10 Essential DC Superheroes Not Yet Used In The DCEU
6. Static
DC Comics/John Paul Leon
One of the principle architects of the DC Universe for those who grew up in the late nineties and early noughties was the late Dwayne McDuffie. The creator co-founded Milestone, an imprint that strove to tell diverse stories when the rest of the comics industry was otherwise complacent, and masterminded the peak years of DC animation on shows like Justice League, Teen Titans, and Static Shock.
McDuffie created Static for Milestone before the character moved to the DC Universe, and he remains one of the most valuable creations the writer ever conjured. Virgil Hawkins was a young black teen who gets caught up in the 'Big Bang' in Dakota City. Emerging from the explosion, Virgil discovers that he's able to emit and control electricity, and so decides to become the superhero known as Static - all while balancing his life as a high schooler.
Static has been in and out of the DC Universe in the years since his introduction, but he's managed to leave an indelible mark during that time. McDuffie's Static Shock cartoon was a key pillar of DC animation during the 2000s, and if WB had any common sense, Static would've been in their plans a long time ago.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
