JJ Stewart

"JJ Stewart"
Biological Information
Species	Ionosphere-Meta-human hybrid
Status	Merged with Jennifer Pierce
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-Prime
General Information
Occupation	Student at Garfield High School (as JJ Stewart; falsely; formerly) Vigilante (as JJ Stewart)
Affiliation	Black Lightning's team (in secret; falsely; formerly)
Family	Jennifer Pierce (genetic template/"sister" via stolen DNA)
Alter ego	Lightning
Actor	Laura Kariuki

"You have no word for it. You think all that lives have form. You don’t know life beyond body. My whole life, I spent in the Glaze, watching you down here in the light with bodies, able to touch, to breathe... I saw you coming and going as you please, both flesh, and energy... and I hated you."

—JJ Stewart to Jennifer Pierce^[src]

"JJ Stewart" is an entity from the ionosphere. She had resided there for an unknown (but presumably long) period of time and watched Jennifer Pierce come and go from the ionosphere at will. Bitterly envious, the entity had attempted to possess her body, accidentally overwhelming and disintegrating it instead, before being reconstituted and stealing her identity. Jennifer survived as energy, eventually regaining her physical form. In a final confrontation, Jennifer became one with her powers and inundated the entity completely.

Biography

Early life

The ionosphere is a layer of earth's atmosphere inhabited by life forms, who call this area the Glaze (suggesting that is its actual name), and can only exist in the dark void of space. Over the course of time, these shapeless life forms, would watch humans on Earth, envying their lives, bodies and ability to experience emotions. One entity of the Glaze in particular grew increasingly infuriated with Jennifer Pierce's frequent trips to the ionosphere. Like the entity, Jennifer was living pure energy, but she had a physical body, and could come and go from the Glaze as she pleased. Eventually, the entity conspired to take over Jennifer's life for itself.

Acquiring a body

Every time Jennifer Pierce came to the ionosphere to recharge her powers, the entity would alter its wavelength to match the young meta-human's, which took a total of five visits for it to do so. On March 1, 2021, when Jennifer returned to the ionosphere to clear her head, the entity surrounded her, trapped her, and overpowered her in its pure form, causing her to completely disintegrate. With both of them in the same state of energy, the entity entangled itself within Jennifer's particles, and, in doing so, jacked her DNA. As Black Lightning entered the ionosphere to absorb Jennifer's particles, the entity willed itself into him so only it was absorbed. However, Black Lightning was overpowered by the energy, and began to fall from the sky, leaving the entity under the impression that Jennifer was dead. In reality, Jennifer remained floating helplessly in space in a state of scattered energy.

The entity was placed inside a particle condenser in order to reconstitute Jennifer's body, using the identical DNA as a template. After two days, the condenser, revved at full power, began to use the DNA to build a body. However, after completion, Jefferson noticed that he could no longer feel Jennifer's essence. To the surprise of the entire Pierce Family, Jennifer didn't step out of the condenser, but another girl, who seemingly knew all of their faces and was surprised by the way they were looking at her.

The girl assured that she was Jennifer, to the surprise of "her" family, though she acted horrified at her appearance. After a series of DNA tests, Peter Gambi confirmed her as Jennifer, placating the concerns of Jefferson about the accuracy of the tests and the function of the condenser. Lynn offered an explanation for the new appearance, attributing it to the genes, causing the distraught girl to run out of the room. Grace comforted the entity over her concerns about school, using her own experience with "changing faces." Lynn and Anissa embraced the entity, but Jefferson, unable to accept it as his daughter, left, causing the girl to break down crying.

Becoming JJ Stewart

Lynn confirmed the girl as Jennifer again at her job, commenting on her new height and telling her not to return to the ionosphere again, attributing it to an addiction. Val Seong entered the lab shortly after, and the girl introduced herself as JJ, Lynn's niece (with a few slip-ups). JJ and Anissa discussed the former's new look, saying she should embrace it, before Anissa told JJ that she and Grace were married. JJ encouraged her to go on a honeymoon, using her nickname "Harriet," assuring her that she would be fine. That night, TC surprised her in Jennifer's room, saying he could give her an officially new identity as JJ Stewart. However, the two of them were alerted on the scanner of a police encounter with Black Lightning, but JJ was reluctant to go because of Lightning's ill-fated public image. To cheer her up, TC showed her some pro-Lightning videos of kids calling her a hero, which encouraged her to go out to give Black Lightning backup. However, because of her drastic change in height and size, the old Lightning suit wouldn't fit her, so Gambi fixed her a surrogate suit. JJ arrived just in time to help Jefferson take out the cops. On her roof, he thanked her for coming to help him, and JJ said that she owed him, since he risked his life to get her from the ionosphere. Then the two shared a hug.

Days later, JJ participated in the welcome ceremony they threw to welcome Grace into the family. However, they were interrupted by the FBI, who ransacked the house searching for illegal goods. JJ expressed disgust at them trashing her bedroom, before realizing that everyone at school would be talking about Jefferson's embezzlement charges. Anissa told her that she was a Pierce, and Pierces don't back away from anything, and she would be fine. The next morning, JJ and Jefferson reviewed her backstory as Lynn Stewart's niece, and that Jennifer had gone abroad for school. While at school, under the guise, Baron showed JJ around school, before they stumbled upon a kid publicly slandering Jefferson for the IG. A kid named Uriah Coleman put a stop to it, and JJ flirted with him. Later, he informed her that the music program was bankrupt, prompting her to take action. At home, Jefferson told her that he was not going to sell Alvin's house, prompting her apologize for his plight, calling him "daddy," much to his bewilderment. JJ later visited Grace at her loft, where she said she was having difficulty with her new face and Jefferson's destroyed reputation at school. The shapeshifter told JJ to be careful around Uriah, saying she wouldn't be so sure to trust him, before they both watched Tobias Whale's live speech for his running for mayorship, much to their disgust.

As Lightning, JJ surprised Uriah on the street, going on his IG page to round up donations for the Garfield High music program, unaware that Freeland P.D. was tracking her IG account and Ishmael was conducting nearby reconnaissance. After hearing Jennifer screaming in her head, which caused her a significant amount of pain, she abruptly left. JJ was admonished by Jefferson and Anissa for her recklessness, and was informed that Lightning was grounded. Gambi then warned everyone about Ishmael, which JJ didn't seem to take very seriously. Later, on her roof, JJ lamented about her life to TC, when she got a DM from Uriah to take her in person for the donation. JJ contemplated about doing it, as Lightning shouldn't be friends with "Jennifer's" crush, but ultimately decided to go, as herself, and then switch. She unknowingly walked into a trap set by Lopez, but managed to escape. However, while airborne, she lost her powers due to Tobias' nullifying emitter, sending her plummeting down to earth.

Losing her powers and return to the ionosphere

Before she crashed, a fail-safe activated in JJ's suit, saving her while TC communicated through her earpiece. At the sanctum, the team pressed Gambi for answers, but he had none. At her sisters' loft, JJ thanked Grace for letting her stay over, ignoring Uriah's calls, before saying that they needed to get their powers as they were the only tie to her "identity." Anissa assured her that she would always be her sister. Afterwards, they gathered back at the sanctum again to discuss Lynn's arrest; JJ watched a tense exchange between Jefferson and Anissa over how they would get Lynn out of jail. Later, JJ poked fun at Anissa over the identity of Lynn's lawyer, who was her ex. TC surprised the three young women and they discussed what was on the hard drive Anissa had taken from Darius, her friend, who turned up murdered. They uncovered a dirty operation run by Tobias that was operating out of Monovista International, and vowed to stop it.

JJ came up with an unconventional method to get her powers back, much to Anissa's dismay, and electrocuted herself, knocking out all the power in Anissa's loft and knocking her unconscious. She regained some part of her powers, but it wasn't enough, hinting at a higher source. Anissa immediately reacted in anger, saying JJ was crazy, but the latter tried to placate her. Anissa left, crying, but JJ went up there anyway. TC expressed anger at her for going up there again. After being briefly trapped up there, JJ managed to return back to earth, much to her delight and satisfaction. Unbeknownst to her, the collection of energy particles had reappeared in space.

JJ and Anissa enacted a sting to steal stolen meta-genes back from a Monovista facility. JJ experienced physical pain while using her powers, but managed to steal a container. At the house, Jefferson and Lynn chastised her for going to the ionosphere again, but the girls revealed the stolen genes before informing "their" parents about Tobias' undercover operation. That night, JJ was off in thought about why her powers were backfiring on her, as TC offered an explanation. He revealed to her that it was Lopez, not Uriah, who set her up, and told her she had a date with him, much to her excitement and gratitude. She met him a restaurant vacant for their pleasure, where they had a good date. On a walk home, they were ambushed by Red, sent by Tobias who had connected the dots that Jennifer Pierce and JJ were both Lightning, and attempted to kill her. Uriah was shot by a stray bullet, and subsequently died in the streets, but not before telling JJ to "light up the world." JJ was left heartbroken.

In an attempt to confront her over her guilt about Uriah's death, Jefferson told JJ about how he watched Tobias murder his father, and who he struggled with the guilt most of his life. JJ went to TC to ask him how to find Red, but TC told her not to do it out of cold blood. She went to the ionosphere again to charge, unaware that the collection of energy particles attempted to grab her, before ambushing Red on the streets. He easily deflected her attacks, taunting her, before she blasted him with enough power to destroy his bracelet. He cowered for mercy, appalling her, before she transported him to the police station to Chief Lopez, proving him complicit in Uriah's murder. Lopez unleashed meta-phobic rhetoric on her, prompting JJ to tell her that she was being recorded live. She knew she was a hero, but asked Lopez if she was. Later that night, JJ called Jefferson to let him know what she did, only to be responded by Tobias. He sent her a picture of Jefferson's battered body, causing her to scream.

Final battle and inundation

At the sanctum, Gambi confirmed the photo as real, distressing everybody. JJ wanted to go after him, but everyone advised her not to, much to her annoyance. As they planned to find the emitter, JJ left undetected to return to the ionosphere to get more power. However, the same collection of energy particles left in the sky from her last visit surrounded her, and tried to absorb her into it. She managed to break free and fly back to earth, though not without side effects as she nearly passed out at the sanctum. She and TC left for the tunnels, where she made an odd comment about breathing air, before having the same psychic pain in her head before the two are knocked down by a burst of light. It was the real Jennifer, who had just escaped her prison in the ionosphere moments before, revealing that JJ had stolen her DNA and left her for dead, but she remained in JJ's head the whole time.

JJ trying to absorb Jennifer's energy.

JJ and Jen faced off. JJ electrocuted Baron to keep him from interfering, and by this point her lightning blasts are red. Jen thrashed her before they entered a brief stalemate as JJ revealed what she was: a bodiless entity from the ionosphere who was jealous of the lives of humans. She described her hatred for the meta-human and stated how she captured her, expressing a mild level of desperation that she wouldn't get out of the Glaze. She gloated to Jen that she had the same memories, feelings, and family as her, and wouldn't let her take it away. She got the upper hand in the fight and incapacitated Jen, using her powers to slowly destroy her. Jen had entered a state of finality and embraced her powers, merging with JJ and fully reclaiming her life.

Personality

In its original form, the entity had a complex character. As a form of life that only existed in the darkness, it grew increasingly bitter that humans, also living life forms, had bodies and could experience life, "live in the light," while it could only float aimlessly in space for however long it was meant to live. Having been trapped in a dark void for years, and forced to watch humans live lives it couldn’t have made the entity resentful and bitter, with a desperation to escape the Glaze. This was severely exacerbated by Jennifer Pierce's constant visits to the ionosphere; a human, which the entity already resented, who was pure energy and visited the space at will, causing the entity to hate her. Jennifer provided the entity an opportunity to not only leave the ionosphere, but experience the lives of humans, which JJ admitted that she was afraid she would never do, an idea that "disappointed" her. This ultimately drove it to attempt murder (once, and then a second time when the first attempt failed). The entity appears to harbor a deep loathing for humans, especially meta-humans, who possess the ability to harness and transform into energy.

The entity is skilled at adaption, assimilating quickly into Jennifer's identity and family using her memories and feelings. It is exceptionally skilled at manipulating people, having convinced the Pierces for weeks that it was the real Jennifer (with a few minor discrepancies). JJ used the pretense of a lost identity to return to the ionosphere in order to get her powers back, and later under the idea that she would need powers to take on Tobias. It will go through any means to get what it wants, such as incapacitating TC, its supposed "friend," when its identity was exposed to keep him from interfering and leaving Jennifer for dead up in space.

As JJ Stewart, the entity embodied many, if not most, of the characteristics of Jennifer Pierce’s personality. She was strong-willed, independent, with an obvious rebellious streak, having a habit of taking large risks that everyone would try and steer her clear of. However, she was arguably more reckless than Jennifer. She had a very obvious tendency to go against her parents' and sisters' advice, especially when it entails Lightning, leading her to being very stubborn. Occasionally, she can be a bit arrogant and overly-confident, though it can easily be matched to Jennifer's self-worth. JJ was arguably obsessed with the Lightning mantle, seeing as she was perfectly willing to risk killing herself to get her powers back. JJ has a knack for messing with people, especially TC and Anissa, though usually out of humor at their expense. She was especially close to her good friend, TC, who was her voice of reason, and seemed to care for him. Regardless, this did not stop her from incapacitating him to keep him from interfering in her confrontation with Jennifer. JJ is also a huge flirt, seeing her brief relationship with the late Uriah Coleman.

Powers and abilities

Powers

• Wavelength alteration: In its original form, the entity possesses the ability to alter its wavelength to match that of another organism of pure energy, which is how it captured Jennifer Pierce in the ionosphere.
• Energy transmutation: By matching its wavelength to another organism, the entity possesses the ability to turn living matter into pure energy, the biggest example being the complete disintegration of Lightning. However, it is likely that this is only limited to other beings who are also pure energy.
• Meta-human physiology: As the entity stole Jennifer Pierce's DNA, by default it would acquire the meta-gene she had for her powers, and the gene for her electrokinetic abilities once she had a physical body. JJ was arguably one of the most powerful beings in the universe by default, second only to her genetic template, Jennifer Pierce.
  • Electricity generation: Like her template Jennifer, JJ has the power to generate electricity.
    • Electrokinesis: JJ has almost all of Jennifer Pierce's electrokinetic powers. Like her template, her eyes glow bright orange and her powers attain the same color; however, after her actual identity was exposed, the color becomes a bright red.
      • Electrical absorption: JJ primarily absorbs electricity from the ionosphere to recharge, and it was sufficient enough to counter the nullifying effect from Val Seong‘s powers.
      • Electro-technopathy: JJ is able to turn stereos and speakers on and off at will.
      • Electrical blasts: Like Jennifer, JJ can fire blasts and bolts of electricity at her targets, ranging from mild to a full-size lightning bolt. When her powers were under stress, she was only able to fire medium-sized shocks.
      • Flight: JJ is able to fly, without the need of an electrical field, which she uses as her main source of transport and up into the ionosphere.
      • Vocal manipulation: Like Jefferson, JJ vibrates her vocal chords using her electricity to disguise her voice. However, the depth of her voice has varied.

Abilities

• Peak of human physical condition: Despite replicating Jennifer's exact DNA, JJ had a different appearance, height, and natural physical strength. JJ had an impressive level of physical condition, as she was able to actively use her powers despite the fact they were straining her body with high levels of agility and maneuverability, which was how she got the upper hand in her confrontation with Jennifer. She was also apparently strong enough to nearly dislocate Jennifer's arm with little effort in order to incapacitate her.
• Acrobatics/Free-running: By default, JJ's acrobatic and free-running skills are near to, if not the same, level as Jennifer's, in all of her vigilante activities.
• Expert hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: With Jennifer's memories, JJ would therefore retain the same knowledge she would have regarding martial arts. In her sole instance of hand-to-hand combat, she was almost evenly matched against Jennifer, a significantly smaller adversary in terms of stature, and even managed to overpower her for a long period of time. JJ's techniques seem to be derived from aikido, ju-jitsu, taekwondo, and kickboxing.
• Skilled tactician/Stealth: JJ possesses a notable level of stealth. She was able to escape an ambush undetected, sneak up on several workers at a cryogenic center, and sneak out of the sanctum undetected without anyone noticing or hearing her.

Weaknesses

• Mental link: After stealing Jennifer's body, JJ would frequently hear the former screaming in her head, causing her physical pain.

Equipment

• Lightning suits: As JJ, the entity wore a larger version of the Lightning suit as the respective vigilante. However, shortly after her reconstitution and because she wouldn't fit Jennifer's version, Gambi gave her a temporary suit.

Appearances

Black Lightning

Season 4

• "The Book of Reconstruction: Chapter Four" (unseen)
• "The Book of Ruin: Chapter One"
• "The Book of Ruin: Chapter Two"
• "The Book of Ruin: Chapter Three"
• "The Book of Ruin: Chapter Four: Lyding"
• "The Book of Reunification: Chapter One"
• "The Book of Reunification: Chapter Two"
• "The Book of Resurrection: Chapter One"
• "The Book of Resurrection: Chapter Two: Closure"

Trivia

• JJ has two different types of lightning:
  • Orange-colored lightning generated by Jennifer's lightning due to the entity stealing her DNA.
  • Red-colored lightning generated by the Darkness.
• JJ and Eobard Thawne share certain similarities:
  • Both generated red-colored lightning with their meta-human powers.
  • Both stole someone else's body and impersonated them for their own agenda. JJ stole Jennifer's body from the ionosphere to have her powers and a physical self while Eobard stole Harrison Wells' identity after staging a car crash so he could create The Flash earlier.
• JJ is similar to Ana Lopez:
  • Both of them became the very thing they each hated to take their rival down; JJ stole Jennifer's life, fueled by jealousy of her physical body while Ana injected herself with a Meta booster to take down Lightning despite being prejudiced against metas.
  • Both wanted to take down Jennifer.
• JJ is possibly a dark mirror of Jennifer in the same way that Painkiller is to Khalil Payne. The difference is that JJ had her own body and was not a programmed killer, attempting her usurpation of Jennifer of her own volition.
• As Lightning, JJ would vibrate her vocal cords to disguise her voice (unlike Jennifer) to give it a deeper tone. However, after her identity was exposed, her voice became so distorted that it sounded both male and female, meaning that the entity has no gender in its original form.
• There were several instances foreshadowing that JJ was not Jennifer:
  • Before JJ stepped out of the condenser, Jefferson stated that he could no longer feel Jennifer's essence, which was attributed as a minor side effect.
  • Jefferson's skepticism over JJ's identity was allocated to the possibility of her being a being from another dimension, which had a minor level of accuracy.
  • JJ accidentally called Jefferson "Daddy," which Jennifer had not done in a long time, though explained away the error as "changing something every once in a while."
  • Upon conducting a test comparing JJ's DNA with Jennifer's, Lynn realized that JJ's DNA was unstable.
• JJ was attacked by Jennifer twice in her pure energy form after the former returned to the ionosphere. During the first attack, JJ was unaware of it, as she flew off before Jennifer could grab her. In the second, Jennifer completely surrounded her and nearly absorbed her until she escaped.
• Despite being the one who trapped Jennifer in the ionosphere, JJ was ironically instrumental to her eventual escape, as her repeated visits to the area of space allowed Jennifer to retain enough particles to regain her physical form.
• JJ's horrified reaction to her appearance after emerging from the condenser could either be because she was faking her reaction to maintain her cover, or she expected to have the same appearance as Jennifer, not taking into account that their identical DNA did not automatically mean an identical appearance.
  • Further irony is the fact that JJ attacked Jennifer in her original form to cause her disintegration, and then Jennifer nearly succeeded in doing the same thing to JJ.
• JJ was arguably one of the most powerful villains in the Black Lightning universe, as she was not only able to destroy Jennifer's physical form and acquire the meta-human's powers (and Jennifer is the most powerful meta-human in Freeland), but managed to effectively usurp the latter's life with little difficulty.
• It is very likely that the ionosphere itself is not extremely dangerous to Jennifer (or any meta-human with similar powers as her), since JJ continued to fly up there even when there was no need to. This is likely because she was the one who caused Jennifer to disintegrate, so there would be no posed threat to her.

Behind the scenes

• On Laura Kariuki's Instagram page, she accidentally confirmed that JJ was actually Jen's genetic daughter instead of sister.