BLACK LIGHTNING: HIS 1970s STORIES

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the early adventures of the DC character Black Lightning.

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #1 (April 1977)

Title: Black Lightning

Villains: The 100

Synopsis:  This first appearance of Black Lightning does things the way I like – it shows the hero in action for a while, and THEN reveals his origin through a flashback. After his latest victory over the drug dealers of Suicide Slums, the ghetto section of Metropolis, Black Lightning switches to his secret identity and recalls his origin.

Jefferson Pierce was a gifted athlete from high school on up and even won medals in the Olympics. Disdaining celebrity, he became a teacher and ultimately moved back to the slums where he grew up and taught at Garfield High.

Pierce and a scientist named Peter Gambi grew to hate the 100, an organized crime gang who ran Suicide Slums. Gambi created a costume and high-tech belt that let Pierce deliver lightning-charged punches and generate a force field for personal protection. He decided to fight crime as Black Lightning.

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #2 (May 1977)

Title: Merlyn Means Murder

Villains: Merlyn the Dark Archer

Synopsis: Black Lightning continues his war against the 100 and their kingpin – the Whale. Tobias Whale hires former League of Shadows operative Merlyn the Dark Archer to kill Black Lightning. 

While our hero and Merlyn fight it out, Black Lightning whittles down another member of the 100 but Merlyn escapes. 

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #3 (July 1977)

Title: Every Hand Against Him

Villains: The Whale and Syonide

Synopsis: While Inspector Bill Henderson tries to bring in the costumed vigilante called Black Lightning, that hero fights his way further up the ranks of the 100, through the supervillain Syonide to the Whale himself. 

Meanwhile, as Garfield High teacher Jefferson Pierce, our hero meets his love interest, Lynn Stewart, a teacher who is working to become a lawyer. 

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #4 (September 1977)

Title: Beware the Cyclotronic Man

Villain: Cyclotronic Man

Synopsis: The Whale frames Black Lightning for an attack on Jimmy Olsen for the purpose of engineering a battle between Superman and our main character.  

When Supes and B.L. fight it out, Tobias Whale unleashes the supervillain called the Cyclotronic Man on them both.

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #5 (November 1977)

Title: Nobody Beats a Superman

Villain: Cyclotronic Man

Synopsis: Black Lightning and Superman let their personal feud hinder them against Cyclotronic Man.

Eventually, our hero convinces the Kryptonian that he is not the public danger that Inspector Henderson thought he was, then the two heroes work together to defeat Cyclotronic Man.

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #6 (January 1978)

Title: One Man’s Poison

Villains: Syonide and the 100

Synopsis: Jefferson Pierce continues to juggle his life as a teacher with his career as Black Lightning. 

Syonide strikes again, this time backed up by his supervillain allies Steel-Fist and Pajamas, and manages to capture Black Lightning for the 100. 

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #7 (March 1978)

Title: The Conscience of the Killer

Villains: Syonide, the Whale and the 100

Synopsis: Black Lightning discovers he has a fellow prisoner awaiting execution by the 100 – his longtime friend Peter Gambi. 

Our hero is shocked to learn that Peter is the former hitman who killed his father. Gambi sacrifices himself to save Black Lightning’s life, enabling him to defeat the Whale. 

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #8 (April 1978)

Title: Deadly Aftermath

Villains: The Whale and the 100

Synopsis: Tobias Whale breaks out of prison and kidnaps Inspector Bill Henderson in order to lure Black Lightning into a trap. 

Our hero sends the Whale back to prison, saves Inspector Henderson, and comes to terms with his father’s death. 

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #9 (May 1978)

Title: Fear and Loathing at Garfield High

Villain: The Annihilist

Synopsis: The romance of Jefferson Pierce and Lynn Stewart is progressing nicely at Garfield High. Unexpectedly, the international terrorist called the Annihilist seizes Lynn and a handful of students as hostages.

Pierce becomes Black Lightning, then helps the cops end the standoff and takes down the Annihilist.   

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #10 (August 1978)

Title: The Other Black Lightning

Villain: The Trickster

Synopsis: When a traveling circus passing through Metropolis starts highlighting a performer using the name Black Lightning, our hero looks into the situation.

As the plot thickens, Black Lightning discovers that Flash’s old foe the Trickster is in town to pull off a caper. Naturally, Jefferson Pierce isn’t having it.

BLACK LIGHTNING Vol 1 #11 (October 1978)

Title: All They Will Call You Will Be … Deportee

Villains: Human Traffickers

Synopsis: Black Lightning comes down hard on a Suicide Slums human trafficking ring that brings in illegal immigrants then sells them into a lifetime of slavery.

NOTE: This was the final issue of Black Lightning’s first series due to low sales.     

CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #1 (1978)

NOTE: DC periodically published installments of Canceled Comic Cavalcade, which presented black & white stories that had gone unpublished due to various series being canceled. Previously Balladeer’s Blog looked at canceled stories of the Creeper and the Green Team. Here is the unpublished Black Lightning story which was scheduled for issue #12. 

Title: The Lure of the Magnetic Menace

Villain: Dr. Polaris

Synopsis: Garfield High teacher Jefferson Pierce gets involved in a search for a runaway student. The trail leads to deadly danger, and Pierce must become Black Lightning to fight the magnet-powered villain Dr. Polaris, whose plans involve the runaway.

*** Lastly, at right is the unfinished, unpublished cover for what would have been Black Lightning Vol 1 #13 in which our hero would have clashed with the Death Disciples.    

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