The Warner Archive January 30, 2018 DVD release of the third season of the 2000's WB Saturday morning cartoon awesomely brings us 3/4 of the way toward making the entire series available to eager fanboys. The pattern of "Static" releases suggests that we will see the S4 DVD the week before Memorial Day.
This urban variation of "The Flash" and "Spider-Man" has a "big bang" grant black teen Virgil Hawkins the ability to absorb and manipulate electricity; his primary foes consists of other (mostly teen) "bang babies" who become meta because of the same incident but use their great powers greatly irresponsibly.
The review of the S1 DVD release includes a primer on both the lore and the big-name voice-over actors of "Static;" the S2 review discusses the further adventures of this boy wonder, including his teaming up with Batman and Robin to battle The Joker.
The first adventure in this set reunites our hero with the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder; it also continues the "Static" tradition of relatively subtle teen-oriented fables. A troubled bang baby who is catfished into going to Gotham City in search of a cure for her affliction finds herself the reluctant partner-in-crime of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. This leads to Static teaming up with his aforementioned hero to save the day.
The epic two-part "A League of Their Own" does not include a reference to there not being any crying in superheroing but does introduce Static to several more DCU heavy hitters. The Justice League requiring the special talent of Static prompts them to visit him and sidekick/tech. guy Richie on their home turf of Dakota and bring them to the Watch Tower base in orbit over earth.
Our homeboys in outer space soon learn after being left unsupervised in the coolest space station ever that Brainiac is behind the technical difficulties that bring Static there. This super-genius making the rookie villain mistake of revealing his plans to his captives plays a role in his awesomely low-techish style defeat.
Part-two of "League" brings the action down to earth as Static must battle a Brainiac-washed Justice League.
Static continues his DCU integration with a joint adventure with Superman that involves a high-school teacher who is a living doll. The good folks at Archive awesomely add context to this episode by including the "Superman: The Animated Series" episode "Toys in the Hood" as a DVD bonus. This episode is a prequel to the "Static" offering.
The bigger picture is that "Superman" and "Static" are the product of Warner animation god Alan Burnett, who produces virtually all of the modern series and films from that division of Warner Prime. One can only hope for a "Krypto" movie.
A direct "Flash" homage occurs in an episode in which Static time travels back to the date of the death of his mother in an effort to put right what once went wrong. The episode also fills in missing pieces from the lore of the series.
The S3 evolution of Static as a superhero builds off of earlier season tension with Richie; this wannabe finally gets his wish to be a "real live boy" when an early-season development allows him to adopt the persona of sidekick Gear. His jet-powered skates and other tech. allows him to literally keep up with big boys.
"Static" also builds on tradition by following up an S2 appearance by AJ McLean of "The Backstreet Boys" with a hyped guest shot by teen rapper Lil Romeo; Lil Romeo becoming Lil Static leads to his actually saving the day.
Black power takes center stage in two episodes; the Hawkins family travelling to Africa both gives a Virgil a chance to not be "the black kid" and provides him a role model in the form of an African superhero. The season finale is a two-fer both in terms of discussing the civil rights movement and in providing the moral that there being snow on the roof does not prevent someone from being a superhero.
These episodes illustrate (pun intended) that S3 proves that the third time is the charm. S1 and S2 are very good, but S3 really shows that a black teen from a single-parent household can have a solid friendship with a white kid and can be just as big of a hero as any other "meta."
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Static" is strongly encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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