In honor of black history month, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about one of my favorite childhood superhero cartoons, Static Shock. Aside from watching Batman the animated series, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon and Jackie Chan Adventures on Kids WB, Static Shock was different. It was your typical villain of the week cartoon with some corny jokes, that are somehow funnier as an adult than as a kid, combined with its real political and social themes and commentary that weren’t common in most cartoons of its time. Right off the bat, you can tell that it deviates from how DC usually tells their superhero stories. And that’s because Static was not created by DC comics. This amazingly funny, diverse and well-written character is now one of the most obscured within the DC Universe and it all started in 1993.

Static was created in the Milestone Media, an independent company that created comics, among other things, that were published and distributed by DC. Founded in 1993 by a group of African-American artists and writers, Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle, Milestone Media’s goal was to address the severely underrepresented minorities in American comics. Virgil Hawkins, also known as Static, being one of it’s most popular and successful characters paved its way through the 1990s and early 2000’s media. Sadly, this did not last long and Milestone Media shut down its comics division in 1997 due to low sales to many of its ongoing comics. Instead, it started working on the Animated Series, Static Shock.

Fun Fact: There is a framed copy of Static #1 on Will and Carlton’s wall in the pool house in the TV show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Bringing a Shock to your System

TV shows Beginings

Static Shock ran 4 seasons with 52 episodes on the Kids WB network from September 23, 2000 – May 22, 2004. Although Static Shock did not feature the very first African-American superhero on television, it was affirmed to be the first to have a diverse roster of characters and cast members alike. In the animated series of Static Shock, the main character, Virgil Hawkins, is your average witty and wise-cracking teenager till he gets bullied by some gang members at his school to join in on a gang war against his school bully. During this fight, the police arrive and open fire at the gangs, which is more than problematic from a modern standpoint. This makes some unstable toxic chemicals explode and release gas that mutated and transformed everyone enveloped by it, gangsters and police alike. This event is what gave Virgil his powers over the electromagnetic and anything involved with electricity. Virgil confides in his best friend Richie Follie about his powers and convinces Virgil to become a superhero. Many of the gangsters gained superpowers too, thus giving Static a whole roster of villains to fight throughout the series. The direction and story of the show stayed fairly close to its source material overall but was watered down to be more palatable for a younger audience, which the comics were not initially aimed at. This may come to many as a disappointment, but the main themes of the series remain consistent and did not shy away from complicated social issues and topics such as bullying, gang activity, gun violence, and racism. And it wasn’t secretive about it either. All of this is right in your face from the first episode onward. Though the show has its serious moments, the humor and sincerity of the writing balances out these moments but also gives some relief. The topics in the show are still relevant in today’s social environment and are presented in a way that kids and adults can understand and discuss. That’s something not many kids television series can say they’ve accomplished.

Fun Fact: Richard Follie (renamed from Rich Stone in the comics) was initially gay in the Milestone Comics Static Shock comic (There is a reference to this in the animated series with only one of his ears being pierced). Richie was not initially Virgils best friend either, that was Freida who became a side character and love interest in the series.

Presentation within Representation

Though the themes may have aged better, the music did not. Every character has a kind of musical theme or instrument that combined to tell the story of the characters involved in any specific scene. The music is mostly a mix of hip-hop and early electronic dance music but with uniquely rapid beats. The music isn’t bad but it’s kinda dated and can sometimes throw off the mood of a scene. The sound was handled relatively well but would sometimes compete with the music for dominance.

Static Shock, though is has serious source material, is still a superhero show aimed at kids and thus had many a corny issue. Virgil is a jokester and cracks a joke at least 5 times an episode where one of 3 things happens, you either laugh, ignore or become annoyed. His cockiness can often time be amusing but also a source of aggravation because he gets himself into more trouble that way. Even in the face of life-threatening danger, he takes a moment to make a joke so, in that way, he’s similar to Spiderman but with a kind of confidence that Spiderman lacks. The villains who got hit with the toxic gases along with Virgil are actual monster-like and grotesque creatures that usually have very flawed and hilariously dumb ideas on how to take over the city or whatever their evil plot may be. And even those that have some legitimate scary powers usually just have a bad plan for their evil ploy. But that doesn’t mean that these schemes make watching them any less enjoyable (Usually). One thing the comic had on this was how to make sense of the world of Static Shock by using more real-world logic and other realistic and relatable events. There weren’t many reoccurring villains that didn’t get beat by static very easily but there were many touching and relatable story arches involving a good number of villains, including rubberband man and Ebon. The first 2 seasons went by a villain of the week, after school cartoon show while the later seasons had a lot of actions that many of the fan-base loved. As well as many cross overs with the TV show Justice League Unlimited and The Batman new animated series.

After the animated series ended, DC comics merged the Milestone Universe into the DC Universe in an event called the death of Darkseid (Final Crisis). This made it where DC heroes and Milestone heroes could interact within the same universe and continue to be featured in mild roles in comics, cartoons video games and films.

Ultimately, since the cancelation of Static Shock the animated series, Static has been rarely used aside from some one-shot events where he is cameoed. Statics most recent appearance was in an episode of Young Justice, a DC animated series aimed at an older kid/young teenaged audience, giving Static a better opportunity to be fully realized as the badass and complicated character he is.

A Hopeful Future

Static Shock was a typical after-school superhero cartoon that later developed into a greater expansive universe but has yet to be utilized. As we see little bits of this character, the fanbase starts to demand to see him more, but with Statics origins, it’s no wonder he and his fellow Milestone heroes and villains are put to the wayside for other more established and prominent DC superheroes. Hopefully well see more of Static Shock in the future.

What are you’re thoughts? Would you like to see Static depicted on another TV show or other form of media?

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yboy_j9w4UA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milestone_Media

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_Shock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_(DC_Comics)