Static Shock #1 Comic Book Review

Static Shock #1
"Recharged"
Written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum;
Art and cover by Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion and LeBeau Underwood
On Sale September 7, 2011
DC Universe; 32pg.; Color; $2.99 US

I've never really been a fan of the Static Shock character. There was no particular reason why, I just always had other super hero books that took up my allotted comic reading time. When I heard that artist Scott McDaniel was going to be writing and drawing the relaunch of the Static Shock title for the New 52, I knew I had to check it out. I followed McDaniel's work in Detective Comics and Justice League and have a deep respect of him on a personal level as well.

The setting for Static Shock #1 has been moved to a bigger metropolitan area where the teen super hero can get in bigger messes with a whole lot more bad guys. His family has picked up and moved from Dakota to New York City, so there's plenty of trouble for Static to find himself mixed up in. There's definitely no slack in the action in issue 1, that's for sure.

Static Shock #1 revolves around "The brilliant, slightly awkward high school student Virgil Hawkins [who] transforms into the cocky electromagnetic hero Static! Virgil embarks upon new adventures in a new high school and a new internship at S.T.A.R. Labs! As Static, he dons a new uniform and establishes a new secret headquarters! But is he ready to take on the new villains who lurk in New York City's underworld?"

The story of Static Shock #1 starts out with a bang and never lets up. Writers McDaniel and John Rozum (Xombi) work well together in 32 pages to establish a solid plot and introduce all the characters quickly and concisely. They even throw in a surprise guest spot for a favorite villain from the Batman universe.

Scott McDaniel's penciling for Static Shock #1 looks great. The lines are clean and well-defined and give the comic a realistic yet animated look to its panels. Guy Major's coloring for the book is very vibrant and make the pages pop out at you.

Static Shock #1 opens the character up to a whole new world of possibilities for action and showdowns with super villains just by moving the story to a different city. I think Static Shock creator Dwayne McDuffie would be very proud of where the New 52 series has taken the character. If things progress as quickly as they came together for issue 1, we might see Static get big enough to join the Justice League proper sometime in the future.

For more articles by Eric Shirey, check out:

Detective Comics #1 Comic Book Review
Justice League #1 Comic Book Review
'Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season Two Part One' DVD Review

Eric Shirey is the founder and editor of Rondo Award nominated movie and comic book news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. He also served as a news reporter for the award winning movie website GordonandtheWhale.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! TV, Associated Content from Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, and other national entertainment websites. Besides his three decades long obsession with everything sci-fi, horror, and fantasy related in TV and movies, Eric has what some would call an unhealthy love for comic books. This has led him to interviewing and covering legendary writers and artists in the medium like Scott Snyder, Steve Niles, Bernie Wrightson, and Howard Chaykin. His personal website is www.ersink.com.