Drama adds fresh voice to superhero realm

The new year isn’t even a month old, and a new superhero is already charging onto the scene, smashing into the 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, have a broader agenda than creating another fantastic world where good battles evil.

The drama, which airs on Tuesdays, joins the network’s superhero slate — “Arrow,” “Supergirl,” “The Flash” and “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” — and 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,”

Dave Penniman isn’t sure he wants road grit dinging up the pristine underside of his selfassembled car.

He also isn’t sure he wants to navigate Ohio’s stringent laws for titling it.

So he might never drive the vintage car he spent several years building in his Clintonville garage — which seems OK with him, given that the design and construction are journey enough.

“Some people just like the engineering challenge of taking old technology and trying to make it work again,” he said.

When he says old, he isn’t kidding.

Penniman started with the chassis and drive train of a 1928 Chevrolet. He bought other parts on eBay, built a canoe-shaped body from strips of cedar and ended up with a “speedster,” the term car enthusiasts use for ancient cars modified to go fast.

“Faster than you should go,” he said. “Probably over 70.” (He did put seat belts in the car, a rare concession to modernity.)

Penniman — an 80-yearold retiree who has worked as a technical writer, a professor and an administrator — has a picture of a go-kart he built as a kid.

His obsession, he said, “goes way back.”

His masterpiece, a woodsided 1927 “depot hack” (an early version of the station wagon), took 34 years to complete. He bought some bare-bones parts while studying at Ohio State University in 1967 and added to them as he moved from state to state for different jobs.

He finished the car in 2001, then sold it to a collector with a private car museum.

The car was a “trailer queen,” meaning it was never driven on roads.

“We were all in tears when it went down the driveway,” he said of himself and his family (wife Charlotte and