Black Lightning Villain Revealed?
What makes heroes great aren’t just the powers or skills that they have, but the villains that they face off against. When you think of Batman, Spider-Man, even The Flash, you don’t just think about the heroes, but the bad guys they square off against. For the superhero TV shows that are around, you often hear how great, or terrible, the show is based on the villains that they have. For the upcoming Black Lightning series, it’s honestly very important to have a worthy foe for the titular character, and it appears we may know who it is.
Black Lightning showrunners Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil were at the ATX Television Festival and was talking about how the show wouldn’t do the whole “villain of the week” format that Arrow and Flash have done. But rather, focus on one hero and one villain and bring them depth.
“It’s a character-driven show. I don’t know if there’s going to be a fight every week,” Salim Akil said, according to International Business Times. “There’s certainly not going to be a villain of the week. I don’t want to do that. We really want to explore the characters, even the villains. I think one of the most interesting characters right now from a storytelling standpoint is Tobias. Because we’re not having him sort of twist his mustache. His hatred for himself and for others comes from a real place, so we want to know why he’s like that.”
Who’s Tobias? Well, good money is Tobias Whale, who is actually a major villain in both the DCU and in Black Lightning’s Rogues Gallery. He is also one of the leaders of The 100, who has already been confirmed for this series. Whale is a crime lord, and worked hard to build his empire. He’s not going to let Black Lightning take it down very easily.
Black Lightning arrives on CW during the midseason.