Black Lightning comic! Could it work?

Yes, I'm still livid about the cancellation of the Static Shock comic (although, admittedly it was bad, but you can't blame it on Static. Blame it on poor editorial direction at DC!), but I want to know from you people, is Black Lightning a character that can carry a title? I think he might be able to. He has a family. What else should be done in order to sustain a title? I recommend moving him out of Metropolis, but what else can be done?

A superhero father and family man, not to mention teacher, has a lot of potential in my mind. I'd set up his family and students as major characters in the book and watch them deal with his superheroics.

I would give it a go.

@AtPhantom: Interesting setup. His wife actually did divorce him pre-new 52, but I would retcon it to have her as a major character too. And by your description, I'd also have one of his students discover s/he was a metahuman. Would be interesting.

Most characters can work in their own book. All depends on the writer. If I could pick one, I would go with Morrison

@evilvegeta74: You know, that's very interesting, what you said (not to mention, very true). It is very puzzling to me because we have a character that is black who is also a bat character lol. So I guess the Bat beats Black in that regard, as I see no end to Batwing in sight.

But in all seriousness, I must agree with you. And I guess part of that problem is that nobody wants to read books featuring those characters.

This is just me ranting here. I was stoked when DC said they were going to do brand new things, and give characters like Static some publicity, only to see some months later that that statement wouldn't hold. They cancelled that and began another Bat title like he needs one more. If you think about it, we have three solo Batman books, two Batman and Robin books, and a total of twelve books under the Batman name. That means almost one in four new 52 books that a DC faithful picks up is a Batman brand book. Also, I could've sworn that DC said they're going to do one universe, yet there are two books about a second Earth. I guess old habits die hard at DC.

Anyway, I'm just waiting for DC to eventually cancel Voodoo, and Batwing before I lose confidence in them, and confirm to myself that DC is a company that is unwilling to evolve in their storytelling, and is unable to take themselves seriously in their own claims of wanting to diversify their comics.

@evilvegeta74: Thank you for your understanding. It is a shame that everything you said was the truth. I remember reading that DC canceled their book Green Lantern: Mosaic, which starred John Stewart abruptly. In that comic, his powers were either elevated, or were about to be elevated to the point that he was the strongest GL. But that title met the axe after 18 or so issues. As a comic fan, this is very disheartening to me.

Hell yea i love BL

Static Shock is a rip-off of Black Lightning well if you ask me. then you could do spin-off comic of his kids thunder and lightning

but he is black and they don't want to show the power-house black characters

I freakin love Black Lightning I would read the Sh!t out of that. Well unless the art and stories sucked then I would be disappointed......

i would read a black lighting book it if it was interesting.

@Twentyfive: I think the real question is less about whether the character can sustain a title and more about when the character can sustain a title.

Unfortunately, the character has hit a touch of lull for the moment and I fear that if they attempted to launch him in a regular series it would fall as flat as Static did...

The character needs to return to attention in another form, as he did during the (relatively) recent popularity swing afforded by his membership in the Meltzer JLA... even then, mini-series sales were not fantastic, but it came just a touch out of sync from the fan wave... again, its all about timing.

I would certainly entertain buying one, but it would take a really great hook for them to be able to sell it cold turkey without that wave of fandom behind it...

And that isn't due to the character being black or not a Bat... fact is, the reason why we have so many Bat books is because they pulsed it right that people were riding a Bat-high... people wanted it. They'll eventually fade out and then back in again (historically this happens pretty frequently)... what they've got to be able to do is watch the pulse of what is exciting fans in the off moments... and they can't do that by just spray firing at everything... Red Tornado is similarly a character that could not support a title... that character earned a ton of fan support at the same time as Jefferson during the JLA run, but because they delayed for some time before putting out a Tornado mini, it ended up tanking far lower than the potential afforded at the peak moment.

Timing, and a decent hook.