Hero Profile: Static

He'll put a shock to your system.

Before we get into the meat of this one, I feel like I should mention the publication history of Static and the Dakota-verse, as it was called. Static was originally created as part of Milestone Comics, a small independent media company that published through DC. Basically, DC slapped their logo on the comics and distributed them, but Milestone’s characters weren’t directly affiliated with the main DC universe. Milestone was founded by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. Milestone was there attempt at trying to get greater representation of minority characters in comics. And, fun fact, Virgil Hawkins was named after the real-life Virgil Hawkins, a black attorney form Florida whom was initially denied entry into law school due to his race in 1949, and spent his entire career fighting to fix this particular injustice. While their goals were admirable and they put on a valiant effort, the company itself didn’t last long, only being in operation from 1993-1997. While the comics division of Milestone shut down, the company itself continued. They mostly just licensed out their characters, the crown jewel of which being the Static Shock TV adaptation that proved so successful that DC revived Static and folded him into the main DC Universe. Okay, that’s a pretty long preamble. Now that we’ve gotten the publication info out of the way, let’s get to it, shall we?

Bet you can't think of a cooler use of a trash can lid than flying
on it.

For the first decade and a half of his life, Virgil’s life was relatively normal. He lived with his parents, Robert and Jean, and his older sister Sharon, in Dakota City. I don’t believe we’re told exactly were Dakota is, beyond somewhere in the Midwest. It’s probably in Michigan. Anyway, he had a reasonably normal life for a smart kid in my neck of the woods. Meaning, he had a few close friends, engaged in “nerd” activities like comics, video games and sci-fi, and was punished for these interests by meat heads. Ah, high school, I don’t miss you at all. Things took a turn when bully Martin Scaponi kicked his ass one too many times. His friend Larry stepped in to protect Virgil, and once the bully was gone, slipped Virgil a gun and encouraged him to “take care of things” with Martin during a gang war that was set to go down that night. Virgil did set out to kill Martin, but realized at the last moment that he couldn’t kill someone in cold blood. He threw the gun away, just in time to be hit with a new kind of tear gas that the police were trying out. The gas had a radiation marker build into it, the hope being that the police could track individuals exposed to the radiation several hours or days after the fact if said hoodlum escaped the initial arrest. Unfortunately for the police, the gas has other effects. Namely, it killed all the standard humans exposed to it, and also triggered mutations in any dormant metahumans, giving them superhuman powers. It also triggered a minor explosion that got the event dubbed the Big Bang. Virgil received a plethora of electromagnetic powers, and was able to escape custody using what would become his favorite mode of transportation, flying on a trash can lid. Inspired by the comics he loves, Virgil decided to create a superhero persona, Static.

Start small, but dream big.

Like many a first-time hero before him, Virgil was initially stoked at being a superhero. He’d make something of a spectacle out of catching petty criminals, often taunting them and playing things up for the crowd. So, he was basically Spider-Man. Things became significantly harder when he faced off against his first real metahuman threat. I refuse to refer to them as Bang Babies, the term that Milestone Comics used. This first meta was none other than that asshole Martin, whom received pyrokinetic abilities and dubbed himself Hotstreak. The two elementalists faced off, with Static coming out the loser as he was forced to also protect his friend (and secret crush) Frieda from the villain. Frieda is able to get an injured Static away, unmasked him and was shocked (not apologizing) to find he was Virgil all along. She smuggled the young hero back to her home and nursed him back to health. Once recovered, a now somewhat “gun shy” Virgil battled Hotstreak again, but got the upper hand this time. After seeing Hotstreak arrested, he talks things over with Frieda, and she becomes his only confidant to the issues of hero work.

Things only grew more hectic in Virgil’s life as his superhero career began encroaching more and more into his day to day life. Again, think Spider-Man, while he loves his powers and helping people, being a hero eats into one’s personal life, job, and study time pretty significantly. Even with Frieda doing her best to run interference whenever Virgil had to run so Static could fly in to save the day, he was getting swamped. Things didn’t get much easier after his friend Rick came out, as Virgil had to both deal with his own issues with homosexuality and protect Rick from Hotstreak’s less than progressive views on the subject. You know a villain is a real asshole when he takes time out of his day to try and kill a gay kid from his high school. Just sayin’. There were a few good points, though, as while his metahuman enemies did grow more and more numerous, so did his hero contacts. These include guys like Icon and his sidekick Rocket, Hardware, The hero team Shadow Cabinet, and the Blood Syndicate. Milestone gets an A for their naming choices. He even had a cross dimensional team up with Superman, Superboy, and Steel (basically a Superman themed Iron Man) against a powerful being named Rift. The four heroes defeat the villain, and Static gets a little melancholy that he won’t work with the “fictional” heroes again. DC’s used this idea before, that some of their separate universes are part of the fiction of another universe. Like how Barry Allen got his idea to be the Flash from a Flash Comic, even though Jay Garrick’s version of the Flash is just as real as he is.

Who do you think get's asked if they're related more,
Static and Black Lightning,
or Spider-Man and Spider-Woman?

One of the biggest hits to Static’s moral was a mission he took up with a fellow hero, and his sort of girlfriend at the time, Dusk. They performed a drug bust with the cops, only for Static to discover that one of the dealers was his friend Larry. Static lets him go, much to Dusk’s annoyance. They try to catch him a day later, only to see Larry get shot and killed by his fellow dealers. Dusk was also shot, but Static is able to save her. Before leaving, in a blind rage Static goes HAM on every dealer or drug pusher he could find in the area. Static attempts to hang up his coat, but Dusk convinces him that Dakota needs him too much to give up. That’s right before she leaves town due to a few of her own issues.

Larry’s death affects Virgil and Static for a long time, but he does eventually realize that Frieda is taking it even harder. She and Larry had been dating for some time, and his untimely death seems to cause her to become Anorexic. Virgil gets his own issues together enough to get their mutual friends together to get Frieda some help. Virgil does decide to drop the Static life all together after seeing Dusk die on the job a short time later. While focusing on being just Virgil for a while, he and Frieda start getting “close” but neither seems to want to try moving their relationship into anything more than friendly. I’m fairly certain that were I a friend of theirs, I’d be constantly fighting the instinct to shout “Just kiss, you idiots!” Virgil ultimately takes up the Static mantel again when he’s informed that a mysterious villain is kidnapping Metahumans all around Dakota. He ultimately learns the kidnapper is John Tower, a Superman-eque hero that had been one of Virgil’s personal heroes. He’d recently developed the power to steal abilities from others, specifically the Metahumans created in the Big Bang. He was stealing the powers to make him stronger and stay on top as a hero. So, he’s doing a terrible thing for at least a somewhat selfless reason. Static is able to defeat the much more powerful Tower by freeing the other metas and distracting Tower long enough for their powers to recover. Tower is taken into custody and Virgil decides to be Static again, but only part time. Or so he tells Frieda.

A short time later, the Dakota-verse and the main DC Universe were fused together by a hero named Dharma whom used some of the power gained from that Rift fellow I mentioned earlier. A tear in the space-time continuum had occurred by the death of Darksied, hence why things needed patching. Dharma blurred realities so perfectly that only he, Superman, and Icon are aware that Static and his fellow heroes and citizens of Dakota are from another dimension. Since then, Static has done his best to integrate himself into the DC Universe, becoming a part of the Teen Titans, training under experienced electrical hero Black Lightning, and doing his best to befriend every hero he works with to one degree or another.  

Static is getting some good ol' fashion Soul Power!

Virgil Hawkins is a Metahuman who’s abilities manifested after exposure to experimental radioactive tear gas. The gas unlocked electromagnetic powers in Virgil, allowing him to shoot bolts of lightning, and manipulate magnetism. His most common use of his magnetic abilities is to use electromagnetism to levitate the metal disks he likes to fly on. He can also sense electromagnetic energy, allowing him to detect where electronics are, sense and tap into radio signals. While he generates electricity on his own, he can absorb it as well to recharge himself. He can also somehow use his electrical powers to rapidly heal himself. Because why not? Were he a X-Men, I think his powers would earn him the rank of Omega Level Mutant. He’s also immensely intelligent and regularly upgrades his own tech.

Virgil has been used outside of the comics a few times. Heck, it was his spectacular animated show Static Shock that helped Static get integrated into the greater DC universe.

They say don't meet your heroes, but I think Virgil's fine with
this particular group.

He’s obviously the central character of Static Shock, voiced by voice acting heavyweight Phil Lamarr. Look up his filmography, I guarantee you know that voice even if you don’t recognize the name. The show made a fair number of alterations to Static in order to make him more appealing to a larger audience, and make TV execs more comfortable. One of the biggest differences that the show created was with Virgil’s support cast. For one, they made Richie Fowley (based on Rick Stone) into Virgil’s best friend, Larry is reduced to basically a cameo, and to also have Richie take Frieda’s place as his confidant. I suppose back in 2000 we just weren’t ready for the platonic-opposite-gender-best-friends-that-might-eventually-hook-up dynamic. The fact that it would be an interracial romance probably didn’t help, either. To be clear, I’m all for these kinds of relationships getting greater representation, just pointing out TV execs at the time and even now to an extent seem somewhat hesitant to show a white person with a non-white person. Frieda is in the show, but has a severely reduced role. Richie also develops most of Virgil’s gear, and later takes on a hero identity of his own, codenamed Gear. They also make it so that Virgil’s mother, an EMT in this continuity, had died years before in a gang war crossfire. This was probably to make Virgil even more vehemently detest guns. Virgil mostly battles villains of the week, but his villains and story plots get more complex as the series goes on. And the villains he faces are mostly original villains for the show, with even comic-based characters like Hotstreak get massively reworked to fit the show. A personal favorite episode of mine is where Virgil worked with a retired 60s era hero with electrical powers, Morris Grant aka Soul Power! The elderly hero gives Virgil some tips on hero work, despite Virgil not being 100% onboard with Soul Power’s style. They along with Soul Power’s former sidekick Sparky work to defeat the older heroes enemy Professor Menace. He starts fighting along with other DC heroes as the show goes on. A personal highlight for him being working with Green Lantern John Stewart (also voiced by Lamarr) and Anansi the Spider, a Ghanaian superhero.

He also has a few crossovers with prominent DC heroes in later seasons, including Superman “Toys in the Hood” to battle his enemy Toyman; the modern and future Batman in “Future Shock” where a time displaced Static has to work with Batman’s successor Terry McGinnis to save a major hero… old Static; and helps John Stewart clear his name in “Fallen Hero” where the GL is being framed for a number of crimes committed by Sinestro. Not bad for a kid from Dakota.

The future is probably in good hands.

The same version of Static appears in an episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled “The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time, Warped.” A time traveling adventure sends Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are sent time hopping chasing a villain named Chronos. They arrive in future Gotham and team up with Terry McGinnis; the son of Green Lantern and Hawk Girl, Warhawk; and an older Static. He’s supposedly 65, but advanced medical tech has made that the new 30. He works with the older generation of heroes to stop Chronos and restore the timeline.  

He also appeared in Young Justice season 2, potrayed by Bryton James. In this version, he’s one of several teens and runaways kidnapped by the villainous Reach aliens. The Reach were experimenting on humans in an attempt to understand and weaponize the Metagene in humans. While shown earlier, his first speaking role Is in “Cornered” where he speaks with JL psychiatrist Black Canary about the experiments performed on him. He’s continually tested, until he and several of his fellow former test subject’s runaway in “Runaways.” The group is hoping to make it to Dakota and lay low with Virgil’s sister Sharon, whom he was intending to visit when he was nabbed. Their escape plan is interrupted by Blue Beatle, and an attack by Red Volcano, an evil android. The runaways might have come back with Beatle, but Blue Beatle, whom is being controlled by the Reach at the time, proved too violent for them to trust. They later meet Lex Luthor who convinces them to travel to the War World in “The Hunt” to save the team from the Reach and Mongul, using a Father Box to transport them. He helps the League stop the Reach’s end of the world contingency plan to destroy the earth alongside Black Lightning, whom offers to mentor him if the kid ever needs it. Virgil takes him up on the offer and in the aftermath of the fight happily announces he’s going by Static from now on.

He’s a main cast member in the third season, Outsiders. I haven’t sat down to watch it just yet, so don’t want anything spoiled for me, beyond knowing that he’s in it.

He hasn’t had an appearance in any of the live action or animated DC films, but there’s been rumors buzzing around that he’ll at least appear in the latter at some point. He’s popular enough where it’s a possibility, but not so popular that it’s a sure thing, it seems.

So, I mostly know Static from Static Shock. The show was a favorite of mine growing up, as it was a superhero show, but also did deal with things like social justice, racism, and other more complex plots. Heck, in the first ten episodes they have a plot centered around Virgil finding out Richie’s father is a racist, and how that affects their friendship. They also deal with Virgil’s grief over his mother’s death, make several stories that could be seen as allegories for drug use, and there’s this long running plot of Static’s enemy Rubber-band Man trying to go straight and all of the issues that entails. It was a very cool show. But, having read some of his comic exploits makes me want to track down some of the Milestone comics or the more modern DC Static. He’s got a fair amount of Spider-Man in him, which is good. He’s got the confliction between what he wants as a person and what he needs to do as a hero, inventive intellect, and goofball personality that I like. But he has a lot of his own quirks that make him more than just an attempt at cashing in on the teen superhero craze. Plus, electrical powers are #1 on my list of powers that I’d give myself, so he was pretty much destined to be a favorite of mine. So yeah, I love this kid. I think I’ve gushed enough for this one, have a good night. 

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