Black Lightning #2 review

In Metropolis, Black Lightning and daughter (Not Black) Lightning are fighting a monster.

In the Justice League Watchtower Thunder, Jefferson’s other girl, is fighting her demons.

The therapist seems rather good, and when Thunder – Annisa Pierce – loses control of her powers, as she’s been doing since the Absolute Power debacle, the counsellor proves pretty useful.

Also, she turns out to be a robot. I should have seen that coming, it says right there, Sanctuary Wing – as in Sanctuary, the place where Heroes in Crisis were counselled by robot versions of Ma and Pa Kent and Lana Lang. That was a disaster, several heroes died as a result of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman’s project… so why would they revive the idea?

And would a woman as self-possessed as Anissa sit down and share her innermost feelings with Super-Alexa? It doesn’t ring true in writer Brandon Thomas’s script.

Another problem is that the opening fight isn’t as clear as it could be. There’s a massive monster, and after Lightning – Jennifer Pierce – and her Dad beat the beastie off panel, we get this.

Is Brady a kid she’s put in a pilot suit after he de-monstered? Or is he a pilot who changed into a giant creature without his suit splitting and now he’s OK again? There are dots here that need joining.

After this, Lightning Sr and Jr are called to another emergency, a man is haphazardly pulling threats from the past with powers he can’t control. Brady and the Unnamed Guy – who Jennifer blithely knocks out with her electricity – are new metahumans, their powers a result of feedback when Amanda Waller’s Super-Amazos were short circuited. Black Lightning has been tasked with intercepting such new metas and taking them to the Watchtower for observation. Today, though, they’re taking them to fellow hero Steel’s super-engineering complex.

Why, I’m not sure, Natasha Irons – the female Steel – not being a geneticist or similar, but there we are. As it happens, Isaac, whose powers manifested last month, is already there, feeling a little lost. Jennifer is up for a chat, but the life of a superhero is rarely filled with calm spots. Villainous randoms are around every corner.

So, the woman in the middle is Volcana. I think she’s new, I don’t recall her at all. Marvel has a Volcana, so she’s probably a misprint. The other two? Thomas doesn’t bother to let us know.

We do find out a fair amount about Isaac and his mother, they get two pages to themselves. It’s not fascinating.

And neither is this business with a Metropolis councilman.

Not again. We’ve seen this kind of thing so many time before. And I’m likewise not massively excited by the injection of lots of new metas into the DCU… heck, Jeff’s assignment is the same as the one taken on by the Unstoppable Doom Patrol only a year or so ago.

What I like in this second issue is the various perspectives on Thunder’s power problems. The relationship between the super-sisters is nicely depicted. Daily Planet reporter Ron Troupe is on great form. There’s plenty of action, well drawn by Fico Ossio, and his people look great, like the individuals they should be. Lots of thought has been put into layouts, and there’s a real energy to proceedings. The colours by Ulises Arreola and letters by Lucas Gattoni are excellent. Ossio and Arreola’s cover has a killer Black Lightning shot, but could do with a blurb or word bubble to make it more than a lot of blasting.

My big problem with this issue is that there’s barely any Black Lightning in here. Sure, he’s on hand for the action scenes, but beyond that he’s barely there. Maybe 80 words are spoken by him, and none of them are driving things. The story is about Annisa. It’s about the emerging metahumans. It’s not about Jeff, we don’t get his point of view on things at all – he’s a side character in his own book. Thomas actually seems more interested in Isaac and his mom than the title character.

And it’s Black Lightning I’m here for – I like his girls, but they should be supporting characters, not co-leads. Jeff should be the centre of the action, and the emotion. And from the cliffhanger it looks as if next issue will heavily feature a team-up between Lightning and Natasha.

I may buy next issue day and date but if I remember I’ll move it to being a DC Infinite read, a month after the on-sale date – this issue simply lacked the Black Lightning sizzle I want.