Cartoon
The All-New SuperFriends Hour
The Challenge of the SuperFriends
SuperFriends:  The Legendary Super Powers Show

Animal
Lieutenant and Chief of Security aboard Voyager

Outfit: ever changing arrangement of lightning bolt-themed spandex / severe man thighs / boomerangs glued to head

Tagline: "Great Lightning!"

"Great Hera!"

"Great Galaxies!"

"Great Neptune!"

"Great Gotham!"

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

"grate"

Plot summary:  Jefferson Pierce escaped the squalor of Metropolis's Suicide Slum by devoting himself to athletics.  He eventually won Olympic gold in the decathlon.  Once qualified as a teacher, he returned to Suicide Slum.  Pierced watched helplessly as his students fell victim to drugs, controlled by the 100 mob led by albino behemoth Tobias Whale.  With a costume sporting an electronic belt to shock thugs senseless, Pierce became Black Lightning and brought the 100 mob, and Tobias Whale, to justice.  Then they made him into a cartoon, joined him up with the SuperFriends, changed his name to Black Vulcan (because people like Star Trek), and replaced his charitable do-gooding with repeated stints standing beside Aquaman talking earnestly about how much peril everyone is in while the white SuperFriends save the day.

But hey, Vulcan wasn't as bad as the other tacked-on colored SuperFriends.  At least he was based on an existing (if not barely older) DC Comics character.  It's not like Samurai was based on anybody.  He was just "Asian guy."  He didn't even have discernable powers.  His dick turned into wind.   And it's not like Apache Chief had representation in the comics.  Unless "all my friend and relatives have been tomahawked in the face by the Lone Ranger" qualifies as a "proud heritage."

Black Lightning was voiced by Buster Jones (who sounds EXACTLY like WWE Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin).  You may remember Jones from his racially progressive voice over work for other great strides in African-American equality like Twiggy from "The Super Globetrotters," Winston of "The Real Ghostbusters," and a robot who changed into a jambox on "Transformers."   Alternately you may remember reading about Jones and his time spent rafting down the Mississippi with Huck Finn.    (more)

User Comments:  Nobody's gonna present the animators of SuperFriends with the Pulitzer Prize for excellence in the field of getting things the right color, but Black Vulcan took this to a disturbing new level.  Nobody got Vulcan's costume right for more than fifteen frames in a row.  Sometimes he's wearing a turtleneck.  Sometimes it's a swooping V-neck like in the picture.   Sometimes he has sleeves, sometimes he doesn't.  Sometimes he's wearing pants, sometimes he isn't. 

His powers were even worse.  Here's his power:  He can control electricity.  Seems simple, right?  Shoot lightning out of your hands, maybe scoot around on a lightning bolt.  In the grand tradition of his thigh-less, shirt-less non-pants, the Black Vulcan's powers changed and were altered so quickly and often you couldn't help but imagine the writers covering their eyes, opening a chemistry book, and deciding what he can do based on random finger placement.   "I'll handle this!  My lightning bolt should EVAPORATE THIS WATER."

His major contribution to the team was throwing a lightning bolt around his opponent to tie them up and keep them in place.  A lightning bolt.   An abrupt, discontinuous natural electric discharge in the atmosphere.  Lex Luthor is covered in FUCKING LIGHTNING and his biggest problem is that he can't move his arms.  Then, in his minor contribution to the team, Vulcan would turn the lower half of his body into electricity and fly away.  Since I guess an intricate structure of muscle and bone isn't as important to human locomotion as very quick light.  Next time I'm in a race I'm going to stick a flashlight down my underpants and burn ass.

User Rating: 5.7/10 (76,798 votes)