Shazam!: Fury of the Gods comes out this week and I already did a list of the weirdest members of the Shazamily last time we had one of these movies. So I can’t go back to that well. How do I honor this new superhero movie? I really enjoyed the first one, and I have high hopes to enjoy this one as well. How about we do a list about lightning-based characters?

Lightning and electricity powers are a staple in comics. Just like ice, fire and other elements. It zaps, it’s easy to manage and it looks really cool sometimes. Not everybody is so unique that they use magic lightning to transform into a whole new form. Most people just have straight up lightning zap out of their fingers. And now that I think about it, I don’t think any of them got their powers from being struck by lightning. That’s pretty weird.

Anyway, let’s get on with it and then we can all go see Shazam! Fury of the Gods this weekend! Join me after the jump for the six best lightning characters in comics. And I don’t mean lightning in terms of weather control. Storm and Thor don’t count. I mean lightning specifically.

6. Surge

Surge is a mutant with lightning powers. She’s one of the newer classes of X-Men, which means Marvel went decades before giving a mutant lightning powers. Fine by mean. Surge was one of the main characters when her generation of mutants made their debut all the way back in 2004, because time comes for us all. She’s mostly been relegated to the background since her generation fell out of favor, but I don’t think a new generation has appeared yet to take her place. Jeez…that’s nearly 20 years!

5. Living Lightning

Did you know that Marvel has both a Living Lightning and a Living Laser in their catalogue of characters? I suppose it’s not too weird, but that it’s happened twice is weird enough for me. Anyway, Living Lightning is a longtime Avenger who exists are pure energy. He doesn’t really have a body, it just looks like it. But he’s a reserve Avenger in good standing, and that counts for a lot. He’s also Latino and gay, so I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of him in recent years.

4. Electro

Electro is a classic Spider-Man bad guy. I think he’s dead these days, with a female Electro taking over, but at least the mantle is still there. They dress in green, are covered in lightning bolts, and Spider-Man usually needs some insulated web-gloves to punch them around and save the day. Electro is a nice and simple villain. No fuss, no muss. Just a bunch of zapping Spidey with lightning bolts.

3. Lightning Lad

Lightning Lad is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes and has been involved in one way or another for all the decades since. He’s gotten up to the usual amount of Legion drama, from dying to being resurrected to having his resurrection retconned in weird ways. He’s also the twin brother of Lightning Lass, a sometimes Legionnaire, and is the younger brother of Lightning Lord, a villain of the team. All three of them got their powers when their ship crash landed and they absorbed biological lightning from native beasts. Lightning beasts!

2. Black Lightning

Not to be confused with Black Vulcan. Black Lightning is a longtime superhero who has been getting a lot busier in recent years, what with his own TV show and a higher profile in the comics. He’s one of the first black superheroes in mainstream publications, which is pretty important. He’s also a family man with superhero daughters, including Lightning, who has his same power. So she gets to be on this list after all, hanging out with her dad.

1. Static

Static, of course, is Virgil Hawkins, the most famous of the Milestone characters created in the 90s to give more voice to Black superheroes. He’s a teenage hero who gets his powers in the Big Bang, but not the cosmic one. A whole bunch of Bang Babies arrive on the scene and it’s up to Static to fight them. And, much to my surprise, his name isn’t Static Shock. That was just the name of his cartoon show back in the day. I’m surprised he never got a second show. But he remains cool, and that is not shocking.

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