Speaking (or just writing?) as someone who isn’t very familiar with Static Shock (I’ve never seen the cartoon, and I tended to read Hardware and Icon in the Milestone days), it’s a good sign that I wasn’t very lost while being “reintroduced” to the character.

Like seemingly all of the new 52 books, the art looks particularly polished, and while I’ve always liked Scott McDaniel’s art, I have noticed that the penciling can get a bit sketchy during long runs. This doesn’t take too much away from his style, but it is noticeable. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find out that all of the new 52 art teams had well over a standard month’s turnaround time.

I particularly enjoy the hard science/physics references that help explain “realistically’ what Static Shock is doing with his powers. It’s a nice change from a character simply blasting away with lightning/fire/energy/whatever without any elaboration as to what’s going on. This helps add to the density of text in this issue, which is not overwrought but can make for slower reading. Future issues should end up being lighter on having to introduce everyone and establish their status quo but still keep the physics banter going.

Being unfamiliar with Static Shock in the past, I am left wondering what’s up with what seems to be the Joker just hanging out in one panel without any dialogue or any hint as to what he’s doing here. No other character in the panel is even looking at him, let alone reacting to what should be a pretty disturbing or at least concerning presence. I understand it’s entirely possible that Static Shock has some character that just looks like the Joker in his cast of regular characters, but since these books are meant to start readers at “ground zero,” I would think there would be some mention about what’s going on there.

Unlike books like Men of War or Batwing, Static Shock does not occupy an area of the DCU that has yet to be explored, which makes me wonder if setting the character in New York rather than Dakota or some other real or DCU established city would have made for more variety in the setting. If those admittedly minor concerns matter, it could mean the difference between giving this book a B or B+.

- Ed

Static Shock is part of the Milestone line of comics in years past.  It was once a separate and related group of heroes that was all part of a connected universe.  DC bought the whole line -  like they did with Charlton (Captain Atom, Question) and Wildstorm (Stormwatch, Voodoo) and the Captain Marvel comics.  They have been integrating these heroes into their universe for a while with mixed results.

The book plays out as cartoon, which kind of makes sense as it was a popular animated series once.  The action is fast and the dialogue is snappy.  I appreciate the science references to explain what he was doing.  But at some point I realized he was way smarter than me, and that made me bitter.  I don’t want to feel stupid when I read about heroes, especially ones in high school.

I know many people compare Static with Black Lightning.  I guess it can’t be helped as there are some similarities, but the character and personality and powers are distinct enough that only old timers will miss Jefferson.

The art is competent and stylized.  Probably a little too far on the cartoony side, but it fits the breezy style of the book.

C   …    Don

I was completely unfamiliar with Static Shock until I read this comic. I found the dialogue very juvenile and dumbed down. I know that it might possibly be written for a young adult audience, but that doesn’t excuse it and makes it worse. YA don’t need to be or want things to be dumbed down. Harry Potter is an example. But I digress…..

Some of the art is really good — the glowing orb that he’s fighting at the beginning….just the detail on that. In some of the panels it actually looked mechanical – real. Good job on that.

I actually found this book more interesting than Green Arrow. Which was both surprising and scary to me at the same time. The cocky, charismatic lead. Good intro to who he is and what he’s doing. Not everything is explained but enough was going on that peaked my interest to find out more.

I’m curious to know more about Static Shock and why he flies on a hover-board/skateboard. And who this gang of villians are that dress like superheros but have a fish as their muscle. Piranha !! That was hilarious. Not sure if it was meant to be or not. But who doesn’t love a talking piranha? I’m in.

I know. Call me crazy. Actually, despite the dumbed down style of dialogue, the description of his powers and his thought processes helped flesh out the characters and set up potential for future issues. I am curious to see where this thing goes.

My grade – C+

—Kelly