[Criticism Corner] Static Shock Was Always Political (Patreon)

So the Static Shock series has FINALLY made a comeback after being gone for years since it was tied up in lawsuits.  If you want to know more about it then I actually have a video dedicated to talking about what happened to the series.

But yeah, Static is back!  He has a new comic book series, a live action movie is in the works, what could possibly go wrong?!  The internet.  The internet happened.

Static is one of the most beloved superheroes of all time so why are people suddenly up in arms after spending years demanding his return?  Well when the Static reboot comic came out, it was revealed that he got his powers from a Black Lives Matter protest and now all your usual angry people are mad because now Static is “too political” and “too woke”.

Guys, I don’t know if you know this, but Static, his original comic, the cartoon, and Milestone Comics as a whole have ALWAYS been political.  That’s like… the entire point.

Like what did you guys think his origin story was?  From everything I’ve read and watched, Static and most of the characters from Milestone Comics got their powers from the Big Bang, a meetup between several rival gangs that was raided by the police who fired an experimental tear gas that was laced with a radioactive tracking agent that was meant to mark everyone there.  This excessive force and police carelessness led to a LOT of problems, the most notably of which was mutating a ton of the victims and giving them powers.  Some people like Virgil were lucky with their abilities, being more or less the same, but now with zappy zap hands.  Others ended up like Brickhouse, a girl who fused with a brick wall.So why was Virgil there in the first place?  He isn’t in a gang.  Well that’s because Virgil was violently bullied at school on a regular basis and got his hands on a gun which he was going to use to shoot his tormentor.  So yeah, I don’t know how anyone can look at the issues of gang violence, police brutality, government tracking, and gun violence all within the first issue of the comic and first episode of the show and come to the conclusion that Static is a series that isn’t political.

In the reboot, Virgil and several other student activists were peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, but were met with violent counter protestors and the police came in to fire the aforementioned experimental tear gas to break them up.  Lots of people have taken to Twitter to talk about how Static’s original creators would be appalled to see how their creation is being used to talk about modern day politics even though that’s… always what Static has done.  I mean yes, the face of the company, Dwayne McDuffie, did pass away, but the other Milestone founders are alive, well, and DIRECTLY INVOLVED with the reboot.

From creator, Denys Cowan, quote “We felt it was very necessary to tell stories that are relevant for today. Black people are being murdered. That’s not something we’re going to sit back and not say anything about. We’re going to speak about what’s important to us.”  Maybe I’m just a little naive, but I feel like it’s a dumb move to tell the creator of Static that he doesn’t understand his own character.

Now personally, as a long time fan of the Static comic and cartoon, I do wish that the reboot stuck to the gang warfare angle, but at the same time, it makes total sense that Milestone wanted to update their characters to better reflect the modern era.  But let’s be entirely honest, even IF they stuck to the original origin story, there would still be massive outcry from people about the series being too political.

We’ve seen it time and time again with these people who think that political messaging in comic books is sacrilegious even though politics have been a part of them.  I can’t tell you how many times that a character of color comes onto the scene and you get dozens of comments about how “Stan Lee is rolling in his grave.” despite the fact that Stan Lee was EXTREMELY pro-diversity and vocal about it too.  Even outside of diversity there’s countless instances of superheroes getting political from Superman becoming friends with JFK, the entirety of the X-Men, the right wing vs. left ring road trip of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, Captain America renouncing the United States after the Watergate scandal, and so SO much more.

But Milestone Comics ESPECIALLY was a company that had politics baked into every aspect of their publications, being created for the sole purpose of giving more diverse representation in mainstream superhero comics and constantly featuring and discussing the problems facing the country at the time which in many cases are issues that still persist to this day.  I mean hell, the first book that the company published was Hardware which opens with the titular hero LITERALLY being a black man shattering a glass ceiling.  They were NOT subtle in the slightest.

Static, being the most high profile and successful book that Milestone put out was no stranger to handing these difficult and timely issues as well.  Like what about the LGBT protests where the police are extremely candid about what they think of them.  Or how about the three issue arc of Static having to deescalate racial tension which literally opens with Static thinking to himself, “Okay Virgil, how do you stop a race riot fast?!  Not political right?

That same arc dealt with Virgil himself having racist anti-semetic beliefs which get challenged, causing him to self-reflect and grow as a person.  Similar beliefs were challenged in the series when tackling racism, making it explicitly clear that you don’t have to be a racist to benefit from racism.  You can be the most squeaky clean non-racist white man on the planet, but if you work in a place that discriminates against black people, you are benefiting from the unequal treatment through no fault of your own.  The problem is systemic.

There are PLENTY more examples from the comics that I can go on and on about, but I know that most of y’all don’t really care and haven’t read them.  When it comes to Static, there is no denying that the cartoon series, Static Shock, is the most well known and most influential depiction of the character.  Guess what.  IT WAS POLITICAL TOO!

Outside of having the same police brutality origin story, Static Shock handled all sorts of political issues.  Besides the fact that Virgil’s dad is a community organizer and how since most of the bad guys are gang members, they inherently come from backgrounds of poverty and/or abuse, there are dedicated episodes like, Sons of the Fathers, which tackles racism.

There’s the episode, “Jimmy”, that’s all about a school shooting.  How about the episode, “Flashback”, which opens with explicit gang riots and who’s entire plot is about going back in time to prevent them and also save Virgil’s mom in the process who was killed by a stray bullet.

The episode, “Frozen Out”, is all about teenage homelessness, mental illness, and how the two can be directly connected.

The episode Static in Africa is about well… Static in Africa and directly explains pan-Africanism, Virgil talks about how in Africa, he doesn’t feel like an outsider, and he talks about the importance of black superheroes.  But sure, go off about how the show wasn’t political.

Okay so let me get on my soap box here for a second.  Well… as if I wasn't on one the entire time. - Picks ip flattened soap box-

So this is the part of the video where I’m going to get a little controversial.  See, everything I said in the video earlier outside of that brief aside where I mentioned that I would prefer if the Static reboot stuck to the original origin story were indisputable facts.  Now what I’m about to tell you are ALSO facts, but these are the ones that a lot of people get worked up about and refuse to understand.

If your issue with the reboot is Static getting involved with Black Lives Matter, it’s important to remember that BLM is not an organized group.  It’s a decentralized movement that started in the wake of several murders of black people, especially as a result of police brutality.  BLM is strictly about how black lives do in fact matter.  They don’t matter more than others, there’s just a disproportionate amount of police brutality and murder of black people.  When you go to the doctor with a broken arm, the doctor doesn’t tell you to get over it because all bones matter, they treat the broken arm.

Are there bad actors that use peaceful protests as an excuse to cause mayhem.  Yes, but if anyone is going to demonize the entire movement because of a few edge cases then why doesn’t the same logic apply to the police?  Don’t tell me that it’s just a few bad apples when you don’t want to compare apples to apples.

Virgil getting involved with BLM does NOT go against the original creators’ vision because remember, they’re directly involved in the reboot.  Like creators Derek T. Dingle and Denys Cowan have publicly posted support for the movement and if they didn’t want Static involved with Black Lives Matter then they wouldn’t have let it go to print.  But let’s address the elephant in the room, Dwayne McDuffie can’t comment on this because of his passing in 2011.

However, here’s a few things that you should know about McDuffie.  The dude had frequent run ins with the police and was the victim of racial profiling time and time again.  After having open heart surgery, he was legitimately afraid of his sutures (sue-tures) being pulled if he was handcuffed behind his back.  As a six foot six black man, McDuffie was constantly seen as suspicious by law enforcement.  Like how he was pulled over for driving his own car and was asked who actually owned the vehicle.

McDuffie made a conscious effort to try and make himself seem smaller because his stature was seen as legitimately intimidating by some people.  If you think that McDuffie wouldn’t support Black Lives Matter then you either have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the movement is or don’t know anything about him.

It is COMPLETELY transparent that the people up in arms about Static being political know nothing about Static or Milestone Comics and are capitalizing on hate clicks from other people that similarly know nothing.

OR you can just admit that you watched the show as a kid and were too young to understand the political aspect of the ity.  It’s okay.  We were all ignorant children at one point.  The trick is to just not grow up to be an ignorant adult.

People claim that media these days is too political because it’s shoved down your throat.  Again, just because you were too young to remember or understand the politics in older media, that doesn’t mean it wasn't there, but also, it’s not inherently bad writing if political themes aren’t “subtle”.  For a lot of people, the injustice they deal with is a huge part of their lives.  They would LOVE IT if the shit they go through was just subtle.

If you say that Static being political ruins the character then I’m sorry, you’re not a fan of Static.  It’s not gatekeeping, it’s just a fact.  It’s ridiculous to get upset that the media you loved as a kid doesn’t live up to the version that you incorrectly remembered.  And you know what, it’s perfectly fine if you grew out of something and it doesn’t hold up to those memories.  It’s a problem when the thing you’re suddenly upset about is well meaning inclusivity.  You grew up to be exactly the kind of person that your childhood hero would be disappointed in.

There’s a quote from the end of Static Shock’s PSA on gun violence that really stood out to me “Do your part to increase the peace out there.”  It’s not about fighting each other, it’s about increasing the peace.