10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Static Shock

This DCAU cartoon put a shock to our systems!

By Brian Knowler /

Static Shock is a little gem of a cartoon that ran on Kids WB from 2000-2004. It featured the adventures of Virgil Hawkins, a Black teenager who, in great superhero tradition, is accidentally exposed to an experimental gas in a freak accident.

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Said freak accident gives Virgil the power to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, leading him to adopt the code name Static (not Static Shock!). A bunch of other teenagers who were in the same area of the accident become known as 'Bang Babies' (so-named for the event that gave them their powers), developing various powers of their own and turning to villainy or heroism as their personalities dictated.

The subsequent episodes of the show focused not only on Virgil's heroic adventures as Static, but on real-life issues and heartaches that kids of the day could identify with.

The era of Static Shock was booming with animated properties from both DC and Marvel; like with any of these contemporaries, Static Shock's history and development is filled with cool quirks, easter eggs, and secrets. So with that in mind, here are some of the most mind-blowing facts about Static Shock!

10. Static Debuted In A Subsidiary Of DC Comics, Not The Main Continuity

Between 1993 and 1997, a company called Milestone Comics was quietly turning out fantastic comics created by a collective of Black artists and writers who were dedicated to the notion of increasing minority representation in the comics industry - Hardware, Icon, Blood Syndicate, and Static.

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Static was developed by writer Dwayne McDuffie, who would later become a legend in the comics world, writing for both Marvel and DC and making massive contributions to the DCAU.

The Milestone comics were a separate imprint published by DC, with no connection to the main DC world. Milestone took place in the Dakotaverse (so named after the area where most of the action occurred), which would eventually become part of the main DC universe both in comics and in animation.

Milestone shut down operations in 1997, another victim of the comics industry boom-and-bust of the early and mid nineties. However, the company didn't completely fold, switching lanes to start working on a special project in collaboration with DC's animation house: Static Shock.

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