'Black Lightning': Take A Look Inside Grace Choi's Comic Book Collection
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
When it comes to
The CW's comic book heroes and their supporting casts, Grace Choi may not be the most obvious choice to depict as a comic book nerd, but the folks behind
Black Lightninghave hidden enough Easter eggs in her apartment to show that, yeah, she reads a bit.
And -- here's something that might be a little more surprising -- it isn't just DC books. Grace has a pretty well-rounded comics collection which, while it skews heavily toward DC, features trade paperbacks and single issue magazine-format comics from a variety of publishers, including Image and Marvel.
During a recent visit to the set of
Black Lightning, ComicBook.com had a little bit of time to peruse the shelves, and here is what we spotted in Grace's living room.
...And we don't have time to delve into all of them, so feel free to pore over what we don't mention and drop your thought sinto the comments below.
Black Lightning airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following episodes of
The Flash on The CW.
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1 of 13THE OUTSIDERS
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
Judd Winick's run on
The Outsiders is heavily featured in Grace's collection -- ironic, since this is the easiest way to suggest that she might be, y'know, fictional.
Grace was created by Winick and Tom Raney in the first issue of this run, and there are at least five trade paperbacks of that era of
The Outsiders on her coffee table and bookshelf.
This is similar to all those Archie comics you can find
hanging around the Riverdale set if you look hard enough.
SLIDE
2 of 13LICENSED COMICS
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
Grace also has a number of licensed comics based on video games and tabletop games, suggesting that her geeky interests expand beyond just comic books.
Among the titles spotted on her shelves are a
Warhammer adaptation, at least two trade paperbacks based on
Mortal Kombat X, and some of
Silent Hill comics.
SLIDE
3 of 13HACK/SLASH
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
One of a number of indie books represented, many of those gracing Grace's shelves have a little something in common: they are by creators who would later work at DC.
Tim Seeley's creator-owned
Hack/Slash is a popular, acerbic, and fun genre mash-up that has been in and out of development for TV and film a few times already. And with Seeley currently writing a number of projects for DC, it makes sense that the series might make a cameo on
Black Lightning.
SLIDE
4 of 13WOLVERINE AND HAVOK
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
The only prominently-placed Marvel Comic seen in the place, Walter and Louise Simonson's
Havok & Wolverine miniseries sits perched atop a stack of comics we didn't dare movie, lest we somehow upset the continuity of the series when they started shooting again.
That the Simonsons have moved pretty freely back and forth between DC, Marvel, and indie publishers during their long and prestigious careers makes this as likely a candidate as any to represent the X-Men offices.
SLIDE
5 of 13BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
Speaking of things with a long history at Marvel, Brian Michael Bendis's Jinxworld titles are pretty well-represented on the shelves here.
Bendis, who recently signed a years-long deal with DC and is creating new content for them including Superman, Batman, and Jinxworld titles, seems to be one of the creators most prominently featured on Grace's shelves, since a number of his titles -- which have similar trade dress and prominently feature his name -- are all grouped together right around the middle of the shelf.
SLIDE
6 of 13WILDSTORM
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
DC's WildStorm is an imprint featuring characters developed while Jim Lee was at Image, and often written with a '90s-and-after vibe. Grim, gritty, violent, sexy -- these are the watchwords for WildStorm.
And so it kind of makes sense that they are grouped right near Alan Moore on a shelf not far from Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar. There aren't many "older" titles here, and it may suggest that, unlike the nostalgia of
The Flash and other shows,
Black Lightning leans into being heavily influenced by modern comics.
SLIDE
7 of 13CONVERGENCE
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
DC's
Convergence crossover took heroes from various worlds of the multiverse and crammed them together in a battle royale to determine which of their worlds would be allowed to live.
It was a
Crisis crossover that happened after
Final Crisis, and so did not actually feature the word "Crisis" anywhere in its title.
By the end of the story, though, they did reinstate DC's infinite multiverse (as opposed to the 52 earths idea introduced at the end of
52 a few years before), although it is debatable whether that stuck, especially post-
Rebirth.
Extra points for one of the trade paperbacks pictured above featuring the face of Geo-Force, Brion Markov, whose family and homeland were referenced in
last week's episode of
Black Lightning.
SLIDE
8 of 13DYLAN DOG
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
Could this be considered a stealth crossover with
DC's Legends of Tomorrow? After all, Brandon Routh appeared in the critically-panned film adaptation of
Dylan Dog.
...No, probably not.
Maybe if you combine it with Waverider (the character, not the ship) making an appearance on the spine of one of those
Convergence trades...!
SLIDE
9 of 13WATCHMEN
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
One of
Time Magazine's 100 greatest novels of the 20th Century,
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is that graphic novel that people own, even if they don't own graphic novels. So of course it's here; for such an esoteric and mature collection
not to feature
Watchmen would be weirder.
SLIDE
10 of 13RICK REMENDER
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
Next to
Watchmen is Rick Remender's
Strange Girl, not one of his better known comics, but something that is worth mentioning not only because it is a female-led series like much of Bendis's work or
Hack/Slash -- but because Remender is getting a bigger and bigger profile on TV right now with projects like
Deadly Class and
The Last Days of American Crime in the works.
SLIDE
11 of 13ELSEWORLDS
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
While
Black Lightning will not be part of the "Elseworlds" crossover that kicks off in two weeks, there are some alternate-universe DC titles that are represented in the stacks here.
Besides the Elseworlds-populated
Convergence, we get one of DC's fist post-
Elseworlds alternate Earth stories in
Justice League: The New Frontier.
SLIDE
12 of 13BIG IMAGE HITS
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
Even aside from the ones already mentioned, some of Image Comics's biggest and best-selling recent hits are represented on the shelves.
No,
The Walking Dead isn't there, and neither is
Powers (which is Jinxworld anyway), but you can see trades of
Saga,
Sex Criminals, and more hanging out on Grace's mantel.
SLIDE
13 of 13ROBERT VENDITTI
(Photo: Russ Burlingame)
1COMMENTS
Before he built a career doing clever takes on long-running franchises at Valiant and DC, Robert Venditti was best known for his creator-owned comics,
The Surrogates, which were eventually adapted into a film starring Bruce Willis.
https://comicbook.com/dc/2018/11/28...look-inside-grace-chois-comic-book-collec/#13