Olympians Overcoming Obstacles - Amazingly Astonishing Athletes

Among the most famous athletes to perform in the Olympics were the pair who became superheroes. Jefferson Pierce was a gold medal winner of the decathalon in the Montreal 1976 Olympics on Earth-One. Will Everett was a gold medal winner of the track and field in the Berlin 1936 Olympics on Earth-Two. As such, both men were at the pinnacle as to human physical skill and determination, despite overwhelming obstacles in their path throughout their lives. Seeing injustice effect the communities they lived in, they were motivated to strike a balance. To that end, malevolent masterminds engineered their success, granting them superhuman powers.

Each were exposed to electrical energies from electro-devices, although the end results radically diverged for both of them. The electro-magnetic belt created by Peter Gambi, with help from his scientific supervillain sibling Paul, was developed from a blueprint conceptualized by Jefferson himself. When wearing this belt, an electro-magnetic force field enveloped Pierce's body, enhancing his strength and allowing him to discharge bolts of electrical energy as the Black Lightning.

The electro-generator created by Terry Curtis, at the behest of his scientific supervillain superior Ultra-Humanite, gave Everett the ability to absorb and mimic any substance he was exposed to as the Amazing-Man. These shape-shifting attributes mirrored those of Black Lightning's teammate Rex Mason aka Metamorpho.

The primary opponents for Black Lightning were the 100, a criminal cartel which corrupted Metropolis' Suicide Slum area, and one of their figure heads in Tobias Whale who became the hero's arch-enemy. The vilest adversaries for Amazing-Man were the Phantom Empire, led by their evil Emperor in Detroit. While Tobias used henchmen like Synoide, the Emperor used his android minion Real American.

Eventually, Jefferson would internalize the energies from his belt, and gained mastery of these. Allying himself with fellow Gothamite Batman, Black Lightning became a core member of the earth-bound Outsiders, shortly after having rejected membership with the more cosmic-oriented Justice League of America.

Some time after joining the All-Star Squadron, Amazing-Man gained the ability of magnetism while losing his matter mimicking during an incident at Project M. However, he would eventually regain his original powers and became a figure in civil rights in the years to come.