Static Shock’s New Costume Is a Callback to His Animated Series

A new comic featuring the star of Static Shock will also include an all-new costume. While many DC fans rain praise upon shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, one of the surprising hits of the 2000s was Static Shock. Virgil Hawkins/Static was a fairly new creation in the comics, but Static Shock represented the first superhero show based on an African-American hero. Static has made his way to the main DC Universe, along with appearances in the Batman Beyond future timeline. It’s here that a team-up with Batman Beyond will feature Static’s new costume.

DC previously announced Batman/Static: Beyond, a six-issue limited series by writer Evan Narcisse (Rise of the Black Panther, Batman: Gotham Knights – Gilded City) and artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey (Static: Shadows of Dakota) that will be published under the DC Elseworlds imprint. Both Batman Beyond and Static will have new costumes for the series, updating their looks for a potentially new audience. After the announcement of Batman/Static: Beyond, Draper-Ivey provided more details on the new Static suit and its role in the overall series.

DC Animated Hero Static Gets an Updated Costume

Nikolas Draper-Ivey called Static’s new costume the Static Beyond “Shutdown Suit” on social media. “After an encounter with a mysterious new antagonist (SHUTDOWN) that has the ability [to] drain immense power, Virgil must find a way to store his energy in a new suit that functions as a sort of a kinetic generator for his electricity,” Draper-Ivey wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The design calls back to his classic 90s suit but more streamlined for the ‘Beyond’ setting.”

The suit is very similar to the one Static wore on Static Shock, which ran for four seasons on Kids’ WB. The blue in Static’s costume and jacket is replaced with black, which is accentuated by croppings of yellow. It’s definitely a spicy cook, for sure, and should be a welcomed sight to fans anxious to see more content featuring Static.

Batman/Static: Beyond follows Batman Beyond as he patrols the neon-lit streets of Neo-Gotham, while Static pioneers a technological revolution with the launch of the Q-Wave Energy Grid. As Earth prepares to join a powerful interplanetary alliance called the Cooperative, the Justice League Beyond stands ready to usher in a new era of peace. But when a mysterious villain triggers a global blackout, the planet’s future hangs in the balance. With technology crippled and chaos rising, Static and Batman Beyond must forge an unlikely alliance and take a grounded approach to saving the world before it’s too late.

“I loved the dynamic Nik set up between Static and Batman in the Milestone 30th Anniversary Specialwhere these characters first teamed up with each other,” said Evan Narcisse, “and the most exciting part of this new project has been exploring how different Terry and Virgil are from each other.”

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“This story is intended to be a commentary on our overreliance on technology and the imminent dangers becoming complacent and too comfortable using AI to substitute our own imagination and human ingenuity,” continued Nikolas Draper-Ivey. “We now use our watches to find our phones, we use our phones to connect to everything else. We don’t rely on our own memories. We rely on technology to remember for us. That deeply concerns me. I worry that we are getting to a point where if all these things were to be suddenly taken away from us in an instant—at the rate we’re going now, humanity will be at a huge disadvantage.”

“Static is a former teen hero who grew up to take on even more responsibility for his city and the larger world, while Terry is still figuring out how to do those things in his own way,” added Narcisse. “Terry’s still a high school student but he’s also got the weight of the Batman mantle and the expectations that come with it as key parts of his life now. As an adult member of the Justice League, Virgil’s at a different part of his journey. But he’s driven by an adolescence where systemic injustice changed what it meant to live in his hometown of Dakota. Their approaches to making the world a safer, more just place are extremely different. That difference energizes the big question they have to deal with: can they learn to work together during a critical moment when everything they’ve taken for granted has fallen apart? The whole creative team is going to try and answer that question in Batman/Static: Beyond with a story where deep emotions collide against the backdrop of an uncertain future.”

Batman/Static: Beyond #1 goes on sale Wednesday, November 12th. Let us know your thoughts on Static’s new costume in the comments below!