Thunder

Thunder's History

Anissa Pierce is one of Black Lightning's two daughters. Able to increase her density, she can bring the Thunder. She was a member of the Outsiders.

Daughter of Black Lightning

Her father did not want her following his footsteps, and he struck a bargain with her: she would graduate from college before considering a career in crime fighting. She did, and the same night of her graduation she donned a costume and became Thunder.

Joining the Outsiders

Shortly after Thunder had started her solo career, she was approached by Red Arrow, who offered her a spot on the new team of Outsiders. Reasoning that she could best learn the superhero trade with a team, she agreed to this offer and became an Outsider.

Although she got along with most of her teammates, she seemed to constantly come into conflict with Grace, a tough promiscuous bouncer. They were, however, quite effective as a team, and the two slowly came to a grudging respect between them.

Eventually her father appeared at the Outsiders headquarters, demanding her resignation from the team. Naturally, she refused and when the danger of Sabbac arose again, her father even decided to accompany the Outsiders. During that adventure, the two came to respect each other's abilities, neither having seen the other in action before, and Thunder was allowed to remain an Outsider.

The extent of her invulnerability was tested during a fight with the re-formed Fearsome Five. The matter transmuter Shimmer converted the air in her lungs to water, which caused an inflammation so great that she suffered pulmonary edema and acute respiratory distress syndrome, which nearly killed her. She recovered and continued to serve with the Outsiders.

One Year Later

Anissa remained a member of the Outsiders (a team that was believed to be dead), and was involved in the attempted toppling of the regime of Mali. Her role had been instrumental in the mission, having gone undercover amongst the government, a role that required her to pretend she was having a sexual relationship with the ruler of the country, Ratin Bennin; in actuality Metamorpho used a hallucinogenic compound to fool the dictator. She compromised the team's mission when she revealed her cover and attacked Mali's army, who were going to slaughter a village.

It was revealed to the team that Thunder was in a lesbian relationship with her teammate Grace. Thunder was kicked off The Outsiders upon Batman's reorganization of the team, being replaced by the Martian Manhunter. She rejoined the team when Grace invited her on a mission without Batman's approval.

When Batman disappeared without a trace, Anissa was concerned about the future of the Outsiders without a leader and she discussed her thoughts with Black Lightning. Shortly afterwards, Anissa received a message from the missing Batman and she informed the rest of the team.[1] Batman asked them to feed a secret code in the cybernetic mind of the ReMAC, allowing him to track the Caped Crusader and the Black Glove and help him into his fight. As they complied, against Batgirl's advice, the code revealed itself as a cybernetic booby-trap coming from Simon Hurt, the mastermind behind Batman's downfall, and ReMAC exploded. Several Outsiders were wounded, and Anissa suffered from brain injuries severe enough to knock her into a coma.