On my way back from the Senate's hearing on Muslim civil-rights earlier this week, I picked up DC Comics' reprint of the original Static comic books. Static was part of the short-lived black comic book label Milestone, who went on to have an extraordinarily successful second-life in Saturday morning cartoons. Milestone's recent integration into the regular DC Universe probably owes a great deal to Static's second incarnation.
Reading the original comic, though, I got really nostalgic about how much potential the original Milestone idea really had, Static in particular. Virgil Ovid Hawkins, Static's civilian alter ego, is a variation on the Huxtable archetype -- his corner of fictional Dakota invokes the brownstones of Bed-Stuy, and while he's from a single-parent family and has to hold down a job, he's got the kind of name and vocabulary you get when your parents have a classical education.
His high school life, though, is the most realistic portrayal of the anxiety of going to a big city urban public school in the early '90s, when America was still expelling the violent afterbirth of the crack era. Static is preoccupied with squirming out of the friend zone with his best female friend Frieda Goren, but he also has to worry about pissing off the kind of kid who comes into school packing, and how being publicly humiliated might leave him vulnerable to being harmed in the future. In the first few issues, Static actually picks up a gun and considers murking one of his bullies. He changes his mind at the last minute, but his creeping brings him to Paris Island, where a freak accident leads to him gaining his powers over electricity.
Again, this is kind of an incredible twist on the old Peter Parker origin -- only Virgil Hawkins almost becomes the kind of criminal who would have robbed and shot Uncle Ben rather than losing him. But he still finds the right answer to the great power = great responsibility question; it's just a bumpier and more interesting road.
I didn't watch the cartoon that often, but I'm pretty sure his origin was sanitized for children (they certainly lost the Malcolm hat), and I'd be surprised if the new ongoing series is even close to as good. I'm glad Static Shock was a success, but I wish Static had been more of one.
Also it made me miss Dwayne McDuffie.
