Title pretty much sums it up. Watched a video recently where someone was asked to name a black superhero that didn’t have lightning based powers and while I could name a few it made me realize just how prevalent the trope is.
But why?
Edit: Y’all I’m not asking for examples of black heroes that don’t have lightning powers. I’m asking why it’s a trope to begin with 😮💨


Miles Morales / Spider-Man Storm (plus other weather, but lightning is there) Static Shock Black Lightning Thunder Black Vulcan
Off the top of my head, I can only get to six. But I don’t think I could come up with that many white heroes with lightning powers.
Found a list with bunch of superheroes with lighning powers. I see that most of top 10 are black-skinned heroes and heroines. But once you go down, most of them if not all are caucasians.
I feel that it is less of a “black heroes mostly have electrical powers” and more of a “heroes with electrical powers are more likely to be black”.