Black Lightning Scoop: Khalil Payne’s DC Comics Inspiration Revealed
We might not be seeing Jennifer Pierce and Khalil Payne rekindling their love on The CW’s Black Lightning any time soon.
But… we’ve at least gotten confirmation that the character of Khalil is inspired by an actual villain from the Black Lightning comic book.
According to the description on official promotional photos released by The CW, Khalil, played by Jordan Calloway, is the television version of Painkiller, a short-lived supervillain created in the ’90s who had the ability to anesthetize his opponents.
Painkiller debuted in Black Lightning Vol 2 #2 (1995) and was created by Tony Isabella and Eddie Newell. In the comics, he has the metahuman ability to anesthetize his targets or dull their senses. He has great strength and fighting abilities. He also has dreadlocks with knives on the tips that he uses as weapons.
Black Lightning airs its season finale this Tuesday at 9pm ET on The CW.
Marvin Jones III Breaks Down Tobias’ Return on Black Lightning
Tobias Whale made his triumphant return to The CW’s Black Lightning this week. Actor Marvin “Krondon” Jones III filled EW in on what Tobias has been up to during his hiatus from television screens.
He took a lot of losses, and he’s been going through a recalibration process. After the loss of his sister, the only person in the world he cared about, he’s trying to balance between that idea of who he is as powerhouse and succumbing to the consuming nature of revenge. Making decisions when you’re consumed by revenge ultimately results in your detriment. He’s struggling with that, especially during that opening scene in the mirror. ‘How am I gonna handle this now? I still have to maintain my position after suffering these losses.’ That’s where he’s at.
Jones discussed what it was like to finally have extended screen time with BL star Cress Williams.
Cress and I haven’t had a lot of scenes together, we’ve been on opposite sides of the wall. When we have met it’s been really quick, like the second he blasted me I was out of there. With this one, there was a lot of training involved, and we had to get really close and personal. I wanted to come to the fight overly prepared, because I knew he was going to do the same, and we could have time to work this out. We were actually talking about it over the weekend, how it’s interesting we didn’t really use doubles in this fight. Him and I have such a closeness, representing two perspectives on the show. To come together in the moment and create that magic, it was tiring. That scene was really intense for everybody — me, Cress, Jordan Calloway. We were in that school for 14 or 15 hours shooting every intricate detail of that scene. Physically it was traumatic, especially for the guy with the big suit on. I’m just hoping it came off great and people enjoy it. It was one of our bigger scenes we’ve done, but they have even bigger scenes happening next week, so worry not.
Jones also discussed how relevant the school fight sequence is during our present climate of school shootings consistently being in the news.
That association is to be expected, because we are in a time where that’s something we hear a lot about. Having Khalil walking through the school shooting darts, it definitely lends itself to remind you of some of the happenings we’ve been faced with in that environment. But it’s different in the sense that it is make-believe and it’s supernatural. Black Lightning is there because he’s protecting the school. That’s why he’s there. I would hope that when people see this show, they take upon themselves the responsibility we have to face adversity and things that are trying to come and destroy us, and band together. I think that’s what that scene represents.
Black Lightning airs its season finale this Tuesday at 9pm ET on The CW.
H/T: EW