Static Shock #1, #2 (2001)

[stolisomancer]

The original Static miniseries was mostly written by Robert Washington III, and ran for fifty-odd issues in the mid-nineties. I didn't take notice at the time, mostly due to the sheer number of comic book companies that sprang up and quickly folded right about then. Milestone in general blurred for me into that weird Valiant-Acclaim-Malibu-Image haze of the day.

In 2001, McDuffie and John Paul Leon put out a four-issue miniseries called Static Shock. It's in kind of a weird place; on the one hand, the title clearly indicates it's meant to capitalize on the success of the 2000 "Static Shock" TV show, but on the other, it's firmly planted in the Milestone continuity. Most of the Milestone characters show up at some point, Freida Goren is Virgil's best friend, Richie is barely in it at all, and it begins with Virgil retired at the age of 15, still in mourning for a fellow superhero he wasn't able to save.

Just the same, I picked this up in the store on a whim back then, and the art caught my eye. Dwayne McDuffie's run on Fantastic Four made me go back and look at some of his older stuff, and I remembered this miniseries from back then. The writing's surprisingly adept; despite my unfamiliarity with Milestone at the time, McDuffie manages the nearly unheard-of feat of cramming an entire superhero universe into four issues without it seeming crowded or dropping an exposition bomb.

The basic plot is simple. Most Milestone characters got their power in a "Big Bang," which involved the release of a particular type of plasma gas. The slang term for that is "bang baby," and now, a well-armed group of thugs are systematically tracking down and capturing all the bang babies they can find.





Icon's in deep space with Rocket and Hardware's broken both his legs, so Virgil's forced to come out of retirement to deal with them. Here, he slaps together the "Static Shock" outfit when the thugs jump him in a ski supply store.





One of the things that comes through very clearly in this miniseries, which has so far been sadly absent from everything I've read with Static in the current DCU, is that Static's real power isn't really the whole electricity thing. He's smart, powerful, and resourceful, sure, but his real ability is that he knows how superhero stories tend to work.

The term used for that kind of thing at the moment is "genre savvy"; Kevin Williamson brought it to horror with the Scream movies, and McDuffie's characters in superhero work all have it in spades. If you look at even his recent work, being powerful never really works that well, but being smart wins every single time.

As far as I know, this isn't collected anywhere, but I found it in a quarter bin with minimal effort.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

I recently took a look for McDuffie's stuff on InStockTrades--it's collected with Static: Rebirth of the Cool under the trade of the same name.

Question--did Static's word balloons always change when he was in costume? I was confused for a second, because Hardware had the same kind of balloon and for about half of that sequence I wasn't sure if it was Static talking or Hardware through some walky-talky.

[stolisomancer]

Oh, cool, so it has been collected. Nice.

From what I remember, he always did a "buzz" sort of thing when he was in costume, so the balloons are meant to indicate his voice sounds like there's faint radio interference.

[flidgetjerome]

One of the things I always liked best about Virgil as a character is how well-read he always came across. 'Smart' characters in comicbooks are overwhelmingly of the science-and-engineering type smarts but a reference to Christian persecution under the Roman Empire and the New Gods in one fight? Virgil's one of the rare ones who's taken ranks in 'cultured'.

Of course, he was raised by parents who thought 'Virgil Ovid' would be a great name for a kid, so that probably factors in.

[stolisomancer]

Yeah, and he's got a really quick wit. McDuffie's better at conveying it than Washington was.

Actually, the more I read of McDuffie's old comics work, the more impressed I am by little things like that. Virgil's not the smartest guy in the room, but he's often the guy who's thinking the fastest.

[sadoeuphemist]

Of course, he was raised by parents who thought 'Virgil Ovid' would be a great name for a kid, so that probably factors in.

Oh my god, was that really his full name? That's terrible.

[blackruzsa]

I need to look at the trades. It'll be a refreshing, different perspective.
I was an enormous fan of the Static show, and even remember when his costume switched from the yellow and blue to the blue, white and black.

I think that was also the time I started crushing heavily on African-Americans.

Odd that I've never heard of Blitzen.

[stolisomancer]

She's kind of obscure nowadays. McDuffie used her and a few other members of the Heroes team in his JLA run, but she was one small part of a very packed roster. She's Japanese, she's a speedster, and she's a lesbian.

[blackruzsa]

Kewl.
Still shocked I haven't heard of her.

[arctis]

it gets better yet.
her partner is a german woman with superstrength who is -gasp- not a nazi!
i'm not sure who exactly created the two of them, but he ought to get a new book. like right now!!!

[greenmask]

Donner and Blitzen? What's Donner's power?

Such nice art. And so much personality.

[stolisomancer]

Donner's super-strong, on the level of somebody like Luke Cage.

[sharky_chan]

John Paul Leon! His art is amazing *o*.

[jkcarrier]

Great fight scene! The way Virgil comes up with different applications of his powers is very much in the vein of old-school DC writers like Gardner Fox and John Broome.

I am amused that the superhero team is just called "Heroes". I picture them sitting around the table at their first meeting, going, "What, nobody thought to bring a thesaurus? Damn."

[okkult3000]

They used to be part of a morally-ambiguous team called the Shadow Cabinet. Maybe they were trying to rebrand themselves?

[icon_uk]

I think I still have my Static run, I'm pruning out a lot of the old stuff I haven't read in years or can't work out why I bought, but my Milestone stuff will stay just where it is. :)

[eamelion]

The art on this is *amazing*

[meatwhichdreams]

I know, I was flipping out the whole time I was reading it!

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I always wondered about that costume.

[bradhanon]

Virgil was, when written by McDuffie, immensely cool and a total dork, simultaneously. That is a very small target to hit so consistently.

[auntneppy]

Dear people involved in all the Spider-Man movies:

THIS is how you write a witty, quipping superhero.