Static Shock – 38flashback

When Static becomes involved with a metahuman who can manipulate time-space, he is thrown back in time and encounters his mother.

Media by Bird Boy; Pans by Borg4of3
Review by Matt Zimmer

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley/Gear
Alfre Woodard as Jean Hawkins
Rachael MacFarlane as Nina/Flashback
Gary Sturgis as Ebon
Kevin Michael Richardson as Robert Hawkins
Michele Morgan as Sharon Hawkins
Maria Canals as Shelly Sandoval
 

Static time-travels back to the Dakota riots to meet his mother and prevent her death in this incredibly moving episode.

The episode opens with a statue being erected to honor the heroes who died in the Dakota riots including Virgil’s mother. Later Static and
Gear see Ebon chasing a girl who turns out to be a meta-human with the power to move through time. They rescue her and she decides to become a superhero named Timezone to use her powers to help people. Static convinces her and Gear to go back five years to the riots in Dakota to save his mom and Ebon manages to go with them.

In the past Virgil meets his mother and tells her he is Virgil from the future. She says how proud she is of him. He warns to her stay put because she is in danger and she promises to. Meanwhile Ebon kidnaps
Timezone and Gear tracks them to Alva industries where Ebon steals a truck full of Big Bang gas to create an earlier Big Bang he can control.
Static and Gear stop him but Static sees his mother back to work as a rescue worker before the remote Timezone uses shorts out and they are pulled back to the future along with Ebon and the truck. Timezone says her powers are too dangerous and vows to go back in time to make sure she is never affected by the Big Bang. Virgil runs home and realizes that his mother still died in the riots. Robert tells him that on the night she died he remembered her telling him that she was very proud of
Virgil and that he was her hero.

Wow. This was a spectacular episode and one of the best half hour’s this show has ever produced. The amount of emotion that is in this episode was intense. I was in tears by the end helped along by Phil Lamarr’s astonishing performance as Virgil. Everything about the episode clicked.
Nina/Timezone was a cool guest star voiced by Racheal MacFarlane (sister of Seth) and I really liked how she prevented herself at the end from getting her powers in the first place. The scene between Virgil and
Robert was so moving at the end. This episode was awesome from start to finish.

The animation was great too. Timezone’s costume was neat and the rioter’s seen in shadow were creepy. An almost flawless episode that stands among the very best of not only Static Shock but the DCAU as well.

Story: *****
Animation: *****
Average: *****