Static Shock
| Static Shock | |
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| Genre |
Adventure Comedy Science fiction |
| Created by |
Dwayne McDuffie Denys Cowan Derek Dingle Michael Davis |
| Based on |
Static by Milestone Media/DC Comics |
| Written by |
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| Directed by |
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| Starring | |
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| Opening theme |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
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| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
DC Comics Warner Bros. Animation |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | Kids' WB! |
| Original release | September 23, 2000 – May 22, 2004 |
| Website | |
Static Shock is an American animated television series based on the Milestone Media/DC Comics superhero Static. It premiered on September 23, 2000, on The WB Television Network's Kids' WB! block programming. Static Shock ran for four seasons, with 52 half-hour episodes in total. The show revolves around Virgil Hawkins, an African-American boy who uses the secret identity of Static after exposure to a mutagen gas during a gang fight gave him electromagnetic powers. Part of the DC animated universe, the series was produced by Warner Bros. Animation from a crew composed mostly of people from the company's past shows but also with the involvement of two of the comic's creators, Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan.
Static Shock had some alterations from the original comic book because it was oriented to a pre-teen audience. Nevertheless, the show approached several social issues, which was positively received by most television critics. Static Shock was nominated for numerous awards, including the Daytime Emmy. Some criticism was directed towards its jokes—which were said to be stale and too similar to Spider-Man style—and animation, which was said to be unnatural and overdated. The series also produced some related merchandise, which sold poorly; McDuffie cited the low sales as one of the main factors behind the series' cancellation. In spite of this, its popularity revived interest in the original Milestone comic and introduced McDuffie to the animation industry.
Virgil Hawkins is a fourteen-year-old who lives with his older sister Sharon, and his widowed father Robert in Dakota City. He attends high school with his best friend Richie Foley, and has a crush on a girl named Frieda. He also has a dispute with a bully named Francis, nicknamed "F-Stop." A gang leader named Wade recently helped Virgil, hoping to recruit him, but Virgil is hesitant, as he knows his mother died in an exchange of gunfire between gangs. Wade eventually leads Virgil to a restricted area for a fight against F-Stop's crew, but it was interrupted by police helicopters. During the dispute with the police, chemical containers explode, releasing a gas that causes mutations among the people in the vicinity (This event was later known as "The Big Bang"). As a result, Virgil obtains the ability to create, generate, absorb, and control electricity and magnetism—he takes up the alter-ego of "Static". The gas also gives others in the area their own powers, and several of them become supervillains. The mutated people become meta-humans known as "Bang Babies", and their mutations apparently spread to other people around them.
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Wikipedia