Peter Gambi

"I love Lynn and those girls, but we knew this day would come. Jefferson, I've known you since you were 12 years old. You're like my son, so I have to tell you the truth. The promise you made Lynn was well-intentioned, but it always had an expiration date."

- Gambi

Peter Gambi  (born Peter Esposito) is a tailor, owning Gambi's Custom Tailoring, and the mentor of Jefferson Pierce.

Biography
At some point, Gambi became a member of a government organization called the A.S.A. He would later meet and train Lady Eve. In 1986, Peter was tasked with gathering meta-humans, but after realizing that the A.S.A's vaccine was killing children, he leaked the information to Alvin Pierce, who began an investigation that eventually got him killed by Tobias Whale. After realizing that one of the metahumans was Jefferson Pierce, Alvin's son, Gambi knew he couldn't let the A.S.A. get him. Gambi opened a shop called Gambi's Custom Tailoring around September 2, 1987. One night Jefferson Pierce, the son of Alvin Pierce, took part in a riot, and after accidentally setting off his powers for the first time and knocking out two swat officers, Jefferson ran down an alley and was knocked unconscious after absorbing the electricity from an electric fence. Moments later Jefferson was found in the alley unconscious by Gambi, who realized that Jefferson had powers, and knew that if the A.S.A. found out they would come after Jefferson. So, Gambi decided to take Jefferson in and raise him, all while keeping Jefferson powers a secret. He trained Jefferson in fighting and tactics. Some years later, when Jefferson began acting as the vigilante Black Lightning, Gambi designed him a protective suit to wear. Jefferson eventually retired from vigilantism, much to the chagrin of Gambi.

Nine years later, working from his tailoring shop, Gambi arrived to find an injured Jefferson in his shop. He helped patch him up, suggesting he continue his vigilantism. Jefferson disagreed, but after his daughters were taken, he returned to Gambi, who unveiled a new vigilante suit for him.

Gambi proposed bringing down Lala to find out who he was working for, but Jefferson told Gambi that he would be done after they brought down Lala. Later, Gambi discovered Will's body in a dumpster and alerted Jefferson, planning to use his cell phone to uncover evidence. Lynn Stewart showed up at the shop and the two passed blame back and forth: Lynn blaming Gambi for trying to pull Jefferson out of a situation he was content with, while Gambi blamed Lynn for keeping Jefferson from his true calling of being a protector. Jefferson then returned and became Black Lightning for good again after Lawanda White's murder and his failure to protect her as a simple civilian.

Gambi improved upon the gauntlets in Black Lightning's suit, allowing Jeff to try them out. He later helped Jefferson to create a detour route for Reverend Holt's march, sending them on a route that Jefferson could easily watch over the crowd safely from a high vantage point. Later, Gambi discovered Tobias Whale's photo on camera footage and deleted the images to hide the truth from Jefferson.

Shortly following, Gambi was led to a crime scene following the death of Ronald Wright, a dealer of Green Light. Jefferson called him, tipping him off to Wright, but Gambi reported that he'd already found his dead body. After this, Gambi assisted Jefferson in a mission to find a stash of Green Light, but Jefferson was distracted by explosion-like sounds. He investigated the other scene, but found nothing, and so returned to the original scene. Gambi took a rifle and investigated the scene himself, taking a photo of a fracture in the ground.

Installing the ability for Jefferson to fly into his suit, Gambi watched on as he tested it out. Gambi left to tend to matters upstairs in his shop, Tobias Whale and Syonide having entered his shop. Tobias requested Black Lightning's identity, but Gambi feigned any knowledge of it. Discovering Joey Toledo to be back on the streets, Jefferson confronted Gambi. Gambi claimed to have not known that he was back, but was interrupted when Jeff passed out mid-sentence. Calling in Lynn, Gambi suggested that his collapse and prior headaches were related to his suit's new hover function. Shortly following, Gambi entered his bunker to see Jefferson putting on the Black Lightning suit. He urged him to not go after Toledo in his condition, but Jeff ignored him.

Having been beaten up by Toledo, Gambi went after Jeff, rescuing him in a van, taking him back to his shop to be treated by Lynn. The following night, Gambi had Jefferson test his powers, having figured the problem with his suit, figuring it to be a problem with the level of resistance in the suit. They began talking about Toledo and Tobias, Jefferson getting suspicious that Gambi clearly didn't want him to pursue Tobias. Following the interaction, Gambi went to see Lynn at her work, arriving before her. He emphasized her need to get involved, as Jefferson intended to kill someone, an action he believed to be one that he wouldn't come back from. That night, Gambi's computers were notified of Jefferson's activity as Black Lightning, but he was soon shut out from seeing anything. The night after, Jefferson having finally set up an opportunity to kill Tobias, Gambi patched Lynn through to him, convincing him not to follow through. Instead heading to Bowman College to help Lynn, Jefferson unknowingly beat up Anissa. They called Gambi, who helped transport her so they could patch her up. Annoyed at Lynn having been attacked, Gambi went to see Lady Eve, who questioned him on the metahuman that had attacked her crew.

After Tobias had become a problem for Black Lightning, Gambi went to visit Lady Eve, asking that she take him out. She refused to do so, both as he made her plenty of money and for fear of ruining the social ecosystem, and so instead suggested he kill Joey Toledo. The following night, Gambi went to a club run by Toledo, shooting him, before placing a box of albino dust on him as a message to Tobias. The following day, Lynn visited Gambi, hoping for him to make Anissa a vigilante suit. Having completed some sketches, he showed Anissa, promising to make it if he gave her some time.

Gambi met with Martin Proctor, leader of the Freeland division of the A.S.A., who was annoyed that Gambi had not yet killed Black Lightning, and so Proctor told him he'd send others to do so. Shortly after, Gambi led Jefferson and Anissa through Freeland City Morgue. Jefferson sent Gambi photos of Lady Eve's burnt corpse, figuring her death to be from some sort of nuclear weapon. He traced radioactive signatures in the city, pinpointing the weapon's location to Hampton Woods. Believing Jeff to be in danger of going, he offered to go, but Jefferson refused. Following this, Gambi went to church, watching a choir boy sing. He was visited by Mrs. Johnson, who thanked him for dressing for her daughter's wedding. She gave him advice, before leaving. Shortly following this, Gambi was visited by Lynn at his shop. She hoped to find some of his contacts to answer some questions for her regarding Green Light, but he shut her down, Lynn correctly inferring that he had to do with the drug itself. Because of this, Lynn sent Jefferson to talk to Gambi, with Gambi revealing his real name to be Peter Esposito, as well as his involvement in Jefferson's and others' powers (and thus subsequently Alvin Pierce's death). Jefferson threateningly told him to stay away from his family.

Gambi visited Thomas Hidalgo, ambushing him in his car and injecting him with black mamba venom, only offering an antidote if he offered up the name of the creator of the weapon that framed Black Lightning, to which Hildago could only give him a lead. He proceeded to contact the lead, discovering his identity, Caleb Scott, and blackmailing him into the identity of the weapon's creator. Gambi went to the facility, discovering it to be housing the bodies of metahumans, including one he'd personally helped put there, discovering the base as that of the A.S.A. Due to this, Gambi contacted Anissa in an emergency. He explained how he and Jefferson weren't on good terms, and explained the situation, before handing her her finished suit.

Gambi is taken and tortured by the A.S.A. for Black Lightning's identity, though he revealed nothing despite being beaten up and waterboarded. Martin Proctor brings in Jefferson and threatened to kill him but Jefferson caused a power outage, allowing him to kill the two other men and escape. This helped Jefferson mend fences with Gambi, who requests that Jefferson keep his family safe and find the A.S.A. spotter as the kidnappings are happening again.

Personality
Gambi has been displayed to care about people, so much that he was willing to give himself up to the A.S.A., in order to prevent them from shooting innocent civilians. Gambi also has good morals, when he discovered that A.S.A's vaccine that gave some children meta-human powers, but was also killing some of these said children; he leaked the information to Alvin Pierce, not only to end the A.S.A's illegal experimentations, but also to bring them to justice.

Abilities

 * Computer hacking: Gambi possesses impressive computer hacking skills, as he has stated that he can hack into any database, including Freeland Police Department. He was also able to easily hack in Freeland's power grid and shut it down.
 * Skilled marksman: Gambi is skilled in handling various types of guns and is capable of killing if necessary. He was prepared to use a rifle when he went to investigate a scene, and a pistol when Tobias Whale appeared in his shop. . He also killed Joey Toledo with two shots to the chest, and even Martin Proctor during their final confrontation.
 * Skilled engineer: Gambi is a skilled engineer as he created the Thunder suit for Anissa and the first and the second Black Lightning suit which was more armored and has more technology built into it such as as goggles with "electric vision" and a feature that helped with flight. Though the latter caused headaches to the user which was eventually fixed.
 * Indomitable will: Gambi was able to survive being beaten half to death and waterboarding by Martin Proctor's agents while also refusing to reveal Black Lightning's identity.
 * Infiltration Gambi was able to break into Lynn's lab before anyone was even there.

Equipment

 * Self-Driving van: Gambi upgraded his black van so that he can control it from his computer in his shops basement.

Appearances
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Season 1
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Trivia

 * Jefferson has mentioned that Gambi is Italian.
 * Gambi has admitted that whenever Jefferson calls him "Handsome", Gambi can't say no to him.
 * It has been implied that after the murder of Jefferson's father, that Gambi raised Jefferson as his foster son, since Gambi has known Jeff since he was 12-years-old, and Lynn mentions in "Three Sevens: The Book of Thunder", to Gambi "You raised Jeff to be Black Lightning". This is confirmed in "The Book of Revelations" when Gambi confesses his true identity to Jefferson, hiding him from the A.S.A. once he realized Jefferson was a metahuman as a result of their experiments.
 * In "Equinox: The Book of Fate", Anissa refers to Gambi as "Uncle Gambi", which implies that the Pierce family considers Gambi to be an honorary uncle to Anissa and Jennifer.
 * Gambi hates golf.
 * Gambi has admitted that he considers Jefferson to be like a son to him.
 * Gambi has so far killed 6 people, one being Joey Toledo in order to send a warning to Tobias, the other two being two A.S.A. agents in self-defense in order to save Jefferson, two A.S.A. SWAT men in order to save Jennifer and Lynn, and Martin Proctor in order to prevent him from hurting any other children.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics series, Peter Gambi is the man who murdered Jefferson's father, Alvin Pierce. However, in the series Tobias Whale is the one who murdered Alvin.
 * Also in the original comics, Peter Gambi was the brother to Paul Gambi a.k.a. "The Crime Tailor" who made a living creating and selling costumes to adversaries of "The Flash" in Central City.