Static Shock – 03breed

Virgil’s friend Derek, a track athlete, is transformed into an ionic energy being recruited by Ebon, the malevolent leader of the
Meta-Breed, and it’s up to Static to convince his friend to resist joining the group before it’s too late.

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Matt Zimmer

Sketch: Ebon

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley
Bumper Robinson as Derek Barnett/D-Struct
Gary Sturgis as Ebon
Danica McKellar as Frieda
Telma Hopkins as Mrs. Barnett
Michele Morgan as Sharon Hawkins
Kevin Michael Richardson as Robert Hawkins
Tia Texada as Talon
Brian Tochi as Shiv
 

Static meets Ebon and the Meta-Breed for the first time.

Virgil is tutoring a popular athletic kid named Derek when Derek starts to get cramps. He leaves and then transformed into a bang baby with a monstrous appearance. Not knowing how to control his new powers the city of Dakota runs away from him frightened after he accidentally causes an a police car to crash. Derek runs away and meets a metahuman with shadow-based powers named Ebon. Ebon renames Derek D-Struct and convinces him to join his gang, the Meta-Breed whose members include
Shiv, who is able to create light based weapons and Talon, a girl who has been turned into a half-bird metahuman. Ebon then tries to recruit
Static too but Static turns him down flatly and soon realizes that D-Struct is, in fact Derek. After visiting Derek’s mom’s house Virgil and Richie learn than Derek has been missing for four days. Meanwhile the Breed commits a robbery and Static is nearly killed by D-Struct who feels incredibly guilty afterwards. Static turns out to be okay and visits the
Breed’s lair in an abandoned subway system and convinces Derek to go home to his mother. Ebon tries to stop him and is jointly defeated by
Static and Derek.

At the end of the episode Derek and his mother are reunited and Derek lets doctors study him for research on a Bang Baby cure.

I really like this show even if this wasn’t the strongest or most exciting episode. Ebon is a great villain whose return appearances are even better than this one. I liked the rubbery animation style used to animate Ebon’s early shadow tricks. This episode also had a few nice touched like a Lois Lane reference (which to nitpicking geeks could show that Superman is fictional in the early Static-verse) although I prefer to think that Lois is simply so famous that even kids in Dakota High knoew who she is. I also like that two of the streets in the episode were named Milestone and Cowan, after the company that published the
Static Shock comics and one of Static’s creators, respectively.

Besides Ebon the animation wasn’t very good in this episode and the story is nothing we haven’t seen before. I liked the episode but I’ve seen this show achieve really great heights and am going to grade it accordingly.

Story: ***1/2
Animation: **1/2
Average: ***