Static Shock – 49linked

Static and Gear help an up-and-coming football star who is being blackmailed by Chainlink, a powerful metahuman.

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Matt Zimmer

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley/Gear
Michele Morgan as Sharon Hawkins
Bumper Robinson as Chainlink
Sean Donnellan as Reporter
Marshall Jones as Dule
Michael Clarke Duncan as Rashid "The Rocket" Randall
Kevin Michael Richardson as Robert Hawkins

A young man with a bright future in basketball is terrified that the world will know his secret.

Virgil, Sharon, Richie and Robert are invited to a basketball game by an up and coming player named Dule Jones. Sharon used to counsel him before he became a success and he tries to impress her. Later a Bang Baby with tentacles coming out of his back named Chainlink attacks Dule as he is driving Sharon, Richie and Virgil home. He escapes but Chainlink breaks into his mansion and says that since they are old friends Dule should pay him most of his salary or he will tell the world that he is a Bang
Baby with similar powers, ruining any future career in pro sports.

Dule meets with Chainlink at a warehouse and tries to finish him off when Static and Gear arrive, following Chainlink and try to stop him.
Sharon also happens by and is horrified that Dule tried to kill his former friend and that he is a Bang Baby. Dule admits his whole story and says that he never wanted Sharon to find out because he wanted to impress her. At the next game Dule makes a public announcement and is about to reveal he's a Bang Baby when Chainlink attacks him. He fights back, revealing his powers and defeats Chainlink with the help of Static and Gear and the crowd cheers for Dule, not caring that he is a Bang
Baby.

I have to say I found this episode rather pointless. I'm not sure why an entire episode is revolved around a character I know nothing about, doesn't seem very sympathetic after trying to kill Chainlink, and is a person we have nothing invested in is spotlighted in a show that's
SUPPOSED to be about Static. Static's a guest star in his own show at this point and since it ISN'T a celebrity or DCAU crossover it just seems like a waste of a half-hour. The story itself is competently told,
I suppose but really, in a show called Static Shock I want to see a story about Static or at least a person Static even KNOWS.

The animation was good this episode though. I thought all of the chain links looked nice and creepy. Still, I'm wondering why they bothered making this episode. Yes, it was written by Robert Goodman who knows a thing or two about spotlighting other characters on a show like The
Zeta Project but Static Shock hardly has the same structure as that show and it just doesn't work here.

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