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Updated on February 26, 2023
Static Shock #7
Written by: Marc Bernardin
Art by: Scott McDaniel
The next-to-last issue of “Static Shock” brings, for some reason, a change in writers. While DC should’ve done this on “Mister Terrific” as well instead of just canceling it and “Static” outright, I suppose it’s water under the bridge now.
Anyway, this issue’s a mostly stand-alone story, with Virgil taking his sisters to S.T.A.R. Labs to see if the laboratory’s scientists have any insights into both Sharons’ condition or origins. The session’s soon interrupted, however, by robots running amok through the facility, forcing Virgil to swing into action.
The story was OK, though I thought one oddity was in Virgil’s speech patterns—he curses a bit more than I’ve been used to in this issue. While yes, teenagers curse in real life, and yes, Virgil did such in the 90s Milestone run, I suppose it looked awkward as shown here (mixed with his internal monologue’s usual technospeak about his powers/S.T.A.R. Labs’ inventions). Either that, or I’m still used to his animated series self…
Speaking of Virgil’s powers, a new use for them appears here: the ability to make himself invisible to security cameras. Reminds me a bit of the Flash’s vibratory powers, which lets him become invisible (plus do just about everything else) by “vibrating his molecules at a specific rate.” Though I doubt we’ll see Static travel to Earth-2/go back in time by “generating an electromagnetic charge at a certain frequency.” That said, a team-up between Static and (apparently new-DCNU-Earth-2 based) Mister Terrific might be fun.
Next month’s issue is the last in the series. Again, I wish DC would give Static more of a chance given how popular the 2000s TV show was, but I guess it’s easier to just sell yet another Batman-related comic (or TV show, movie, etc.).
