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Young Justice Static: The Weakest of all the Shocks

You know I didn't really think I'd be writing a post about Virgil anytime soon. Not with OW2 hitting in October, and Street Fighter 6 primed to come out in 2023 of next year. Hell...the only thing happening with Static soon will be the much anticipated Season 2 of the milestone Static relaunch. And I'll really want to read all of that first before talking about it in any sort of vein on here. So what prompted me to talk about this subject just out of the clear blue?

I think it's because with Season 1 of the Static comic wrapping up and Season 4 of Young Justice wrapping up, I can sit back and think about how they went down more clearly. And the more I've thought about how they went down...I realize there was some clear character assassination. That we don't really talk about. We know we don't care for YJ Static. But do we really know why?

Let's get the obvious out of the way: Young Justice's Static is not much of a smartmouth. He's not very flippant. He's BARELY playful. And usually whenever there is an attempt for him to be humorous it's caught up in the idea of him being an awkward to the rest of the group. Now on the flip side, (Milestone Returns) Static is not much of a smartass at the begining either. But there's a little bit of a different angle to it. See Milestone Returns Static is is a little edgy. He's a little angry and no nonense. But within the context of the story there's a lot of sense in it. We see that he's been constantly bullied and made fun of. And now all these people are bothering him while he's trying to figure himself out. This includes his friends and family. This Virgil doesn't have much of a secret idenity when compared to the prior Statics. And he just wants a second to process how the hell his life is going to play out now. But instead he has his asshole opressor showing up to his front door to burn his house down. For that alone, the fact that this Virgil is more snarly than snarky for the first quarter of the season? Isn't all that surprising. But alright. Maybe YJ Static has something like that going on with him too. And that's why he's so standoffish in all the apperances we see him in.

No. He has absolutely no reason.

And let's detail that for a second. Because YJ Static could have had a viable grounds for being more subdued than we see usually see Virgil. But it's actually actively undone. See there's a little bit in Season 2 where all the kids involved with the Reach were going to therapy. Virgil wasn't not an exception. And he has a little bit of angst when talking about what he went through. But then within the same season...we find out that Virgil doesn't want to be cured of his powers. He likes them. And this even tracks when he tells Black Canary he didn't 'have it as bad as the other kids.' Season 2 ends with Virgil joining the team. After Black Lightning tells him he has a knack for superheroing. So effectively...YJ Virgil has no problems trying to figure out what the hell he's going to do. He doesn't need quiet, space, or relief from his own powers. Homeboy has found his calling. In a way...this should be one of the happiest Statics we've ever seen - obviously his parents know he's a superhero. He has teammates to watch his back and pick up slack. But he doesn't seem like the happiest Static you've ever seen. In fact he seems like a Static that's just there.

Because that's >in fact< just what he is.

Milestone Returns Static doesn't offend me, because it legitimately was a choice to make him feel more human and less of a Saturday Cartoon Hero. Young Justice Static is just there to...just be there. The writers haven't thought about him one bit. And you can see this more clearly when you think about how Virgil has NO hard distinguishing personality traits to be shown. He's never shown to have an interest in science. Never not once talks to any of the scientists at S.T.A.R or in passing makes a scientific obseveration about the situation. (Which in contrast is what we see someone like Wally West do as early as Episode 4 of Season One.) He never talks geek with Beast Boy or...even shows that he's into comics or D&D. His ONLY personality traits are that he 'has a common sense of humor' and that he likes girls. These are traits that go on basically anyone. His funniest line: "Yeaaaah, this is a sympathy bump," to Cassie; made me chuckle. But I'll still tell you that 90% of the cast could say this - and it wouldn't be unfitting. It's generic. Whereas if you took what I think was Virgil's most smile worthy moment in Milestone Returns:

-there's no one else but Virgil who is going to say that memey shit.

Not to put a finer point on it, but this is what I highly appreciate about Milestone Returns Virgil. There wasn't a line in relauch that surpassed Dwayne McDuffie's: "Kawarimi: Ancient ninja art of misdirection. All you need is something some idiot can mistake you for...and some idiot." But that's not what I'm reading the book for. I don't wanna laugh harder than I did at Static in the past - I just want to see the spirit be captured. And Season 1 does that. At the end of the issues you've seen Virgil's wisecracking. You've seen his science loving analytical brain. You've seen his swag. His love of geekdom. All these things that identify Virgil are there in some fashion, some reference. But Young Justice can't even be assed to try and give his character an idenity through his own signature brand of humor. It's the one thing they lightly touch on, but it's as generic as his powers even go. They make no effort for the character of Static/Virgil at all, aside from trying to get the little brownie points from - I assume Static fans like myself. Just so they can say: 'Hey. He's in the show. He's there. Happy?' And it's token as hell. Not even from a RACE aspect; I say that sheerly from a fan aspect.

And it's very transparent this is how they felt about Static. Because as I touched on a second ago, they had what is really one of the most powerful characters in the show and boil said powers down to two traits. Did you ever think Static was just a guy that zaps people and moves metal around? Guess what? So does Young Justice. And these two traits are even portrayed in the most bland and unworthy way you'd ever see of the character. Quite literally> making him the weakest Static we've ever seen.

But this is going into a post for another day. I have a lot to say on that subject. Maybe not even nessecarily just to do with Young Justice. But with an >assumption< that people make about Static in general. Young Justice however certainly didn't help make people not dive into those wild assumptions. But I feel like it's more of an issue of Static being a little too powerful in the eyes of inexperienced writers and thinking he needs to be toned down for the sake of being vulnerable or interesting.

For now...thanks for reading this. I hope it gives people some perspective on what actually works for the character and what ruins him. And I'm fairly certain a bunch of people will agree with me - we definitely don't need the latter.

#Static Shock #static milestone #Young Justice #virgil hawkins #DC comics

I would love to have a live-action series about Static. I know, he's not a white guy so it'll probably never happen (yay for Hourman, I guess?). but it'd be so awesome. He's one of my favourite characters and a series that captures the classic "Teen superhero dealing with fighting criminals, chasing bad guys all while trying to balance a normal life" theme with Static's snark, wittiness and attitude would rock so hard. Maybe other Milestone characters around Dakota could appear in it too, since YJ isn't going to fulfil my dream of a Rocket/Static team-up anytime soon.

I'm rambling now, but yeah, I'd like that.

#Static Milestone