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Static Shock #6
Publisher: DC Comics
Writers: Scott McDaniel & John Rozum
Artist: Scott McDaniel
Cover: Khary Randolph & LeBeau Underwood

With the overall story arc wrapping up here, McDaniel does a great job at answering some questions and bringing things full circle. However, it just wasn’t that much fun getting there. There were some very good moments in this story, but like I mentioned in an earlier review, I just feel like I’ve read this type of Static story before. The appearance of Hardware and Technique could have been a great way of showing off these characters since we’ve only seen Hardware in an advisory capacity in past issues. However, both were reduced to support roles, and even worse, Technique spouted some of the corniest dialog in the entire issue. This annoyed me only because everyone else was much more enjoyable to read than her. When we got to the big villain reveal and huge fight, it just seemed like everything was rushed to make up for most of the story taking this long to get to this point.

McDaniel’s artwork has been pretty good and consistent throughout the issues, and we get more of the same here. Sometimes when the action is really wild it gets a little hard to follow, but it’s nothing that really breaks up the story or kills the pacing. Except for the scene where Static and Alkalie are having a heart to heart, then we’re thrust right back into the fight without any type of explanation (visual or written) about what’s going on. What’s really cool, though, is Khary Randolph’s cover is one of Technique, Hardware, and Static. It’s one of the most impressive shots of the trio that we do get.

With Static Shock among the several New 52 titles being cancelled at the eighth issue, it’s hard to even be excited about it anymore. I guess eight issues is the cut off time for DC to have faith in a title or creative team to find their legs in a series. Even though not all of the other titles getting cancelled were books I preferred, it seems like a rash move to just end them so early. So even though it wasn’t the most spectacular of books, it was nice seeing Static do his thing for a while, and maybe he’ll end up a Teen Titan in the New 52 sometime soon.

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net