Jefferson Pierce, known as the superhero Black Lightning, is the main protagonist of The CW's Black Lightning.
His Good Ranking[]
His Heroic Deeds[]
- He stopped countless small-time criminals.
- He saw the good in several criminals and tried to reason with them.
- He always gives his daughters advice when they want it.
- Although he wanted to kill Joey Toledo and Tobias Whale, he subverts this quite early by forgiving Gambi for his actions, which included killing Joey so that Jefferson wouldn't become a killer and keeping it a secret from Jefferson, and then sparing Tobias in Season 2.
- He pursued Martin Proctor and questioned him, and although he didn't stop Gambi from killing Proctor, it was justified since Martin Proctor is one of the only irredeemable villains in the show.
- He decided that Lowry wasn't a bad guy, and decided to let Lowry be the principal despite his problems with him. Lowry would continue to run the school his way, but no one got hurt and Lowry tries to help Tavon during Season 3, albeit unsuccessfully. Jefferson would become the principal again in Season 4, but he doesn't appear to regret trusting Lowry to help the kids, and Lowry most likely was okay with the change since he ultimately just wants to help the kids as well.
- When Gambi faked his death to protect the Pierces, Jefferson forgave him and told him that he was family.
- He and Jennifer stopped Tobias in the Season 2 finale.
- After Odell took over Freeland, Jefferson helped him only to protect his family, and when it became too much he defended a woman from the ASA trying to take her home.
- He helped Barry Allen during Part 3 and Part 5 of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- When Lynn slapped him, he took it well and didn't even consider hitting her. He even went to another country to save her despite her being violent in their previous moment together.
- Although he shocked Gravedigger after rescuing Lynn, he didn't kill him and instead gave him a warning. Gravedigger would not heed the warning, but it shows that Jefferson would rather save everyone on both sides than kill one person to save everyone else.
- He stopped both Odell and Gravedigger, during the Season 3 finale. He also understood Gravedigger's pain, unlike Jennifer, and tried to reason with him since Gravedigger is family. He saved hundreds of people in this episode.
- Although he left Gravedigger to die, he was unwilling to and if he hadn't flown out of the building quickly with Lynn in his arms they both would have died.
- After Bill Henderson died Jefferson got more reckless and brutal after returning to hero work, and was inactive for a year. He would go back to being more reasonable after some time and regretted being a jerk.
- He decided to trust Hassan Shakur and revealed to him that he was Black Lightning.
- In a flashback it was shown that he accidentally killed someone with his powers, and was really remorseful even though the guy was a criminal.
- Jefferson fought Tobias one last time, and defeated him again. Tobias died in the fight, but only because Tobias refused Black Lightning's help after accidentally landing on a spike. Jefferson tried to save him despite Tobias killing his father.
- Jefferson and Lynn agreed to remarry, and said that he would continue being Black Lightning in another city.
- Jefferson gives Barry Allen some advice during The Flash Season 8 arc Armageddon, and convinces Barry not to give up his life just because an alien he barely knows told him he will bring the world to an end.
- Jefferson doesn't show up again in any other show, but he had influence on characters like Barry.
- Jefferson, despite being incredibly serious for the most part, never darkens the story significantly, unlike racist characters like Tobias or Looker. Overall Black Lightning is an altruistic guy that loves Freeland and his family.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- During Crisis he shared most of his actions with Barry and other heroes, and while he would have stood out on his Earth, his universe merged with Barry's, and so he fails the standards to Oliver Queen since Oliver is more admirable and had no superpowers when he carried out heroic acts that saved Star City multiple times.
- Black Lightning also fails to people like John Diggle, who aided Oliver in stopping several villains and saved many people in need for a lot longer than Black Lightning.
- While his lethality and wrath was mostly subverted, he still had a couple of minor arragint moments that weren't subverted which was that he broke a limb of a man and another he had blinded via shocking his eyeballs with lightning, all during Season 4. The last instance is too brutal to ignore.