Jefferson Pierce

## Background

### 1973 - 1999: Jefferson Pierce

Jefferson never knew his mother, being solely raised in the Suicide Slums of Metropolis by his father Alvin Pierce. The two were very close, almost doing everything together. Alvin Pierce worked as a local reporter for the Daily Star, a rival newspaper of the Daily Planet. Jeff occasionally accompanied his father on some of his leads unless he was dealing a particular dangerous topic. He didn't accompany him when his father decided to do a piece regarding Tobias Whale's corruption. This eventually led to Whale losing his position & pursuing a criminal career.

A week later, Tobias approached Albert in his home while Jefferson hid away. He has his man hold him down as he stuffed his mouth with shredded bits of his article, killing him. The event left Jefferson traumatized. Jefferson was taken in by his godfather & his dad's best friend Peter Gambi. He had to make the move to Freeland, the homeland of his father & Gambi. In no time, Gambi & his daughter Constance became Jeff's new family.

At the age of fourteen, Jefferson was chased down by two SWAT officers after taking part in a riot. He accidentally set off his powers for the first time, knocking out both of the officers. He immediately confided in Gambi, who told him to keep his powers a secret. Instead, he pushed Jeff in athletics & in his studies, gaining an aptitude for english & poetry. During college, Jeff managed to make it to the 1992 Olympic Games, gaining fame from the media profiles which highlighted his rise from Freeland. That year he won the the gold medal for the decathlon. Jeff wanted to send a message to everyone back home that you could get out of the neighborhood with hard work.

Having won medals & attention, Jeff received scholarships & endorsement offers which allowed him to finish school for free. After graduating, he had a daughter Anissa with his college sweetheart Lynn Stewart, who he married not long after. The family decided to move back to Metropolis. Upon his return to his birthplace, he noticed that nothing had changed in Suicide Slums. He decided it was time to make a difference & not only got a job at Garfield High School but began crimefighting. He used his athletic skills & the fighting tactics he learned from Gambi, who also made him a suit. He would of stayed down this path but gave it up to help provide a normal life for Anissa.

## Romantic Relationships

* Lynn Stewart: Girlfriend (1990 - 1996); Wife (1996 - )

## Personality

Jefferson cares deeply for his family, as he gave up crimefighting to be more present in his daughters' lives. He is normally a happy go lucky guy unless his family is in danger or threatened. He is also a very selfless individual, as he was willing to give up his say as principal in exchange for the school board not expelling a good student from Garfield High School.

He likes to believe in the best in people. He has good morals, as when Gambi mentioned that Jeff might have to kill a shooter to save a group of children & while he didn't like the idea, he knew he might have to do this in order to save innocent civilians.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Metahuman Physiology:** Jeff discovered his abilities while running from the police after a riot. According to Gambi, "his powers are largely neurological". Whenever Jeff utilizes or is about to utilize his powers; his eyes glow bright blue.
	+ ***Electrokinesis*:** After absorbing the electricity, Jeff can store it up for as long as he sees fit & likewise safely unleash it as he pleases, from either his hands or his entire body, to which he is able to freely manipulate the electricity. At the same time, he does not need to first absorb the said electricity, as he can manipulate it around him. His brain can pick up & use electricity the way a normal person picks up & uses a pencil or a hammer. Originally, he could only take electricity from its source, but could not actually generate or create electricity. Jeff later became able to generate electricity on his own.
		- ***Accelerated Healing*:** Jefferson possess an accelerated healing factor, allowing him to heal from wounds much faster and more efficiently than a normal human
		- ***Electrical Blasts*:** Jeff can create balls & bolts of electrical energy & project them at his opponents. He can control the size to be from as small as a basketball to as large as a fully-grown adult. He can also throw them large distances, cause injuries & even hold his opponents in the air with using his electricity.
		- ***Electrical Constructs*:** He can use his electrokinetic powers to create physical objects out of electric energy. He can form a shield that can protect him & others from harm, an application that has blocked hails of bullets on several occasions. He can produce a field essentially imprisons a target, preventing them from physically interacting with any person or object & blocking any active power usage.
		- ***Electrical Immunity*:** Black Lightning is completely immune against any electric weapons and attacks, as exhibited when he was tasered by police officers. He can even redirect the electricity back to the source, as shown when he used the taser darts shot at him to send the electrical shock back at the user.
		- ***Enhanced Strength*:** His abilities grant him a measure of enhanced strength. However, it is nowhere near to the degree that his daughter Anissa possesses. He also seems to be stronger when channeling electricity, as he was also able to send a punching bag flying off of its hinges & across the room with a single punch.
		- ***Super-Leaping***: Black Lightning can use an electro-magnetic push against a metal surface to throw himself incredibly far distances (a move that was taught to him by Cyborg). While escaping the police, Jefferson used their police car to shoot himself a dozen blocks in the air.
		- ***Telekinesis*:** He can manipulate the matter of objects with electricity or electromagnetism. He usually performs this feat by hurling or lifting his opponents into the air.
		- ***Vocal Manipulation*:** He possesses the ability to change his voice through the use of electricity. He vibrates his vocal cords with his own electricity, thus making his voice much deeper than usual.
* **Above Average Human Condition:** Jeff is in top physical condition from his time as an Olympic athlete which he maintains by working out regularly.
	+ ***Acrobatics*:** Jeff is skilled in acrobatics, using acrobatics to escape pursuit in his vigilante activities as Black Lightning.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Arts*:** Having been trained by Gambi, Jeff is an extremely skilled hand to hand combatant & martial artist, able to compete against numerous opponents at one time. He can also compete against his daughter Anissa & managed to defeat her despite her own superpowers. He also managed to defeat the physically stronger Tobias in hand-to-hand combat with the latter wearing lightning resistant material during the fight. His fighting style seems to appears to include, Boxing, Kickboxing, Tae kwon do, Karate, Aikido, Muay Thai, Wing Chun and Judo.
	+ ***Pain Tolerance*:** Jefferson has an extremely high threshold for pain. He once cauterized his own gunshot wound.
	+ ***Stealth*:** Jeff possesses impressive stealth skills, as he was able to sneak away from police without them noticing or hearing him.

* **Marksmanship:** Jeff possesses impressive marksmanship skills, as he is able to easily fire electricity at several members of the 100 with ease.
* **Multilingualism:** Jeff is capable of fluently speaking English & some Spanish.
* **Pedagogy:** Being a teacher at Garfield High School, Jeff has some level of teaching abilities.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strength:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Weapons:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Range:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Strategy:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Combat:** 5 - High / Exceptional

## Trivia

* He likes to say "Lightning strikes twice in this town" during battles to many people's annoyance.
* He was against his daughters becoming superheroes.
* Black Lightning has a power ranking of 100, classifying him as Threat Level 3 / General Threat.

## Notes

* The quote about lighting striking twice is from *Black Lightning Vol 11.*
* His address is a reference to his first appearance (*Black Lightning*#1 in April, 1977) & one of his creators (Tony Isabella).
* In the comics, Jefferson has a sister named Constance. Instead, she is his surrogate sister & she is the daughter of Peter Gambi.