Last week on The Flash, Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) unveiled a new timeline for the post-“Crisis on Infinite Earths” Arrowverse. Earth-Prime, which merged (at least) three different worlds into a single timeline, was covered in pretty exhaustive detail from the turn of the century right up until the end of the Crisis. And there were a couple of notable omissions that could have interesting implications for the future of TV‘s most prolific DC Universe. And, like so many things DC, those implications begin with Superman (Tyler Hoechlin). It seems, based on established lore and some suspiciously absent notations on the timeline, that the Man of Steel and Black Lightning (Cress Williams) may have been the first heroes of the Arrowverse.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The timeline begins in 2000, when Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) arrived on Earth. Proceeding forward along the timeline, the first reference to either Superman or Black Lightning comes when Jefferson Pierce retires as Black Lightning in 2009. That comes in spite of various heroes, including nearly every key Arrowverse character and even some oddballs like The Ray, getting a “first appears” or “debuts” on the timeline.
For Superman at least — and arguably both men — it is easy enough to infer that by the time Kara showed up on Earth, the Man of Steel was already in action as a caped marvel. Hell, it’s part of Supergirl’s opening monologue, complete with that image of Clark helping her out of her escape pod. If Superman was already in action, though, and that’s why there was no reference to his beginning his never-ending battle, it would not be unreasonable to assume the same about Black Lightning, especially since Williams is about 15 years older than Hoechlin, suggesting that his superheroic prime could have been going on even before Clark’s.
Some Arrowverse fans will likely argue this supposition, noting that in the Arrow finale, a news report suggested that Oliver Queen was the first of the heroes. And that is a fair argument — except that it ignores something that happened after the comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths wrapped up.
Superman, long the “first” hero, was no longer first ever. Instead, that distinction went to members of the Justice Society, who battled Nazis during World War II in the newly-merged timeline. He was, however, the first of his generation and the one who heralded a new age of heroes, who would follow his suit and begin to appear in public for the first time since the JSA and others had vanished decades before.
This allowed Superman to remain the first hero in the public’s imagination, and to have that distinction for storytelling purposes, while continuity purposes made him part of a “next generation” and replaced his classic Golden Age stories with Iron Munro’s.
Another — this time external — reason why it might be an obvious move for the writers and producers to make Black Lightning and Superman a pair of characters who have history is that it seems likely Supergirl is setting up the “President Lex” story from the comics. If that happens, one of the key appointments that Luthor made as President was asking Jefferson Pierce to be his secretary of education, effectively pitting his job and the interests of millions of children against his role as a superhero who knew Luthor was bad news. That could create some interesting conflicts with Superman and Supergirl in this new, merged Earth.
Additionally, Black Lightning was very excited to learn that Superman specifically was no longer a comic book and instead was a real person “after all this time.” Given that Jefferson has a family photo in which he’s wearing a Superman shirt, a reasonable person could guess that he liked the character before the man himself was “real” to Jefferson, creating an interesting dynamic when it later turns out that they’ve been friends for years and Jeff can barely recall it.
Black Lightning airs on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. Superman and Lois is set to debut in the 2020-2021 TV season.
