this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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Title pretty much sums it up. Watched a video recently where someone was asked to name a black superhero that didn't have lightning based powers and while I could name a few it made me realize just how prevalent the trope is.

But why?

Edit: Y'all I'm not asking for examples of black heroes that don't have lightning powers. I'm asking why it's a trope to begin with ๐Ÿ˜ฎโ€๐Ÿ’จ

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[โ€“] impudentmortal@lemmy.world 65 points 5 days ago (2 children)

This article does a pretty good job of explaining the history of black superheroes with electrical powers.

To summarize, the popularity of Black Lightning along with copyright issues lead to the creation of a few copycat heroes (ex: Black Vulcan in Super Friends, Juice from Justice League Unlimited). There's also the possibility of electricity being a versatile power and the popularity of Storm from X-men and Static.

Someone in the comments section also noted that it could also be an artistic choice since the colors of electricity would contrast better with black characters than lighter skin characters. That seems like a stretch to me but that is another theory.

[โ€“] zout@fedia.io 25 points 5 days ago (2 children)

A pornstar from my country (decades ago) said that she preferred working with black men because of the contrast on screen. Totally unrelated tidbit, but it makes sense to me that the same goes here.

[โ€“] k0e3@lemmy.ca 22 points 5 days ago

Big Black Contrast.

[โ€“] ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

New bit idea: guy who insists he doesnโ€™t have any internalized racism to confront, since he doesnโ€™t have a sexual preference for interracial scenes, he simply believes they are better from a composition and cinematography perspective

This sounds like how Bill Maher would say it, immediately followed by like, the most blatant racism.

[โ€“] snooggums@piefed.world 17 points 5 days ago

Great article!

I also think the contrast reason is very plausible for the early designs as colors and contrast are a massive part of design in comics.

[โ€“] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Never heard of this trope.

Off the top of my head: War Machine, Black Panther, Blade, Cyborg, Bishop, Storm, ~~Spiderman (Miles)~~.

The only black comics character with lightning super powers I know is Electro from The Amazing Spiderman who also used to be white in old comics.

Is this really a trope? Can someone name 10 black superheroes with lightning powers?

Edit: Yeah, forgot Miles has some sort of electricity/lightning powers.

[โ€“] tmyakal@infosec.pub 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can someone name 10 black superheroes with lightning powers?

Miles Morales / Spider-Man Storm (plus other weather, but lightning is there) Static Shock Black Lightning Thunder Black Vulcan

Off the top of my head, I can only get to six. But I don't think I could come up with that many white heroes with lightning powers.

Found a list with bunch of superheroes with lighning powers. I see that most of top 10 are black-skinned heroes and heroines. But once you go down, most of them if not all are caucasians.

I feel that it is less of a "black heroes mostly have electrical powers" and more of a "heroes with electrical powers are more likely to be black".

[โ€“] jordanlund@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago

Started really with Storm in 1975, although, yeah, her powers are weather control, not specifically lightning, but lightning is definitely her power move.

Before Storm, you had Black Panther, Black Goliath, and Luke Cage, not electrical powers.

But AFTER that...

Black Lightning - 1977

Black Lightning is a great character, but Tony Isabella holds the rights to him so it gets complicated doing stuff with the character.

As a result, you get Black Lightning knock offs that can be used without the rights entanglement.

Black Vulcan - 1977 (Super Friends animation)

Static - 1993 (comics), 2000 (animation).

[โ€“] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 days ago

Because of Usain Bolt

Probably

[โ€“] bizarroland@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

I personally think that it started with the fact that the contrast of the yellow lightning worked really well against black skin in the comics.

Then I'm assuming that it became a trope.

[โ€“] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 19 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Hey I watched a video on this years ago :3

I think it basically boiled down to they all have lightning powers, because the first black hero did, and then everyone copied it (and also good contrast or something)

[โ€“] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago (2 children)
[โ€“] fiat_lux@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 days ago (5 children)

It probably also helps that the dense clouds appear black, and dense clouds mean a more severe storm. I wonder if the ink contrast is more of a perk than the primary reason, compared to darkness being a convenient power metaphor for storms.

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[โ€“] Chais@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Probably not the worst explanation.

That's high praise on Lenny

[โ€“] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Frozone

Edit: There's a 2-year-old thread on that other site that asked the same question and received lots of examples. I get that tropes and stereotypes exist, but I'm not sure black superheroes and lightning fits the bill.

https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1gpxcn2/black_superheroes_without_electric_powers/

[โ€“] early_riser@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

TV Tropes has an article on this that probably does a better job explaining than I could.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ElectricBlackGuy

[โ€“] ChickenZenphyre@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Nice, the first example given was naruto.

[โ€“] berno@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Naruto is spiritually black

Naruto flute music

[โ€“] Witchfire@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The first example given is literally called Black Lightning, but yes, the Naruto universe heads the Anime list

[โ€“] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Holy shit. How can a dot org site enshittify itself so much?

[โ€“] early_riser@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I donโ€™t think the top level domain of the site has much to do with its platform decay, but yeah the ads are beyond obnoxious.

[โ€“] vsg@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And it won't function if you have AdBlock active. It forces you to allow the ads unless you subscribe.

[โ€“] Barracuda@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Heh? I've never had issues on it with an adblocker.

[โ€“] toynbee@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is on my phone. I actually don't have an ad blocker extension installed on this browser, so I assume it's mad either about me having Firefox set to default to private mode or about me using a VPN.

[โ€“] vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm on FF mobile and can access normally.

[โ€“] toynbee@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Are you using private mode and/or using a VPN?

No just FF mobile.

[โ€“] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

The question may be better phrased as the complimentary of what you asked.

Not why do all these black superfolk have lightning powers, but instead why are so many superfolk with lightning powers black?

I suspect the answer is kin to why so many characters with fire-themed powers have red hair, or why so many superheroes with facial hair are wizards.

about your edit: Posting anything on social media is an invitation to contradict your premise, regardless of how emphatically you say what the real point of your post is.

[โ€“] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago (4 children)

That guy from Mystery Men who could turn invisible if nobody was watching.. he was black, wasn't he?

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[โ€“] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The fact that you're getting so many replies about other characters should be a sign the premise of the question is faulty. You're asking people to stop giving you examples that contradict your confirmation bias.

[โ€“] impudentmortal@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

It's not confirmation bias but rather slight functional illiteracy from commenters. The original question is basically asking what's the connection between black superheroes and having electrical powers; or in other words why is it a trope.

Nowhere in the title or the short note did OP ask people to name black superheroes without electrical powers. He only says that he saw a video that asked people to do that.

Even if you ignore the note, the title itself isn't asking for examples of exceptions but rather for an explanation. It's kind of like if someone asked why so many members of Congress are old and white, and the responses were just listing non-white and/or younger representatives.

Except I stated that I know other black characters exist that don't have lightning powers. I know not all black superheroes have lightning powers but there's enough of them that I've noticed it's a trope.

[โ€“] lordnikon@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Wait till you see the red heads being turned into black characters pattern.

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