Warning: Spoilers for Black Lightning #4!One DC Comics hero, Black Lightning, knows the one thing thatBatmandoesn’t. As a well-traveled combat specialist and the World’s Greatest Detective, there’s a narrative thatBatman literally knows everything, especially when it comes to combat. His worldwide expedition of training under countless masters allows him access to every martial art and fighting skill in existence – except one.
Black Lightning#4 – written by Brandon Thomas, with art by Fico Ossio – highlights the oneshortcoming in the Caped Crusader’s vast combat knowledge. In the final pages, the duo of Jefferson Pierce andwould-be Wonder Woman protégé Lightningare outnumbered and outmatched by a paramilitary group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty.
His daughter asks if her dad learned any tips from Batman that could prove useful in a situation like this;“Batman? Please,” he tells Jennifer,“I’m from the Slum, baby girl … and so are you.”
Black Lightning Doesn’t Need Batman’s Martial Arts Expertise; His Upbringing Made Him Tough Enough
Black Lightning#4 – Written By Brandon Thomas; Art By Fico Ossio; Color By Ulises Arreola; Lettering By Lucas Gattoni
When Black Lightning references “the Slum,” he’s referring to the city he protects, Suicide Slum. Now renamed in-universe as Southside Heights,the Suicide Slum has historically been a crime-stricken neighborhood area of Metropolis so rundown, impoverished, and violent that not even Superman frequents it.The crime rate and inner-city turmoil is significant enough to be a problem, but the Man of Steel nor the Justice League can prioritize it when bigger cities like Metropolis have bigger threats to focus on. This is where Black Lightning comes into play, as the hero trying to salvage it.
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Black Lightning’s affinity for the Slums stems from this being his childhood hometown. Even before becoming a teacher and a superhero, Jefferson grew up having to fight, literally, scraping with tooth and nail to survive the Suicide Slum. Per its name, it was the only way to survive the Slums, either by fighting within an inch of one’s life, or taking their own life. With a single mother after the murder of his father, Jefferson chose the former. As witnessed today, it molded him not only as a strong-willed man, but as a better fighter because of it.
Black Lightning Learned To Fight The Hard Way, Making His Style Distinct From Batman’s
A Matter Of Style & Perspective
As well-traveled as Batman is,he never lived the same struggle as Black Lightning did, because he was never poor. Even whenhe briefly lost his fortune years ago, Bruce Wayne merely went from being a billionaire to a millionaire. He was still rich, and never poor in the same way as someone who had to fight growing up just to get their next meal or walk to their car, as Jefferson Pierce had. That obviously doesn’t negate thetrauma thatBatmanhas suffered, but it speaks to a trauma that can’t be trained or learned from a master.
