Static (DC Comics)

Hardcover released June 7, 2022 ISBN 978-1779514219

Softcover released May 30, 2023 ISBN 978-1779520128

Virgil Hawkins as the teen superhero Static, as appeared in his original costume on a cover of his first eponymous series in 1994; art by M.D. Bright.

Doused with an experimental chemical in a gang war he was caught up in, high school student Virgil Ovid Hawkins gains a variety of electromagnetic powers and becomes a costumed crusader against crime. Like most teenaged heroes in the Spider-Man mold, he is often overwhelmed by the combined responsibilities of his career as a superhero and typical adolescent problems.

A resident of the city of Dakota, Virgil first gained his electromagnetic powers at a huge showdown between the gangs of the city, when he hoped to get revenge on a gang member who had been bullying him. The authorities arrive and release tear gas with what they believe to be a harmless radioactive marker so that any gang members would not escape arrest. The cops do not know the marker had been further spiked with an experimental mutagen called Quantum Juice (Q-Juice). This event ultimately came to be known as the so-called "Big Bang". Those who were exposed came to be referred to as "bang babies" because the Big Bang was their metahuman birth.

When the agency behind the experiment tried to capture him, he fights back, discovering that he has gained the ability to generate, manipulate, and control electromagnetism. Virgil names himself "Static" and, armed with his wits and powers, became a superhero. For the most part, Virgil keeps his secret from his family, but his friend, Frieda Goren, learns his identity when he attempts to protect her from becoming a prize in a small skirmish between gangs.

Virgil is aided by friends Rick Stone and Larry Wade. He shows romantic interest in his friend and confidante Frieda Goren, but she is involved with Larry Wade. He dates a girl named Daisy Watkins, but his 'responsibilities' as Static interfere with their dates too many times and Daisy calls their relationship off. In STATIC SHOCK: Rebirth of the Cool, Virgil is involved with a girl named Madison, but Frieda ends up fighting with her over him.

Static confronts numerous bang babies and other super powered adversaries: Hotstreak, Tarmack, Holocaust, Commando X, Puff, Coil, Snakefingers, Rift, The Swarm, Dr. Kilgore, Rubberband Man, Brat-atat-tat, Prometheus, Run, Jump & Burn, Boom Box, Powerfist, LaserJet, etc. Other Bang-Babies that Static has encountered include Virus, D-Struct and Hyacinth.

Static, as appeared on the cover of Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool #1.

In the mini-series Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool it is revealed that Virgil has given up his superhero career as Static. He enjoys his time being a normal civilian again, but on occasion misses being a superhero where his friend and confidant Frieda gets him to begrudgingly admit.

Virgil eventually returns to his superhero persona after being persuaded by many of his fellow superheroes, including Blitzen and Hardware for one final battle.

After the final battle with a man named John Tower who is later revealed to have been the first and greatest superhero in the Milestone Universe, Virgil decides to fully return to his career as Static. Virgil then informs Frieda it likely won't be on a full-time basis as it was before.

Later in the comic line, Static is aided by allies: the Shadow Cabinet, the Blood Syndicate, and DCPD officer Captain Summers, who has a big interest in police cases involving Bang-Babies. Static teams up with Page, the sidekick to Kobalt, to stop a maddened Bang-Baby who had become half-fly. Static takes a moment to scold Page, who, in his opinion, seems more concerned with making excuses over their initial meet up than what was more important, stopping the danger.

Static ends up joining the unofficial group called Heroes. Multiple superheroes come together to protect the town of Iberia from a dam break. Many innocent citizens perish, but the heroes are still recognized for their efforts in saving the survivors and doing what they could. Static appears among the group, quips "You started the X-Men without me", and talks his way onto the team. Minutes later, the Shadow Cabinet, now corrupt, sends a death squad after a few of his newfound friends.

Following the death of Darkseid (as chronicled in Final Crisis), the space-time continuum was torn asunder, threatening the existence of both the Dakotaverse and the mainstream DC universe. The being known as Dharma was able to use energies that he harnessed from Rift (upon that being's defeat in Worlds Collide) to merge the two universes, creating an entirely new continuity. Only Dharma, Icon, and Superman are aware that Dakota and its inhabitants ever existed in a parallel universe.[18]

In the buildup to the Final Crisis, the cosmic tyrant Darkseid hires the Terror Titans to capture Static, along with a number of the other Bang Babies in Dakota for use in the metahuman deathmatches in the Dark Side Club. During his tenure in captivity, Virgil is subjected to the Anti-Life Equation and entered into the tournaments, where he presumably kills a number of combatants. He quickly becomes the champion, and reigns undefeated for a time, though in the end, he proves hard to control. To Clock King's displeasure, he has to be restricted to the lower-levels where he is kept locked up and heavily sedated. In an attempt to entice Rose Wilson and make a profit, Clock King releases Static and sets him against Rose in the ring. In the ring, the two have an intense fight where Static's lightning-fast attacks are able to injure Rose, even despite her precognition. After a drawn-out fight, Static emerges the winner, but briefly breaks free of control before being sedated once more. Static is eventually freed by Rose (albeit off panel) and takes his revenge against his former captors, electrocuting Lashina and her cohorts as they try to escape. He also briefly duels with fellow electricity-wielder Dreadbolt, defeating and binding him in metal along with the other Terror Titans. In his final appearance he's seen joining up with Miss Martian and Aquagirl, planning their next move.[19]

After the Crisis has ended, Static and the other Dark Side Club survivors arrive at Titans Tower to rest. Wonder Girl, the current leader of the team, offers all of the young heroes spots on the team roster, but most of them, including Terra and Zachary Zatara, decline. While exploring the Tower, Virgil strikes up a chemistry with Aquagirl, a teenaged superheroine who was briefly a member of the team during 52. During a conversation with Virgil, she claims that she enjoyed her time with the team, and wishes to join up again, a statement that influences his decision to do the same. He also playfully insults Kid Devil and Jaime Reyes after they attempt to talk to him, mocking Kid Devil over his recent loss of his abilities. He claims that he was abducted by the Terror Titans months beforehand, and realizes that his family must believe him to be dead. Believing he has no place to go for the time being, Static decides to become a Titan and live at the Tower until he can get his life together.[20]

Later, when crazed former-Titan Jericho (in the guise of Cyborg) takes control of the Tower and its systems in an attempt to kill the team, Static thwarts him by releasing a high-energy charge (an EMP), overloading the entire Tower, as well as Cyborg's body, saving the rest of the team in the process.[21]

During a trip to the piers to relax, the Titans face off with the supervillain team known as the Fearsome Five, after they kidnap Wonder Girl and hold her hostage on Alcatraz Island. In the ensuing battle, Static defeats the villain known as Rumble by tricking him into moving into a pool of water, thus amplifying the effects of his electric attacks. In the aftermath of the battle, Virgil attends Kid Devil's funeral after he is killed saving the city from a nuclear explosion.

When former Titan Raven shows up at Titans Tower injured and unconscious, Static assists Justice Society of America member Dr. Mid-Nite in helping treat her, using his abilities to sedate Raven when a demon emerges from her body.[22]

In 2009 storyline it was recently revealed that prior to his abduction, Static teamed with Justice League member Black Lightning to stop former Blood Syndicate member Holocaust, who had tried to kill the superhero while he was acting as the keynote speaker at Ernest Hemingway High's senior graduation.[23]

Virgil finally decides to see his family again after learning that a deadly virus has been infecting citizens of Dakota, including Sharon. After returning home, Virgil reunites with his family as well as Frieda, and learns that his girlfriend Madison has left him during his absence. He discovers that whoever created the virus is also selling limited supplies of the vaccine, and attacks the lab where it is being made. Upon breaking into the facility, Static is surprised and knocked out by Holocaust.[24]

After refusing to help Holocaust in his pursuits, Static is imprisoned in a specialized containment unit alongside Aquagirl, Wonder Girl, and Bombshell. Holocaust informs the heroes that he plans to kill them and weaponize their abilities to sell them, but is ambushed by the rest of the Titans before this can happen. Holocaust easily defeats them, only to be confronted by Cyborg, who has recruited former Titans Kid Flash and Superboy.[25]

The three are able to hold off Holocaust long enough for Virgil and the others to escape, and ultimately the combined might of all ten Teen Titans is enough to defeat the villain once and for all. After this, Virgil reconciles with Frieda and tells her that he has tricked his family into believing that he has taken part in a lengthy quantum physics fellowship, thus giving him an excuse to live in San Francisco with the rest of the Titans. He also makes one last attempt to win back Madison, but she silently rejects him. After this, Virgil and the other Titans decide to head home, now with Superboy and Kid Flash as members again.[26]

After a mission to another dimension to rescue Raven, Virgil returns home to find that he no longer has his powers. Furious and scared over his situation, as well as his inability to help Miss Martian awaken from her coma, Virgil attempts to leave the Tower and return to Dakota. He is stopped by Cyborg, who tells Virgil that he will be of no help to anyone back home without his abilities, and tells him that he has arranged for Virgil to be taken to Cadmus Labs to find a way to get his powers back. Superboy offers to travel to Cadmus to support his friend, but Virgil tells him that the Titans need him now. Following a farewell breakfast, Static leaves for Cadmus, with Wonder Girl assuring him that he will always have a place on the team.[27]

During the events of Flashpoint, Barry Allen accidentally alters history after a battle with Professor Zoom. In the newly created reality, Static is shown back in-costume with his powers restored.[28]

Static's 2011 redesign and cover of his second key solo series (Static Shock #1), art by Scott McDaniel.

Following the reality-warping events of the 2011 Flashpoint storyline, Virgil and his family leave Dakota for New York after an unspecified tragic incident that, among other things, left his sister, Sharon, as two separate, identical entities. The vigilante Hardware gives Virgil a new costume and modified flying disk (made-up of 6 smaller, hexagonal-shaped-disks which can re-arrange formation), which enables the two to remain in contact despite living in different cities. Hardware also gives him an internship at S.T.A.R. Labs as an after school job; he has Virgil posing as a prodigy kid that he (in his civilian identity, Curtis Metcalf) had recruited from the Juvenile Court System, on a commuted sentence, as his cover-story. During his first major battle, Static defeats the villain, Sunspot, and earns the attention of a criminal syndicate known as the Slate Gang.

Static Shock was cancelled as of issue #8 as part of DC's "Second Wave" of The New 52 titles and replaced by an alternative title.[29]

In Teen Titans, Virgil designed the cape and wing apparatus of Red Robin's new costume while at S.T.A.R.[30]

Later, while recuperating at S.T.A.R. Labs from a previous battle, the Titans seek Virgil's help in curing Kid Flash, whose cells Virgil discovers are rapidly deteriorating as a result of an alteration of his powers. Virgil provides Kid Flash with a new costume (based on a personal sketch for a variant of the Flash's costume) containing materials that realign his molecules while stabilizing his powers, saving Kid Flash in the process.[30]

Milestone Returns created a new version of Static, combining ideas from previous Static comics and the Static Shock TV series. For example, Frieda Goren, Daisy Watkins, and Richie Foley all appear as friends of Virgil's. Richie is openly gay in the series, as the character he was based on, Rick Stone, was also gay and Richie's sexual orientation was never discussed in the TV series.

Starting in Milestone Returns Issue #0, which takes place on Earth-93 (also known as Earth-M), 16-year-old Virgil Hawkins goes to a Black Lives Matter protest in the city of Dakota with his friends Frieda and Daisy, where the police use unstable, untested tear gas created by Alva Industries, inadvertently causing the "Big Bang" and granting several people metahuman powers. Curtis Metcalf, a long-time employee of Alva Industries, anticipates Alva will blame him for the incident and goes into hiding. Virgil is found unconscious after the Big Bang and wakes up in the hospital, being watched by his parents and sister. While he is physically unharmed, he stays home from school, getting used to controlling his new powers.

When he returns to school two weeks later, he sees the school bully Francis Stone, now calling himself "Hotstreak", harassing other students. Virgil uses his powers in front of other students to stop Hot-Streak, stopping well before an officer comes to intervene. When the officer comes to see what is going on, Hot-Streak says he slipped. Elsewhere in Dakota, a classmate of Virgil's, Darius, livestreams about the people who have transformed, being called Bang-Babies by the media. Meanwhile, a man named Holocaust starts building an army of metahumans.

In Static: Season One, the day after Virgil's fight with Hot-Streak, several students save for him and Virgil's friends believe someone else fought the bully. Seeking revenge, Hot-Streak attacks Virgil at his home, lighting it on fire. Virgil successfully keeps the damage to a minimum and defeats Hot-Streak once more, but his family develop concerns over his powers while he fears having to fight Hot-Streak again. Virgil contacts Metcalf, having met him previously during an "Inventors of Tomorrow" event, during which the latter informs him of a storage locker he owns. As Virgil explores the locker, the police arrive, believing him to be Metcalf. He dons a mask and suit, grabs as many items as he can carry, and escapes the police. Arriving home, Virgil modifies the suit.

After being captured by government armed forces and joining them in exchange for immunity, Hot-Streak helps them kidnap several Bang Babies. Virgil attempts to stop them, but is stopped by Darius. Hot-Streak and Agent Jones attempt to take Virgil from his home, but his parents bar the pair from entering. With the neighborhood watching, Hot-Streak and Jones are forced to leave empty-handed. As Virgil resolves to rescue the captured Bang Babies, Sharon provides him with glucose tablets so he can re-energize and an emergency line to her. With help from Darius, Frieda, and Ritchie, Virgil finds the facility containing the Bang Babies and takes the name Static.

Upon entering the facility, Virgil fights Hot-Streak, but is able to defend himself and restrain the latter. After Darius locates the Bang Babies, Virgil frees them, but a separate group of Bang Babies hired by the government attempt to stop the breakout. They attack Static, but he defeats them, convincing them that they need to work together. Sending forces to stop him, Jones uses an intercom to warn Virgil to surrender, but Richie discovers the location of Jones' servers, allowing Virgil to overload them while the others escape.

Days later, the Hawkins family reluctantly approve of Virgil becoming a superhero, with Sharon providing him with an updated suit. As the media attempt to spin a story about the Bang Babies attacking the government, Virgil hijacks the signals and tells the truth of what happened.

Static's primary weaknesses are insulators; wood, cloth, rubber, glass, fibreglass, plastics and ceramics, etc., as his powers have little or no effect on them, as shown in his battle with Rubberband-Man. Wood seems to be the one he has the most difficulty with, as it cannot be electromagnetically manipulated, levitated or damaged (though Static can use his powers to ignite wood and cloth, and to melt glass and plastic, etc.). This can, however, be gotten-around if objects (metals, etc.) that he can manipulate are available (i.e. while wood-itself doesn't conduct electricity, if a piece of wood has a metal nail embedded in it, he can levitate it, via the metal nail), and certain materials, while they may not, themselves, be conductors of electricity and electromagnetism, are subjectable to static electricity (i.e. plastics). Also, in They're Playing My Song (season 1 of the Static Shock animated series), Static demonstrates that "a big-enough charge can overload any insulator", although doing-so was very draining (especially while still so-new to his powers).

As mentioned above, his electromagnetic powers are tied into his own bioelectric energy levels; whenever Static has used his powers to a high degree, or experience any other such large energy-drain, he will also experience a sudden, acute sense of fatigue and must re-charge from a pre-existing source of electricity to supplement his depleted energy levels if he cannot have the time to restore them through rest.

Also as mentioned above, Static's powers centre around electromagnetism, making him part of, both, the Earth's and the Sun's respective electromagnetic fields; like Superman, Static's powers can be interfered-with by over-active solar activity, as seen in Sunspots (episode 6, season 2).

In the animated series, Static has a vulnerability to water, if he's powered-up at the time (when his powers are in active use to a high-enough degree, as-opposed to small-scale use), which (as water is a conductor of electricity, if minerals are dissolved in it), if he gets taken and drenched by surprise, shorts out his powers until he can dry off and replenish them. However, he can fly in the rain without short-circuiting, most-likely because it's pure water, lacking any/enough dissolved conductive minerals within it. This weakness only applies in the animated series, as Static has never shown a weakness to water in the comics and has even used it to his advantage. In the animated series, Virgil did use the relationship between his powers and water a few times for advantages, like against the water Bang Baby, Aqua-Maria, as he blasted the wet floor full of electricity (electrolysis of water), knocking a few of his enemies out. He has also hit the ocean to stop boats.

Static can be shocked by electricity, if he's taken by surprise, before he's prepared to absorb said-electrical attack; this was seen in The New Kid (season 1), and Hard as Nails and She-Bang (season 3). Likewise with electrical charges with alternated electrical frequencies before he's prepared.

Static's unique electromagnetic energy-signature can be used against him as a means of tracking him, as shown in The New Kid, in season 1 of the animated series, where antagonists, Specs and Trapper, use a robotic drone, dubbed "The Alva Machine", outfitted with an electronic eye capable of tracking Static by his electromagnetic power's unique energy-signature. Also, Static can be identified by others with powers like his, as Morris Grant (a.k.a. Soul-Power), a retired superhero with electrical powers of his-own, had known upon first meeting him that Virgil Hawkins was Static (but hadn't said anything until his old arch-nemesis, Professor Menace, resurfaced after an absence of decades).

Technology, specifically designed to absorb and fire-back direct electrical attacks, can also pose a problem to Static, if he attacks them directly (Blast From The Past, season 3); however, he can get-around this with indirect-attacks, i.e. taking-out the ground beneath them, using physical objects to hit them and restrain them.

Static's powers (or, at-least, when they're in active-use) react with the air (ionising oxygen molecules) in such a way as to make him detectable to individuals with sensitive-enough senses of smell, such as Ferret, as-seen-in The Big Leagues (season 2).

In the animated series, Static's own cockiness, on-occasion, did directly result in him getting hit by attacks that he would have, otherwise, dodged if he'd been paying proper attention.

Static appears as a major character in the 2010 limited series Milestone Forever, a project designed to detail the final fates of the Milestone launch characters prior to being assimilated into DC's continuity. In Static's tale, Virgil is attending his ten year high school reunion, and has given up his life of crime-fighting and is now pursuing a career in medicine. Rick (now going by his television moniker of "Richie") is also now working as a director in Los Angeles, and is open about his homosexuality. Without warning, Hotstreak (recently released from prison and now calling himself Firewheel), attacks the reunion, exclaiming that he now realizes that Static must have been one of his old classmates. Virgil briefly takes up the Static mantle again for one last fight with his old nemesis, and eventually defeats him. During this time, it is also revealed that Sharon is now married and pregnant, and that Robert has died. Rocket is implied to have taken over as the new Icon.[34]

The story then skips ahead another ten years to show that Virgil is now married to Frieda and has two children, Larry and Sadie (both of whom have inherited his electrical abilities), and now works as a doctor. The story ends with the couple reflecting on their life, and Virgil playfully asking Frieda if she wants him to return to his role as Static. She simply smiles and tells him "absolutely not" and the two passionately kiss.[35]

• Static appears in series set in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), voiced by Phil LaMarr:
  • Static first appears as the titular protagonist of Static Shock. This version is a fourteen-year-old honors student at Dakota Union High School who lives with his widowed father and social worker, Robert Hawkins, and his sister Sharon Hawkins, a university student and counselor at the Freeman Community Center. Additionally, Virgil's mother, paramedic Jean Hawkins, was killed five years prior to the series during the Dakota Riots. Similar to the comics, Virgil gains his powers while reluctantly taking part in a gang war and getting caught in an explosion caused by mutagenic gas called "Quantum Vapor" in an event that would later be dubbed the "Big Bang" by the media. Everyone exposed to the gas gained powers and became known as "Bang Babies", with Virgil gaining electromagnetic powers and going on to become Static to battle villainous Bang Babies.
  • An adult Static appears in the Static Shock episode "Future Shock" and the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time, Warped". As of the future setting of preceding DCAU series Batman Beyond, he has joined and become an active member of the Justice League.
• Static appears in Young Justice, voiced by Bryton James. This version is one of several teens who were abducted and experimented on by the Reach, through which he acquired his powers after they activated his latent meta-gene. After being rescued by the Team, he and three other abductees are transferred to S.T.A.R. Labs' custody, but they escape and are later recruited by Lex Luthor to help the Light combat the Reach until Arsenal tells them the truth about Luthor. After working with Black Lightning to thwart the Reach's invasion of Earth, Static studies under his tutelage and joins the Team. Two years later, during Young Justice: Outsiders, Static has honed his powers further with Black Lightning's help before going on to join the Outsiders.
• A live-action Static Shock program by Warner Bros. from Reginald Hudlin was to be developed as part of the company's new Blue Ribbon Content digital division, and were eyeing Jaden Smith for the title role.[36][37][38] Actor Tyler James Williams said in an interview that Jaden Smith was cast as Static, but this was not confirmed by Blue Ribbon Content or Warner Bros.[39]

• Virgil Hawkins makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in Justice League: War. This version's appearance is similar to his Young Justice counterpart.
• When asked if the character could have a feature film set in the DC Animated Universe as part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies, producer James Tucker responded that there was interest in Static on the studio.[40] There have been no further discussions for such a project.
• At DC FanDome held in August 2020, a live-action Static Shock film was revealed to be in development. The project will be a collaboration between DC Films, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Milestone Media.[41] By October of the same year, Michael B. Jordan joined the production team as co-producer alongside Reginald Hudlin. Jordan's company, Outlier Society, will serve as one of the production studios and Randy McKinnon was picked to write the film in March 2021.[42][43]
• An animated film about Static and other Milestone heroes is currently in development at Warner Animation Group.[44]

Cover of cancelled Static Shock Game Boy Advance video game.

• In May 2003, Midway Games announced the production of a platformer Static Shock video game for the Game Boy Advance.[45][46] While the game was displayed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo,[46] it was later cancelled.[47]
• Static appears in DC Universe Online as part of the Lightning Strikes DLC. This version is a member of the Teen Titans.[48][49]
• Static appears as a downloadable playable character in the mobile version of Injustice: Gods Among Us.
• Static was set to appear as a playable character in Injustice 2, but was cut from the game.[50]

In 2022, DC Comics, Milestone Media, and Warner Bros. Discovery partnered with Ally Financial and NASCAR to debut a sponsorship and new Static-based paint scheme for Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Hendrick Motorsports, in support of DC's The Milestone Initiative program.[51][52]