This week’s Black Lightning had more nods to the Arrowverse

So we’ve been pondering the whole ‘will Black Lightning join The CW’s Arrowverse’ thing for a while now.

We know the cast want to be a part of the bigger universe (here), we know the show itself has hinted at other heroes existing (here) and the showrunner wants other comic characters to appear (here) bt we’re still none the wiser, really.

And, to make things worse, Black Lightning itself seemed to be having fun with the fans in this week’s episode – Lawanda: The Book of Burial (here’s our review).

In the episode, a character in a book shop was clearly seen holding an issue of DC Comics’ The Outsiders. Why is this a nod? Well, in the comics The Outsiders were a group whom like the best comic teams, usually added and changed members, but one steadfast character was Black Lightning himself. Meta, huh? However, only last week in Arrow, the new team of Mad Dog, Black Canary and Mr Terrific referred to themselves as, you guessed it, The Outsiders.

Probably just a bit a comic book nerdiness for sure… but still, a big coincidence, don’t you think?

In another scene, Mr Jefferson’s (AKA Black Lightning) daughter, Anissa, was told that she could wear any cosplay she wanted… even Supergirl. And, for the record, the spandex and ears was pretty reminiscent of Catwoman’s attire. Just sayin’.

Now, clearly this could be a nod to these things existing in the same world as Black Lighting: after all, Oliver Queen’s son is seen with a Flash backpack in last week’s episode and was once seen playing with Flash action figures, so the heroes of that world may well have costumes and comics based on them similar to the X-Men comic Logan has in, em, Logan.

But, applying the logic of The CW’s shows, we know that Supergirl and Arrow exist on different versions of earth so either these references are for the fans only OR, as has been hinted several times in the shows themselves and as seen in last year’s crossover event, all the characters exist on each earth albeit probably all slightly different… so maybe in the Black Lightning universe Supergirl exists and over in Star City a group of heroes called The Outsiders already exist and are fighting crime.

Or, you know, maybe we just obsess over these things.

Let us know hat you all think, guys.