Vita Ayala and Nikolas’ Draper-Ivey’s reinvention of Virgil Hawkins for the 2020s comes to a successful end in Static: Season One #6. The plot of the comic is pretty straightforward: Static and his friends are trying to shut down a government black site and rescue some fellow Bang Babies (Aka the metahumans of the Milestone universe.) when they run into other Bang Babies, who are working for the government because of money or other reasons. However, Static Season One has mainly been about Static’s journey so it’s fitting that this comic shows him do incredible things with his electromagnetic abilities.
Best of all, this focus on action in Static: Season One #6 allows Draper-Ivey to flex his skills with layout, poses, and especially color. Kind of like turning up the voltage, Nikolas Draper-Ivey saturates with white space, blue, and cool glitch effects that show the strain that Static is going through to help his friends and get out alive. It’s the climax of some super-kinetic storytelling with Draper-Ivey capturing the greatest hits of a fight scene through speed lines, small panels, and poses straight out of anime. Everything is hyper-stylized and dynamic with the act of throwing a baseball bat turning into a momentum changer as Static’s abilities bleed into almost every panel on the page.
Static has become much more focused with his abilities compared to the early issues, and this visual depiction of him flows directly into Ayala’s words and script, which is all about the importance of community and using anger to create change. Static Season One began with a moment ripped from recent headlines with Virgil Hawkins and the other Bang Babies getting their abilities at a Black Lives Matter protest, and Vita Ayala and Nikolas Draper-Ivey haven’t shied away from exploring the realities of systemic racism and false media narratives. In this issue, Ayala takes aim at the hollowness of the American dream through their writing of the smarmy “G-man” Jones, who unironically extols the virtues of bootstraps capitalism and generally talks shit about folks like Static, who aim to unite their community against injustice.
I might be reading into this a little too much, but Jones’ dialogue, especially about “community building”, reminds me a lot of how Barack Obama was perceived earlier in his political career as a progressive and community organizer. However, he ended up being just another neoliberal imperialist and hasn’t done much in recent years to push back against that, such as ending the 2020 NBA player strike or criticizing the defund the police movement. From his generic name to his shadowy actions, Jones represents the status quo that Static and his friends and family are trying to overturn or shed light on. However, he’s definitely a “Season One” kind of bad guy with Season Two teasing an even more intriguing threat for Static and company.
In the midst of all the fight and cool powers, Ayala and Draper-Ivey don’t neglect the relationship between Static and his family giving them a nice scene bathed in light where he outlines why he wants to be a superhero and their reactions to his plan. It’s only about three pages and most of the characterization has been done in previous issues, but the Hawkinses ground Static giving him a base and set of values as he sets out to change the world and protect his fellow Bang Babies while looking good doing it. You can see what his parents and sister instilled in him through Static’s actions throughout the book, especially as he addresses the whole world via his friend Darius’ streaming rig. (He got some great character development too going from an annoying clout chaser to being Oracle with a Twitch account.
Static: Season One #6 features unique visuals and high energy storytelling from Nikolas Draper-Ivey while showing Static truly coming into his own as a superhero. Vita Ayala and Draper-Ivey use superpowers to explore big universal ideas like family, community, and power structures in an action-driven narrative. I’m definitely looking forward to Season Two, and there’s much to explore with mysterious villains as well as Static’s non-family supporting cast that were such a memorable part of the original comic and WB Kids cartoon.
Written by: Vita Ayala Art by: Nikolas Draper-Ivey
If Static wants to liberate the imprisoned Bang Babies of Dakota, he’s going to have to turn them into an army…and unfortunately for him, he’s also going to have to fight alongside-and even worse, trust-the jerk who tried to burn down his house: Hotstreak!
Blood Syndicate: Season One kicks off May 10 for a new limited series returning the series to Milestone. The six-issue limited series is written by Geoffrey Thorne with art by Chriscross and Juan Castro.
The return of the series has been teased for a while and confirmed at the recent DC Fandome event. The new version reunites Tech-9, Wise Son, and Fade. They return to Paris Island, one of Dakota’s most impoverished boroughs and hit hard by the Big Bang. Both Wise Son and Tech-9 have returned from their military tours in Afghanistan to a Dakota that’s far different from the one they left.
While Dakota’s other heroes have been dealing with some issues, Bang Babies are forming rival gangs and Holocaust is recruiting, gathering a super-powered army.
The debut issue features a main cover by Dexter Soy, with an “OG” (old school) variant cover by Chriscross, a “new school” variant by breakout artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey, and a 1-in-25 ratio variant cover by Juliet Nneka.
Check out the character designs by Chriscross and Wil Quintana below as well as the cover by Dexter Soy.
Written by: Vita Ayala Art by: Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Here’s the good news: Static knows where the government is imprisoning the Bang Babies it’s rounded up off the streets of Dakota. Here’s the bad news: once he’s inside, he may not be getting out!
Even though it was a shitty year overall, I found some great comics to enjoy in 2021, both old and new. Beginning with its “Future State” event, DC easily shot up to become my favorite mainstream publisher thanks to its renewed focus on different visual styles instead of a Jim Lee-esque art style and its emphasis on LGBTQ+ characters even after Pride Month. Vault and Image continued to be the homes of both my favorite creators and SF stories, and AWA, Dark Horse and even Black Mask and Archie had titles that surprised me even if they didn’t make the cut on this list. Finally, continuing a trend that I jumped on in 2020, I continued to read or revisit classic comics (Both old and new) in 2021, like Copra, Invincible, The Umbrella Academy, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman: True Amazon, The Invisibles, Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Force, Hawkeye, and Black Bolt among others.
So, without further ado, here are my ten favorite comics of 2021
Alice in Leatherland is a wholesome, sexy, and hyper-stylized slice of life romance comic from the creative team of Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli. The book is about Alice, a children’s book writer, who leaves her small town for San Francisco when her girlfriend cheats on her and captures the fear and adrenaline of taking a big step in your life. The series explores sex and love through an expansive cast of LGBTQ+ characters that I wanted to spend more than five issues with. Romboli uses fairy tale style visuals as a metaphor to examine Alice’s feelings and self-growth throughout the series, and she excels at depicting both the hilarious and erotic. Alice in Leatherland is an emotional, funny read with well-developed queer characters and made me immediately add Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli to the list of creators I’ll read anything by.
The Autumnalby Daniel Kraus, Chris Shehan, and Jason Wordie was the most unsettling comic I read in 2021. The book follows Kat Somerville and her daughter Sybil as they leave Chicago for the town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire. However, this town isn’t a rural oasis, but incredibly creepy. Kraus’ script unravels the foundation of blood that the town is built on while Shehan and Wordie create tension with the fall of the leaf or a crackle of a branch. I also love how fleshed out Kat is as she deals with being an outsider in what turns out to be an unfriendly space with her parenting style and approach to life being critiqued by her neighbors. Finally, The Autumnal is the finest of slow burns beginning with NIMBY/Karen-like behavior and then going full-on death cult. It’s a must read for anyone who has lived or experienced a place where time seems to stand still, or who thinks a NextDoor app post could be the basis of a good horror story.
Contrary to its title, James Tynion, Guillem March, Steffano Rafaele, Arif Prianto, and others’ TheJokerisn’t a comic looking at the Clown Prince of Crime’s inner psyche, but is a globe-trotting P.I. type story featuring Jim Gordon trying to capture the Joker for some folks that looks shadier and shadier as the story progresses. Tynion and (predominantly) March show the effect Joker has had on Gordon’s life and his family while also showing him discover himself outside the bounds of Gotham and its police department. As the series progresses, TheJoker shows the impact that Batman and his rogue’s gallery have had on the rest of the world, and the ways governments, intelligence agencies, and more nefarious organizations deal with threats of their ilk. Along with a crime novel set in present time, James Tynion, Matthew Rosenberg, and the virtuosic Francesco Francavilla created several flashback comics showing the development of Jim Gordon’s relationship with the Joker over the years, and how it effected his family life and career almost acting as a “Year One” for Gordon as Francavilla’s art style shifts based on the era the story is set in. Plus most issues of Joker feature colorful backup stories with Harper Row trying to bring Joker’s newest ally Punchline to justice in and out of prison from Tynion, Sam Johns, Sweeney Boo, Rosi Kampe, and others.
Kane and Able is a dual-cartoonist anthology featuring work by British cartoonists Shaky Kane and Krent Able. Kane’s stories flow together in a Jack Kirby-meets-David Lynch kind of way blurring the lines between fiction and metafiction, reality and unreality while also acting as an opportunity for him to draw cool things like dinosaurs, space women, aliens, the King of Comics, and even himself. Able’s stories have more of a grindhouse, body horror quality to him as a chainsaw-wielding Bear Fur battles a boom box wielding cockroach woman, who flesh bonds everyone in a listless, major city. Both creators have delightful, distinctive styles and put their own spin on genres like sci-fi, exploitation, and superhero. Kane and Able is free-flowing, clever, and most of all, fun and is tailor made for the larger page format of treasury editions.
As far as pure visuals go, Static Season One by Vita Ayala, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, and ChrisCross was easily one of the best looking books on the stands in 2021. This was in addition to reinventing the iconic Black superhero through the lens of contemporary social movements, like Black Lives Matter and protests against police brutality in summer of 2020. Static Season One doesn’t merely pay homage to the classic Milestone series, but brings it into 2021 with fight sequences straight out of the best shonen manga and a three dimensional supporting cast that holistically explore the Black experience in the United States while also being a coming of age and superhero origin tale. Draper-Ivey’s character designs are sleek as hell, and his high energy approach to color palette adds intensity to fight and chase scenes. I’m excited to see what the talented creative duo of Ayala and Nikolas Draper-Ivey bring to Static’s journey as Season One wraps up and Season Two (hopefully) begins in 2022.
5. Renegade Rule (Dark Horse)
Renegade Rule is an original graphic novel from Ben Kahn, Rachel Silverstein, and Sam Beck that is a perfect fusion of a sports manga and a queer romance story set in the world of competitive video games. Even if you’re like me and have only attempted to play Overwatch a single time, Renegade Rule and its world are quite accessible via things like hypercompetitiveness, sexual tension, and breathtaking fight choreography. The in-game sequences are almost like musical numbers and use shooting, sniping, and various acrobatics to make characters’ unspoken thoughts real. Renegade Rule is like if your favorite sports movie and romantic comedy had a gay baby who loved kicking ass at video games, and I pumped my fist every time the Manhattan Mist overcame adversity or overwhelming odds and smiled when certain characters ended up with each other…
After a four year absence from interior art, co-writer/artist J.H. Williams III didn’t mess around with Echolands, a love letter to both genre fiction and double page spreads. Done in collaboration with co-writer Haden Blackman and colorist Dave Stewart, Echolands is an epic fantasy quest loaded up with all kinds of genres and art styles leaking off the page and was one of the most immersive comics I read in 2021. It has a sprawling cast and world, but Blackman and Williams know when to slow down and dig into Hope Redhood and her allies and antagonists’ motivations and when to drop in a multi-page underwater or underground chase sequence. With its unique landscape layouts and all the details in J.H. Williams and Stewart’s visuals, Echolands is definitely a book worth picking up in physical format and has backmatter that both humorously and seriously adds to the worldbuilding.
In honor of Pride Month, DC Comics put some of its most talented LGBTQ+ creators on its most iconic LGBTQ+ characters in a super-sized celebration of overcoming adversity, being yourself, and loving whoever you want to love. DC Pride covered a spectrum of sexual and gender identities from a fast-paced date night story featuring the non-binary Flash, Jess Chambers, to James Tynion and Trung Le Nguyen’s fairy tale influenced story of Batwoman’s younger days and even the first appearance of transgender superhero Dreamer (From the Supergirl TV show) in the comics. Depending on the character or creative team, the different stories could be adventurous and flirtatious, heartfelt and emotional, or a bit of both. This book shows that superhero comics have come a long way since the stereotypes of the 1980s and 1990s, but there’s still room for improvement as many of the characters featured in this anthology are relegated to backup stories or are supporting cast members of cisgender, heterosexual heroes.
Barbalien: Red Planet is a masterfully crafted, queer rage infused superhero/sci-fi comic from Jeff Lemire, Tate Brombal, Gabriel Walta, and Jordie Bellaire. It understands subtext is for cowards and draws parallels between Barbalien coming out as gay and a Martian with his new friend/potential lover Miguel, who is a Latino activist fighting for the US government to do something about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Barbalien: Red Planet pays homage to the Black and Latinx activists who fought for queer liberation and is also an emotionally honest character study for Barbalien, who is easily my favorite character in the Black Hammer universe. Lemire, Brombal, and Walta use the superhero and sword and planet genres to explore the conflict between queer folks and power structures as Barbalien struggles with trying to fit into Spiral City as a white cop or being his true, gay Martian self. And to get personal for a second, Barbalien: Red Planet inspired me to speak out against my city’s Pride organization’s open support of police even though it led to me resigning as chairperson of my work’s LGBTQ+ employee affinity group. It’s both a damn good superhero book and a story that had a huge impact on my life in 2020-2021.
My favorite comic of 2021 was Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans that wrapped up with the mother of all quest arcs. But beyond having cool fantasy landscapes and wrapping up each party member’s arc, Die nailed the importance of stories, whether games, comics, films, prose, TV shows etc., to change how we view and interact with the world in both a heightened and realistic manner. Most of the realism came in Die #20 where the main characters escape the world of the game into our reality with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing and have emotional reunions with loved ones or just hang out by themselves. However, the final arc of Die also is full of existential nightmares courtesy of Hans’ visuals as well as awakenings and self-realization, especially in Die #19 where Ash comes out as non-binary and discusses how games and fiction shaped their identity. The final issues of Die is a double-edged look at the power of narrative and games to shape us done in both glorious and surprisingly intimate fashion, and I felt I really knew Ash, Matt, Angela, Isabelle, Matt, Chuck, and Sol in the end.
Honorable Mentions: Casual Fling (AWA), Nightwing (DC), Made in Korea (Image), Barbaric (Vault), Superman and the Authority (DC), Catwoman: Lonely City (DC/Black Label)
I’ve generally enjoy the reboot of the Milestone line of comics. Each series has had a different focus and voice but all come together for a bigger story. Static launched the line with a youthful experience, energy, and style. There’s been some choices I’ve felt have been a little odd but overall, it’s an interesting story and direction. Static: Season One #3 amplifies some of the concerns I had but those concerns are a feature, not a bug.
Writer Vita Ayala has taken a familiar concept and given it a twist with the series. The story of a teenager gaining powers and having to learn to use them, and find a guiding focus, isn’t anything that’s new. It’s a formula that’s been done over and over. What Ayala is doing that’s different is putting those powers front and center. While there’s some kids who are hiding their powers, overall, a lot of the “discovery” is front and center. That works in some ways and not in others.
Static: Season One #3 really moves the story of the “Bang babies” forward. The government is making their moves to capture those who have powers seeing them as a threat. Virgil, meanwhile, is having issues of his own with some of the police have him cornered after his seeking help. The idea of powers being more out in the open is an interesting one. It changes up the familiar formula we’ve seen before, but also leaves issues with characters like Static who people have seen use his powers. Why the government is banging down his door needs to be explained a little better. It’s easy to just explain away as “optics” but it’s something that’s not being done well enough. That “issue” is the slight hang-up I have with the series so far.
But, Ayala keeps some of what works with the formula around and it works really well. There’s friendship and family at the center of the comic and it leaves its hero with a support structure you don’t see often. This isn’t the hero on an island on his own with the burden of life on his shoulders. There’s a support group here that works and adds a layer to the series. Ayala also does a great job of explaining what the characters are able to do and why. Why is Virgil able to sew a costume? There’s an element of show as well as tell that makes events go down a bit smoother in a way.
Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Chriscross each take a bit of the story. Draper-Ivey and Wil Quintana handle the color with Andworld Design doing the lettering. The art continues to be a solid aspect of the series with a style about it that enhances the youthful vigor of the comic. It’s a great example of voice and visuals matching as far as the tone.
Static: Season One #3 is a good comic. It takes some of my concerns and attempts to use them to shake a familiar formula up. We’ll see how well it does that in future issues, but for now it’s clear the series is doing things a bit different and keeping things fresh and interesting.
There was a lot of pressure and high expectations from Static: Season One #1 which marked the return of Milestone! It met them and then some. Does Static: Season One #2 keep the quality up?
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Story: Vita Ayala Art: Nikolas Draper-Ivey, ChrisCross
Virgil Hawkins learns that a secret identity is a tricky thing when his high school bully gets upgraded to his super-powered archnemesis! But if he thinks the fires of Hotstreak burn hot, then he definitely isn’t ready for the white-hot anger of his parents, when they learn what he’s brought to their front door…
Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.
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Dynamic and crackling with energy. That’s a great way to describe Static: Season One #1, the ongoing start to the Dakotaverse. After far too long on the shelf, the world launched by the trailblazers at Milestone decades ago returns for a new take for a new time. Even with such high expectations and pressure, Static: Season One #1 is a solid debut that has me excited for more.
With a story by Vita Ayala, the debut issue delivers a nice mix of teenage issues and superhero action. Ayala focuses on the angst of what a kid’s to do when he develops superpowers. Layered on top of an underlying story about a proliferation of powers in general and you have a comic that’s your coming-of-age teen superhero story mixed with social awareness.
The story has a clear focus on Virgil’s struggle with his powers. But, there’s a parable aspect to it with the expansion of powers among the youth. For those who missed Milestone Returns #0, police used an experimental gas to disperse a protest resulting in powers emerging from some individuals. Dubbed “Bang Babies”, the protestors are blamed for what happened to them, not those who perpetrated the crimes. The situation can be applied to so many different real-world situations that it works well. Readers can come at the comic from their own experience and perspective that way though all stemming from an injustice and victims being blamed for the actions taken against them.
But through all of that Ayala reminds us that Virgil is a kid. He plays roleplaying games and has trouble asking out girls. He’s worried about his grades. His family talks at him as opposed to him. And as we’ve seen, he must deal with bullies, a situation far too many can relate to.
The layouts by Chriscross are fantastic. With finishes and colors by Nikolas Draper-Ivey, the comic is beautiful to look at. There’ a youthful energy about it that’s hard to ignore. The page layouts at times pop and all the time feel fresh. This is a comic that has a look and feel that’s perfectly in-sync between the writer, artists, and the characters. What’s impressive is there are some pages and spreads that are packed. But, at no time does it feel overwhelming or cluttered. It’s beautiful to look at playing off the blue energy Virgil’s struggling to keep in.
The comic is fantastic. There is some choppiness at times with some jumps in scenes and some disbelief as to who knows about the events of Milestone Returns #0 but it’s a hell of a fun start. Ayala delivers a balance of action of the grounded issues of growing up. It delivers a start in a classic style of superhero stories with a look that’s full of energy. Static: Season One #1 is a hell of a start that’s well worth checking out and the start of something exciting.
