DC Comics
Creators: Tony Isabella, Trevor Von Eeden, Frank Springer and Vince Coletta
Cover dates: April 1977 to October 1978
Longtime readers of this blog know I buy more comics than I read. Oh, I intend to read all of them eventually, and I've slowed down in my buying quite a bit in more recent years, but I still have a huge backlog of trades, hardcovers and even single-issue back issues that I have purchased over the years and haven't gotten around to reading yet.
I usually read comics from that backlog at random as time allows. Every now and then, though, something will prompt me to grab something from the middle of the stack and vow to read it next. The announcement some months back that Tony Isabella would be returning to write for DC Comics on his creation, Black Lightning, prompted such a move.
I know a little about Black Lightning, but I'm no expert. I've read the late 1970s issue of Justice League of America where Superman invites Black Lightning to join the League and the hero of Suicide Slum famously turns down the invitation. I've read several issues of the various iterations of the Outsiders (both with Batman and without). I've read more recent issues of Justice League where Black Lightning was a member. There have been many, many other stories that included Black Lightning — some even featuring him as the title character such as Black Lightning: Year One by Jen Van Meter and Cully Hamner from almost 10 years ago now — but I've never read any of the Black Lightning comics written by his creator, Tony Isabella, a writer whose work I enjoy.
In the late 1970s when this initial series debuted, I was 10 years old. There were no comics shops; instead we bought our comics at the grocery store or department stores. Limited availability, limited mobility and limited resources — even though this was a time when comics were a fraction of the cost they are now — all contributed to my being unaware of the new character or his title at the time. And honestly, even if I had known about Black Lightning in 1977, I likely wouldn't have cared to buy his comic when other names were more recognizable to me.
But as an adult collector, I've long been curious about the initial series and Black Lightning's mid-1990s second solo series, also written — at least initially — by Isabella. Over the years, I've managed to track them all down. Now a new, modern start for Black Lightning was being planned, and Isabella would again by writing Jefferson Pierce. I wanted to read all three series together. The fact that a new "Black Lightning" television adaptation was coming was also a factor, but less of one since it would debut on the CW before the new comic series and before I'd have a chance to read the back issues I owned.
I enjoyed watching the CW's debut season of "Black Lightning." While I'd heard names like Tobias Whale and Inspector Henderson from the comics before, watching this new television program told me a lot about these people I knew little about. It also introduced me to names I'd not heard before like Peter Gambi and The 100. While some of the relationships and interactions depicted in "Black Lightning" the television series were not exactly the same as those from the comics, the show served as a nice introduction prior to reading these earliest Black Lightning comics.
The first Black Lightning comics series ran for 11 issues before being caught up in the "DC Implosion," a name coined in jest mocking the line-wide expansion that had just been announced as the DC Explosion. I didn't know it at the time I bought these back issues, but the sudden cancellation of many titles at DC in 1978 left many story lines unresolved and several issues written and drawn without a title to publish them in. Black Lightning was no exception, and what would have been issue No. 12 later ran as a segment in an issue of World's Finest Comics. Sadly, I don't own that World’s Finest issue, but I found the previous 11 issues of Black Lightning quite enjoyable despite the abrupt ending.
Peter Gambi is still very much a father-figure and mentor to former Olympian Jefferson Pierce, who has returned to Suicide Slum to teach by day and clean up the streets by night. I was surprised to learn that initially Black Lightning did not have the metahuman powers he would later develop. Instead, he has an electromagnetic belt that gives him a protective force field and some limited ability to discharge electrical current in the form of lightning bolts. But the belt is the source of those abilities; they do not exist within Jefferson himself.
Primarily, Black Lightning battles The 100, a gang that controls much of the vice in Suicide Slum and keeps the populace in check by recruiting its young people and keeping people afraid, on drugs or both. Tobias Whale is one of the chief architects of The 100's activities, and very early on they recruit an archer/assassin named Merlyn to take out Black Lightning. I've always liked the character of Merlyn and did not know he was associated with Black Lightning at all. I was also pleased to find out after reading the early issues of Black Lightning with his involvement, that this is one of the earliest appearances of the character since his debut in the pages of Justice League of America.
And then there's the title character, Black Lightning, a.k.a. Jefferson Pierce. Pierce is a likable, relatable character in these earliest issues. He has confidence, which he would need to play dress up and believe he has a chance against the thugs he fights. He is a skilled athlete as readers are reminded by references to his Olympics background, so his exploits are believable. And Pierce seems equally at ease in the classroom, teaching his students and being a role model for them as a citizen, even without his costume and flashy superhero identity. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed these early issues.
Be sure to come back next week and we’ll fast forward to the character’s mid-1990s relaunch.
