Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Darkseid's Golden Trap

 

That's more like it. This double length episode opened in a intergalactic black market auction showcasing all sorts of villainous weapons of destruction. But Darkseid's eye was on one prize, the rarest of rare, gold kryptonite which would rob Superman of his powers forever. How the aliens knew it would have that effect... who knows. It was also awesome how Darkseid bid a measly 1 buck and dared anyone to outbid him. That dude had a major intimidation factor.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Bride of Darkseid

This episode introduced Firestorm and his ability to transmute any inorganic material including the globe on top of the Daily Planet. You know, that thing is more trouble than its worth. It seems to fall off the building eventually in every show its in. After showing up the League a few times, they decided to attempt to recruit him. One of the problems with Firestorm was that he was pretty much invincible. He could phase through anything and turn anything into anything else. He even had some mad skills with the ladies earning a kiss from Double Dubs. So not only can he get a bit annoying for always saving the day, but for plot's sake the only time he is beaten is when he does something stupid like accidentally turning off a force field. Oops. Anyways, he has a special place in my heart because as a kid I remember him being introduced and being blown away by this new hero that I had never heard of that was even more powerful than Superman.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Malusian Blob

The lesson is, never bring home unidentified space junk, it could be a sentient blob with a weakness for sugar. I just don't understand why the pitch for an episode for killer algae got a green light. Were there really no better ideas. Time for a serious series rejiggering.

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Episode Count: 0458
Series Count: (60 of 66)

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Terror on the Titanic

Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice Black Vulcan and Aquaman were just hanging out when they learned that a giant poop monster was released by divers searching the remains of the legendary Titanic. It turned out the poop was actually mutated algae, and the ship itself had also mutated into a monster. No explanation was ever made for how the Titanic was transformed into a sea monster, but lets be honest, no explanation would have made any sense. Now, you may have guessed, the ship was defeated by an iceberg. Ironic? More like idiotic. The original iceberg had already sunk the ship and it was still miraculously revived. Why should it be any different this time? I can not in good conscience recommend this episode to anyone.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Iron Cyclops

The Iron Cyclops did not prove to be the next big thing in supervillains, though his gimmick of showing the Earth's surface with anti-gravity rays was a good effort. As it turns out the cyclops was from the nearby planet of Xeron, a planet with no gravity... which I know from high school physics means it must also have no mass... which once again has me stumped. Once again this was lacking any real weight (ha ha) but it is amazing how so much story could be crammed into just a few minutes. I don't think more running time would have helped here, so at least it was short, if semi-sweet. Also, SPOILER ALERT, the Iron Cyclops was actually piloted my a frog man - not sure that was such a big reveal.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Bazarowurld

Ah Skylab, we loved you and you repaid us by crashing into Australia. Where was Black Vulcan when we needed him! I have to admit that after a string of bad episodes, Bizarro is a welcome treat. What really makes this episode a winner is the inclusion of the always unpredictable red kryptonite. This time it seemed to turn Supes into Pinocchio. There was still plenty of bad writing to go around like when Superman was able to turn the red kryptonite into blue by letting the rays pass through his blue suit... WHAT? In the end though, I did get a kick out of this one - and just in time.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Killer Machines

Ugh! Evil machines again. At least Black Vulcan with his electric powers was a good choice for a guest star. I just hope that if machines do take over the world they aren't led by R.O.B. the NES robot or his half Cylon offspring.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Voodoo Vampire

We now return to our regularly scheduled program and I am not going to lie, the Voodoo Vampire Vampiress had my attention right out of the gate. Things only got better from there when Batman turned into a real Bat-Man. Get it? Ha ha. This was one of the coolest things the Super Friends has given since... Superman and the Wonder Twins were vampired. Though I have to say Superman's previous case of Vampirism was a little cooler looking.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Thunder and Lightning: Lightning Under the Weather

Black Lightning is a great superhero who has been way underused, so for that reason its great to see him in these shorts... having said that this focus on his kids does not seem to be working. I really didn't get the humor in this short. On the other hand, BL fighting the natural disaster themed Masters of Disaster all by itself would have made for a good short. Sure, have the girls join in the fight. I'd take that too. But the lightning sneezes just didn't cut it for me. The one joke I will admit to liking was the Booster Golden Crisp vs Blue Beetle Berry Crunch cereal gag. Why aren't those on store shelves now?

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Dive to Disaster

In another case of "super" incompetence, Black Vulcan accidentally punctured a submarine when trying to stop it from crashing into Hawaii. In the meantime, Aquaman's marine friends got exposed to a nuclear leak and turned into sea monsters with neither sense nor sensibility. THEN, both heroes got eaten by the whale monster. I really hope this isn't the JLA's A team. So far, these Super Friends shorts have been pretty terrible and based on the titles of some of the upcoming episodes (The Rock and Roll Space Bandits!?), things look to get worse before they get better.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Thunder and Lightning: Clothes Make the Hero

Thunder and Lightning's debut lands solidly in the middle as far as the DC Nation shorts are concerned. It was fun, well animated, and a decent introduction to the premise of the series.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Super Friends of Harvey Birdman

 
Black Vulcan and Apache Chief made several appearances on the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law series. First appearing in the 2001 episode Very Personal Injury, Black Vulcan (who preferred the name Super Volt) coined the catchphrase "in my pants." At the end of the episode Chief and Volt formed the team, the Multi-Culture Pals. Zan and Wonder Woman's leg also appeared.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Day of the Rats

Black Vulcan was actually pretty cool especially when he opted for pants. Sadly this one was another time that an exterminator would probably do just as well as a team of superheroes.

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Episode Count: 0276
Series Count: (44 of 60)

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Whirlpool

Most notably, this episode introduced the world to Black Vulcan, the first of the characters created to give diversity to the Super Friends lineup. I have to say, BV knew how to travel in style. He transformed into a lightning bolt leaving Aquaman to travel via jet ski.

See DC Nation's Black Lightning and More

USA Today has a look at DC Nation including a look at Black Lightning who will star in a series of family centered shorts titled Thunder and Lightning.

Spotlight on Black Lightning

Black Lightning made his comics debut in 1977, but it wasn't until finally in 2009 that he made the jump to the TV screen appearing in a recurring role on Batman: The Brave and the Bold along with his team The Outsiders.

Batman took Katana, Metamorpho, and Black Lightning under his wing, until the Outsiders were trained to work as a team.



Although BL has only appeared in this one series to date, he has had a much larger influence on superhero shows over the past 30 years.

Shortly after the creation of Black Lightning, another African-American hero with electricity based powers (and without pants) joined the Super Friends line-up. Due to rights issues, Black Lightning was not included in the team line-up, but its safe to say he was at least a partial inspiration for the "Friend" Black Vulcan.

Years later, Justice League Unlimited played homage to the diversity inspired characters created for Super Friends (El Dorado, Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, and the Wonder Twins) with its own unique creations, the Ultimen. Justice League's take on the electricity character was named Juice, who also sported the trademark blue and gold colors of Black Lightning's costume.

In 2000, the Static Shock series debuted with an African American hero that also had electricity-based powers.

In the series' first episode, Static was shown in a costume very similar to that worn by Black Vulcan.

Later in the series, Static teamed up with a retired superhero, Soul Power, also similar to the original Black Lightning.

Like Black Lightning in the comics, Static Shock would go on to join the Justice League as shown in the Justice League Unlimited episode, The Once and Future Thing- Part 2: Time Warped.

But back to the man who is getting this spotlight. 2009 is not over, and before years end Black Lightning will appear again alongside the World's Finest, Batman and Superman in their upcoming team up movie voiced by Geordi La Forge. Hopefully we will be seeing much more of this historic hero, and less of imitators, in the years to come.