Black Superhero Spotlight

Every month I’m going to spotlight a black superhero (although this is more for May/June). If you can’t hear about black superheroes from a blerd…then where are you going to  hear it from? This Month’s Superhero is…. STATIC

Static's creator: Dwayne McDuffie

Static's History

Static is a black superhero named Virgil Hawkins that started out in Millstone Comics; which was an independently owned division of DC comics that focused on minority heroes.  Static was created by the late Dwayne McDuffie, who stated that Static was Millstone’s version of Spiderman: a geeky teen who deals with normal teen issues and then has powers and has even more to deal with. He also uses his scientific knowledge as well as his razor sharp wit to battle foes as Static. After Millstone Comics stopped publishing, Static was brought to the small screen as the cartoon Static Shock. The show lasted several seasons. Later Static was integrated into the main DC universe and has since joined the Teen Titans. Also Virgil appeared recently in the second season of the Cartoon Network Young Justice animated series.

Static's Origin

Virgil Hawkins is a young intelligent high school kid who lets his mouth write a check that his @ss can’t cash. He ends up getting beaten up by a bully. To get revenge, he gets a gun from a friend and sneaks to the site of a huge gang fight planning to shoot the bully in retaliation. Well despite it all, Virgil is not a killer, so he doesn't shoot the bully. But the city arrives to the scene of the gang fight and uses an experiential tear gas that is meant to be used to track the offenders by marking them using harmless radioactivity, similar to the tracking dye used to track whale. The gas ends up granting many of the gang members and other people involved powers and the event is then referred to as the “Big Bang”. Those who gained abilities from the gas are referred to as “Bang Babies”.

Statics' Powers

Static’s powers focus on electromagnetism allowing him control and generate electricity with various effects such as electronic blasts, blinding flashes, energy shields, and even flight. Like Peter Parker, Virgil is extremely intelligent and uses his scientific knowledge to augment the use of his powers and/or out think his adversaries

I think my favorite thing about Static is that he’s a fanboy. He collects comics, is a gamer, and uses a lot of pop culture references.

STATIC as a HEROCLIX

This figure isn’t a game changer, but seeing it for the first time almost give me a nerdgasm. Allow me to elaborate. Comics in general have a lack of strong major black characters. For instance, there was a time that the X-Men featured more BLUE characters in its membership than BLACK ones. So when Heroclix gives me one of my favorite black characters...oh believe me I'm UBER excited; regardless of stats. Speaking of which, let’s take a look:

HEROCLIX REVIEW

Static comes out at 98 points with 6 clicks of life, 7 range with 2 lightning bolts and the flight ability. The figure on its one is decent. Alternating between Running Shot and Hypersonic Speed is awesome and allows for a little versatile tactics. Damage not dropping below 2 is also cool. A 10 attack is respectable. Although his attack drops to an 8, we are in the age of the Utility belt and values can always be modified. With Energy Explosion getting the upcoming boost, 3 clicks of it paired with Running shot could be huge. Super Senses provides a decent defense augmented by the Trashcan Lids trait. And Enhancement is just icing.

Only a black character would get a trait called Trashcan Lids. Honestly for most of Static’s appearances (comic or animated), Static would use a trashcan lid or manhole cover to fly. The trait is cool, but they could’ve though of another name. Enhancement could work nicely as Static could carry a ranged attacker, use Running Shot or Hypersonic to attack and setup the sniper he carried for a shot the following turn. My only real, but MAJOR gripe is the LACK of keywords and team ability. Static is just as much a scientist as Peter Parker and he’s a teen that’s been hanging out with the Teen Titans. With theme teams becoming more and more part of the meta-game…this is a major disadvantage. And it wasn’t like there weren’t options. I would have given perplex instead of enhancement as well.

Final analysis of STATIC
SCULPT - 3 out of 5 stars. It's ok, but room for improvement. TWO WORDS: FORE-HEAD!
CREATIVITY - 3 out of 5 stars. The trait is cool, there could've been a bit more.
PLAYABILITY - 2 out of 5. No keywords or team ability really hurt this figure for competitive. Which is a same as it could have been better
ACCURACY - 4 out of 5. Even though there could've been a bit more power-wise, what the figure has fits and works!