The new CW network show Black Lightning displays all the usual trappings of a superhero
television show: the self-doubting hero-with-superpowers who is torn between
his duty and his loved ones; the over-the-top Evil Villain who rules the dark
underworld of crime in an unnamed city; the older, super-smart Albert-type who
makes cool tech stuff for the hero (and picks up the pieces when the hero
occasionally hits the Epic Fail wall. Oh, and, of course, the corrupt police
department that just gets in the way of justice.
But Black
Lightning is different in at least one way. Like its upcoming big screen
big brother BLACK PANTHER, this show’s hero—and almost all of its cast—is
black.
And before you shrug, I want you to think
about that statement. Many of us are old enough to remember when the presence of
Nichelle Nichols in the cast of Star Trek
was a big deal. It was just a couple of years ago when #OscarsSoWhite made the
rounds. Although efforts have been made to be inclusive, it’s still rare to
find people of color in leading dramatic roles, much less dominating entire
shows. Shows like Underground (about
the Underground Railroad), Ava Duvernay’s Queen
Sugar (about a black family in modern-day Louisiana), or Atlanta (an Emmy Award-winning dramedy
starring Donald Glover) are critically acclaimed celebrated, but still have to
work to find their audiences.
So, when the science fiction world
recognizes that diversity is a good thing with a show like Black Lightning, I’m all for it. (Not to mention how excited I am
about the movie BLACK PANTHER, which looks absolutely fantastic!) The show has
its faults. The acting is so-so; the characterization and plotting is pretty
cliched; and I’m not sure what to say about the fact that the tech expert is an
old white guy. But watching first few episodes of BL I was reminded why we all fell
in love with superheroes in the first place.
The setting for the show is a town in the
grip of a crime gang called The 100, a gang against which the police appear to
be powerless. Young men are dying, drugs are rife, businesses are forced to pay
protection and no one is safe on the streets. Hope is scarce among the families
of this town, whose children are frequently lost to the gang’s violence or
drugs. The only oasis is the school whose principal was once secretly Black
Lightning.
The superhero is called back into service
when the streets get so bad his school and his family are threatened, and when
marches and appeals to the corrupt mayor and the police don’t help. In effect,
the superhero must act when all other hope is lost.
Way back when two kids from Brooklyn, Jerry
Siegel and Joe Shuster, first came up with the character of Superman, the world
was similarly in need of a hero. It was 1938, the depths of the Great
Depression. Adolf Hitler was in power in Germany and poised to take over Europe.
Japan was menacing Asia. Things looked bad for Our Side. Superman was a True
American Hero—Faster than a Speeding Bullet! Able to Leap Tall Buildings in a
Single Bound! And, not incidentally, standing for Truth, Justice and the
American Way.
Americans needed hope in that moment, and
something to believe in. Before the country went to war with the Nazis and the Japanese,
we Americans didn’t know if we could succeed. After all, the French, the
Belgians, the Dutch, the Chinese had all failed. The British and the Russians
were barely hanging on against what appeared to be superhuman villains. It
really seemed we needed superpowers to defeat them.
Turned out we had those superpowers in
ourselves—in the courage of the soldiers fighting in the field, in the
sacrifices of the people rationing and working in factories and collecting
rubber and metal at home. But maybe we found some inspiration in that fella in
the cape, too—at least the kids reading the comics under the covers at night
did.
I don’t think it’s any surprise that we seek
out superheroes on big screens and small these days, either. Things are dark
and not so hopeful out there right now, and maybe we need a few Supermen and
Wonder Women and Black Lightnings to lend us courage for the fight ahead,
whatever it might be. Just until we find our own superpowers. And if those
heroes look like us—if they happen to be female, or black, for example—that’s even
better.
CONGRATULATIONS, GRETA AND PIPPA!
Spacefreighters blog partners Greta Van der Rol and Pippa Jay were among the winners of the 2017 SFR Galaxy Awards announced this week! Woo hoo! Huge congratulations to both these authors for their well-deserved honors. Check out all the details on their awards here.
Cheers, Donna
