Metro Weekly
Home / Arts + Entertainment / Television / The CW’s “Black Lightning” features a black lesbian superhero

The CW’s “Black Lightning” features a black lesbian superhero

Thunder is the crime-fighting LGBTQ hero we need

By on January 5, 2018

Nafessa Williams as Thunder — Photo: The CW

The CW is set to bring a new, kick-ass superhero family to our screens. Black Lightning is based on the eponymous DC comic book character, real name Jefferson Pierce, who fights crime with superhuman abilities that grant control over electricity.

The show will feature Pierce, played by Cress Williams, and his two daughters, Jennifer (China Anne McClain) and Anissa (Nafessa Williams).

Pierce will find himself forced back into crime-fighting nine years after he gave up it up to focus on his family and his career, when his daughters find themselves caught up with a local gang.

And its his daughters who threaten to steal the limelight. While Jennifer — Lightning, to use her hero name — has electric abilities like her dad and the power of flight, it’s Anissa — or Thunder — that has everyone talking.

Not only can she become temporarily invulnerable and generate massive shockwaves, she’s also an out and proud lesbian, both in the comics and in the CW show.

And her sexuality won’t just be a passing reference, as Anissa will also get a love interest, in the form of half-Amazonian, Asian-American character Grace Choi, played by Chantal Thuy. Choi is bisexual in the comics.

“I think right now, it’s timely and it’s necessary,” Williams said last year at San Diego Comic Con, about Black Lightning featuring the first black superhero family on network TV. “We need it. It’s been way too long. I didn’t have a black superhero to look up to as a little girl.”

That timeliness is evident on Twitter, where users are going crazy over both the importance of having a character of color who is also LGBTQ, and the reveal of Thunder’s awesome costume.

Same-Sex Kiss Cut from ‘Gladiator II’
Read Next
Same-Sex Kiss Cut from ‘Gladiator II’

Black Lightning will premier Jan. 16 at 9 p.m. on The CW.

READ NEXT

Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism

These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!

Related Items