Written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum
Illustrated by Scott McDaniel, Jonathan Glapion, and LeBeau UnderwoodThe brilliant, slightly awkward high school student Virgil Hawkins transforms into the cocky electromagnetic hero Static!
A mysterious tragedy forces the Hawkins family to relocate from Dakota to New York City! Virgil embarks upon new adventures in a new high school and a new internship at S.T.A.R. Labs!
As Static, he dons a new uniform and establishes a new secret headquarters! But is he ready to take on the new villains who lurk in New York City’s underworld
In the DCnU, one of the most anticipated books was surprisingly Static Shock. Born of a middling title nearly 20 years ago and going on to star in a monstrously successful cartoon in the middle of the last decade, Static had been seen very little since he was taken off Teen Titans last year. We all wondered where he would end up. Well, after the reboot, he found a new place thanks to DC’s attempt to bring more diversity into comics.
Now click for the review below.
I’ve been a fan of Static since I was a kid. I was happy to see him come back, but while I enjoy the concept of the book, some of it left a bit to be desired. There were elements that felt like they were lifted directly from the Dan Slott Amazing Spider-Man run, and it’s especially disappointing because they had almost half of a year to make any changes that would make it feel less like it had been read before from the other guys. Even beyond that, the whole book has a “been there, done that” kind of feel to it; the whole set-up of the book doesn’t really lead anyone to WANT to pick it up.
The book also stinks of 90’s creativity, with a character that looks like a mix of some rejected Savage Dragon villain and your standard Rob Liefeld concept. (His name is Virule! Like Viral, but ViRULE! Get it? It’s clever, right? Ugh.) The plot is so generic that even though I consider myself a fan of the character, the “OH CRAP!” moment left me wanting. At the end of a so-so book, I just ended up thinking “…so?” And when you get that kind of reaction, you know SOMETHING is wrong. Even the implications are somewhat ho-hum, because again, it feels like something we’ve SEEN before, especially from a character who’s gone from the DCAU to the DCU.
But to their credit, McDaniel and Rozum managed to keep the spirit of the characters, as interactions like at the breakfast table were strongly reminiscent of the previous iterations of the characters. There is even a clear link to the cartoon with a nod to his old costume in the background. Probably best of all, more supporting characters from Dakota showed up than just family, which means that other characters might show up, like Virgil’s best friend Ritchie, for instance. But sometimes simple and accurate characterization isn’t enough to make a book worth reading.
Much like the writing, the art suffers from an unfair amount of uneven quality. There are times where McDaniel’s art looks about as good as Amanda Conner, an artist whom I consider one of the best artists in the business (if not the absolute best). But then in other places, sometimes even on the same page with some of the better art, it goes down the drain and looks messy, more like a sloppy John Romita, Jr. book (and if you’ve read my thoughts about his work lately, that’s not a good thing). While McDaniel has definitely improved (I mean, no longer actively avoiding his work is an improvement, right?), it’s still not as good as it should be, especially for a title that was launched partially as an attempt to bring in fans of the popular cartoon.
In the end, Static Shock is a well-meaning book about a popular character that might have been fun, but fails to tread any new ground, and the chances it thinks it’s making aren’t really chances at all. This is a book that relishes its mediocrity. I’m not saying a book starring a teen superhero has to read like The Iliad, but something that helps differentiate it from — well, anything really, would have made this book more than a mere browse.
Final Verdict: 5.0 – Browse
