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Static: Season One #1
Publisher: DC
Writer:  Vita Ayala
Artist: ChrisCross & Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Letters: Andworld Design
Cover: Khary Randolph & Emilio Lopez

It’s been a long and frustrating wait but Milestone is back and that means the return of one of the greatest young heroes to ever grace comic pages, Virgil Hawkins aka Static!

What makes his return so great and one of the best comics out this week is that the creative team actually gets the character. A huge thanks to Vita Ayala whose dialogue naturally conveys Virgil’s struggle with his new powers and dealing with the trauma of how they came about. At no point does any of it feel forced or cringe like many comics where the cast is young and the writer sounds like he watched an after school special and his slang is 10 years past it’s expiration date. Ayala is the fresh voice we needed and as someone who works with teenagers they nailed it as I could hear some of my own students in these pages. Ayala also delivers heartfelt, quality moments with Virgil and his family and keeps the secondary characters just as rich and engaging when we see them. It’s this great pacing that also enhances the rivalry between Hotstreak and Static as the tension slowly builds until that hard hitting cliffhanger.

As far as the art is concerned, ChrisCross and Nikolas Draper-Ivey killed it in every single panel. When you have an artist that not only understands our fashion but the attention to detail and intricacies of our hair; there’s an authenticity in the art that just can’t be duplicated. Can’t tell you how many comics there are where Black male characters have some of the THE most messed up hairstyles because artists just don’t get it. The panel layouts for those two dinner scenes are sequential excellence. The tonal changes due to the color pallet shifts during those scenes are profound and enhances this level of storytelling. That cliffhanger I mentioned earlier also comes off even more sinister and heartbreaking because of the visuals.

When Milestone gave comic fans Static back in 1993 they were so ahead of the times in terms of representation and telling the superhero stories of those who rarely saw themselves in these books. After they were gone, that void was felt by many of us but Milestone’s legacy and influences lived on and now we get the results of that here. A creative team that has taken the baton and ran full speed to the finish line. Giving us a great entry point for new readers and something just as good for those of us who were there at the beginning. Static: Season One is a must have comic for your read pile!

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net