Black Lightning vs Arrowverse All-Stars: Who Would Win?

Kim Taylor-Foster
TV Arrowverse
TV Arrowverse DC The CW

The Arrowverse comprises Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – and one of the franchise’s trademarks is its crossover stories. But according to bigwigs behind Black Lightning, the new superhero series airing in the US on the same TV network, it isn’t part of the Arrowverse and won’t be joining anytime soon.

However, that didn’t stop FANDOM chatting to its star, Cress Williams, about how his character Black Lightning — aka Jefferson Pierce — would come off in a fight against selected Arrowverse superheroes. Here’s what he said:

Black Lightning Vs Green Arrow

Green Arrow
Green Arrow isn't a match for Black Lightning.

“He [Green Arrow] would lose, first of all. Because he doesn’t have any powers. And Black Lightning, if you know from the comic book… I have an ability to create a shield, and so his arrows just wouldn’t really do a whole lot. And if we even got down to hand-to-hand combat, I feel like Black Lightning with his martial arts background would get the edge. So no disrespect to Arrow, but I think he’d be toast.”

Vs The Flash

“Now, the Flash would be challenging because of the speed aspect. I don’t know how much damage he could actually do [but] I think that fight would take a little longer. That might be more of a draw. Because I don’t know if the Flash could do a lot of damage, but I think it might be hard to hit him as well. But maybe a nice quick electric pulse would stop him… if I could electrically charge a room, it would stop him from moving. And if I could slow his speed down, he’d be toast too.”

Vs Supergirl

“Now I’m going to be real. I would love to say that Black Lightning would win. But no. A Kryptonian? It’s a done deal. I would just hope to last and be respectable. But oddly enough in the original ‘70s comic book, Black Lightning encounters Superman and there’s a bit of mistaken identity and so they wind up fighting. Black Lightning holds his own but, obviously, eventually loses. So, I think it would be the same thing with Supergirl.”

Vs Atom

Atom
Atom's best bet is to shrink down, according to Black Lightning star Cress Williams.

“Well, if he shrunk himself, he could survive but if we’re just going head-to-head, yeah — he’s done. He’s done. If he shrunk himself he could hide. That would be pretty much Atom‘s best bet.”

So there’s the verdict. Black Lightning 3, Arrowverse 1. He’d better hope he never has reason to cross Supergirl.

Black Lightning airs weekly in the US on the CW and premieres in the UK on January 23 on Netflix.

Kim Taylor-Foster
Kim Taylor-Foster is Entertainment Editor for Fandom in the UK. She was raised on an unsteady diet of video nasties and violent action flicks.