Static Shock – 10bent

Sharon’s new boyfriend, a musician, is revealed to be Static’s old nemesis Rubberband Man, who recently escaped from prison. This time,
Rubberband Man will stop at nothing to reveal Static’s secret identity, and with Sharon hiding him right under Virgil’s nose at home, the odds are stacked against our hero, big time.

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Matt Zimmer

Sketch: Sharon

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley
Kadeem Hardison as Rubberband Man
Kevin Michael Richardson as Robert Hawkins
Crystal Scales as Daisy
Michele Morgan as Sharon Hawkins
Kimberly Brooks as Puff
Leo Donato as Bouncer
Carlos Ferro as Effects Technician

Rubberband Man returns and it turns out he's dating Sharon!

The episode starts at a concert by a man named Stringer whom Sharon is dating (to Virgil's shock). A technician warns Stringer that the light show he plans for the concert could be dangerous but Stringer brushes him off. During the concert the pyro-technics start a fire and the building has to be evacuated. After Static tries to grab Stringer it is revealed that he is Rubberband Man in disguise. He escapes vowing revenge on Static.

Sharon is miserable that Stringer is now on the run. While Static searches for Rubberband Man two meta-humans named Puff and Onyx decide to capture the wanted criminal who escaped from prison and collect the bounty on him. After a tussle with Static Virgil's identity is nearly revealed as Puff and Onyx crash the scene to capture Stringer. Stringer decides to ask Sharon for help and Sharon says she'll talk to her father who has connections in the police department if Stringer promises to give himself up. Stringer agrees. When Virgil comes home he is alarmed to see Rubberband Man but even more so when Puff and Onyx who had been spying break down his front door giving Stringer chase. After a battle with the two-would be bounty hunters Rubberband Man helps Static rescue
Onyx and Puff from a collapsed bleacher stand and vows to end his feud with Static. He goes back to prison promising to do his time and go back to Sharon when he is finally released.

This was a decent episode. I liked the animation at the beginning in the concert. The fire that broke out is actually quite alarming considering how a real fire broke out a year ago at a concert that killed a lot of people. It makes the fire in the episode quite sobering when realizing that the episode pre-dated the fire and is indeed a realistic fear.

The meat-and-potatoes of the episode is Rubberband Man and his relationship with Sharon which will bring about his reformation in his next appearance. I always liked Rubberband the best out of all of the
Static Shock characters and it was really neat seeing his evolution from a villain to a hero. He also delivered on of the great lines of the show in this episode: "Don't sit on me again."

The episode's biggest flaw is that we aren't really made to see what
Sharon sees in Stringer. It's just established at the beginning of the episode that the two are in love and we are to take that at face value.
It's a little bit hard to be honest as we aren't exactly sure how they met or started their relationship. It seems almost like the writers just threw them together to create a conflict with Static that would lead to
Rubberband Man's reformation.

That said I did enjoy the episode and was glad that Static had a villain who actually decided to reform. I've had enough of phony reformations on the Batman cartoon.

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