Black Lightning goes where other superheroes don’t
The new year isn’t even a month old, and a new superhero is charging onto the scene, smashing into the jam-packed universe already occupied by Superman, Batman, Thor, Wonder Woman and a seemingly endless parade of costumed crime fighters.
But the producers of “Black Lightning,” the new CW series based on the DC Comics character that launched Tuesday, have a broader agenda than creating another fantastic world where good battles evil.
The drama, which joins the network’s superhero slate — “Arrow,” “Supergirl,” “The Flash” and “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” — aims to deliver a shock wave, injecting topical issues and a sharp cultural perspective focused on the concerns facing African Americans.
“We want to have an authentic black voice and a show that deals with what I grew up with and what I know,” said executive producer and showrunner Salim Akil.
“This is personal to me,” said Akil, who wrote the pilot with his wife and fellow executive producer, Mara Brock Akil (“Girlfriends,” “The Game”). “I wanted to add something not only to black culture but to American culture that can’t be taken away.”
Cress Williams (“Hart of Dixie,” “Living Single”) plays the titular hero, Jefferson Pierce, a scrupulous high school principal and divorced father of two daughters living in the fictional city of Freeland.
Nine years before the start of the series — after a near-fatal showdown with his nemesis Tobias Whale (Marvin Jones III) — Pierce retired his alter ego Black Lightning, a masked vigilante with the power to manipulate electricity.
But superheroes rarely stay retired. Pierce resurrects Black Lightning to combat racist cops and a violent gang, led by Whale, terrorizing the community. The battle becomes personal when gang members target his daughters, activist Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and high-schooler Jennifer (China Anne McClain), who turn out to have special skills of their own. (Stay tuned for “Thunder” and “Lightning.”)
One of the key goals for Akil, who grew up in Richmond, Calif., is to show that black heroes matter.
“In my community, I know who the good guys and the bad guys are,” he said. “I’ve never seen Superman go to Chicago. I’ve never seen Batman go to Watts. There are no superheroes going into the neighborhoods I grew up in and fighting any kind of crime. So that was a must in terms of the world ‘Black Lightning’ would live in. There are no more heroic people than those who live with the threat of gun violence and drugs. It’s not even about what race you are. It’s about socioeconomic status.”