Black Lightning

The old school guy

- Dave Golder

Black Lightning is breaking ground for teen-friendly channel The CW, and not just because it stars a middle-aged man. In a year when Black Panther has broken as many cultural barriers as box office records, Black Lightning is playing its own part in bringing black issues to the screen.

It’s far from the first TV show to boast an African-American superhero as its lead character (MANTIS did that way back in 1995) but it’s the first superhero show to get to grips with what it means to be black in modern America. Sure, Luke Cage has hip-hop credibility, but with its lone hero versus outlandishly named gangsters it felt more like a self-aware reinvention of blaxploitation – Shaft with super-strength. Black Lightning is as much a show about family and community as it is superpowers.