A.S.A.

The A.S.A. is a villainous organization in the 2018 CW series Black Lightning.

The A.S.A. is a secretive government organization that has illegally experimented on the citizens of Freeland for over thirty years. This has resulted in the creation of several meta-humans, including the hero Black Lightning.

History
For over thirty years, the A.S.A. has conducted a secret experiment on the people of Freeland. They provided the people of Freeland with a vaccine that was supposed to keep them docile but as a side-effect, it also turned some of them into meta-humans. To deal with these problems, the A.S.A. sent their operative Peter Esposito to Freeland to find and kill the meta-humans.

However, when Esposito found out that the A.S.A. was killing children in Freeland, he leaked evidence of the organisation to journalist Alvin Pierce. Pierce's investigation into the subject - which presumably linked the A.S.A. to city councillor Tobias Whale - ended with Pierce being murdered by Whale. This, in turn, caused Pierce's son - one of the meta-humans created by the A.S.A. - to become the superhero Black Lightning.

About three decades later, A.S.A. has evolved their vaccine into the drug Green Light which they are distributing through the criminal cartel of Lady Eve, which also entails the 100 Gang led by Tobias Whale. However, after differences between Eve and Whale lead to Eve's murder, Black Lightning - who has returned to the city as well - is blamed for the murder. This causes the A.S.A.'s leader, Martin Proctor, to realize that Black Lightning is a far bigger problem that initially expected. As a result, he calls A.S.A. operatives into the city to kill Black Lightning on sight. He also puts a bounty on the superhero, so the criminal underworld of Freeland will hunt him down as well.