New 'Black Lightning' Photos Confirm Khalil's DC Comics Origins

If you are a big fan of Black Lightning in the comics, there is a decent chance you guessed during last night's penultimate season one episode that Khalil Payne, Jennifer Pierce's ex-boyfriend, was taking on a particular supervillain's persona from the comics. Now, there's proof.

According to the captions on official promotional photos released by The CW, Khalil is the TV version of Painkiller, a short-lived supervillain created in the '90s who had the ability to anesthetize his opponents.

In the comics, he could use his mind to "turn off" body parts more or less at will, although on TV we only really saw that he had enhanced strength and could throw anaesthetic darts with great accuracy. He did briefly stop Black Lightning's heart, but the science behind it was not clearly explained.

Khalil, played by Riverdale's Jordan Calloway, was introduced as a kind and thoughtful kid who cared deeply about Jennifer and wanted to use his athletic prowess to get himself out of Freeland for college. All of that went out the window when he was shot and paralyzed during a protest rally, and subsequently became angry, depressed, and dropped out of school.

Following his injury, he and Jennifer broke up and Khalil allowed himself to be seduced to the dark side by Tobias Whale, who offered to help him walk again in exchange for loyalty.

Last night, the character -- who formerly had a closely-cropped buzz cut -- reappeared wearing dreadlocks and helped Whale square off with Black Lightning. During the fight, Khalil wore a tactical suit, complete with wrist gauntlets and weaponized darts. The dreads and costume were both reminiscent of Painkiller, who does not have a known identity in the comics.

As with Syonide, there was no immediate onscreen reference to Khalil's supervillain name, meaning that the promotional photos are the first official word that Calloway is indeed playing an existing DC Comics character (Khalil Payne was not a character from the comics).

Black Lightning airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following episodes of The Flash. The show's season finale will air next week.