Black Lightning
| Black Lightning | |
|---|---|
Art by Kevin Nowlan
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance |
Black Lightning #1 (April 1977) |
| Created by |
Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Jefferson Pierce |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations |
Justice League Outsiders U.S. Department of Education International Olympic Committee |
| Abilities |
Electricity generation and manipulation Limited flight Force field generation Skilled martial artist Olympic level athlete |
Black Lightning (real name Jefferson Pierce) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was one of the first major African American superheroes to appear in DC Comics. He debuted in Black Lightning #1 (April 1977), and was created by writer Tony Isabella with artist Trevor Von Eeden.
The original candidate for DC Comics' first headlining black superhero was a character called the Black Bomber, a white racist who would turn into a black superhero under stress, and be later described by comics historian Don Markstein as "an insult to practically everybody with any point of view at all." When the editor who had approved the Black Bomber left the company before the character had seen print, Tony Isabella (whose previous writing experience included Luke Cage, a black Marvel Comics superhero with his own title) was asked to salvage the character. Isabella managed to convince editors to instead use his Black Lightning character which he had been working on for some time, mentioning that his characters along the way were merely stepping stones.
Tony Isabella wrote the first 10 issues of Black Lightning, before handing it over to Dennis O'Neil. Only one O'Neil-scripted issue came out before the series was canceled in 1978 as part of a general large-scale pruning of the company's superhero titles known as the DC Implosion. Issue #12 was published in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade and World's Finest Comics #260.
Black Lightning made a number of guest appearances in various titles over the next few years, including a string of issues of World's Finest Comics written by O'Neil, then shifting to Detective Comics and a two-part story in Justice League of America in which the League invited him to join, but he turned them down.
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