father killed.

Which actor and director, a veteran of Predator and Commando, plays Agent Percy Odell on Black Lightning?

Bill Duke's Odell trained Gambi years earlier, answers to the President, and arrives from Gotham City to investigate a rogue operation.

Marvin Jones III, who plays Tobias Whale on Black Lightning, made his name as Krondon in which line of work?

Rapper Krondon belongs to the Los Angeles group Strong Arm Steady, and he also played the villain Tombstone in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

On Black Lightning, which secretive government agency keeps young metahumans in pods and later occupies the hero's city?

The A.S.A. once counted both Peter Gambi and Lady Eve among its agents, and its files end up in front of a congressional committee.

On Black Lightning, soldiers from which fictional nation invade the hero's city, drawn by its metahumans?

Markovia once ran a metahuman project jointly with the United States, the wartime programme that created Gravedigger.

On Black Lightning, which shapeshifting bartender dates Anissa Pierce and marries her in the final season?

Grace Choi can turn into a leopard, and in that form she works out the hero's secret identity from his scent.

On Black Lightning, Anissa Pierce switches her super-strength and toughness on and off by controlling what?

Her breathing changes her body's density, which makes her all but invulnerable for as long as she can keep it under control.

In Black Lightning's third season, Anissa Pierce adopts which second masked identity to free captured young metahumans?

Blackbird wears a black hood and a mask over the lower half of her face, and Peter Gambi quietly helps with her raids.

On Black Lightning, which secret metahuman prison holds Tobias Whale after his defeat at the end of season two?

The Pit is an unofficial facility that also holds Jefferson Pierce for a time, and it is finally set to self-destruct.

On Black Lightning, the young metahuman T.C., to whom Peter Gambi finally passes the torch, can talk to what?

Machines all speak to T.C. at once, so after he was freed he hid away in an old radio station, which is where Gambi found him.

In Black Lightning's final season, crime boss Tobias Whale poses as a philanthropist and campaigns for which office?

Mayor was a job Whale had just emptied himself, having had the sitting officeholder killed for refusing to demolish the hero's school.

Which ally of Black Lightning, by then the city's police chief, dies in the hero's arms at the end of season three?

Bill Henderson is fatally wounded shooting soldiers who were about to ambush his old friend, and with his last words he urges him not to let the city down.

In season one of Black Lightning, Jennifer asks whether her mother is secretly Vixen or which other DC heroine?

Supergirl's name was dropped purely to tease fans, the showrunner said, because the series then sat on a separate Earth from the CW's other heroes.