"Racially Charged": Negotiating Black Politics on the Superhero TV Adaptation, Black Lightning

This project takes Black Lightning as a case study of the representation of Black superheroes in comic book television adaptations. By focusing on the three main superheroes Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning; Anissa Pierce/Thunder/Black Bird; and Jennifer Pierce/Lightning, this project examines the ways in which the show relies on the superhero semantics and mediates Black Christianity to negotiate Black political thought and respond to contemporary racial politics in the US. More precisely, it focuses on Jefferson's representation as an actor of Black respectability politics; Anissa's positioning as a radical activist and superhero often in conflict with the politics of respectability; and finally, Jennifer's political reawakening at a moment when the "post-racial" myth is prevalent in the US.