Beginning with episode seven, the second half of Black Lightning Season 4 is slated to air on Monday, April 12, 2021. The popular CW superhero show has no shortage of powerful characters, be they the titular hero Jefferson Price (Cress Williams) and his ultra-skilled family members or his combative cohort of evil supernatural villains. Even ancillary side characters who briefly appear on the show have tremendous superhuman strengths and skills.
With Painkiller's return to his villainous roots on the docket for the remainder of Season 4, it's worth wondering if the character will become one of the ten most powerful characters on the show thus far.
Baron
With due respect to the powerful meta-humans Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy) and Issa Williams (Myles Truitt), Baron's (Christopher A'mmanuel) superheroic skills supersede theirs by a mile.
Better known by his superheroic alter ego, Technocrat (T.C.), Baron possesses technopathy, the ability to extract and manipulate data remotely from any technological device on the planet. In Black Lightning, Baron uses his powers to duplicate Painkiller's technology, hack security systems, disrupt communications, and help coordinate Tobias Whale's secret location.
Latavius Johnson
Also known as Lala, Latavius Johnson (William Catlett) possesses one key skill that essentially renders him immortal. The villainous member of The 100 owns the power of reanimation, meaning he can literally come back to life every time he dies.
In addition to being resurrected, Lala's powers allow him to see those he killed in the past. After his victims die, they appear as memorialized tattoos on his body as well as ghostly entities that Lala sometimes interacts with.
Lady Eve
While she doesn't possess a unique supernatural skill per see, Lady Eve's (Jill Scott) awesome power is derived from her brilliance as a criminal mastermind and sinister supervillainess who controls her various underlings.
In the series, Lady Eve is the one introduces Pierce's primary foe, Tobias Whale, to the criminal sect known as The 100. Despite having a calm and cool demeanor, Lady Eve wields just as much public power as a legitimate funeral parlor owner as she does over her meta-human minions.
Anissa Pierce
Jefferson Pierce's eldest daughter Anissa (Nafessa Williams) is not only one of the most likable characters on the show, but she's also among the most powerful.
Dubbed Thunder to her father's Black Lightning, Anissa's skills include density-shifting, near-indestructibility, superhuman strength, regenerative healing powers, and vocal alteration. She can also create sonic shockwaves by clapping her hands and stomping on the ground. In addition to being an expert acrobat and martial artist, Anissa's Thunder suit is bullet-proof.
Looker
As a recurring villain in season 2, Looker (Sofia Vassilieva) demonstrated a tremendous range of unique powers in her attempt to bring Black Lightning down.
Looker possesses a substance she calls Element, a mysterious liquid metal that she can use to inject people with and control their actions through theta waves. Looker can also elongate her fingernails to use them as weapons, move around with supersonic speed, read the minds of her enemies through telepathy, and can use the Element to subsume the life force of whoever she targets.
Tobias Whale
As the chief antagonist to Black Lightning, Tobias Whale (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III) has to be considered among the most powerful characters on the show. Despite his lack of metahuman powers, Whale's omnipotence derives from a longevity serum that renders him nearly immortal. He is the reason Price became Black Lightning.
In addition to his longevity, Whale has near-superhuman strength, excellent leadership qualities, expert fighting skills, and a harpoon gun that he uses to maim and torture his victims. Above all is Whale's ability to manipulate his menacing cohorts and plot masterful attacks.
Peter Gambi
It's hard to overstate the powerful import of Peter Gambi (James Remar) on Black Lightning. Simply put, Gambi is the man who tailor-made Jefferson's Black Lightning superhero suit. Without Gambi, there is no Black Lightning.
As Pierce's primary ally and de facto father figure, Gambi uses his vast knowledge of computer hacking and communications expertise to track Black Lightning's foes and expose their nefarious plots. As an expert engineer to boot, Gambi fashions Jefferson's Electro Vision Goggles and creates virtual simulation courses to help in his training.
Jennifer Pierce
While Jennifer Pierce (China Anne McClain) begins less powerful than her sister Anissa, she evolves to discover superhuman skills akin to her father's. Namely, Jennifer can use electrokinesis to create glowing orange bursts of electricity.
As she begins to harness her newfound skills, Jennifer (aka Lightning) discovers she can also control her surrounding technology through electro-technopathy, turn herself into a bolt of lightning, fire bolts of energy from her hands, and move objects with electromagnetism. Jennifer can also fly, astrally project, heal at a rapid pace, and control visibility through photokinesis.
Gravedigger
As the half-brother of Jefferson's grandfather Ben, Tyson Sykes (aka Gravedigger) is the most formidable foe Black Lightning has faced so far. In addition to being an ageless immortal due to the same serum that Tobias Whale imbibed, Gravedigger (Wayne Brady) managed to kidnap Lightning at the end of Season 3.
With the ability to control people's minds and make them do whatever he pleases, Gravedigger manages to manipulate Grace and make her attack Thunder. After surviving a counterattack, Gravedigger uses cloaking technology to mount an escape.
Jefferson Pierce
Without question, Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning is the single-most powerful character on the series. In conjunction with his meta-human physiological traits, Black Lightning has the ability to control, shield, absorb, move, and manipulate various forms of electricity.
With his custom-made and bullet-proof Black Lightning suit, Pierce can also create fireballs, and disguise his natural voice. With his Electro Vision Goggles, Pierce can monitor electromagnetic fields while he fights and shroud his identity by turning the goggles cloudy. Pierce also possesses superhuman strength and rapid healing properties.