Spoilers below for anyone who isn't caught up with Black Lightning.
Black Lightning fans are now nine episodes deep into the fantastic freshman series' first season, and fans have been waiting patiently to see if the latest CW superhero show would make any direct ties to the Arrow-verse shows. And though the current stance is that Black Lightning stands mutually exclusive from the rest, the episode "The Book of LIttle Black Lies" finally introduced a concrete reference to another show's hero: Legends of Tomorrow member Vixen. At least, that what we think went down.
Part of the thrust in "The Book of Little Black Lies" was bringing Jennifer in on the Pierce family's superheroic activities, which did not excite the younger daughter as much as it might have pumped up other impressionable teenagers. While being comforted by her mother, Jennifer asked Lynn if she's also a clandestine hero, name-checking Vixen in the process. And while Lynn teased it along for a moment, she admitted she's not Vixen (obviously). A quick little spot of humor, perhaps, but a very significant one nonetheless, since it appears to connect Black Lightning to Legends of Tomorrow. Which means it's part of the Arrow-verse proper, right?
Perhaps. The easiest guess to make here for TV fans is that Jennifer and Lynn were directly talking about Maisie Richardson-Sellers' Amaya Jiwe, the 1940s-era Justice Society of America member currently fighting alongside the Legends in Season 3. But since time travel hasn't been approached on Black Lightning yet, maybe it's easier to assume that the two women were speaking of Amaya's granddaughter Mari McCabe, who was portrayed by Magalyn Echikunwokem both for the CW Seed's animated series and for an Arrow episode. Without further context, it's hard to tell which of these would be the more relevant reference for the Pierce family.
Of course, there is another explanation that would be much more frustrating and disappointing for anyone hoping the new drama would definitively cross paths with that of The Flash and others. It's entirely possible that within Black Lightning's universe, DC Comics exists, with Vixen being a fictional character just as she is in the real world. Of course, that explanation would be somewhat damning for any future attempts to combine this narrative and those of the Arrow-verse shows. It would be an interesting reveal, sure, but not one with much of an exciting future.
What do you guys think? Is Black Lightning on the same Earth as Central City, where the Waverider could be flying around at any given moment? Or was that Vixen reference just a fun aside? Hopefully we'll get answers soon, in the form of Maisie Richardson-Sellers teaming up with Thunder for a street fight.
Black Lightning airs Tuesday nights on The CW at 9:00 p.m. ET, and we're really hoping the network chooses to renew it soon. In the meantime, head to our network rundown to see all the renewed and cancelled series of 2018, and then jump to our midseason premiere schedule to see what's on the way soon.
