REVIEW: Static Shadows of Dakota #6

Static – Shadows of Dakota #6 follows the story of electric hero Static Shock as he tries to get through the twisted mind of villain Ebon to stop his rampage of violence. A fresh and truly Afro-Latinx outlook into the Static we all know and love. Art that borders on experimental abstraction, delivers a wonderful and innovative style to a script that is filled with drama, action, and complex character narratives. The lettering is good and the choice of fonts, and word balloons are equally good with perhaps the only downside being a reservation to truly marry the art with the lettering through exaggerated word balloons that go along with the deeply grotesque and evil faces of the villain sometimes demonstrates, and bland sound fxs that could have been on par with the experimental nature of the art.

Static Shock for me and many young adults in the comic world, was a pardon the pun, a true shock in the culture of animated cartoons. When the original animated show came out (I personally didn’t read many of the old-school 90’s Static Shock comics), it was truly something new in TV. It had clever characters, wonderfully animated action scenes, and stories that were much better than many of the other shows that were on air at that time. It was also great to see an African-American main protagonist in children’s animated shows, if I’m not mistaken it was also the very first time this happened on TV. During the 2000’s I was in 5th grade watching the animated show almost religiously. I remember falling in love with the characters and wanting to be them. As a true childhood fan, I have vivid memories of creating an elementary school club with my friends in which we would meet up after school to come up with cool ideas as to how we could somehow (fantastically impossible of course) create the powers that Static and his cohorts had. I say this to highlight the joy in me to read a comic of a modern Static Shock, that is equally electrifying to me as an adult like the original show was to my younger self. The writing of Vita Ayala is one of realism and true struggle. They are a queer Afro-Latinx writer out of New York and their voice lends perfectly to that of African American hero Static Shock. In this comic, we see allegories of police brutality, racism, and the struggle of communities that have been marginalized throughout existence. Whilst the original animated show lacked emotional depth, this comic has plenty of depth. It is so deep that if you dived into it you would probably never reach the bottom. Without giving away the plot of the story, we see a battle of wits and values, between good and evil. A battle between the justification of evil based on sad, and angry circumstances and the desire to overcome such circumstances in order to be of service to others.

I am a fan of what I have read thus far, even at issue #6 it still manages to be a great starting point for anyone picking up this comic series for the first time, as well as being a wonderful first look at Static as a hero. He is witty, he is smart, he is caring, he is brave and this comic shows all of this and much more. The art in many ways is just as brave as Static, it is painted in a blue and red color scheme that is very reminiscent of old-school 3D movies and does a great job just like its potential inspiration, to jump into the forefront of your attention. I find it fascinating to see how artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey is able to cram so much detail into these pages with such a major restriction as keeping the colors to mostly if not only blues and reds, with the occasional yellows for the Static Shock classic costume. Even though this art style is hugely experimental with such things as full-page spreads that double as panel layouts, main character moments, and fantastic action poses; it can at times become a little bit tricky to follow. Sometimes the panel direction can be a little confusing when taking things as full spreads rather than individual pages. Apart from that minor point, the art is very, very good. It features beautiful pages of black and white, blues and reds, and crazy effects of light to illustrate that we’re following the story of an electric-type hero.

Whilst the lettering is good, because it is not bad lettering, at times it is a little boring. The sound fx are just fonts, and other than a few keywords like “Static” they are devoid of creativity. I would’ve loved to see lettering that was just as experimental if not more than the actual art. This is most notable when characters are screaming and the word balloons show no variation from the word balloons used for when they are talking. This feels like a hugely missed opportunity that would have elevated the art even further.

Despite these small details, this is a wonderful comic and I am honored to be able to read a comic that treats its characters with the respect they deserve. There is nothing childish or cute about this series. It is everything I would’ve wanted the animated show to be, had I been watching it in my young adult or teenage years. With such a small team, it is amazing to see such truly expert work. I hope that Vita and Nikolas continue to deliver this outstanding work in future issues, as I am delighted to have read this one.

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 4 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 4.5 Stars

Written by: Vita Ayala
Art by: Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Lettering by: AndWorld Design
Cover art by: Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Variant Covers by; J.J. Lopez, Luis Guerrero & Demetrius Dawkins
Published by DC Comics

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”