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Black Lightning: The Standard
In the wake of Absolute Power, Jefferson Pierce leads the Justice League’s newinitiative to help those with new or altered superpowers navigate a strange newworld. But with Black Lightning’s own daughter afflicted, their entire family getscaught up in what comes next! Plus, learn the secret of one of the strangestchapters in Jefferson Pierce’s life, and discover what’s led Josiah Power of the PowerCompany to recruit Black Lightning to face a growing threat lurking in the shadowsof the DCU! Collects Black Lightning #1-5 and stories from DC’s Saved by the Belle Reve#1, DC Power 2024 #1, and DC Rise of the Power Company #1
152 pages, Paperback
Published August 26, 2025
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Brandon Thomas
221 books37 followersBrandon Thomas is the writer and co-creator of critically-acclaimed comics series EXCELLENCE (Skybound/Image), HORIZON (Skybound/Image) and THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MIRANDA MERCURY. Previous work includes the comics series NOBLE (Lion Forge), VOLTRON (Dynamite), and FANTASTIC FOUR TALES (Marvel).
NOBLE #1 was awarded the Fist Award for Best International Comic by the 2017 Lagos Comic-Con, in recognition of best usage of characters/stories based on persons of African descent. NOBLE was also nominated for 2019 Glyph Comics Awards in six categories: Story Of The Year; Best Cover (winner); Best Writer; Best Artist (winner); Best Male Character (winner); and Best Female Character.
Since 2003, Brandon has written comics for several publishers, including Marvel, Lion Forge, Arcade, Dynamite, and DC Entertainment, and has published over 300 original columns as part of the Ambidextrous series. His first creator-owned project THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MIRANDA MERCURY shipped from Archaia Entertainment to widespread critical success, leading to his biggest comics projects to date — the sci-fi conspiracy thriller HORIZON (co-created with artist Juan Gedeon), and the action fantasy series EXCELLENCE (co-created with artist Khary Randolph) — both published by Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment.
Brandon also hosts The Two Brandons podcast with Eisner-Nominated writer Brandon Easton (Transformers: War For Cybertron, Star Trek: Year Five, Vampire Hunter D: The Series).
He lives and writes in Southern California with his wife and son.
NOBLE #1 was awarded the Fist Award for Best International Comic by the 2017 Lagos Comic-Con, in recognition of best usage of characters/stories based on persons of African descent. NOBLE was also nominated for 2019 Glyph Comics Awards in six categories: Story Of The Year; Best Cover (winner); Best Writer; Best Artist (winner); Best Male Character (winner); and Best Female Character.
Since 2003, Brandon has written comics for several publishers, including Marvel, Lion Forge, Arcade, Dynamite, and DC Entertainment, and has published over 300 original columns as part of the Ambidextrous series. His first creator-owned project THE MANY ADVENTURES OF MIRANDA MERCURY shipped from Archaia Entertainment to widespread critical success, leading to his biggest comics projects to date — the sci-fi conspiracy thriller HORIZON (co-created with artist Juan Gedeon), and the action fantasy series EXCELLENCE (co-created with artist Khary Randolph) — both published by Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment.
Brandon also hosts The Two Brandons podcast with Eisner-Nominated writer Brandon Easton (Transformers: War For Cybertron, Star Trek: Year Five, Vampire Hunter D: The Series).
He lives and writes in Southern California with his wife and son.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 14, 2025
2.7 stars
January 10, 2026
2.5 stars
I see the ambition here, but execution wise, this was all over the place. I was confused about what time period everything was taking place in, especially with Anissa, and the pay off wasn't that satisfactory to me. I enjoyed seeing Anissa and Grace again. I loved them so much in the 90s (I think?) Outsiders run. I enjoyed Jefferson Pierce in Detective Comics. The way this book was organized just left me puzzled at a lot of things.
Apparently DC did their version of Civil War. From the sounds of things, it was just as unpleasant. Amanda Waller created a device to steal metahumans abilities and it caused a lot of havok. Now, metas with years of control struggle to control their abilities. It even gave Anissa a new ability that I'm still not all that clear on. There's something to be said for level headed heroes respected in the community worrying about being treated like a threat. Because they can't control their abilities, they have to worry about harming others against their will.
The biggest issue I had was that the most compelling example of this story was Anissa's - and she just weaves in and out of the volume with way less focus than I would've liked. Instead of the heart of the volume being her dealing with maintaining distance from Grace and her family members while learning to overcome that internalized fear - it's mostly about Jefferson feeling like he failed as a father. The scenes with the JL were emotional (and made me dislike Supes for the way he was acting), but I only really perked up when Anissa finally joined the rest of the storyline.
The Power Company idea was just okay to me. I liked that all of these Black geniuses and metas joined up to help each other. That was nice. The story by Cheryl Lynn Eaton about Anissa and Jennifer was my favorite part of this entire thing and it was just a short little slice of life story.
Not a super big recommend from me and that pains me.
I see the ambition here, but execution wise, this was all over the place. I was confused about what time period everything was taking place in, especially with Anissa, and the pay off wasn't that satisfactory to me. I enjoyed seeing Anissa and Grace again. I loved them so much in the 90s (I think?) Outsiders run. I enjoyed Jefferson Pierce in Detective Comics. The way this book was organized just left me puzzled at a lot of things.
Apparently DC did their version of Civil War. From the sounds of things, it was just as unpleasant. Amanda Waller created a device to steal metahumans abilities and it caused a lot of havok. Now, metas with years of control struggle to control their abilities. It even gave Anissa a new ability that I'm still not all that clear on. There's something to be said for level headed heroes respected in the community worrying about being treated like a threat. Because they can't control their abilities, they have to worry about harming others against their will.
The biggest issue I had was that the most compelling example of this story was Anissa's - and she just weaves in and out of the volume with way less focus than I would've liked. Instead of the heart of the volume being her dealing with maintaining distance from Grace and her family members while learning to overcome that internalized fear - it's mostly about Jefferson feeling like he failed as a father. The scenes with the JL were emotional (and made me dislike Supes for the way he was acting), but I only really perked up when Anissa finally joined the rest of the storyline.
The Power Company idea was just okay to me. I liked that all of these Black geniuses and metas joined up to help each other. That was nice. The story by Cheryl Lynn Eaton about Anissa and Jennifer was my favorite part of this entire thing and it was just a short little slice of life story.
Not a super big recommend from me and that pains me.
March 19, 2025
3.5 Sad this run was short but with what little they had, stuck the landing. Fantastic final issue and YUP getting power company day one. Goodreads please add the cover 😭 Dc please stop spoiling issues in advanced, I originally didn’t get an issue for because of this reason
January 10, 2026
Originally just five issues, this storyline follows on from the latest DC crossover event and thus lacks some of the background necessary to fully engage with it. It's really only that that knocks it down to three stars (and one can hardly blame Thomas for it), leaving it as an adjunct to something else in a different series. That aside, it's a good story, with Jefferson and his younger daughter working to contain a wave of newly created metahumans before they can harm themselves or others and deal with the alarm this is creating in the wider community. Meanwhile, Anissa is struggling with losing control of her own changing powers... and, well, with some family and/or girlfriend trouble that must have been set up in the earlier stories.
Supervillains do eventually turn up, but they're less important than the larger themes of family and community and of Black Lightning standing as a hero against anti-metahuman prejudice. There are plenty of scenes with other members of the Justice League too, but Steel is the only other character directly involved in the superheroics, the others being there mainly to provide perspective. It's well written and, if not truly breaking new ground, offers a slightly different take on the usual themes and on heroes that are more often in the background of big collective fight scenes.
Supervillains do eventually turn up, but they're less important than the larger themes of family and community and of Black Lightning standing as a hero against anti-metahuman prejudice. There are plenty of scenes with other members of the Justice League too, but Steel is the only other character directly involved in the superheroics, the others being there mainly to provide perspective. It's well written and, if not truly breaking new ground, offers a slightly different take on the usual themes and on heroes that are more often in the background of big collective fight scenes.
July 22, 2025
Parts of Metropolis we rarely get to see (even after Steelworks revitalized the city)...
Black Lightning is picking up the pieces after the thrashing his family took during Absolute Power. They're safe now, but their powers are a bit... off. Thunder's powers blow up (literally) and she has to spend some time under observation (lock up) at Watchtower.
Sons of Liberty stomp around and generally spout anti hero rhetoric. The top statement they use? 'Amanda Waller was right!' They target heroes in the southside of Metropolis (aka Suicide Slum) and of course....'House of Lightning(?) to the rescue.
Cue Josiah Power and his Power Company (think of it as DC's 'Heroes for Hire'). Black Lightning looks to be pulling a Luke Cage and being out there with the people to keep the zealots from getting any more traction.
---
Bonus: Suicide Slums no more! Nice to see Metropolis shine again (with the same old problems)
Bonus Bonus: Grace Choi is never far. Go Thunder!
Black Lightning is picking up the pieces after the thrashing his family took during Absolute Power. They're safe now, but their powers are a bit... off. Thunder's powers blow up (literally) and she has to spend some time under observation (lock up) at Watchtower.
Sons of Liberty stomp around and generally spout anti hero rhetoric. The top statement they use? 'Amanda Waller was right!' They target heroes in the southside of Metropolis (aka Suicide Slum) and of course....'House of Lightning(?) to the rescue.
Cue Josiah Power and his Power Company (think of it as DC's 'Heroes for Hire'). Black Lightning looks to be pulling a Luke Cage and being out there with the people to keep the zealots from getting any more traction.
---
Bonus: Suicide Slums no more! Nice to see Metropolis shine again (with the same old problems)
Bonus Bonus: Grace Choi is never far. Go Thunder!
May 5, 2025
This was a solid miniseries that fleshes out some of the bigger picture in the current JLU era. The stuff with Jefferson and his family was really intriguing but unfortunately felt kind of shoehorned in. The early issues didn’t do enough to explain what was going on with Anissa or why her relationship with her dad was so strained.
I was pleasantly surprised with Fico Ossio’s art and I love seeing more stuff colored by Ulisses Arreola in addition to his wonderful work on Abso Superman. Ossio channeled some classic Milestone vibes with this one.
I was pleasantly surprised with Fico Ossio’s art and I love seeing more stuff colored by Ulisses Arreola in addition to his wonderful work on Abso Superman. Ossio channeled some classic Milestone vibes with this one.
November 9, 2025
3.5 Stars
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews