The Nerdz Lounge.

Black Lightning lost me because:

a) The lead actor doesn't look like the comics AT ALL
b) They had him in some homemade suit while the electricity came from Black Lightning's body in the comics
c) Whenever there's a black male hero, black chicks aren't far behind because the black man can't have shit to himself, see: Black Panther
d) They ghettoized him from the Arrow/Flash/Supergirl-verse

I never even saw the show

 

The black man loses his powers and then his daughters become more powerful than him so you already seeing him pass the mantle in the first season. They have a serious serious problem seeing black men with power on these shows. Firestorm on Legends can only have power if a white man joins with him. White man dies black man written off the show too because God forbid he has power on his own.
The Flash has kid Flash who is obviously redundant written off the show. Arrow has Mr.Terric and Diggle who ultimately serve as yes men to more dominate white characters. Put it like this no kid wants to be these characters for Halloween and there's a good reason why. Who the hell wants to be a sidekick when you can be a hero.

 

You're not missing a damn thing. And to your point about having nothing to ourselves I'd almost forgive it if they were sidekicks but these are characters who look like they want their own story told so why put them in this show. Let them have their flop like Birds of Prey and let's move on.
The saddest thing is there isn't a single character I care about not one. I got to the gym I want to be Oliver Queen. I read about science related things I feel like Cisco Ramone or Harrison Wells. This show gives us absolutely nothing except a shit ton of baseless preaching and a middle age guy who should not be the primary superhero in any show. Seriously when else do we get some guy in his mid to late 40s leading a hero show?

 

I thought this was a good enough show to go on for at least a 3rd season. Instead of cancelling it I just wished they would've given it the Heroes-For-Hire boost by having them begin to form on Ironfist. Then do a Heroes-For-Hire show before the third season of Ironfist. Include an episode that focuses on Danny. I mean The Avengers movies made me want a Hulk movie and saved that character from those BAD Hulk movies. I think they could've saved Danny Rand as well with a Heroes-For-Hire show.

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones continued to have strong storylines, although I do think the third season of both their shows they should start to give us crossovers. If they want Luke and Jessica together how long are we going to keep them apart? I'm afraid their 3rd seasons will lag if not.

In fact that is something that probably could've helped Ironfist. Crossovers. They are making these shows TOO solo. Should take notes from the MCU.

 

Interesting takes. I appreciate your point of view. Here are my responses.

a) There are definitely changes, but I don't think they're a lot more extreme than with the other CW heroes.

b) The show has the power come from him; the suit helps him control it. But I think his suit pretty much looks like TRASH, cheap cosplay. They don't need a huge budget to give him something better looking than that.

c) I like the family angle. Especially since there are still such poor stereotypes about black men not being family men.
But this is a problem with limited representation: you simply can't cover all the angles. It'd be nice to *also* have a show about a younger, single black lead. Still, which white CW superheroes don't share the stage with heroes of the other gender?

d) The guy lives in the suburbs and is the beloved principal of a well-functioning high school. He loves his wife and is a good father. He insists on proper English. That's ghetto-ized?
I maybe see what you mean to say though. Is your point that he shouldn't be limited to cleaning up the 'hood while Green Arrow gets to save the world? If so, I point to the limited representation problem again. Some smaller scale "universes" are good. But yeah, why stick the only black lead there?

Check out this article. I'd love to get your thoughts on it.
https://www.slashfilm.com/necessity-of-black-superheroes/

 

As I wrote above, I see this as a representation issue. Would these points bother you so much if it wasn't the *only* black-led hero show? And if black male leads in other shows were situated more like the white male heroes we all grew up watching?

 

I completely agree with your point about the crossovers. They really should all be in each other's shows more.

Sadly, I seriously doubt Luke and Jessica will ever get together. Even though comic fans want it, I think the showrunners have other preferences. It seems to me that 'Jessica' doesn't want to share the stage with an equally powerful man (because girl power!), while 'Luke' only wants black people in the prominent spots (because black power!...and black love!).

Our comic book preferences are no match for these agendas, folks. Having strong black and strong female leads is apparently insufficient. They also have to do everything completely on their own to be valid. *sarcasm*

I would love to hear what some of our female members think about all this!

 

Ha! Black Lightning never had me despite the early great reviews. I was keeping an eye on the show since its greenlighting, keeping up with casting, directors, trailers, etc. Here's what turned me off:

1 - The showrunners, the ones who came up with the idea of this character being the lead of a show, were husband-wife team Mara Brock Akil & Salim Akil. I doubt the geek/comic book credentials of both of them considering what they did before. But even if I was wrong on one or both of them regarding that, I don't trust a black woman being at the forefront of a drama/adventure/hour show in which a black male is the lead. "Power" is a perfect example of why. A black male lead character will never get the social freedom (whom he associates with, romances, sleeps with) that is necessary for true fully realized character with a black woman at the helm in my opinion. And this husband-wife team were well known for producing shows specifically geared for a black audience and I had little doubt Black Lightning would be any different.

2 - Cress Williams is a very good TV actor who was overdue for a high profile show of his own. But his casting as BL confirmed the rumors that the show was looking to make BL a middle age dad. Why? CW is about putting young, hot bodies in front of the screen for people to idolize and lust after. The ONE time the network doesn't go down this route is the first time they have a black superhero lead? Just shows the discomfort for black male sexuality (by that I mean allowing heterosexual black men to be virile, studly dudes who are attracted to a number of women and a number of young, gorgeous women are attracted to them) that still exists in Hollywood whether it comes from white producers, black ones, brown ones, etc.

3- Not only was Black Lightning gonna be a dad but his children would be daughters who fall more closely around the ages that people typically expect CW main characters to be. That was a key revelation to me. It didn't matter that these characters were relative new heroes in the comic books; the fact that these daughters were being brought to the screen suggested to me that THEY were the motivation for the show, not Black Lightning. This was the reason why Mara Akil was so determined to do the show (again, don't trust black women). And based upon the reactions on Woke Twitter, the girls (who had existed in the comics for like ten minutes) were the characters generating the most buzz. This turned me off almost as much as the idea of a show based upon Blade's daughter that had been floated around a couple of years earlier. Blade's daughter? He had one? How typical. Bypass a rare leading opportunity for a black male character so we can put the focus on younger black females.

4 - The casting. Every time news appeared about the casting of female characters the actress was black. Even the recurring roles. Yep, this show was going to put the black man in a box of having only black women as love interest possibilities. That's a no for me these days because I'm beyond sick of that shit, having black men limited in a manner that no other demographic is. I won't even watch TV series in which the black guy is saddled with a black love interest unless that show is getting some out-of-this-world reviews or if at least the time and place of the story dictates such a pairing. This is why I have no interest in a season three of Luke Cage unless Jessica Jones makes a visit. This is why I don't watch "Snowfall". A black male lead with a basic redbone black girlfriend from the hood. Zzzzzzzzzz. At least thrown in a Latino girl (and I DON''T mean an Afro-Latina) and I may give that show more of a shot. But the story itself didn't impress me enough to keep up with it without a non-black love interest. And for people who think that is too extreme I say fuck you and then point out how black female leads are not limited to black men. Also the casting of the women of BL meant that even if all these ladies weren't potential love interests, our lead would exist in a world in which the only women he would interact with were going to be black (like on fuckin' Luke Cage!). But not surprisingly the casting of supporting male characters were more open to diverse selections. Oh, wait. An Asian woman was selected. Hold up. She's the lesbian girlfriend of one of his daughters. Black women are allowed romantic opportunities outside of their race on a black male show but black dudes are not.

5- When the show made its debut Woke Twitter took it over and championed it as the blackest show ever. Saying such a stupid thing was a huge turnoff.

 

No it wouldn't but I think that's obvious.
It makes watching any of this annoying. I can't even watch out of support for black art. I'd rather nothing be made if this is the nonsense we have to look forward to. Its insulting, at this point I spend way more time reading since its the only media source that's not bathed in deliberate black male exclusion and erasure.

 

On twitter you had a bunch of black women celebrating this as retribution to the treatment of Misty Knight. They were pissed that Misty Knight and Danny were not a couple like they had been in the comic books. Okay, I too was surprised TPTB had yet to go down that route but some of these same women don't seem to have a problem with the Luke/Jessica pairing being slow-walked or ignored. Danny and Misty haven't even been a real couple in decades, Luke and Jessica have been married with a kid for over a decade.

What really struck me was how downright nasty and vicious these ladies were to the actress Jessica Henwick Colleen Wing. They HATED her because her character was getting in the way of Misty and Danny fucking. They trashed the actress, thought she was horrible. They hated the idea of her getting the glowing fist, hated the idea of the show becoming more about her. The irony of this is that if it was a black female character who had been pushed to the forefront in a similar way they would be all for it! They made derisive and sarcastic remarks about how the people who were hoping for an Asian Iron Fist lead have finally gotten their wish, much to the show's demise. Astounding. Black women on twitter are the most vocal over-the-top woke assholes who DEMAND people on twitter will not disrespect people of color and characters of color on twitter. But that's exactly what they were doing with Henwick/Colleen. The mask was falling quickly from their face, revealing that all they care about are black women. Well, that and the shipping of black women with white male characters. It didn't matter that most people had been dismissive of the actor to play Iron Fist, all these chicks wanted was their white boy. I recognized some of them as huge Richonne supporters and it made me think how despite countless WM BW couplings on TV, these fools couldn't get enough.

 

I can't add anything so on point.

 

No, they established from the beginning that Black Lightning was walled off from the other CW superheroes. That's what I meant by "ghettoized"

 

I'm glad I don't follow the same peeps on Twitter that you do, is all I'll say

 

Yet Star Trek Discovery got renewed, lol

 

They're doing that because unlike the movies, you don't know where these shows will end up. Edited versions for normal TV? Sold overseas off-Netflix? So in the future if these shows play on different stations/countries/platforms at different times, you don't want the story lines to cross too much

What irks me is there's no interaction with the movie MCU. Not a peep about how The Hulk wrecked Harlem in a show that's set in Harlem, or no Avengers Tower in wide city shots. They started out referencing the movies, but phased it out

It would be cool if they eventually dovetail into a Heroes for Hire series or even a Defenders season 2

And The Avengers "saved" the Hulk because nobody wants to accept that the Hulk is BORING on his own for 2 hours. This version of The Hulk doesn't even talk like in the comics, or didn't until Thor: Ragnarok

 

I think I know what @RicardoCooper means. 1 of the big things I noticed when I watched the series premiere of "Black Lightning" earlier this year, is that the 2 daughters are totally different from black female characters on other The CW shows. On other CW shows, the black female characters come off like they grew up in mostly white/non-black suburbs. If you watch a lot of CW shows, you're used to that & think nothing of it.

But on BL, the 2 daughters fit certain stereotypes you don't see on other CW shows. They're loud & they use Ebonics. It stood out immediately when I watched the series premiere.

 

Got it. They walled Black Lightning into his own ghetto lol

 

See, I like that different types of black women are being positively represented. Where else do they get to be superheroes?

I don't necessarily agree with the "loud" or "Ebonics" observations either, at least not from the stereotyping angle. They definitely come off as more "urban" (hate that term), but they're both clearly intelligent, reasonable, and of good character. They're also presented as physically attractive. This all contradicts the stereotype of black women who don't "act white" (REALLY hate that term, not that you used it).

Surely you don't want all black women on tv (or the CW) to be from non-black suburbs lol

 

I actually follow very few people. When it comes to me coming across junk like this it typically results from me going to a trending topic or me doing an actual search of a subject on twitter. Often enough the same fools and their predictably bad opinions show up.

 

I don't mind if his daughters have a different vibe than the typical CW black gals. I'm more upset that BL is ghetto-ized by only interacting with women who are black. As if he's in Wakanda or something.