This week, DC fans have been treated to a few new hints at what's to come in the latest CW superhero show: Black Lightning. The series, which was picked up by the CW after being turned down by Fox, will focus on retired superhero Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), who now makes a difference as the principal of a local high school. He's drawn back into the superhero game thanks to his daughters and the increasing activity of the 100 gang, including the recruitment of one of Jefferson's star students.

Up until recently, this has been pretty much all the info released about the show, along with a straightforward synopsis and a teaser trailer that keep the emphasis on Black Lightning's return to the superhero game. Now, thanks to the executive producers' appearance at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, a few more details about the upcoming show have emerged. Showrunner Salim Akil revealed that he would love to see fan-favorite Static Shock appear on the show at some point in the future, but that's not the only character news that came out of the festival appearance. Akil also revealed that the big bad for season one would be none other than Tobias Whale, a crime boss from the comics.

Tobias is the Boss

In the comics, Tobias Whale first appeared alongside Black Lightning himself, as the crime boss in control of the 100 gang that was terrorizing Suicide Slum. Since his first appearance as the big man in the shadows, some more of Whale's history has come to light.

Born as an African American albino, Tobias hasn't had an easy life. A huge and completely bald man, he is physically intimidating, and although he does not have any superpowers, his size makes him incredibly strong. He got his start in the criminal underworld as a scammer, gaining political power and eventually rising through the ranks to command the gang known as the 100. As the head of the gang, Whale's concerns are the same as any other major crime boss; power, intimidation, drug and gun running, and generally controlling the streets and the illegal businesses there.

Whale has something of a hatred of superheroes, and has set out to destroy the masks of Gotham in the past - both hero and villain. His first encounter with a masked hero was in Metropolis, however, with Black Lightning himself. In the early comics, Jefferson returned to Suicide Slum and started to make an effort to clean things up. In retribution, Whale killed a student of Pierce's, intending to frighten him into leaving the 100 gang alone. Pierce blamed himself for the death, but it only spurred him on to seek justice and revenge. Black Lightning managed to put Whale in prison, but the crime boss escaped and, after attempting to release a new drug on the market and tangling with the Outsiders, Whale moved to Gotham to face off against the other villains there.

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Sympathetic Villains On The Small Screen

In Black Lightning, not a lot is known about how Tobias Whale will be portrayed, although Akil did reveal that his character and backstory are going to be explored in the series.

"It’s a character driven show. I don’t know if there’s going to be a fight every week. There’s certainly not going to be a villain of the week. I don’t want to do that. We really want to explore the characters, even the villains. I think one of the most interesting characters right now from a storytelling standpoint is Tobias. Because we’re not having him sort of twist his mustache. His hatred for himself and for others comes from a real place, so we want to know why he’s like that."

This confirms that there is going to be a lot more backstory for Tobias in the series, and that he is going to be more complicated than just an evil crime boss in the background. So far, this seems like it will mirror the story arc of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) in Daredevil, where a somewhat two-dimensional comic villain was made more sympathetic and human throughout the series.

At the moment, there is no news on who might be playing the crime boss in the show (and unfortunately, it might be difficult to find a huge, bald, African American albino actor to truly do the comic book character's background justice), but it would be nice to see a nod to the history at the very least.

Black Lightning And The 100

The presence of the 100 gang in the series has been confirmed for some time, since the synopsis and the teaser trailer both mention the criminal organization as a big part of Black Lightning's story. In the trailer, the 100 is mentioned in both flashbacks (where Pierce's wife says that he has been fighting the 100 for too long), and in the present day. The synopsis also mentions the gang:

Almost a decade later, Pierce’s crime-fighting days are long behind him…or so he thought. But with crime and corruption spreading like wildfire, and those he cares about in the crosshairs of the menacing local gang The One Hundred, Black Lightning returns — to save not only his family, but also the soul of his community.

Having Tobias and the 100 gang involved as the 'villains', rather than a Rogues Gallery of villainous superheroes, keeps the show a little more grounded in reality. This also allows the show to stay more focused on the characters themselves, rather than the superpowers that Black Lightning and his daughters have.

How Tobias Whale Will Impact The Series

Tobias makes a lot of sense for the series as a big bad, but that doesn't mean that Black Lightning won't have some smaller battles to fight on his way to the kingpin of the 100 gang. From the trailers and the comments of the showrunners, it's clear that this is a series that will focus more on the relationships of the characters to each other and to the community than anything else, and Tobias plays into that. Developing a human villain, rather than a superhuman one, will give the audience a better look at the darker side of Suicide Slum, and why the 100 gang has the power that it does. It will also help to explain why Pierce's students are drawn toward the life of violence that the 100 gang offers, rather than striving to get out of the slums the way that Pierce himself did as a young man.

Tobias Whale as a villain choice also continues to separate Black Lightning from the rest of the CW's superhero shows. While Arrow has had a few human villains (as well as magically powered ones), even characters like Malcolm Merlyn have been trained by the League of Assassins and led by the quasi-immortal Ra's Al Ghul. Tobias Whale, on the other hand, is purely human and driven only by his own desire for power, with no semi-mystical training or drug-induced powers to help him out. This also points toward a grittier and darker tone for the series, which is an interesting move for the network, given that their lightest series, The Flash, is the most popular DC offering at the moment.

Finally, Tobias's inclusion fits in perfectly with how close the show seems to be keeping to the source material, which is a big plus for comic fans. We'll still have to wait to find out more about the on-screen incarnation of the crime boss and how it will diverge from comic book canon, but for now, this is the perfect choice for Black Lightning and the CW's latest DC offering.

Next: Why Black Lightning Being Separate From The Arrowverse Is A Good Thing

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