Black Lightning Trailer Brings The Whole Family To The Fight

We're only two weeks away from the premiere of the CW's latest DC cape-and-cowl outing, Black Lightning—and when the title character shows up for his return to the battlefield, it looks like he'll be bringing the family out along with him, whether he likes it or not.

Starring Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, Black Lightning will follow a full-on dad of a superhero as he makes his return to the streets after years away from crimefighting. 

Blessed with control of electricity, Pierce goes back into the fray in part to make the city safer for his daughters, Jennifer (China Anne McClain) and Anissa (Nafessa Williams). So imagine his frustration when the kids start manifesting potent powers of their own. It's scary enough when your kids start learning to drive, so the idea of his daughters wanting to be crime-fighters like him is destined to strike an ample amount of fear in Pierce's heart.

We already knew that Pierce's daughters would eventually develop powers allowing them to take up their comic book mantles of Thunder (for Anissa) and Lightning (for Jennifer), but based on this trailer, it looks like it'll be a source of tension in the series fairly early on.

This teaser shows the Pierce kids kicking washing machines with super strength, dispatching a school bully (who comes back with a gun), and displaying some sick glowing-eye-and-hand powers—all in between family jogs and the school dance.

Black Lightning is being adapted for TV by Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil, who previously worked together on The Game and Being Mary Jane. Like the rest of the CW's superhero offerings, it looks like a rollicking good time—and naturally, fun for the whole family. We can't wait.

Black Lightning premieres on the CW on Tuesday, January 16 at 9/8c.