BY JENNIFER M. CONTINO
Can you go home again? And if you do, is it your responsibility to ensure that everything is peaches and cream for those in your neighborhood? Jefferson Pierce believes it is. That's why, after winning some medals at the Olympics and returning to his corner of Metropolis, he dons a colorful costume and tries to right wrongs as Black Lightning. Writer Jen Van Meter is shedding some light on some of Pierce's first outings as the hero in the pages of Black Lightning: Year One. She's got six issues to show why this Lighting can strike more than twice in any given place.

THE PULSE: When did you first get introduced to Black Lightning? I remember reading about him in the Justice League of America and mistaking Black Vulcan in SuperFriends for him when I was first into comics at like age six or seven ....

JEN VAN METER: The first time I clearly recall meeting the character is Batman and the Outsiders #1; I remember that I was struck by an allusion he makes in a thought balloon to having been responsible for someone's death and not wanting to have to suit up again. It suggested to me that his friendship with Batman (who had quit the JLA and asked for his help in Markovia) must be pretty strong, and I was curious about what had happened in the guy's past.


THE PULSE: I think I really got to know Black Lightning when Batman included him in his group of Outsiders, when that series originally made its debut. If you were a fan of those stories, what do you like best about the way Black Lightning was used in those stories?

VAN METER: He's always been most effective for me when he's paying more attention to his own moral compass than to someone else's authority; the Outsiders was an interesting use for him, I think, because that team is always about the struggle to make a team out of people who resist the kind of concessions and compromise that go into teamwork.


THE PULSE: Through the years, Jefferson Pierce has gone through a lot, what do you think have been some of his greatest defining moments in the DCU?

VAN METER: The deaths of Earl Clifford and Peter Gambi, the repeated brushes with feeling responsible for deaths, rejecting the invitation to join the JLA, his response to Thunder's decision to join the Outsiders all stand out in my mind-- I don't know what others will think of this list; I'm always more affected by those moments when I'm moved by what a character must be feeling or struggling with internally than I am by the external battles/losses/victories. I think Jeff Pierce moves me because he's such a normal guy; he wants his family to be safe, he wants to do the right thing. I never get the feeling he's doing this out of ego, pride, some grand sense of having an extraordinary destiny -- I think he'd be very happy to be unnecessary as a hero, to be able to teach, raise his kids, live in relative obscurity with the ordinary satisfactions that kind of life provides.



THE PULSE: Originally Black Lightning and Superman were around at the same time, but if this series is set 20 or so years ago (as one might imagine with his teenage and adult daughters are a part of other super teams) there would be no Man of Steel; so who, if anyone, are some of the local Metropolis heroes he might encounter in this tale?

VAN METER: The DCU timeline is a weird semi-fluid thing, contracting and expanding to suit the circumstances; I know some readers like to imagine a calendar that goes back however many years on which events can be marked with Sharpie, never to be revised, but it simply can't function that way. My understanding is that there is an in-house presumption that Superman always appeared in Metropolis about eleven-ish years ago, relative to whatever 'now' we're reading, unless some other timeline is established in context, and that all other continuities are assumed to be always relative to that. It's not something I would advise looking at too closely-- it breaks minds. Anyhow, my story is set less than a year after Superman has appeared in Metropolis; one of the questions the plot answers is why he hasn't done anything about what's become of the neighborhood known as Suicide Slums.

THE PULSE: We've seen his origin a few times -- either recapped or in his original series -- what are you doing in these pages? How are you altering or updating things?

VAN METER: Given the squishy DCU time I mentioned, I've tried to make his core origin stuff weave more neatly with his current continuity; we'll see the family that must have been there if he's got young adult daughters 'now' and I've tried to make the whole thing a little more timeless. Seems to me Black Lightning is the kind of iconic character who functions outside of our real-world timeline as well as Batman, Superman and the rest -- Smallville and Gotham and the people who exist there work just fine cut loose from the eras they were created in, and I think Suicide Slums and Black Lightning can too.


THE PULSE: Originally Black Lightning found himself up against the 100, a group that had been a, well, thorn in the side of The Thorn and Superman. Who is he facing as he patrols Suicide Slum this time around?

VAN METER: He's still up against The 100. What that means has changed in some significant ways, but I don't really want to give up a lot about it, except to say that Superman wouldn't have had much trouble locating and dealing with a gang of ordinary drug-dealing mobsters.


THE PULSE: Originally Black Lightning had a belt that gave him his powers, before he "internalized" the lightning. In your miniseries, does he have that belt or is that one of the areas you're updating?

VAN METER: When I first took the project on, one of the things that seemed hardest to reconcile in terms of all that's happened to his continuity was his daughters both having native powers while his started with the belt. I thought giving him the powers from the start, and dealing with how he feels about them, why/how he has/hasn't used them before now -- made things coherent and allowed me more time to deal with who the man is rather than how he does what he does.


THE PULSE: Who or what is influencing you the most as you bring this story to life?

VAN METER: Jeff, really. It sounds corny, but when I read and reread and reread the earliest material, he seemed so present and so complete to me, I've leaned on those impressions whenever I've needed to resolve a question about how this should work. After that, I've looked to Cully, who has been an inspiring teammate on this, and who has contributed so much more than his fantastic artwork. Joan Hilty and Rachel Gluckstern have been great editors, too, and I've appreciated so much their vocal, ardent commitment to the character and telling a good story about him rather than to making things convenient for the rest of the DCU; when I felt like there was tension in that sense, both of them always came down on the side of the story.


THE PULSE: Have you talked with Tony Isabella at all about this series? I know two years ago when it was announced, he was vocal about his willingness to help you out with anything and everything Black Lightning related.

VAN METER: I never got in touch with Tony, and I don't think he ever tried to reach me. I had heard from more web-vigilant friends that he'd wished us well in some public forum and that he'd liked my JSA Classified story, and that was encouraging. I was well into writing my first issue, and I had the thing pretty thoroughly mapped out, when a friend asked if I was intimidated by the history of the character and Tony's disagreements with DC. I didn't know what he was talking about, and when I was told, the whole thing became wildly uncomfortable for me for a time -- I felt like a dinner guest unwittingly drawn into an old family argument. Tony had told me so much, in those first ten issues, and again in the 1995 material, and that had seemed enough. I ultimately resolved that to do this well I needed to write for the character the same way I would if working on Batman or Superman--where contact with the creators is impossible--and I needed to rely on the extant material.


THE PULSE: Speaking of when it was announced, why has it taken over two years since it was first mentioned for this series to see the light of day?

VAN METER: Some of the delay had to do with scheduling changes internal to DC that happened after the announcement was made -- stuff I neither want nor need to understand, but we always knew this would be the last or nearly last of the Year Ones to roll out. I'm only a part-time writer, what with having the kids and all, and I'm not fast on my best days. If they had needed me to start and finish the thing right away, I couldn't have taken the gig, and Cully might have had to pass as well, which would have been a tragedy as far as I'm concerned, so I'm glad they were willing and able to be flexible.


THE PULSE: How, if at all, has that changed the story? I know a lot has happened in the two years since it was announced -- the DCU has gone through some gigantic changes.

VAN METER: There were some regular calls over the time I was writing this that dealt with Black Lightning joining the JLA, stuff Judd was doing in The Outsiders, Lightning being introduced in JSA, things like that, but we kept looking at what we were doing and seeing very little that needed to be changed as a result. Joan and Rachel did a good job of keeping me informed about things that might 'retroactively' affect the way Year One would be be read, but the nature of the project kept us pretty insulated.


THE PULSE: What's it like to be collaborating with Cully Hamner on a story like this?

VAN METER: I think I said this already, but I'll say it again. It's heaven. Cully is dedicated to story and loves the character and every step of the way he was amazingly helpful -- I've had the good fortune to work with a number of fantastic artists and I've had great communication with some of them, none at all with others; this has felt the most collaborative of anything I've ever done.



THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?

VAN METER: Right now I'm mostly working on the next volume of Hopeless Savages and another Oni Press project that has had to wait for me for a long time. I'm also putting together a couple pitches I want to take to DC when they're ready.


The first issue of Black Lightning: Year One is in stores now.