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NEW DC comcis TV show recommendations for 2017/2018 seasons


So the Black Lightning trailer has already hit the internet and if you haven't seen it.. well go see it. Right here. I'll wait. Promise.

OK seen it now? Awesome right? I'm stoked. There are a couple reasons for that, but yes we're going to have an African-American live action hero from DC/Marvel on actual TV. On top of that... well here's a mild spoiler.. it's in the trailer, so again.. if you haven't seen the trailer.. this is your last chance to go see it before I spoil something for you.. So here we go: Black Lightning is married with 2 daughters, Anissa Pierce and Jennifer Pierce, they become heroes in their own right as Thunder and Lightning. So we are getting basically 3 African-American heroes in this show off the bat. Also, if they follow comics.. Anissa is a lesbian, so DC TV just went even more female queer.

Also announced are Titans and Young Justice on DC's streaming option, whatever that is going to be. So I'm going to do recommendations for all of these. I can update this if they add more (this is DC after all.. they go crazy sometimes).

For Black Lightning -Bear with me as these are a tad obvious but..

Black Lightning vol 1 by Tony Isabella and Dennis O'Neil - This is a really good story. It's also good for all ages, but it is dated and it is clearly from the 70's. Jefferson Pierce is strong and powerful through out the story. It focuses on his life as a hero and a teacher. He also is unique in that he has an ex-wife who plays a role in the series (not to mention of course being a teacher and a hero isn't something done often). I really like it, but again it's from the 70's and has 70's slang so for some audiences it will come across very dated.


DC Presents Vol 3: Black Lightning and Blue Devil by Marc Andreyko and Robson Rocha - This is such a fun title and a modern take on the character. Jefferson Pierce is a kind of straight laced teacher in this who wants to help his students and Daniel Cassidy (Blue Devil) is a movie star/stunt man who wants to go somewhere, but never seems to manage. They were friends in high school, but drifted apart. That is until a drug lord, Tobias Whale, rocks both their lives, causing Jefferson to down the spandex as Black Lightning and Daniel to put on a strange suit that bonds with him permanently and makes him into the Blue Devil. Now the two have to work together to take down Whale. It's a really cool book, sadly it's very short as it's only about half the book and the duo doesn't appear again. They work great as friends and allies though.

Sad news though.. while Anissa and Jennifer are extremely awesome, they either haven't appeared much or appeared in books I didn't really like so I haven't read them. That means I can point you in a direction and tell you my opinion on things, but I can't really recommend specific books. Anissa was a main character in The Outsiders, so she appeared in most of the titles that are available in trade along with her girlfriend, Grace Choi. That said, the book is very T for teen if you choose to pick it up and it's not extremely new reader accessible. Jennifer, on the other hand, appeared in a member of the Justice Society of America by Bill Willingham. Sadly though, she joined the team right after they had a major split into 2 titles that pretty much killed both titles. She had some great moments early on in Justice Society of America: Axis of Evil, but again.. not new reader accessible and Jennifer's appearances are balanced with the rest of the team and sometimes that means, she doesn't get much of a chance to shine.

For Titans and Young Justice: Simply put for this, the easiest and best recommendation is: New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. They're a couple volumes in by now, so you can start with the first one and go as far as you want. Honestly this series is one of the best comics ever written. It takes a group of teen heroes in Robin (Dick Grayson), Starfire, Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven and watch them grow into adults. Dick Grayson, Raven and Starfire are supposed to play major roles in the series, which is great and so this will play with them.We'll get to Hawk, Dove, and Barbara Gordon aka Oracle in a moment. Either way, this is a really solid title and there is a reason it regularly outsold X-Men in their height. It has a similar tone as well to the Young Justice cartoon with some of the same characters, so fans will appreciate it.

For Oracle, Birds of Prey by Gail Simone. Yeah that's it. Any Birds of Prey comic by Gail Simone. There are other versions of Birds of Prey, some don't have Oracle though. Gail Simone's does. And Birds of Prey vol 1 Endrun by Gail Simone and Ed Benes has Oracle, Hawk and Dove all on the team together. It's also a good jumping on point as it's part of a relaunch. It's a fun comic, it just sadly didn't last long.

Last up Young Justice Book One by Peter David. This book is super fun and light hearted. It's great for all ages and even pokes fun of comics. The team is asked about what their name is and one member replies "Young Just Us" and the media assumes that is Young Justice. One of their first villains is a woman who is granted super powers and calls herself the Mighty Endowed.. Basically her breasts are ginormous and have hypnotic powers, a commentary on comics, but her breasts are so large, she can't even stand up on her own. To add to the joke, they actually don't show the breasts, so as not to feed into the exploration of her body. The team gets crazier and more fun as it continues adding heroes as they go and grow.

Note: Pictures are fighting me at the moment and I don't feel like going HTML. So I'll try again later.




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