Comic Title: Secret Origins #26
Publisher: DC
Cover Date: May 1988
On Sale Date: January 19, 1988 Shipping Date January 19, 1988
Source: DC Releases, #48

Shipping Date January 19, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #134
Misnumbered #24

Newsstand Date February 11, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #134
Misnumbered #24

Copyright Date January 19, 1988
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1988

Cover Price: $1.25
Page Count: 48
Editor: Mark Waid

Title: "The Secret Origin of Black Lightning"
Pages: 19

Feature(s):
Black Lightning (Post-Crisis)

Writer: Tony Isabella
Artist: Greg Brooks
Letterer: Carrie Spiegle (McCarthy)
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan

Feature Character(s)

• Black Lightning (last appearance in Outsiders #28; next appearance in Invasion #3)

Supporting Character(s)

• Lynn Stewart (last appearance in Outsiders #14; no further appearances)

Villain(s)

• Tobias Whale (first post-Crisis appearance; in flashback; no further appearances)
• Joey Toledo, Manny, and Roscoe (henchmen of Tobias Whale; in flashback; no further appearances)
• Two unnamed street crooks (no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Mr. Chapin (principal of Garfield High School; in flashback; no further appearances)
• Earl Clifford and Julie (a high school athlete and his girlfriend; in flashback; no further appearances)
• Peter Gambi (a tailor; in flashback; no further appearances)

Flashback Appearance(s)

• Black Lightning (earliest chronological appearance; next appearance in Outsiders Annual #1)

Cameo Appearance(s)

• Outsiders (in a photograph)
• Batman (in a photograph)
• Geo-Force (in a photograph)
• Metamorpho (in a photograph)
• Halo (in a photograph)
• Katana (in a photograph)

Comments:
This story is an adaptation of the story from Black Lightning #1.

Synopsis:
Jefferson Pierce takes a position as a teacher in a new city. While discussing the new job with his wife Lynn, he reflects on his first teaching job in Metropolis where he began his career as Black Lightning.

Several years earlier, Pierce returned to the inner city school Garfield High where he was a star athlete. When he sees a pusher selling drugs in the school hallway, Pierce chases him away. Later the drug dealers return to the school. Pierce and star athlete Earl Clifford fight them off. Mob boss Tobias Whale is angered by the resistance and sends his men to attack Clifford. When they are finished they hang his body from the basketball hoop.

Pierce is upset over a student being targeted. His friend, tailor Peter Gambi, designs a costume with a device that will give Pierce electrical powers. Pierce then becomes the masked Vigilante Black Lightning. He begins his crime fighting career by taking down Tobias Whale and his gang before eventually joining the Outsiders.

Now that Pierce is established in a new city, he plans to return to his roots by fighting street crime as Black Lightning.