SERIES PREMIERE: Black Lightning, based on a DC Comics superhero from the 1970s, is the fifth CW prime-time drama based on characters from the DC universe, after Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. (Shouldn’t The CW just give in at this point, and rename itself The DC?) Cress Williams stars, and Black Lightning is a superhero who’s markedly different. For one thing, he’s not a coming-of-age teen just learning to marshal his powers: In his civilian life he’s a middle-age school principal and the father of two daughters. Oh, and he’s African-American, which in the Seventies in the comics, as on TV today, is unusual for a superhero. For full reviews, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

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