Nice series in the Dakotaverse. Good refreshing new take on comics. Recommended

Like a more politically aware Spider-Man, Static is a high school student dealing with all the trapping of teenage life while navigating the world with super powers.

This was apparently the inspiration for the Static Shock cartoon show, which I've never seen. Static began life at Milestone Comics, and eventually became a DC character.Virgil Hawkins, aka "Static," is a fifteen-year-old kid with typical fifteen-year-old kid problems: bullies, girls, an obnoxious older sister, etc. Then he's given powers of electricity by an event known as the "Big Bang," which apparently created most of the superheroes in this world.This collection consists of two arcs from th...

I picked this up thinking "Hmmm - a black superhero? Sounds awesome!" It's pretty interesting thus far ... Static - or Virgil - is a high school student, and it accurately depicts the follies of high school life, I think: all the gossip and social aspects as well as the academic. It's very well illustrated as well as witty. It tries to incorporate elements of hip-hop into the dialogue, but from what I understand, the first issues were written in the early nineties. Thus, some of the speech is ou...

My first exposure to Static was the animated series, a wonderful half hour show which balanced superheroics with relevant topics. I wanted to know more about the character, so went to this graphic novel collection, and saw how different the character was on the page right down to his costume, while retaining who Virgil Hawkins is at the heart of it all. Collected are the first few issues of Static's original run, detailing his origin, the balances of personal life with the crime-fighting side, a...

Static is back! Well not really, and not for long, but Dwayne McDuffie writing Static, the character he created, is always awesome to see, and this book does not disappoint. Taking place several years after the original 45 issue run of Static, this book sees Virgil Hawkins, now retired from superhero-ing, have to jump back onto his trash can lid when Bang Babies all around Dakota begin to go missing, with a mystery beginning to build on who would be stealing these people, and for what purpose?Mc...

Four stars for the first story, which is a very entertaining origin tale with lots of 90s-ness. Great character and important in comics history. The second story felt like too much meandering toward an inevitable outcome, with too many other characters pushing Static to the edges of the spotlight in his own book, and a conclusion that was too fast and unsatisfying given the stakes that had been built up.

The character of Static was originally created by Dwayne McDuffie, Derek T. Dingle, Denys Cowan and Michael Davis. And, I believe Trial by Fire was originally published in 1993 and Rebirth of the cool came out in 2001. Both were published by Milestone Media I knew nothing of Milestone media before I picked up this book, but their wikipedia page proved to be extremely interesting. A separate company, founded in 1993 by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T Dingle (Christopher P...

Original run from 93' was way ahead of it's time. Dwayne Mcduffie should be a household name.

My first Static Shock reading and it was really worth it.Dwayne McDuffie really paved the way for Milestone and another characters back in the 90's/00's, being authentic on his productions. Like a lot of people, my first contact with Virgil's world was with that beautiful animated series, and, with Mcduffie being involved there as well, we see there, a lot of what with got in this book.And the art by John Paul Leon is really nice. Very straight lines, something close to Mike Mignola's ones in He...

Static is Virgil Ovid Hawkins, a science-loving teenager exposed to an experimental gas that gave him electro-magnetic superpowers. He protects his schoolmates and neighborhood against gangs and supervillains who were also powered up by the gas. Now if he could find the time to also have a normal teenage life!Static was the most successful character to come out of the Milestone Comics line, an attempt to showcase African-American comics creators and more diverse characters in superhero comics. H...

My first exposure to Static Shock was the Saturday morning cartoon show which, in spite of it's Lil' Romeo theme song and tendency to oversimplify concepts ("Because of you, Dad! You and your stupid racism!") remains a quality television program. It wasn't until high school that my friend Rex told me there were comics as well. That the gang-bangers were realistically violent, that there were gay characters realistically presented--ballet aside--in a public high school setting, that poverty and m...

I knew that DC had acquired Static Shock from another creator so don't expect them to be the same. This book has some language but Static Shock is still likable. Virgil has kinda a tough life and gets picked on but is still really smart and is quite the chemist. He knows his powers well and obviously put effort to know how his powers will react to different substances, it really gives him a fighting advantage. The story is a little choppy but is pretty readable. ~Ashley

Meh. This collection didn’t do much for me. I got a little over halfway through it and gave up on it.

Very much the teen book that Jack Kirby would have created. Top notch; engaging.

Continuing my little jaunt into 90s comic book nostalgia, Static Shock, the most enduring character to come out of DC's creator-owned Afro-centric Milestone entertainment. The art in this is dark but good, and while the plots are a little forced, the characters (and their dialogue) are spot-on. Enjoyed this retrospectively a lot more than I had expected.

This is more of a conventional superhero story-kid with a secret identity and a girl he's crushing on balancing multiple responsibilities-so not the kind of thing I usually read and I don`t have a lot to compare it to but I liked it, the dialogue was very early 90s which is a good thing. The first half is origin story and set up the character`s non-secret life. The second half is a miniseries that I was less into, partly because the art made deciphering action scenes pretty hard, though it was s...

Liked this quite a bit. A little dated (the first issues were written in 1993, and hip-hop culture does not age well), but a very believable teen hero...

I really loved this so much. I hesitate to give it 5 stars because it doesn't have that obsessive reread it a million times quality I usually reserve that five star rating for, but it definitely has me wanting to read more Static! Like many, I watched the cartoon when k was a kid and loved it. This comic hit that nostalgia hard, but it was also great in it's own right. Virgil is a totally believable teenage superhero. He even almost gets hair chopped off for not brushing it all summer! That happ...

This only made me want to read the classic run of Static even more. I wish DC had more on the app!We covered Static over on Comic Book Coffee Break: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/fr...