Elemental powers make up a disproportionately large portion of superhuman abilities, and it seems that lightning-throwers are about half of those. From the Legion’s Ranzz dynasty to the Avengers’ Living Lightning all the way to X-Man Storm, a lot of heroes get in on the electrical powers. Heck, no less a luminary than Pikachu himself is seen leading the charge (pun fully intended). For my money, any contender for best electrical hero will find it hard to beat Ayla Ranzz (Lightning Lass of The Legion of Super-Heroes) who took on her brother’s very identity to find out whether the Legionnaires had any inside information on his death, then became a stalwart member of the Legion for a couple of decades, leading us to today’s high-voltage query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is also a fan of Black Lightning and his spiritual descendants Black Vulcan, Static and Soul Power, asking: Which lightning wielder is the BEST electrical hero?
5 Comments
Is, was, and shall be Virgil Hawkins, a.k.a. Static by Robert Washington III.
Static is a great one. i was a bit past the target age for the popularity of the cartoon, but it truly surprised me how huge the impact Static Shock was on kids 5-10 years younger than me. i bet if you asked a lot of kids around the late 90’s, early 00’s, Static would’ve been right up there with Spidey in terms of popularity.
for me, if the concept of a hero was relaxed just slightly, my nostalgic brain immediately jumps to Raiden from Mortal Kombat. if we’re purely talking capes, it’s hard not to say Thor at this point.
Hatake Kakashi. He perfected raikiri, calling it chidori. Also I love Kakashi for so many other reasons.
Ernest P. Worrell, Electroman
Since I’m a X-Men guy, I’d like to say Storm but as a solo character, its Shazam.