Static Shock – 50wetwild

When Hotstreak sabotages an experiment that would have turned Aqua
Maria back to normal, her wrath threatens all of Dakota.

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Matt Zimmer

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley/Gear
Crystal Scales as Daisy
Danny Cooksey as Hotstreak
Ed Begley Jr. as Dr. Donald Todd
Cree Summer as Candide, Announcer
Yeni Alvarez as Aqua Maria
Kevin Michael Richardson as Bernie Rast

After failing to be cured of the Bang Baby syndrome by an experimental procedure Aquamaria goes on the warpath.

Hotstreak and Aquamaria go on a crime spree and Aquamaria is captured by
Static and Gear. They take her to a doctor who is experimenting on a new treatment to cure the Bang Babies. Aquamaria agrees to give it a try.
While the experiment is going on Hotstreak sneaks in the lab and because he doesn't want to see her cured sabotages the experiment which causes
Aquamaria to lose the ability to hold her water shape into a solid form.
She goes down the drain.

She later kidnaps the doctors to force them to cure her but they fail.
She also finds out Hotsreak's part in her downfall and goes ballistic on him. She escapes in the sewers to try to get to Dakota Lake which would increase her powers. The scientists give the cure to Gear and Gear manages to figure out how to make it work this time and he and Static confront her. They release the cure in her and she becomes human again.
Static and Gear both surmise that the Bang Baby problem may b e coming to an end with a cure at hand.

I liked this episode. True, it sets up Power Outage which was not an episode to Dwayne McDuffie's intentions of the series or even liking but
I think it's only fair for me to judge a story on how it went down and not how it COULD have gone down.

Hotstreak was sympathetic here. Something tells me Aquamaria was one of the few people in his life who ever cared about him and it makes sense that he didn't want to risk losing her. We also see some of his disdain for doctors here which was first touched upon in No Man's an Island. No matter what anyone says about the fourth season this WAS the season that made the most effort to tie everything together.

The Aquamaria water effects were beautiful. I think this show was just starting to get REALLY tightly animated when it ended. I liked the episode and wish that the show had lasted another season.

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