Cress Williams Will Play Jefferson Pierce In The New Black Lightning Series

Recently the news broke about Black Lightning; DC Comics’ first black superhero is getting his own show. The Fox Network passed on the opportunity and now the new series will make its debut on The CW.

The character will be played by Cress Williams who has a distinguished acting career with many notable roles such as Wyatt Mathewson, Prison Break, Detective Ed Williams, Close to Home, Cole Guthrie in seasons one and two of Code Black and Cress’ most recently played Mayor Lavon Hayes on The CW series Hart of Dixie.

Image: Richard Ducree/The CW

So, who is Black Lightning anyway?

Jefferson Pierce is the alter ego to Black Lightning, an older retired vigilante – superhero forced back into action due to events in his life surrounding his neighborhood and family in particular.

Black Lightning was created by writer Tony Isabella along with artist Trevor Von Eeden and made his debut in April 1977.

His creation was rather interesting, initially, he was known as the “Black Bomber” who was a white racist but when made really angry shouted “Black Power” and turned into the black superhero the Black Bomber.

DC Comics / Google Images

Fortunately, DC decided to scrap the storyline as it was offensive to both blacks and whites and the character was rebranded as Black Lightning by Tony Isabella.

While his origin story has been retconned several times, BL currently has roots in the DC Universe as a metahuman, a human being with superpowers.

Black Lightning uses superhuman electrical powers to take down the bad guys; he has the power to generate, absorb, and manipulate electricity.

He has limited capabilities to fly but his other strengths include martial arts, force field generation and Olympic level athleticism.

Black Lightning is also known for saving Superman’s life by restarting his heart after The Man of Steel was hit with a lethal amount of Kryptonite. How many superheroes can make that claim?

DC Comics / Google Images

At this time we don’t know whether the show will be based out of Metropolis or another city where he is not connected to Superman or any of the other shows.

Black Lightning is a welcome change to the superhero landscape and we are pretty excited to see how his character develops. If you are a fan of DC Comics then you are probably just as excited as well!

Related Stories:

The Top 10 Batman Villains Of All Time
Here Is Why We Are Looking Forward To Zack Snyder’s Justice League
The Official Justice League Trailer Just Dropped And It Looks Sweet!