Static Shock #2 – Review

By: Scott McDaniel & John Rozum (writers), Scott McDaniel (penciller), Andy Owens (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: No use losing your head over losing your arm.

The Review: Young superheroes have a tough time establishing a distinctive identity for themselves.  It’s a little too easy for people to compare any smart-talking teen to Spider-Man, and almost every character suffers from the comparison.  Writers really have to go above and beyond the typical one-liners and puns to forge true-blue personalities for their creations, or risk committing them to generic class forever.

And with his physics geekery, Static has even more reason to come across like the “black Peter Parker.”  On the other hand, his love of science provides some of the more entertaining, clever beats in the issue, including a rather elaborate explanation of how he still has both arms after getting one of them sliced off by a flying disc.  He even seems to rely on sound scientific principles (although since I’m a science moron, don’t take my word for it).

The problem is Virgil dispenses most of this information on an audience of no one other than you, the readers.  The problem gets highlighted by the use of word balloons for most of this sequence, making it look uncannily if inexplicably as if Virgil is talking to himself.  Rozum gives him a very personable voice, but without other characters to bounce off of, it makes the issue feel rather monotonous, and he never diverts from the typical bright, witty teen persona.

Going back to what I said last issue, we really need to see more of Static at school and especially at home, since this issue reveals a whole new dimension of drama lurking within Virgil’s very own family.  He must have gotten up to quite some trouble before this series began, what with his family now including a doppelganger of his sister Sharon, only no one knows who is which.  Honestly, you’re more interested to see where this plotline will go than all his vigilante hijinks.

While we do get an ever-so-brief glimpse at Virgil’s new school, not much comes of it.  He exchanges onceovers with another girl (“Nice!”), and he scopes out a classmate with ties to the Slate Gang.  Neither incident does much to build up Virge’s civilian life, nor do they introduce any potential members of his supporting cast into play.  The only use we get out his two pages at school is a convenient shortcut to Virgil’s next encounter with the thugs of the day.