"From time to time we receive letters from readers who wonder why there’s so much moralizing in our mags. They take great pains to point out that comics are supposed to be escapist reading and nothing more. But somehow, I can’t see it that way. It seems to me that a story without a message, however subliminal, is like a man without a soul." - Stan Lee (1970)
I took the time to listen to you and I appreciate your input, I do remember the STATIC SHOCK tackling race issue but regardless I love the show, I am still thinking of just collecting all the old STATIC SHOCK comics and getting a Blu-ray DVD of STATIC SHOCK original series. Cause he is one of my favorite African American superheroes!
my dislike is when they do it in a way that doesn't fit well with the story, or when it starts looking like a psa rather than a story, static tends to mix politics and story fairly well so in regards to static i have no complaints.
I am perfectly fine fine with the changes to statics origin. This origin makes more sense to me as despite peer pressure and gang violence being a common occurance in life, him going to a gang fight felt of for me and with the alterations in Virgil's home life in the new version that makes the protest even more of a natural thing for Virgil to do. I have always loved static since I first saw the show and this comic book has got me hyped so much
There's a lot of non white characters in comics. A lot. Nobody does anything with them though. That's the problem. If you don't believe me go to Wikipedia and type in non white or minority comic book characters. Or just African American comic book characters.
The episode of Static referenced that tackles racism from his best friend's father was 1) fantastic, and 2) recently shown in its entirety, without any ad breaks, at DC Fandome. That completely free, online event that I thought a bunch of us DC nerds showed up to watch. I would think that the episode, its core messages, and the political nature of Static and Milestone would be fresh on peoples' minds after Fandome where I believe this comic was first announced along with the Milestone relaunch. I personally love it when comics can balance very real and important themes/messages with their super heroism. You get the best of both worlds really, a fun, action packed adventure with cool characters, and the opportunity through story telling for the characters and audience to learn about how other people see the world. Static pulled this balance off extremely well in its time and I hope this new comic and manage the same.
When Drake played the clip I was honestly surprised they actually used the word "racism." Not enough stories, especially those directed at kids, say it so blatantly and it's great
@@owenslaughter9438 I agree, I said in my comment how the episode of the show referenced in the video was fantastic, the show did the same balancing act with super hero/teen antics and heavier messaging to its audience as the early comics did. I hope the same for this new material.
@@jackkelly9048 Oh agreed just had to throw a joke in there. I totally agree. I just have little hope for the comics and new shows because they don't have the same maturity that a show aimed at kids in the early 2000s.
I used to be majorly bigoted towards all sorts of groups, be it African Americans, gays, Trans people, etc. Growing up with my family didn't really help. All it really takes is to get informed. I was incredibly ignorant, and was in an echo chamber of that same ignorance. Part of my rehabilitation has been the creators I looked up to speaking the facts against this ignorance, and I can't thank you enough for providing the same to so many people.
People that say comics shouldn’t be political seem to forget a huge amount of their favourite superheroes made their first appearances punching Hitler.
@@bool_aid_man510 so long as they’re responsible for the suffering of others based on characteristics they can’t control, they’re both worthy of being punched by a superhero
@@bool_aid_man510 no it's not. Oppression and murder is the same no matter what your name or job title is. Being a cop doing suddenly make it ok to break the law and hurt others
Yea issues like a power plant exploding basically in your face from a shoot out and experimental tear gas giving you power it happened to me last week (this is a joke btw)
And that the gas that mutated then was throw by the police and was supossed to track then? And that gang violence and the pipeline that forces black and poor kids to join then are the central conflict for most of the run? Like wtf
This is why I like your channel, it's not afraid to go political when it's necessary and you bring up facts from past comics and shows that prove its not too different from past politics. Every thing isn't black and white with politics as most people think, there is a Grey area where people choose not to think about.
Dude, no. It's not simply because the new comic is "political", many are oblivious to the real problem. The comic is a propaganda in disguise, and it's biased. BLM's leaders profit by exploiting black people, and use that money to buy private mansions. Meanwhile, poor black people receive almost nothing. BLM is just a demagogic scam.
@@Ronin-lb5ij the comic is literally the experience of a black teenager in modern times of course it's going to be political and BLM is going to be mentioned and how police brutality happens on a daily basis and the impact on Virgil life, so yes BLM Will be mentioned who knows the founders buying that mansion may be mentioned this is the first issue give it a chance. Drake did an absolutely wonderful job in describing the issue.
Yes exactly, it's also really important that a white dude like Drake (or me) is out there saying these things because we need to be part of the solution, and the first step is not being afraid to talk about.
@@ureadthisurgay1057 you're definitely trolling but I'm saying this for the audience: cis white men also suffer under the patriarchy, and our boy Drake here is *obviously* talking to his fellow men, while reminding his audience that *there are better sources* for these kinds of topics. We're working as allies.
The sons of the father episode stuck hard with me...when I was younger I was kinda kicked out of my best friends house by him because his dad came home and found me there in 6th grade then again in 10th...no reason more than being black but noone understood what that felt like...that episode made me feel like I wasn't alone
When I was young we often had to get on the floor because of constant shootings in the projects and it was done by other people who looked like me. But I’m sure you had it worse…
@@xstarsxromenguyen9854 I don't think that is what he was comparing himself too🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️ he just made a statement... What happened to you was wrong as well but don't make it seem like what happened to him was somehow less effective in his life ... I didn't have either experience but I empathize with both of you because your my brothers and I actually care what you have gone through and what you go through... Where not supposed to be tearing each other down that's what they want us to do so stop it .. thank God your still alive and a stray bullet didn't find you .. because many have died from them you should definitely understand that part..
I agree 100% with your video. Saying the new Static Shock is "too woke" is nonsense because it always had important real-life issues such as homelessness, hopelessness, race, biggotry, drug abuse, gun violence and even general injustice. I will say that you being a White male and being so passionate about all of this speaks volumes and I am glad you did this. I've never been one to hate anyone based on race or sexual orientation. Stupid comes in all races and all genders, and so does goodness. Hell, I'm mixed with so much shit that if I was racist, I'd only be hating part of myself. I could go on and on, but I'll just end this by saying I look forward to more Static Shock and more of your content. Subscribed!
Yes, supporting an organization that screwed, robbed and murdered people for an incident manipulated for political interest to make a criminal aggressor of a saint. If you continue to support BLM, let's see how much money you gave them because they kept it and didn't help anyone lol hahaha PS: Go read RippaVerse better, that's a comic like before, not this new shit that they ruined.
I have created a new backstory forStatic. It keeps Virgil getting bullied by Heatwave and his revenge plot, but it has updated circumstances in the origin. He grabs his dad's gun to kill Heatwave. He finds Heatwave, Heatwave's gang and other gangs, causing riots using the "BLM" movement, to justify their actions, but they don't believe in the cause and just want to cause chaos. So, Virgil using his dad's gun tries to stop Heatwave, and proclaim that Heatwave doesn't believe in the BLM movement. Then the police come in teargassing the rioters and Virgil- This tear gas as you expect give them superpowers. The rioters and Virgil manages to escape. __ I think this backstory address and reflects on how people try to use the BLM to cause chaos -Jake Paul Meanwhile other people, who actually believe in the movement stop these rioters. Edit: Yes, I mixed up with heatwave and hot streak, my bad. Add ons: We will still have Wade peer pressuring Virgil to take action against hotstreak, but instead Virgil takes one of his father's gun. After the Big Bang, Virgil would throw away the gun, since everyone loves that moment, and is integral to his character growth. The Big Bang would still happen on Blood Island.
Why is it so important for non black people that static picks up a gun? I don't understand yalls attachment to him picking up a gun. That was an issue 30 years ago not today. Static would touch a gun today this isn't og static because Dwayne McDuffie is dead and the lesson he wanted to teach then was taught. And now with this new lesson why is it uber important for yall to keep writing terrible origin stories that don't fit today at all and keep him attached to guns? That makes no sense. So please explain it to me
@@Aries_5916 "non-black"? I'm black and I wanted Static to pick up the gun because it shows character. He had the opportunity to kill his bully and get away with it yet didn't because he CHOOSES not to kill the guy. This shows the audience the type of character he is before gaining superpowers. Why he is a superhero and not a supervillain.
As someone who hates the new Static origin let me explain. It's not that it's political, it's that it takes away a core concept of Virgil's character. When he was powerless he was peer pressured into joining a gang and actively thought about killing his school bullies. Yes Virgil makes the right decision and tosses the gun before becoming Static, but in a moment of powerlessness he almost becomes a gangbanging murderer. It lets him connect to the villains he fights because he was almost there. To me that's a core concept of the character that's gone if he just got his powers from a BLM protest because then Virgil no longer has a past that lets him connect to villains. The only way he stays the same is if you see attending a BLM protest as a bad thing. I don't. I don't take issue with Virgil attending BLM protests, your video more than highlights moments from the original series of comics and cartoons that support that for his character, I take issue with the gang elements being completely eliminated from Virgil's origin.
JAC 073 Typical excuse making. It's *NEVER* for the reason that thousands of people are stating is it? Even though most of these people are politically driven and are saying in plain english that they hate it cause it's "political" somehow that isn't true just cause of you? Your reason for being part of bigoted and anti-black movements is always something other than being anti-black. Even though these kinds of reactions only come towards inclusive characters
The new origin makes me concerned that some of the supervillains will come from the BLM side. Otherwise, you’ve got an entire group of protestors on the BLM side with superpowers, which kind of lowers the stakes for Static as a superhero as he’ll have way too many allies helping him out. Static should be able to tackle BLM without changing his origin story.
I can agree on the political part, but shouldn't that conflict on the gang problem and all the villains? There was a logical explanation why most of the people affected by the gas became super villains, since they were already criminals. Now that most of the people are legit protesters, the origin of lots of villians over a legit protest cause may do more harm than good. I am saying this without reading the material, since I live in Brazil and have no possibility to reach it, speacially because my currency over dollar is ridiculous.
Making it BLM was a given, but I'd rather they do something along the lines of Static being an already established hero in Dakota with this protest giving way for a new Big Bang; thus introducing some new metas into the world. That way it doesn't get rid of the growth he had in his origin through him getting rid of his gun n whatnot. No disrespect to Mcduffie's colleagues, but they aren't him. They had huge fights and creative differences back in the day, which led up to Milestones downfall. I hope the new books good but given the current writer's track record, I'm not holding my breath.
I agree. For me the issue wasn't including BLM, there was no way that wasn't going to happen in a Static comic written in 2021, it was that it took away from Mcduffie's original Static origin which was a very powerful story that should have been kept. People don't mess with the core concepts of Batman or Spider-Man's origin story. Static shouldn't have been any different. It was timeless and still relevant to today's world.
Just Phil So are you saying he wouldn't associate blm with his comic? I doubt he wouldn't. I know a lot of whyte people have probably gotten people like you to turn against a movement that simply affirms black lives, but maybe don't take on the sentiments and perspectives of people who might be part of the problem. And find every reason they can to b!tch about black people in media as long as the media champions black people
@@Scoring57 He didn’t say that. He was hoping to keep the established origin static had and use the protest as a new starting point. Shifting away from a new origin about a young static to an established static dealing with a fallout of new metas from a second Big Bang. Sort of like how they revisit high school Spider-Man often but some fans prefer adult Spider-Man because context is different especially if the original audience has matured.
Yoo, you reminded me of why I loved Static Shock as a kid. As a non-American, it was interesting to see a perspective of a black hero's experience and life. Had static came out in this era, reactionary garbage will call it 'woke', even for its time.
It was so good. The only one I’ve heard before is the one specifically showing why “All Lives Matter” protesters make no sense. “If you go to a breast cancer awareness march or fundraiser and start screaming about “ALL CANCERS MATTER”, the whole point of this is that this is to bring awareness to this specific cancer that affects certain people. While you’re technically not wrong, you’re diminishing the effects of this problem and you’re just an asshole.”
I’ve been going back and reading a lot of the old Milestone comics as they’ve been uploaded to the DC Universe app. Anyone saying that they’ve only become political now has never read those comics.
@@devilslayer3548 He just f^cking told you it's political and you're still arguing. And why should people have to hide political aspects of a story? If you disagree with the idea that black lives matter or become upset that the idea is expressed in a comic cause it's a relevant and harmful issue then you're probably just racist.
@@codyhumble7855 sadly comics have always been about a lot of propaganda. Think about it. What better way to influence youth than to shoehorn it into their entertainment. And honestly a lot of it can be good. Great. The sad thing is, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. People use good motivation practices for pure selfish means. And always end up like a wolf in sheep's clothing to get everyone to side with them, so that the herd willfully is manipulated by them.
Yeah, I remember a lot of episodes with Virgil being extremely progressive and "woke" as some would call him now a days. The show was big on trying to push a more progressive message while also tackling many problems kids, teens, and even adults had to deal with and still have to deal with. Hell, many of the episodes are still relevant today, be them gun violence and shootings, gang violence, homelessness, mental illness, bullying, racism, ignorance and blind hatred. I feel like Static is needed now more than ever BECAUSE we're not getting better, and kids today need a role model like him again.
No he wouldn't. Why would he go to some ethnic baiting shit show whose head honcho was caught embezzling money from donations and buying 4 houses in While neighborhoods? His father definitely wouldn't want him going.
@@carbootstudios2459 It's better to just ignore it, they always try the "racist are outraged about X or Y" tactic to try to sell anything, when they flop it's not because what they made was bad or because, in this case at least, black people weren't going in hordes to buy this and make it succeful but because those damn racist are so racist they didn't buy the comic that calls them racist, that's why american comics are going out of bussiness, the outrages actually comes down to "people didn't like it, they will no longer buy or consume anything from this new iteration" and that's somehow problematic
Im still shocked that, to this day, certain people STILL say stuff like “but comic books arent supposed to be political” even though they’ve been political SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING!
You're telling me that when Siegel and Shuster had Superman stop wars and battle abusive prison wardens and corrupt politicians they were making some kind of political statement? HOLY SHIT Mind blown! /s
@@galactic85 my favorite is always when someone goes like “My favorite non political comic book is Watchmen” and everyone with at least a quarter of their brain is just sitting there like 😐
Technically it is political themed not political there is a difference but clearly people like you can't see the difference between them. Lets not forget that most if not all had politics in the background not in peoples faces.
While yes I do think they’re annoying and are hypocritical, I can see where they are coming from. I think what they are trying to say is that politics shouldn’t be in your face and inserted into the story when it isn’t really needed. And I do get that, no one wants to read a comic that lectures them
My problem with the new static is the fact he never go to the point of: "I shouldn't be taking lives" He can support BLM even though there are alot of BLM riots that go mad due to: -Bad eggs (people arent supporting them at all) -Police inflitrants -Selfish assholes -People who take it too far. If "in my opinion" I would do it like this. He can be a peacefull BLM protester, but just put in some bullies that will show: "Hey look at these loser, siding with rioters." Of course.. the bullies would be told: "They are peacefull, those who riot are not BLM but just people who want chaos." Then the bullies would go too far to sabotage the BLM protest into a riot, wich the group tries to stop, but they tipped off the police and even before the bullies COULD RIOT with Vergil stopping them. The grenades are launched. Note that Vergil at this point would have a weapon on him in an intent to harm the bullies and get them away. As they do beat up Vergil and his friends. This way Vergil right before he would confront the bullies... would actually opt not to use the weapon (tazer, knife, gun, wahtever) and let the bullies do the rioting while the rest of the group would just back away from them and let them deal with the horror of police brutality. To only have everyone caught in this! I think the BLM movement's intentions are pure but the problem is and I state: "Some people just get extreme" Good BLM protest: Educate, inform, peacefull and spread the message. Bad BLM protest: Belittle, attack, berate, yell and dismantle. Now politcal tagent aside. I think him just being BLM and getting hit by cops doesn't reflect the whole problem in general and kinda makes Vergil a Gary Stu. "He's good, he does good, but then the MAN put him down and he gets powers." While the original was: "He's a kid down on his luck, tries to make the ultimate choice, decides not to do it, gets caught up in something bigger." So yea.. in my opinion... I think the new static's problem is the fact he doesn't get the whole: "Staring into the abyss thing" The reason we loved static is because: "He knew he was gonna be wrong and used his powers for good." Now that part is stripped away... Is my "idea" of the bullies/opposers a good idea? Probaly not how I written it XD but... atleast it keeps in the biggest thing why we love Static as a hero. "The choice of taking a life"
Thank you for putting into words my issue with the new static. I don't hate the fact that he's a blm protester in fact I think it's a good mordenization of the character however I think that they are mishandling him. When he fights hotshot for the first time in school and damn near kills him he feels absolutely no guilt at all. He doesn't stop and think maybe I'm wrong or hesitate to use his powers on him. Hell he doesn't even stop until a bystander begs him to stop and in the aftermath he isn't even shaken or have a oh god what have I done moment, something the original run of the character would have been. He is just concerned about how he looks. That's not static . Static has always been about anger at the injustice of the world and how to channel it. That's why ebon is staics greatest enemy and threat. They're the same character the only difference is that ebon is willing to be a monster while static isn't.
@@razorflossrazor2937 While Drake is right that some people just go with "TOO POLITICAL" Drake also voiced this similiar opinion about: "This is not how static was" I just added my own parts and opinions too. Static is suppose to follow the super hero code of: "You don't kill and take it too far" Also remember that Static helps these people with powers find their way to do things right again. Give them a supporting shoulder and show that you can create a better world for all and make your own justice.
I really think there is something to be said for revisiting stories we loved as kids and learning they were “political” before we were. It’s comforting to know creative people have cared about justice even if it sucks that we’re still fighting the same battles.
Static is a great example of politics enhancing the characters & the setting rather than just being there. It’s never politics = bad to me it’s implementation & learning how to do that helps spread a message more
One of Superman's first stories involved him dealing with America's neutrality in WWII... They've Literally been Political from the start, I don't get some people
@@TheRenegade... Human rights are just that, a Right. Society makes it a political issue due to the ignorances and prejudices of the dregs of the world.
@@MrLourie The concept of human rights didn't even exist until the enlightenment. Since the baseline is no rights and the elite benefit from no rights, the people must procure their own rights from the elite. Conflict between the elite and people is inherently political.
@@kellz1703 But at least it got the actual Watchmen comic's psychic squid 'aliens' adapted rather than the movie's Doctor Manhattan scapegoat replacement.
Just a question: in this version, the police knowingly throw mutation gas in the crowd?! Because I always saw the explosion like an accident. And, why they tried mutation gas in civillians?! That's the only thing I got confused. They explained in the comics?
@@yandengray4516 yes, but don't they do this in a lab? With "willingly" test's subjects? And before the human tests, the lab test shouldn't point that the gas mutate human cells? In the old comic it was toxic waste, so the reader already know it was dangerous. But the characters didn't know what it was and none of them wanted to snif that. It was an accident. The idea of throwing mutation gas in a protest (peacefull or not) is like stopping them with real bullets and poison. Ok, it maybe done it before, but today is not acetable. And that happened with no repercussions in a non-dictatorial country is just to much for my suspension of disbelief.
@@princewya So a crazy "genius" tampered the gas without the police knowing? Thank god! I know is crazy, but is a relief that the police is not that terrible. I still hope that they adressed in the comics the legal actions that the protesters should take against the police. Afterall it was still their tear gas.
@@lucye4389 the police did knowingly throw the tear gas to harm the civilians, the accident was that they got powers. So yes, they were still awful wanting to do that but didn’t know about the powers thing. Also, the police aren’t the only terrible people, Static Shocks best friend had a racist dad who hated them for being black because he said his kid acts like “those people”.
@@fearless4him595 Tear gas is pretty widely accepted even in the most altruistic of democracies. Hell, its used againts soldiers in their basic training. So idk if that's really all that terrible.
Static was literally the first Superhero I actually related to through and through. Sure, before Static like any little boy I wanted to be Batman to the t. Static looked like me, same personality and even same Pops lol 😂 Every issue I faced as a teen was addressed in dialogue by the show, except I never met Romeo lol 😂 Thank you for this beautifully accurate video!
I see a lot of people in the comics pointing out in his debuted Capt. America was punching Hitler. That was controversial at the time as America hadn't yet entered WWII. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were harassed over it due to the opinon that america should get into WWII, and because of anti-semites who were pro Nazi. Hell, let's not forget how controversial Sam Wilson becoming Capt. America was (both in the comics and the MCU). I could go on, citing how Batman used to focus a lot more on police corruption and the broken justice system. How superman has been an allegory for xenophobia repeatedly. But that's not the point. So, why do I bring all this up? Because it's no different now, people need to pipe down and let the creators have messages. Good, important, messages that can have an impact on making the world a better place. I would rather have a comic that has a good message splashed all over it, than a fluffy feel good story that lets me turn off my brain. I have other media for that. Static as part of BLM? Not only is that realistic, but it's an important messages that people need to see today: heroes standing up for the right thing. And if that hero ends up being someone people can look up to, despite being fictional? that's fine in my book. And if the response is "super heroes are meant to be fantasy" ... How many folks keep wanting a "realistic and gritty" take on super heroes? Cause it feels like Static has been doing "Realistic and Gritty" longer than I've been alive.
I don't care about the BLM protest thing, but if Static isn't learning that he SHOULDN'T kill people then it's losing a lot of emotional impact compared to the original run. Why not let him go to the protest knowing his bully will be there trying to shoot him like in the original?
@TheGreyTurtleEntertainment I like the heroes being looked up to. It's funny because he was protesting before he got his powers. There's a saying, either you stand for something or fall for anything. Your comment was great. @@tonysmith9905 This seem like a tired answer but it's true; he's a kid. Kids make the worst decisions. I was gonna have this long response but that's kind of it.
@@thabal601 Answer to what huh? I don't get your reply to me, it has nothing to do with what I wrote. Unless you're saying what I came up with is a good way to both?
@@tonysmith9905 You asked why would Virgil be at a protest knowing his bully would be there trying to shoot him. I said because he's a kid and kids make bad decisions.
@@thabal601 No you misread. In the original comics he starts out hunting his bully down so he can shoot him, that's when he gets involved in the gasing that turns him into Static. What I'm trying to propose is that why couldn't they just have him going to a rally trying to find his bully to put a bullet in his head? Simple way to do both and keeps the feel of the original.
Using the phrase "just a few bad apples" in the face of police brutality and corruption is an insult in and of itself. Especially when you remember the phrase actually says that all it takes is ONE bad apple to spoil the bunch.
I don’t think Dwayne McDuffie would blatantly put BLM in the comics but rather make a fictional group similar or share the same sentiment. Static Shock always had social-political issues in the TV series and comics but I don’t remember an actual real life social-political group being stamped in any source material. They always created a narrative with fictional characters and some cameos. This new Static Shock story seems like they just retconned Static’s origin just to make a BLM symbol 😂 which is super lazy and making it too political if you read and found out how Static originally got his powers.
@@jnmartin1992 bro I know you can read. I don’t think I’ve seen a McDuffie book where he stamped a real life social-political group in his work as source material. You can make a social-political narratives with diverse fictional characters/groups… which is literally McDuffie’s whole philosophy with comics.
If they changed the name of the group, but made sure to carry the same ideals and situations as what BLM stands for and against, that it would make a difference. NO, not at all. The biggest part of the issue is BLM isn't a group to begin with, so to say so in a comic is fiction in and of itself. It's an ideal, it's a cause, it's a movement, but not an organized group.
@@jaiart6823 it’s an non profit organization. There are chapters of BLM nationwide. Bro you can look this up yourself… they gotta website and everything.
I never questioned whether or not superheroes were political and i did read all 45 issues of static. But what i am about to say isn't critical of the new static comics (partly because i haven't read them and therefore can't judge them one way or another) but rather modern comics in general, specifically those i did read. My issue isn't whether or not they discuss politics but HOW they discuss them. Nuance plays a huge role in how effective the message is. Taking the static cartoon as an example, yes richie's dad was a racist but he had to reflect on whether his love for his son outweighed his prejudices and he saw the consequences it had on their relationship. Yes jimmy was a school shooter, but we also see why he became one and how virgil was powerless to stop it, no matter what actions he would have taken. Going back to the racial prejudice aspect, there have been a number of klansmen irl who quit the klan because they realized the error in their beliefs, but losing their prejudices also meant losing their family and friends. I am sure there are dozens of members who also want to leave but are too scared to because of their fear of losing the safety of community. The greatest nuance of storytelling and in history is that the villains don't always see themselves as the villains. Sometimes they believe they themselves are the heroes or commit villainy for the greater good of to rectify something they personally view as unjust. But lets focus on the method of writing. There is a difference between writing a character experiencing injustice in a way that puts you in the shoes of the character vs smacking you in the face with the concept of injustice. The character needs to be relatable...and i don't mean blank to fit the lowest common denominator, but have legitimate strengths, weaknesses, interests and progressions to make you want them to succeed. I relate to Mae Jemison because while i might not be black nor a woman, i, much like her was told by family and by teachers that i won't accomplish my goals, and it was through reading about her triumphs that made me want to go into medicine. And it was because of her that I developed an interest in star trek, and i could relate to characters like checkov and le forge and seven of nine. Peter parker and virgil hawkins were my favorite supers of their respective universes and samus was my favorite video game character. In the end, it comes down to whether you do things the "black lightning" season 2 way or the "supergirl" season 4 way, and i would prefer the "black lightning" season 2 way a 108 times over.
I wish Static gets a live-action, but I feel like it won't because the issues Static tackles are too real and will be labelled offensive. But yea, I just wanna see a Static live-action and just fangirl in my room.....
They did black lightning (static's hero that he looked up to in the tv show) A mass majority of that show on netflix was about racism and being the better person. I'm sure static could come back in live-action one day. I just hope they do it justice regardless of the fact that racists and other bigots will complain about "another woke show"
@@MirageNen oh I watched that show. I was waiting for static to appear...but he didn't...I'm so sad 🥲 at the very core of it, Static was always about politics, but he did it right imo. I would so want a series or a movie about Static...but with how superheroes have been lately, I also kinda don't want an adaptation...the story and characters are quite different from their comic counterparts and idk why when DCAU is exists 😂
@@ぷードーモ I wasn't expecting static but i am sad that black lightning either finished or was canceled. I'm still watching through it. but only on like season 2 out of 3 or 4 seasons.
@@ぷードーモI don’t want to now since the original creator is gone now, and it worst that the person writing it doesn’t understand Virgil at all, so I hope they don’t tarnish his legacy.
The original origin is a lot better compared to how it is now, using real peoples names to bank on them and using them in a way for superhero origins is messed up
Honestly after reading both origins I enjoy them both the only difference is that one is based on gang violence which I don't think most people care about very much now but BLM is a lot more relevant and something everyone can relate to regardless of how you feel about it
How is Static banking on George Floyd and Breanna Taylor's names though? It's not like the book is promoted as Static got his origin specifically for going to a BLM Protest in honor of those two, at least it's not promoted that way by DC itself
People seem to forget that one of the most famous superheroes of all time was literal WWII propaganda. Comics have always been political, arguably more than they currently are. Get the fuck over it.
Some folks just feel it's a personal attack. They felt accused of doing things that they as individuals didn't really do. So they felt this need to defend themselves. Toxicity happens through fear of permanent misunderstanding. Humans don't like to be judged.
Then they can either grow the fuck up or keep crying in their parent’s basement. We’ve spent too long trying to meet bigots half way. Besides, most people who say they “feel attacked” by people who are just pointing out racism are just making bad faith arguments so they can play the victim
@@sterling9314 Everyone is different so it's partially true. But being aggressive isn't going to help. It just going to cause more trouble. We can't know for sure on who's racist and who's not.
@@UnrealNeoBat Dude, are you 15 or just trolling? It's the same with racists as it is with ducks, if it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck, it's a duck.
War on Drugs is still going on but it was much more relevant in the 90s for black people. Today direct police brutality is a hot topic so it makes sense to change it if it's set in modern day
@@jocoolshow gang violence was a huge part of war on drugs. Infact drugs and the way inner cities were decimated by violence and heavy handed police response cannot be disassociated from one another. Unless your gonna say they arent connected but i dont think your that kind of poster
@@jocoolshow gang violence was a huge part of war on drugs. Infact drugs and the way inner cities were decimated by violence and heavy handed police response cannot be disassociated from one another. Unless your gonna say they arent connected but i dont think your that kind of poster
@@jocoolshow gang violence was a huge part of war on drugs. Infact drugs and the way inner cities were decimated by violence and heavy handed police response cannot be disassociated from one another. Unless your gonna say they arent connected but i dont think your that kind of poster
My problem with Static's new origin is this.... it immediately dated itself. Yes, Milestone as a general whole has always been overt in it's intentions much like a lot of other comics and fictional media. The thing that people ignore though is that those politics, more often than not, serve to actually build the universe these characters live in. Often times creating placeholders to stand as a general representation. Yes, originally, Virgil got his powers from a gang war. But they never specifically named the gangs and set it in a fictional city so that the message could. Be. TIMELESS! Gang wars haven't gone away. Police riots utilizing dubious tactics have not gone away. A kid growing up similar to Virgil can easily slide themselves in there both yesterday when the comic first came out and today decades later.... That's the point. That's why people hate it when writers decide to try and tackle current events with little to no grace by name dropping this or that organization/group. Hell, this is why Watchmen still holds up. In spite of being grounded in the 80's the majority of it looks and feels like it could take place at any point in time. This is also why the X-Men holds up. It was never about one particular movement or group of people. It created a whole new group of people to serve as placeholders for literally everyone.... There's having political themes, character objectives, and messages. Then there's just being overtly political for the sake of trying to be trendy.... This is the latter, most people don't like it, and it almost never ages well.
Alagory can only go so far.. Besides any media set in a version of our world will be dated literaly always. our world changes the media has to change with it or be dated in the past risking irelivency
@@jay15951 Alagory is only limited by whatever you're referencing overtly. Otherwise it has vastly more leg room to speak to the human condition as a whole and leaves more ground to use your imagination as a creator. Once again, something like gang violence in the original Static comic is pretty universal. A kid in the US, the UK, Pakistan, or Indonesia could pick up those books and place themselves in Virgil's shoes. A better option for the reboot would have been to leave names of organizations/demonstrations off the table, or just make up a new name. Once again, it broadens who it reaches and affects allowing more people to relate to the character.... Subsequently that's how you make things more timeless. Any deviations from there on compared to reality can then be chalked up to either being set in a parallel world similar enough to our own, or one that simply halted due to the endless conflict. Making for even more nuance as it ages far better than it otherwise would or even had the chance to had someone just name dropped a bunch of stuff to be trendy for a brief moment in time.
Honestly, if a comic book gets political, I’m not surprised, because superheroes during World War Two and the Cold War were used to “spread the message”…as I would say. To me, politics would mainly discuss problems in a community or the world in general.
A WHITE GUY is talking about a BLACK SUPER HERO and saying he has ALLWWAAYYS been POLITICAL??? Yeah, he is and I agree with everything he said. What a world.
I'll second one other point I saw: using George Floyd and Brianna Taylor's names specifically does both date the comic and, whether in good faith or not, profits off their deaths. I'm a little torn on if it might not be more appropriate to have an in-universe character parallel one of their stories and have them be the inciting incident for the riot. That way the parallels are still clear to modern readers while those 20 years down the line won't have to do some research. Alternatively maybe a little inset at the beginning explaining their stories in full would save future readers work and at least give the victims their own full stories in the issues rather than making them a footnote in Static's.
Thank you for making this video. I really enjoyed it, truly. I never read the old Static comics (I have 2 modern volumes, but I haven’t read them yet), and it’s been a long time since I rewatched the cartoon. However, you refreshed my memory on the political aspects of the show. Especially the episode about the racist father (I actually referenced that episode in a college project, which was a good 9-10 years ago). I love(d) Static Shock and love(d) how it would tackle certain issues every so often because they were important ones. Thank you for shedding light and facts on something I didn’t even know was going on in the comic book world. :)
Its not that they don't want it to be political its that its not THEIR politics. Conservatives LOVED the Rosanne return that had her be SUPER political when that WAS NOT the nature of the old show BUT it was in their favor so they love it. Its how they treat anything they do not like berate it and belittle it.
It's genuinely sad to see you slowly explain that "No, BLM does not mean other lives don't matter, it just means that black lives matter" as if you were talking to toddlers. But you kinda have to.
If people are whining about that, they clearly haven't read Claremont's X-Men run (arguably one of the best runs in comics history). Stan Lee himself said that he had Charles and Magneto written as analogues of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, respectively. And if we REALLY wanna get into it, Captain America and Superman fought Nazis. Shoot, when they did the Marvel / DC crossover in the 90s, Joker REFUSED to work with the Red Skull because while he acknowledged he's a psychopath, even HE has standards and wouldn't work with a Nazi!!! People need to stop having such tender Fee-Fees!
God I hate how comics have suddenly become political, why can’t we go back to the good old days of X-Men and Captain America? Yes this post is sarcastic.
@@thesamuraiman Yeah, but that’s old Cap, old Cap wasn’t meant to be subtle, but what Henry means is that Static was political before, focused on many actual issues, but they never made it seem so forced in. And I don’t mean with it having a protest, that happened before, but with it being quite literally about Floyd. I think the comic’s fine and expect it to get better, but I don’t want it to only be this.
@@ravenfrancis1476 But they never made it so ‘black and white’ and that’s kind of what I meant, Static both criticized and worked with the police, Static both helped and stopped activists and protesters, but it’s about context, when you change that, you take away a part of what makes a ‘hero’ a hero. I do believe the comic can turn out really good once you they bring in familiar characters, since I feel the best part of the Static cast is how varied they all are.
What bothers me about of the comments here are they're.. passive aggressive and ultimately stupid. Your entitled to your opinion no doubt but... I feel like most of what im hearing is your upset (the folks who are saying they are) because of his new origins are too real or not depressing enough for you like... Bro what? If seeing a black kid about to kill his bully with a gun but ends up not going through with it- inspires you to think he rightfully deserves that origin story in todays world you need to wake up. The real world needed to see this new origin especially young black kids. Its essentially and tbh very obviously telling us... You dont need superpowers to be a good/wise person. Like mlk said "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". And in todays world i think its important to tell black peoples current story anyway we can. Maybe this didnt make sense to you either, cool. Or maybe this did sense make to you... Either way i wanna read what you guys think of my opinion.
@@princewya ill try to despute that but tbh its gonna be hard because that was a really good reaponse gg bro lol. But i think the new version os very realistic. By that i mean in a hood type of since. Where i from back then that the view to realise your situation and stop yourself can get you killed if you realised too late (based off the og v) because even if your hostile ways was soothed it doesnt mean the threat of theirs is gone. I get that it is a really good trait to have and it is something that should be able to teach black kids or any kid too think and to pick & choose your battles. But lets be honest... thats a luxary now a days. This new take on the world it is today for a young black kid who already has a head on his shoulders and is still political (like the og) standing up for whats right is a good sign to me. And when you say "getting angry is ok just as long as you handle your shit"... Yes. I agree even if you dont like it tbh oh well. I can tell you right now every black person that has too watch brutality on tv or in person will wait and calm themselfs ... Then watch tv to see no justice happen... It is infuriatingly gut wrenching to see and know how under valued p.o.c are. To see a black kid with the power to stop evil like that and not take any shit from a villian is realistic and dope asf. The new static understands that he has to match their ferociousness in order to deal with the threat on the city or himself. And its just extra credit that he snaps and whoops ass & also still thinks of what hes doing/ needs to do. (Sorry if i misspelled somewords i was trying to get this done quick)
I'm going to go one further than the idea that they're fans of a version of the character that only existed in their head. They're _not_ fans of the character. It was enlightening to me when I saw the backlash to the announcement of Batwoman and people complaining that she 'wasn't a lesbian in the comics'; these are not fans, these are far-right entryists trying to use anti-Social Justice agitation to stir up feelings of resentment amongst casual superhero fans who are susceptible to their messages but might not be familiar with the character and concepts directly. There's a genuine fascist misinformation campaign going on and it's dangerous to ignore it.
I love Static. My issue is that the big bang happened at a protest. TL;DR - The police's action is just plain evil and not shades of gray. Does not reflect real life. Muddies Virgil's origin unnecessarily. Villains suffer too. Maybe I'm a bigot or closet racist or something, but I'm not a fan of BLM itself. Of course black lives matter, of course there is racism in the country that needs to be fought, of course said racism is everywhere. But a movement as all encompassing as BLM can be easily used for harm, and it has. That being said, Virgil being a part of a BLM protest is 100% in character as much as I disagree with the movement as a whole - I would be more upset if he wasn't in some way working to end racism. Specifically calling it a BLM protest might be bad optics for the general public but who gives a shit. Call it End Racism Now and somebody would just bitch that ERN is a stand in for BLM and we are back at square one. My ultimate issue is that someone somewhere within the story decided to tag protesters with a chemical marker to track them down after the protest? And you expect me to believe this is the work of a nuanced "everything is a shades of gray" police force? Nope, this is a cartoonishly evil force that seemingly wants to track down perfectly peaceful protesters to....arrest them later? The BLM movement stands for something good, but it is used to shield bad actors way too much. If a protest is 100% peaceful the only people arrested are those breaking that peace. Yeah yeah, perfect world and all that. But here's where that nuance comes into play. The protesters are shown to be nothing BUT peaceful and the police are shown to be nothing BUT corrupt and evil. The point of the chemical marker is to mark so they can investigate further. That's a charitable "we wanted to do good" viewpoint. Even using this charitable viewpoint you can't see the police as anything but evil using it on peaceful protesters that have the right to be there. You're going to track down and arrest someone for protesting. Yeah you're the baddie. Oh that peaceful protester shone a high power laser into a police officer's eye? Ok, track that guy. That ONE guy. The chemical marker being used at a gang war is way more believable while still being overkill. You're going to use a barely tested chemical compound to tag gangbangers and track them after the scuffle to arrest them? Maybe don't? But there is a shades of gray here. The police take drastic overkill action from something that you can believe is good faith or plain evil if you think about it. Rather than stand by and let violence run rampant AGAIN, they wanted to stop it before it happened. By dousing people that are not 100% innocent but also not 100% guilty of anything with a...uh.....dangerous......compound.....to track them after......being stopped from committing a crime......so they cant commit a different crime in...the future. See? Shades of gray. There is no gray for the police in the origin. "Lets tag these protesters, we can kill the protests at the source" is cartoonishly evil to the core no matter what way you slice it. "Lets tag these gangbangers, we can kill gang violence at the source" is nuanced and can have good faith arguments from either side. And Virgil being at a BLM rally - as I said earlier - is fine. Police overreaching and taking drastic measure is fine. The big bang happening at the protest informs a ton of things though. Virgil being at a gang war is happenstance and firmly solidifies his character by making it a multifaceted conflict - and explains why a lot of bang babies are "evil". Virgil was the one good guy in a sea of (potentially) bad guys that were accidentally given super powers. Virgil is arguably not the only good guy at that protest. Accidentally give superpowers to random BLM protesters and I would like to believe you just made a big ass super hero team and *maybe* one or two baddies. And if we argue the chemical marker was a good thing to use in that situation, we argue that if innocents didn't want to get hit by it they shouldn't have been there. Which again circles back to the police being evil - even with a charitable view on their action they are still purposely stifling civil rights. But hey, maybe that's the point. Good men assist evil by not doing anything. But then who is Static going to fight? More extreme BLM members using their powers for the greater good and ultimately hurting people? Nah, too nuanced. A cartoonishly evil police force? likely. And why would it be called the big bang when the bigger common factor is BLM activity? Wouldn't it be called something like the Black Lives Matter Tragedy or the Protest Tragedy of 2022? Unless the media in the story spins it as "everyone at the rally was a gangbanger" which I could buy.
And for some inexplicable reason the notion that a comic book is telling you that you are correct is more valuable then one where you would think, reconsider, learn and conclude. I get what you’re saying. What’s with these people?
I dont really like the reboot origin. But not because its "woke" or "political." I just think the gang one from the 90s was much more interesting. Thats it. Probably because it was written by McDuffie who is unmatched. I'm still curious to see where this new story goes. I hope he joins the new DC Universe.
I think it fits Its was written about issues at the moment in both cases Gang violence in the 90s was pretty massive And today the protests and police killing are massive So they fit in the POV of a black kid within those eras
i know this video is a year old but i just have to thank you for telling the truth about static i watched the show as a kid i never read the comics but it taught me alot about myself & my culture if you think that static was not politcal your dreaming all comics were at one point in time I grew up proud to have learned what really goes on in the world & it inspired me to create my own comics I miss you Dwayne we all do & static is my all time favorite to keep the peace in the world Nuff Said
i am 6ft 8In tall, people are regularly caught off guard by how tall i am, it wether they admit it or not, it has made many people uncomfortable throughtout my life. but im a dorky looking white guy, so i only have to project a friendly vibe in certain situtations. i can't imagine what it must have been like for dwayne.
Your missing the point it was changed for modern black kids to relate to it. What’s something a lot of us can relate to? Getting gassed at BLM protests or seeing people argue that our lives really don’t matter with the original origin not as many black kids can relate to being around gangs and being peer pressured to join or having the thought of killing your harasser
Some Cartoon’s are based on comic books no matter what happens or how it plays out, it’s all about understanding life lessons to teach and educate people to what makes them in inspired that can relate to them of their lives.
I am so excited to finally be able to see Static back. As a kid I most definitely did not understand the context, even less since I watched a Spanish dub version of it being in Mexico. But I did get back in touch with Static as a young adult and the messages are so powerful it just made me love and appreciate him more. Congratulations on the video! Even though the stubburn people will not have it, it is important to pinot out why these type of changes are relevant and even more so, where do they come from.
The issues with this political message is that alot of people hate and are disgusted by the blm riots. No one would have an issue if static got his powers from being hosed down by corrupt southern cops during the de segregation protest. Also original static show did political issues in s beautiful and accepting way.
Your falling for a narrative designed to make you react that way, watch the video and Drake actually goes over the fact that the violence was a minority of what happened. If you're going to judge a movement by it's worst offenders at least do the same for the modern cops. Racism isn't exclusive to "corrupt southern cops" and all a story like that would do is fail to highlight how the issue is wider spread than that. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/16/this-summers-black-lives-matter-protesters-were-overwhelming-peaceful-our-research-finds/
@@BrandonCharlesHouser I was at the riots just to watch and those that behaved were the minority not the majority. Even the non looters were breaking stuff just to do so. It's a majority rule and yes some areas were peaceful but Los Angeles people were not.
This looks like a way to villainize Black Lives Matter to be honest. The Big Bang isn't just Static's origin. It's also the origin of most of his villains. Making peaceful protesters into fodder for their villain of the week seems like a terrible choice. And using the counter-protesters doesn't seem like it'll solve the problem, since that still leads to the question of so few of the BLM protesters are standing up and opposing the villains using their own new super powers, leaving Virgil to carry so much of the weight.
Does anyone else feel like using the real names of the real victims of blm is a bit iffy? I just feel a little weird about using the real people in a fictional superhero comic
Because it leads to a plot problem, is the Static in the same DC universe that Supermen exists. If so how and why would anything like this even happen? There's the problem, it's a dated take because DC is ironically beyond this due to pretty much everything else that has happened.
I do agree static has always been political you'd have to be blind to not see that. Though I'd also prefer if it stayed about gang violence. Personally as a black man I am for police reform, against police brutality, but I don't support BLM. Reason being police brutality is an issue in general and not just a black issue. Also growing up I was more in danger from other black people in my community than police. Especially with the amount of times I was assaulted and snitches definitely got stitches so usually not an option. If you support BLM I have no issues with you. I see groups as bad just the people in them. Unless the group itself is literally bad like 3 of my first initial they are bad.
Every time people raise a ruckus about "when did X series become 'woke' or political", the answer tends to be that it always has been. In Static's case, it's baffling how people weren't aware of it before.
It's particularly funny when they mention that about the X-Men... Do you know know WHEN this comic came out and the climate in the nation at that time? When has it NOT been political? Goverment spying and collecting info on a persecuted minority group? I can see some ppl have never heard of COINTELPRO.
There is a difference between being "political" and the "identity politics" we see today. For instance, many of the messages included the concept of personal responsibility, while identity politics is about collective responsibility and punishment. The original didn't pull any punches but was still something everyone loved (the show at least that most people were exposed to). Identity politics are divisive and I for one don't want "woke" ideology thrown in... almost EVERYONE hates it regardless of race.
I don't think people dislike stuff for being "political", they dislike it for being a direct reflection of real life events, rather than allegories, metaphors, or fictional settings that one can brush off anymore, because it's stuff that literally happened.
By reading the comments... People are complaining about the very thing that made him good in the first place??? When he was created before modern time ideology even existed
My issue isnt that he supports BLM i too agree with the movement. It just feels poorly writen to me. It doesnt ruin it for me im just not a huge fan either
@@yobama6052 nah cheif see i actually like him being for BLM. I mean as a modern static shock it'd have to bring it up and virgil would of course support it. Something about how the modern boom babies origin story comes about just idk the logic isnt there for me. I understand that police violence at marches is a serious issue but something about the stuff with tear gas just doesnt hit my personal suspension of disbelief right
the speech Virgil's dad gives about the world changing around bigots without them noticing is really....extremely relevant to these people who always complain about wokeness in their favorite comics. Most of them were challenging politics at the time, but we don't notice that as a kid, so we don't think of those issues as political when we grow up, because that's just how much the world changed.
I think the issue lies on the fact that a lot of people can’t distinguish between a story that contains “woke” messages vs. an inclusivity piece that happens to tell a story.
@@runningbetweenspaces Woke is a catch-all term, for the center-right and the Right, to describe Far Left ideals and messages. Saying there is racism and that racism is bad is not "woke". Saying that racism is everywhere, all the time and that white people are *born racist* (yes, some major Far Left figures believe this) is "woke". Saying that gay-bashing is a thing that is bad and should be stopped is not "woke". Saying that not allowing trans-identifying people to participate in Women's *competitive* sports is akin to Genocide is "woke". Having the male protagonist of a show or movie being the only person who makes mistakes (or the vast majority of the mistakes) and never (or almost never) does the heroic things or (especially) saves the female character is "woke" (See: "Wendy & Peter Pan" & the live action "Little Mermaid"). Creating a new show or movie that primarily stars "people of color" (I hate that term) is not "woke". Deliberately changing well established characters from white to "people of color" is "woke" (See: every example of a redhaired fictional character changed out to with a black actor... see the *dozens* of examples in WotC's "reimagining" of the Lord of the Rings character art). "Woke" isn't *a* thing, or even *a* point of view... it can range from subtle, to blatant. But, like the famous quote about pornography: "I know it when I see it".
The boy's mom died in the show in a town-wide riot, his best friend endured anti-gay sentiment in the comics, and in the show he dealt with the temptation of joining a gang due to bullying, PLUS got his powers during a fight between gang members and police. To claim Static is too political is to ignore his very history as a character.
@@OEMPlus it’s real life. To you, being one who doesn’t live this life, it’s propaganda. Maybe it’s exposing you and others like you to a world you don’t know but too often criticize without knowledge.
I think the issue is that the way the new comic handled it was too on the nose. In the old comics, Vergil got his powers via coincidence. He was a victim of bullying, and one day he got so tired of it, that he tried asking a gang leader for help with dealing with his bully problem. In hopes of recruiting him, the gang leader gave him a gun, and it just so happened that his bully was a member of a rival gang. Vergil arrived at the docks to find the two gangs fighting, and hid so he would not be spotted when he took the shot- he was trying to psyche himself up to pull the trigger, but he had a crisis of conscience that helped him not to pull the trigger. As he was about to sneak off, the police showed up in helicopters to deal with the gangs and in the ensuing firefight, a stray bullet struck gas canisters storing experimental mutagen gas. This resulted in everyone present being exposed to the gas, and later gaining powers. This is common knowledge, but i bring it up in order to contrast it with the near one-sided portrayal of both Vergil and the riot police in the new comics. They are called in to monitor a BLM protest out of fear it will become a riot, which Vergil is attending, and the police happen to be equipped with 'experimental' anti-riot gas grenades. As things escalate, the police leader orders them to use the experimental grenades, and when an officer questions the ethics of using untested chemical weapons on civilians, the squad leader says something along the lines of "Look at them, they deserve it". This portrayal is the first issue I have with the new comic, because it completely removes any nuance of the gassing being an accident and the nuance of Vergil's character, directly contrasting both the old comics and the TV show. the clear malice of the squad leader towards the protesters, portrays the police as brutal assholes who don't value the lives of innocent civillians, and is a blunt allegory about real world events. However, portraying vergil as a harmless victim, comes back to bite the writers on the ass with how they portray Vergil one he discovers he has powers. In the new comics, he faces his bully and with his new powers, begins to torture him as payback. This is the scene that put off many fans, because it makes Vergil act like a psychopath. He confronts his bully at school, and decides to torture him with electricity, freaking out his friend (Gears) who begs Vergil to stop, to which he eventually listens... but he doesn't stop because he remembers his moral values or out of a sense of remorse, he isn't fazed by the risk of killing him- He only stops because he realizes that the guy's screams are drawing attention and that "It would make him look bad if he was caught torturing him". This not only directly contradicts how he was presented in the protests, but offers not a single sign of nuance. THAT is not the behavior of a good person, much less someone who wants to be a superhero.
It really does because it shows that even with the bullying and threats you don't have to be part of that lifestyle. If there was any real world connection between the show and black society is that moment right there. To many people I know personally came to that same crossroad with bad results
I honestly prefer the original origin story. It felt more personal to Vergil and got its political points across just fine. Saying he’s involved with BLM is one thing (which I honestly felt the original Static would’ve been a part of if it happened back then), but having that as his origin story kinda feels like he had nothing to learn from this. The original had him learn that he had to be the bigger man and not simply kill his tormentors (throwing away the gun), this version sounds like he already knows that (peaceful protesting, not getting involved with the criminals, etc) and it kinda just feels like he’s being punished for standing up for his beliefs.
A way they could have kept the gun part in is by having a racist that was in the fight drop a gun and it lands infront of him. He sees all the hate, fighting and idiocy around him and hes filled with anger himself. He picks up the gun and aims it at a white old guy but then eventually stops himself and decides to be the bigger person. Realizing that hate against hate only leads to more hate. Sure it still would've been about blm mostly but what is racism? Bullying. So it still would've kept the original message but it just wouldn't be personal to him.
@@maximumforce8275 Why a racist? Why not another black person or a so called Ally. I agree Hate against hate is bad a bad thing but what you just said proves a bias. Why not have him doing an Actual march that people involved start to riot and loot and have him realize that not everyone there is for a purpose only a selfish gain, have it show the muddled grey than a black and white. When you paint with broad strokes it doesn't help find the issues it just creates more, because now you have a good Cop who is deemed evil just because a cop in a different state did something bad, and it's not he police who keep these people on the force it's the Police unions that threaten strikes and boycotts against the Departments.
@@rannenw6207 you do realise the ones who started the whole thing is the racists right? Since when were the protesters rioting before hand? Your comment is just hypocritical because now it shows your bias XD let's just agree to disagree here and leave it at that.
@@maximumforce8275 No because the world isn't that black and white. There are people who just go to these protests to hurt other and have a selfish gain there are police who are bad people and should never wear the badge ,but as I said the world is grey never black and white there is no good and evil just various greys. Do I agree with a white Supremacist no ,but do I agree with a CRT that all white people are racist no. Because I'm not willing to narrow my world view. I'll keep my eyes and ears open and learn from those around me regardless of race and make my own opinions of the world and treat people as their character deems not the look of them something it seems you haven't yet seem to learn.
@@porassrivastava8242 depends on if he knows any of these caracters. Many comics tend to make it so only superman are well know, or only he exists. At least until they get teamed up with them
That's why people are mad, before his origin story came with personal growth and that whole momento of "taking accountability for your own actions" like in spider-man, he was out seeking blood and got involved in something horrible, now it's just like he has no agency, it's just someone else fault, now he is a victim rather than someone that while trying to stop being a victim was about to become a murderer, those moments of growth are what made the character so compelling to everyone, now he is just poster boy for BLM
@@miguelmacias2401 Yeah I much prefer an Origin where a character grows and learns something through it that's why Spider-mans is easily one of the most iconic with this New origin I just find it to be way less interesting since Virgil Doesn't really learn anything from it I'm not against BLM being in it I feel like they could have easily had static going to a violent protest and breaking things up or something like that
@@miguelmacias2401 And how when he was about to murder the person he didn't care about if he was gonna kill them or not. He cared about his own image of what they'll think of him.
@@jaredfisher-ramos7744 And that's awareness, that's agency, that's the character making choices that moves the story, that was good story telling, his actions took him where the story begins, instead of the story coming to him
I'm not a writer but there is a simple yet fundamental lesson I learned about writing characters from playing D&D. Character development isn't all contained in the origin story. While that particular event can only occur at the beginning of the story and wouldn't make much sense later on, it might have even a better developed character by the end of the new comic run than the original cartoon or comics. It might be optimism but regardless, the worst case scenario is a less impactful story for the reboot. Honestly I see few reasons to complain as now, maybe later on we'll all hate the new comic together who knows.
This is just like when people say MLK wouldn't be like that.... even when he was accused of being too "political" by many of his contemporaries. A common attack meant to remove perceived legitimacy of a cause.
I honestly didn't know Static was political, I would try to wake up early on Saturdays and watch it as a kid, and I loved it. A few years ago watching Young Justice Static made an appearance and I was like "Static?" with a big grin on my face. Political or not Static is awesome, easily one of my favourite heros ever. It can be politcal as much as the creators want, good, I love when stories have elements of real life in them, for me they make the story more emotional and worth investing in.
The best lesson is the one you don't notice being told. Static Shock cartoon did a TON of good while being surprisingly subtle, yet not subtle at all. That's what's missing from the current comic books. It's not that I don't WANT to see that messege. It's that I don't trust modern writers to tackle it correctly.
@@playahsan No no its not. Demon in a bottle. Speedy's drug addiction. The best lesson is the lesson itself not some generic watered down analogy for the lesson.
As long as they keep the moral Complexity of static I'm happy. Because that what made static so interesting is he used to be in the wrong alot. Like dude was gonna kill a bully or i think was starting to become on later. And his dad told him you can't. Because we need to talk about the social issue of the time but not define the character in them. That why I love captain America he went from just being the poster boy of America to being what America should stand for
This, a big reason I liked Static was that despite all the stuff he was involved in or witnessed, he still saw the best in people, he was an altruist first before anything else. It was this nature he gained from his dad and it was because of this nature that they were even willing to give a racist a chance, which ultimately ended up changing his views a bit.
@@Void_Out yeah argee! I think sometimes because we want our heroes to he right we make them flawless. But I learned stuff because static could be wrong too but he got better. So I'm curious to see what they do with the character long term and ik some people are just gonna hate but man it so cool seeing one of my favorite in the limelight he deserves
@@henrytm188 I hate that. Not realistic. People want politics and realism, meanwhile they don't want consequences of such realism? So do you want it or not? Picking and choosing is so inconsistent and lacks the integrity of a really good story. I want problems in my stories. Not "everything is perfect here" tropes.
@@ShadowProject01 there's actually a lot of hero stories with in tact families. It's just that Americans and other westerners tend to read mainstream American stories which have some family death here and there. Mostly because of so many reboots they have to shake things up to get old readers back. Heck, even some mainstream stories have intact families. Animal Man, for example.
@@ShadowProject01 miles mother dead af bro. Thats canon. Cyclops was still an orphan till they made that retcon that his dad is a space pirate lol. Fantastic 4 are all superheroes so they a bit different
"From time to time we receive letters from readers who wonder why there’s so much moralizing in our mags. They take great pains to point out that comics are supposed to be escapist reading and nothing more. But somehow, I can’t see it that way. It seems to me that a story without a message, however subliminal, is like a man without a soul." - Stan Lee (1970)
I took the time to listen to you and I appreciate your input, I do remember the STATIC SHOCK tackling race issue but regardless I love the show, I am still thinking of just collecting all the old STATIC SHOCK comics and getting a Blu-ray DVD of STATIC SHOCK original series. Cause he is one of my favorite African American superheroes!
my dislike is when they do it in a way that doesn't fit well with the story, or when it starts looking like a psa rather than a story, static tends to mix politics and story fairly well so in regards to static i have no complaints.
@@josephhood8759 true but it fits well with this individual character
@@terrenceharris-hughes4436 I can agree with that
I am perfectly fine fine with the changes to statics origin. This origin makes more sense to me as despite peer pressure and gang violence being a common occurance in life, him going to a gang fight felt of for me and with the alterations in Virgil's home life in the new version that makes the protest even more of a natural thing for Virgil to do. I have always loved static since I first saw the show and this comic book has got me hyped so much
Milestone was literally created because of a lack of minority characters
Wow
There's a lot of non white characters in comics. A lot. Nobody does anything with them though. That's the problem. If you don't believe me go to Wikipedia and type in non white or minority comic book characters. Or just African American comic book characters.
@@treacherousjslither6920 now but not when he was created so u r dismissed
@@DoDo-ku4lv wrong
@@DoDo-ku4lv you're not just wrong you're really really wrong
The episode of Static referenced that tackles racism from his best friend's father was 1) fantastic, and 2) recently shown in its entirety, without any ad breaks, at DC Fandome. That completely free, online event that I thought a bunch of us DC nerds showed up to watch.
I would think that the episode, its core messages, and the political nature of Static and Milestone would be fresh on peoples' minds after Fandome where I believe this comic was first announced along with the Milestone relaunch.
I personally love it when comics can balance very real and important themes/messages with their super heroism. You get the best of both worlds really, a fun, action packed adventure with cool characters, and the opportunity through story telling for the characters and audience to learn about how other people see the world. Static pulled this balance off extremely well in its time and I hope this new comic and manage the same.
That's not fair Static Shock was an amazing and extremely well written show. cartoon that was as aimed at kids released in the early 2000's
balance
When Drake played the clip I was honestly surprised they actually used the word "racism." Not enough stories, especially those directed at kids, say it so blatantly and it's great
@@owenslaughter9438 I agree, I said in my comment how the episode of the show referenced in the video was fantastic, the show did the same balancing act with super hero/teen antics and heavier messaging to its audience as the early comics did. I hope the same for this new material.
@@AeonKnigh432 agreed, honestly shock value can be valuable as to leave no stone unturned while discussing important/heavy subjects.
@@jackkelly9048 Oh agreed just had to throw a joke in there. I totally agree. I just have little hope for the comics and new shows because they don't have the same maturity that a show aimed at kids in the early 2000s.
This video deserve an award
Yes
I’m sorry but this is bugging me it’s meant to be deserves.
Dam my boi Scru on here much respect brother
Well ok you're here
Don't know why I didn't expect Scru to be here, but I shoulda.
I used to be majorly bigoted towards all sorts of groups, be it African Americans, gays, Trans people, etc. Growing up with my family didn't really help. All it really takes is to get informed. I was incredibly ignorant, and was in an echo chamber of that same ignorance. Part of my rehabilitation has been the creators I looked up to speaking the facts against this ignorance, and I can't thank you enough for providing the same to so many people.
I and many others are incredibly proud of you for making this journey! :)
@@wjjajshshdbdnnsndhbauhwhshs tysm, it means a lot
I'm glad you made it out of that.
This is the way.
The art for the comic is amazing though.
I know the guy its nikolas drake ivy
Absolutely I love the stylized look of the comic
The art of modern comics have been amazing it's the writing which sucks
That's about all that's good about this issue because the story is not good
True
People that say comics shouldn’t be political seem to forget a huge amount of their favourite superheroes made their first appearances punching Hitler.
Difference between punching Hitler and punching a cop.
@@bool_aid_man510 tomato, Tomato
@@bool_aid_man510 so long as they’re responsible for the suffering of others based on characteristics they can’t control, they’re both worthy of being punched by a superhero
@@bool_aid_man510 no it's not. Oppression and murder is the same no matter what your name or job title is. Being a cop doing suddenly make it ok to break the law and hurt others
@@cflame14 cops aren't all good nor all bad while Hitler and the nazis were all bad
Static was an iconic character because his stories we're about real-world issues.
yeah this comic has real world issues like black lives matter but I agree the old origin is better
Yea issues like a power plant exploding basically in your face from a shoot out and experimental tear gas giving you power it happened to me last week (this is a joke btw)
Don’t ever dis static chock again
@@blacktionjackson7133 🤣🤣🤣 you gotta be kidding
Just feels lazy now dontcha think?
"Sons of the Fathers" best episode. Virgil's dad was the best in that episode.
I see Robert Hawkins as one of the best comic book fathers out there.
*New Static is too political*
Uhh, did these people forget that his Mom literally died to police brutality?
I suspect most of the folks memory of Static doesn't extend beyond him being a black superhero with cool powers.
And that the gas that mutated then was throw by the police and was supossed to track then?
And that gang violence and the pipeline that forces black and poor kids to join then are the central conflict for most of the run?
Like wtf
His mom was killed in a gang war originally. They changed it just to be political and score woke points.
@@SuperNeos2 oh brother 🤦🏿♂️
Static shock as always been political from day one. The whole reason milestone comics was created was to show minority centric stories.
This is why I like your channel, it's not afraid to go political when it's necessary and you bring up facts from past comics and shows that prove its not too different from past politics. Every thing isn't black and white with politics as most people think, there is a Grey area where people choose not to think about.
Dude, no. It's not simply because the new comic is "political", many are oblivious to the real problem. The comic is a propaganda in disguise, and it's biased. BLM's leaders profit by exploiting black people, and use that money to buy private mansions. Meanwhile, poor black people receive almost nothing.
BLM is just a demagogic scam.
@@Ronin-lb5ij haven't you listened to what Drake said in the vid?
@@Ronin-lb5ij the comic is literally the experience of a black teenager in modern times of course it's going to be political and BLM is going to be mentioned and how police brutality happens on a daily basis and the impact on Virgil life, so yes BLM Will be mentioned who knows the founders buying that mansion may be mentioned this is the first issue give it a chance.
Drake did an absolutely wonderful job in describing the issue.
Yes exactly, it's also really important that a white dude like Drake (or me) is out there saying these things because we need to be part of the solution, and the first step is not being afraid to talk about.
@@ureadthisurgay1057 you're definitely trolling but I'm saying this for the audience: cis white men also suffer under the patriarchy, and our boy Drake here is *obviously* talking to his fellow men, while reminding his audience that *there are better sources* for these kinds of topics. We're working as allies.
The sons of the father episode stuck hard with me...when I was younger I was kinda kicked out of my best friends house by him because his dad came home and found me there in 6th grade then again in 10th...no reason more than being black but noone understood what that felt like...that episode made me feel like I wasn't alone
When I was young we often had to get on the floor because of constant shootings in the projects and it was done by other people who looked like me. But I’m sure you had it worse…
That episode is brave enough to teach kids racism is stupid
@@xstarsxromenguyen9854 How about both… that’s my experience. Get off your, likely right wing, high horse.
@@xstarsxromenguyen9854 I don't think that is what he was comparing himself too🤦🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️ he just made a statement... What happened to you was wrong as well but don't make it seem like what happened to him was somehow less effective in his life ... I didn't have either experience but I empathize with both of you because your my brothers and I actually care what you have gone through and what you go through... Where not supposed to be tearing each other down that's what they want us to do so stop it .. thank God your still alive and a stray bullet didn't find you .. because many have died from them you should definitely understand that part..
@@xstarsxromenguyen9854 passive aggressive much? Your statement is sus as hell
I agree 100% with your video. Saying the new Static Shock is "too woke" is nonsense because it always had important real-life issues such as homelessness, hopelessness, race, biggotry, drug abuse, gun violence and even general injustice. I will say that you being a White male and being so passionate about all of this speaks volumes and I am glad you did this. I've never been one to hate anyone based on race or sexual orientation. Stupid comes in all races and all genders, and so does goodness. Hell, I'm mixed with so much shit that if I was racist, I'd only be hating part of myself. I could go on and on, but I'll just end this by saying I look forward to more Static Shock and more of your content. Subscribed!
The old Static Shock even got into homophobia a lot too. His best friend is a gay jew!
Yes, supporting an organization that screwed, robbed and murdered people for an incident manipulated for political interest to make a criminal aggressor of a saint. If you continue to support BLM, let's see how much money you gave them because they kept it and didn't help anyone lol hahaha
PS: Go read RippaVerse better, that's a comic like before, not this new shit that they ruined.
I have created a new backstory forStatic.
It keeps Virgil getting bullied by Heatwave and his revenge plot, but it has updated circumstances in the origin.
He grabs his dad's gun to kill Heatwave.
He finds Heatwave, Heatwave's gang and other gangs, causing riots using the "BLM" movement, to justify their actions, but they don't believe in the cause and just want to cause chaos.
So, Virgil using his dad's gun tries to stop Heatwave, and proclaim that Heatwave doesn't believe in the BLM movement.
Then the police come in teargassing the rioters and Virgil- This tear gas as you expect give them superpowers.
The rioters and Virgil manages to escape.
__
I think this backstory address and reflects on how people try to use the BLM to cause chaos -Jake Paul
Meanwhile other people, who actually believe in the movement stop these rioters.
Edit: Yes, I mixed up with heatwave and hot streak, my bad.
Add ons: We will still have Wade peer pressuring Virgil to take action against hotstreak, but instead Virgil takes one of his father's gun.
After the Big Bang, Virgil would throw away the gun, since everyone loves that moment, and is integral to his character growth.
The Big Bang would still happen on Blood Island.
@@princewya oh I gotta be honest, I did not know that, thank you.
Why is it so important for non black people that static picks up a gun? I don't understand yalls attachment to him picking up a gun. That was an issue 30 years ago not today. Static would touch a gun today this isn't og static because Dwayne McDuffie is dead and the lesson he wanted to teach then was taught. And now with this new lesson why is it uber important for yall to keep writing terrible origin stories that don't fit today at all and keep him attached to guns? That makes no sense. So please explain it to me
@@Aries_5916 "non-black"? I'm black and I wanted Static to pick up the gun because it shows character. He had the opportunity to kill his bully and get away with it yet didn't because he CHOOSES not to kill the guy. This shows the audience the type of character he is before gaining superpowers. Why he is a superhero and not a supervillain.
They did Dwayne McDuffie HORRENDOUS by claiming he's rolling on his grave, that's just disrespectful
As someone who hates the new Static origin let me explain. It's not that it's political, it's that it takes away a core concept of Virgil's character. When he was powerless he was peer pressured into joining a gang and actively thought about killing his school bullies. Yes Virgil makes the right decision and tosses the gun before becoming Static, but in a moment of powerlessness he almost becomes a gangbanging murderer. It lets him connect to the villains he fights because he was almost there. To me that's a core concept of the character that's gone if he just got his powers from a BLM protest because then Virgil no longer has a past that lets him connect to villains. The only way he stays the same is if you see attending a BLM protest as a bad thing. I don't. I don't take issue with Virgil attending BLM protests, your video more than highlights moments from the original series of comics and cartoons that support that for his character, I take issue with the gang elements being completely eliminated from Virgil's origin.
Exactly. Well said.
JAC 073
Typical excuse making. It's *NEVER* for the reason that thousands of people are stating is it? Even though most of these people are politically driven and are saying in plain english that they hate it cause it's "political" somehow that isn't true just cause of you? Your reason for being part of bigoted and anti-black movements is always something other than being anti-black. Even though these kinds of reactions only come towards inclusive characters
Facts
I agree the new origin story felt hollow and empty
The new origin makes me concerned that some of the supervillains will come from the BLM side. Otherwise, you’ve got an entire group of protestors on the BLM side with superpowers, which kind of lowers the stakes for Static as a superhero as he’ll have way too many allies helping him out.
Static should be able to tackle BLM without changing his origin story.
I can agree on the political part, but shouldn't that conflict on the gang problem and all the villains? There was a logical explanation why most of the people affected by the gas became super villains, since they were already criminals. Now that most of the people are legit protesters, the origin of lots of villians over a legit protest cause may do more harm than good. I am saying this without reading the material, since I live in Brazil and have no possibility to reach it, speacially because my currency over dollar is ridiculous.
Making it BLM was a given, but I'd rather they do something along the lines of Static being an already established hero in Dakota with this protest giving way for a new Big Bang; thus introducing some new metas into the world. That way it doesn't get rid of the growth he had in his origin through him getting rid of his gun n whatnot.
No disrespect to Mcduffie's colleagues, but they aren't him. They had huge fights and creative differences back in the day, which led up to Milestones downfall. I hope the new books good but given the current writer's track record, I'm not holding my breath.
I agree. For me the issue wasn't including BLM, there was no way that wasn't going to happen in a Static comic written in 2021, it was that it took away from Mcduffie's original Static origin which was a very powerful story that should have been kept.
People don't mess with the core concepts of Batman or Spider-Man's origin story. Static shouldn't have been any different. It was timeless and still relevant to today's world.
✔✔✔✔✔
Just Phil
So are you saying he wouldn't associate blm with his comic? I doubt he wouldn't. I know a lot of whyte people have probably gotten people like you to turn against a movement that simply affirms black lives, but maybe don't take on the sentiments and perspectives of people who might be part of the problem. And find every reason they can to b!tch about black people in media as long as the media champions black people
I like this see that make sense
@@Scoring57 He didn’t say that. He was hoping to keep the established origin static had and use the protest as a new starting point. Shifting away from a new origin about a young static to an established static dealing with a fallout of new metas from a second Big Bang. Sort of like how they revisit high school Spider-Man often but some fans prefer adult Spider-Man because context is different especially if the original audience has matured.
Has there ever been a single person whining about something being too political who wasn't a massive hypocrite? Unlikely.
Yoo, you reminded me of why I loved Static Shock as a kid. As a non-American, it was interesting to see a perspective of a black hero's experience and life. Had static came out in this era, reactionary garbage will call it 'woke', even for its time.
The broken arm analogy was perfection.
seriously!
That’s actually an analogy I’ve used a few times to explain BLM, so I’m glad he used it as well.
It was so good. The only one I’ve heard before is the one specifically showing why “All Lives Matter” protesters make no sense.
“If you go to a breast cancer awareness march or fundraiser and start screaming about “ALL CANCERS MATTER”, the whole point of this is that this is to bring awareness to this specific cancer that affects certain people. While you’re technically not wrong, you’re diminishing the effects of this problem and you’re just an asshole.”
I’ve been going back and reading a lot of the old Milestone comics as they’ve been uploaded to the DC Universe app. Anyone saying that they’ve only become political now has never read those comics.
But it wasn’t in your face like it is today obviously you miss the point
@@devilslayer3548 Buddy, I know you haven’t read these books. Or, if you did, you read them when you were way too young to know what you were reading.
@@devilslayer3548
He just f^cking told you it's political and you're still arguing. And why should people have to hide political aspects of a story? If you disagree with the idea that black lives matter or become upset that the idea is expressed in a comic cause it's a relevant and harmful issue then you're probably just racist.
I prefer the old static ciz i love it the way it's
Leaving aside how the new origin might effect the storytelling, it would be out of character for the Virgil I remember to *not* go to BLM protests.
@@codyhumble7855 sadly comics have always been about a lot of propaganda. Think about it. What better way to influence youth than to shoehorn it into their entertainment. And honestly a lot of it can be good. Great. The sad thing is, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. People use good motivation practices for pure selfish means. And always end up like a wolf in sheep's clothing to get everyone to side with them, so that the herd willfully is manipulated by them.
Yeah, I remember a lot of episodes with Virgil being extremely progressive and "woke" as some would call him now a days. The show was big on trying to push a more progressive message while also tackling many problems kids, teens, and even adults had to deal with and still have to deal with. Hell, many of the episodes are still relevant today, be them gun violence and shootings, gang violence, homelessness, mental illness, bullying, racism, ignorance and blind hatred. I feel like Static is needed now more than ever BECAUSE we're not getting better, and kids today need a role model like him again.
@@jish55 Here, here!!
No he wouldn't. Why would he go to some ethnic baiting shit show whose head honcho was caught embezzling money from donations and buying 4 houses in While neighborhoods? His father definitely wouldn't want him going.
Why are people mad this time because honestly I thought this static comic was tons of fun.
@@carbootstudios2459 figures why am I not surprised
Because people like to complain?
@@carbootstudios2459 It's better to just ignore it, they always try the "racist are outraged about X or Y" tactic to try to sell anything, when they flop it's not because what they made was bad or because, in this case at least, black people weren't going in hordes to buy this and make it succeful but because those damn racist are so racist they didn't buy the comic that calls them racist, that's why american comics are going out of bussiness, the outrages actually comes down to "people didn't like it, they will no longer buy or consume anything from this new iteration" and that's somehow problematic
@@carbootstudios2459 honestly at this point this shouldn't be a surprise anymore given the mainstream media like you said wants outrage 24/7.
@@princewya you do remember that that statics origin involves him trying to murder his bully right?
Im still shocked that, to this day, certain people STILL say stuff like “but comic books arent supposed to be political” even though they’ve been political SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING!
You're telling me that when Siegel and Shuster had Superman stop wars and battle abusive prison wardens and corrupt politicians they were making some kind of political statement? HOLY SHIT Mind blown! /s
@@galactic85 my favorite is always when someone goes like “My favorite non political comic book is Watchmen” and everyone with at least a quarter of their brain is just sitting there like 😐
Or when people complain on politics in video games yet they defend games like metal gear or bioshock , either way I am happy static shock is back
*cough cough* Captain America *cough cough* X-Men *cough cough
Technically it is political themed not political there is a difference but clearly people like you can't see the difference between them. Lets not forget that most if not all had politics in the background not in peoples faces.
I feel like the people who get mad about comics being political haven't really read alot of comics
Agreed!!!
Holy shit this
Facts. That or their privilege did not allow them to make the connection.
While yes I do think they’re annoying and are hypocritical, I can see where they are coming from. I think what they are trying to say is that politics shouldn’t be in your face and inserted into the story when it isn’t really needed. And I do get that, no one wants to read a comic that lectures them
Most twitter warriors don't engage in most of the hobbies they claim to be defending.
My problem with the new static is the fact he never go to the point of: "I shouldn't be taking lives"
He can support BLM even though there are alot of BLM riots that go mad due to:
-Bad eggs (people arent supporting them at all)
-Police inflitrants
-Selfish assholes
-People who take it too far.
If "in my opinion" I would do it like this.
He can be a peacefull BLM protester, but just put in some bullies that will show: "Hey look at these loser, siding with rioters."
Of course.. the bullies would be told: "They are peacefull, those who riot are not BLM but just people who want chaos."
Then the bullies would go too far to sabotage the BLM protest into a riot, wich the group tries to stop, but they tipped off the police and even before the bullies COULD RIOT with Vergil stopping them. The grenades are launched.
Note that Vergil at this point would have a weapon on him in an intent to harm the bullies and get them away. As they do beat up Vergil and his friends.
This way Vergil right before he would confront the bullies... would actually opt not to use the weapon (tazer, knife, gun, wahtever) and let the bullies do the rioting while the rest of the group would just back away from them and let them deal with the horror of police brutality.
To only have everyone caught in this!
I think the BLM movement's intentions are pure but the problem is and I state: "Some people just get extreme"
Good BLM protest: Educate, inform, peacefull and spread the message.
Bad BLM protest: Belittle, attack, berate, yell and dismantle.
Now politcal tagent aside.
I think him just being BLM and getting hit by cops doesn't reflect the whole problem in general and kinda makes Vergil a Gary Stu.
"He's good, he does good, but then the MAN put him down and he gets powers."
While the original was:
"He's a kid down on his luck, tries to make the ultimate choice, decides not to do it, gets caught up in something bigger."
So yea.. in my opinion... I think the new static's problem is the fact he doesn't get the whole: "Staring into the abyss thing"
The reason we loved static is because: "He knew he was gonna be wrong and used his powers for good."
Now that part is stripped away...
Is my "idea" of the bullies/opposers a good idea? Probaly not how I written it XD but... atleast it keeps in the biggest thing why we love Static as a hero. "The choice of taking a life"
Thank you for putting into words my issue with the new static. I don't hate the fact that he's a blm protester in fact I think it's a good mordenization of the character however I think that they are mishandling him. When he fights hotshot for the first time in school and damn near kills him he feels absolutely no guilt at all. He doesn't stop and think maybe I'm wrong or hesitate to use his powers on him. Hell he doesn't even stop until a bystander begs him to stop and in the aftermath he isn't even shaken or have a oh god what have I done moment, something the original run of the character would have been. He is just concerned about how he looks. That's not static . Static has always been about anger at the injustice of the world and how to channel it. That's why ebon is staics greatest enemy and threat. They're the same character the only difference is that ebon is willing to be a monster while static isn't.
@@razorflossrazor2937 While Drake is right that some people just go with "TOO POLITICAL"
Drake also voiced this similiar opinion about: "This is not how static was"
I just added my own parts and opinions too. Static is suppose to follow the super hero code of: "You don't kill and take it too far"
Also remember that Static helps these people with powers find their way to do things right again. Give them a supporting shoulder and show that you can create a better world for all and make your own justice.
I really think there is something to be said for revisiting stories we loved as kids and learning they were “political” before we were. It’s comforting to know creative people have cared about justice even if it sucks that we’re still fighting the same battles.
Static is a great example of politics enhancing the characters & the setting rather than just being there. It’s never politics = bad to me it’s implementation & learning how to do that helps spread a message more
Comics are inherently political? Not all but a lot are based on some form of moral grounding, which lead into what? Politics.
One of Superman's first stories involved him dealing with America's neutrality in WWII... They've Literally been Political from the start, I don't get some people
@@tyrxian6452 hell, even the pre "Clark Kent" superman is political.
Black Lives Matter is NOT a political issue. It's a matter of Human Rights.
Human rights are and always have been political. Saying BLM isn't political is like saying abolitionism wasn't political before the Civil War.
@@TheRenegade... Human rights are just that, a Right. Society makes it a political issue due to the ignorances and prejudices of the dregs of the world.
@@MrLourie The concept of human rights didn't even exist until the enlightenment. Since the baseline is no rights and the elite benefit from no rights, the people must procure their own rights from the elite. Conflict between the elite and people is inherently political.
The worst was when hbo made a new watchmen show and people claimed that it was too political.
The show sucked
@Kellz agreed
@@kellz1703 it did, but not because it was too political.
@@kellz1703 But at least it got the actual Watchmen comic's psychic squid 'aliens' adapted rather than the movie's Doctor Manhattan scapegoat replacement.
@@kellz1703 i mean if you're gonna go after white people, might as well be the triple K
Just a question: in this version, the police knowingly throw mutation gas in the crowd?! Because I always saw the explosion like an accident. And, why they tried mutation gas in civillians?! That's the only thing I got confused. They explained in the comics?
Honestly that's most of our weapons, they need to be tested on people
@@yandengray4516 yes, but don't they do this in a lab? With "willingly" test's subjects? And before the human tests, the lab test shouldn't point that the gas mutate human cells? In the old comic it was toxic waste, so the reader already know it was dangerous. But the characters didn't know what it was and none of them wanted to snif that. It was an accident.
The idea of throwing mutation gas in a protest (peacefull or not) is like stopping them with real bullets and poison. Ok, it maybe done it before, but today is not acetable. And that happened with no repercussions in a non-dictatorial country is just to much for my suspension of disbelief.
@@princewya So a crazy "genius" tampered the gas without the police knowing?
Thank god! I know is crazy, but is a relief that the police is not that terrible. I still hope that they adressed in the comics the legal actions that the protesters should take against the police. Afterall it was still their tear gas.
@@lucye4389 the police did knowingly throw the tear gas to harm the civilians, the accident was that they got powers. So yes, they were still awful wanting to do that but didn’t know about the powers thing. Also, the police aren’t the only terrible people, Static Shocks best friend had a racist dad who hated them for being black because he said his kid acts like “those people”.
@@fearless4him595 Tear gas is pretty widely accepted even in the most altruistic of democracies. Hell, its used againts soldiers in their basic training. So idk if that's really all that terrible.
These people that complain about this stuff aren't actual comic/super hero fans. They are only here just to find something new to vilify.
I bet they didn't watch or read static shock
@@princewya well you know more than me I didn't finish the tv series or comics the first time I heard his name was in young justice
Static was literally the first Superhero I actually related to through and through. Sure, before Static like any little boy I wanted to be Batman to the t. Static looked like me, same personality and even same Pops lol 😂 Every issue I faced as a teen was addressed in dialogue by the show, except I never met Romeo lol 😂 Thank you for this beautifully accurate video!
I see a lot of people in the comics pointing out in his debuted Capt. America was punching Hitler.
That was controversial at the time as America hadn't yet entered WWII.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were harassed over it due to the opinon that america should get into WWII, and because of anti-semites who were pro Nazi.
Hell, let's not forget how controversial Sam Wilson becoming Capt. America was (both in the comics and the MCU).
I could go on, citing how Batman used to focus a lot more on police corruption and the broken justice system.
How superman has been an allegory for xenophobia repeatedly.
But that's not the point.
So, why do I bring all this up? Because it's no different now, people need to pipe down and let the creators have messages. Good, important, messages that can have an impact on making the world a better place.
I would rather have a comic that has a good message splashed all over it, than a fluffy feel good story that lets me turn off my brain. I have other media for that.
Static as part of BLM? Not only is that realistic, but it's an important messages that people need to see today: heroes standing up for the right thing. And if that hero ends up being someone people can look up to, despite being fictional? that's fine in my book.
And if the response is "super heroes are meant to be fantasy" ... How many folks keep wanting a "realistic and gritty" take on super heroes?
Cause it feels like Static has been doing "Realistic and Gritty" longer than I've been alive.
I don't care about the BLM protest thing, but if Static isn't learning that he SHOULDN'T kill people then it's losing a lot of emotional impact compared to the original run.
Why not let him go to the protest knowing his bully will be there trying to shoot him like in the original?
@TheGreyTurtleEntertainment I like the heroes being looked up to. It's funny because he was protesting before he got his powers. There's a saying, either you stand for something or fall for anything. Your comment was great.
@@tonysmith9905 This seem like a tired answer but it's true; he's a kid. Kids make the worst decisions. I was gonna have this long response but that's kind of it.
@@thabal601 Answer to what huh? I don't get your reply to me, it has nothing to do with what I wrote. Unless you're saying what I came up with is a good way to both?
@@tonysmith9905 You asked why would Virgil be at a protest knowing his bully would be there trying to shoot him. I said because he's a kid and kids make bad decisions.
@@thabal601 No you misread. In the original comics he starts out hunting his bully down so he can shoot him, that's when he gets involved in the gasing that turns him into Static.
What I'm trying to propose is that why couldn't they just have him going to a rally trying to find his bully to put a bullet in his head? Simple way to do both and keeps the feel of the original.
I just recently just watched the Death Battle between Static and Miles.
I’ll just say that Xeno Robinson does a fine job as Static.
That rap battle as the background music was amazing.
Using the phrase "just a few bad apples" in the face of police brutality and corruption is an insult in and of itself. Especially when you remember the phrase actually says that all it takes is ONE bad apple to spoil the bunch.
I don’t think Dwayne McDuffie would blatantly put BLM in the comics but rather make a fictional group similar or share the same sentiment. Static Shock always had social-political issues in the TV series and comics but I don’t remember an actual real life social-political group being stamped in any source material. They always created a narrative with fictional characters and some cameos.
This new Static Shock story seems like they just retconned Static’s origin just to make a BLM symbol 😂 which is super lazy and making it too political if you read and found out how Static originally got his powers.
Milestone was always political when they started. You dont know Dwayne so you dont know what he would do.
@@jnmartin1992 bro I know you can read. I don’t think I’ve seen a McDuffie book where he stamped a real life social-political group in his work as source material. You can make a social-political narratives with diverse fictional characters/groups… which is literally McDuffie’s whole philosophy with comics.
If they changed the name of the group, but made sure to carry the same ideals and situations as what BLM stands for and against, that it would make a difference. NO, not at all. The biggest part of the issue is BLM isn't a group to begin with, so to say so in a comic is fiction in and of itself. It's an ideal, it's a cause, it's a movement, but not an organized group.
@@jaiart6823 it’s an non profit organization. There are chapters of BLM nationwide. Bro you can look this up yourself… they gotta website and everything.
Rolling my eyes.
I never questioned whether or not superheroes were political and i did read all 45 issues of static. But what i am about to say isn't critical of the new static comics (partly because i haven't read them and therefore can't judge them one way or another) but rather modern comics in general, specifically those i did read. My issue isn't whether or not they discuss politics but HOW they discuss them. Nuance plays a huge role in how effective the message is. Taking the static cartoon as an example, yes richie's dad was a racist but he had to reflect on whether his love for his son outweighed his prejudices and he saw the consequences it had on their relationship. Yes jimmy was a school shooter, but we also see why he became one and how virgil was powerless to stop it, no matter what actions he would have taken. Going back to the racial prejudice aspect, there have been a number of klansmen irl who quit the klan because they realized the error in their beliefs, but losing their prejudices also meant losing their family and friends. I am sure there are dozens of members who also want to leave but are too scared to because of their fear of losing the safety of community. The greatest nuance of storytelling and in history is that the villains don't always see themselves as the villains. Sometimes they believe they themselves are the heroes or commit villainy for the greater good of to rectify something they personally view as unjust.
But lets focus on the method of writing. There is a difference between writing a character experiencing injustice in a way that puts you in the shoes of the character vs smacking you in the face with the concept of injustice. The character needs to be relatable...and i don't mean blank to fit the lowest common denominator, but have legitimate strengths, weaknesses, interests and progressions to make you want them to succeed. I relate to Mae Jemison because while i might not be black nor a woman, i, much like her was told by family and by teachers that i won't accomplish my goals, and it was through reading about her triumphs that made me want to go into medicine. And it was because of her that I developed an interest in star trek, and i could relate to characters like checkov and le forge and seven of nine. Peter parker and virgil hawkins were my favorite supers of their respective universes and samus was my favorite video game character.
In the end, it comes down to whether you do things the "black lightning" season 2 way or the "supergirl" season 4 way, and i would prefer the "black lightning" season 2 way a 108 times over.
Beautifully said, sadly this will get ignored
Fucking Beautiful
As a Blerd I must say "THAAAAAANK YOOOOOUUUU!"
HAHAHA! "Blerd" Black+Nerd. I get it. I'm a Blerd too!
That word is actually taking off? Its nice to be black and a nerd, but there's also times when it feels better to just be *a* nerd too...
@@br9760 indeed, there's a whole Facebook community
@@backroadchronicles2476 it's a comic con too
Fellow Blerd and game developer and tester here
I wish Static gets a live-action, but I feel like it won't because the issues Static tackles are too real and will be labelled offensive. But yea, I just wanna see a Static live-action and just fangirl in my room.....
They did black lightning (static's hero that he looked up to in the tv show) A mass majority of that show on netflix was about racism and being the better person. I'm sure static could come back in live-action one day. I just hope they do it justice regardless of the fact that racists and other bigots will complain about "another woke show"
@@MirageNen oh I watched that show. I was waiting for static to appear...but he didn't...I'm so sad 🥲 at the very core of it, Static was always about politics, but he did it right imo. I would so want a series or a movie about Static...but with how superheroes have been lately, I also kinda don't want an adaptation...the story and characters are quite different from their comic counterparts and idk why when DCAU is exists 😂
@@ぷードーモ I wasn't expecting static but i am sad that black lightning either finished or was canceled. I'm still watching through it. but only on like season 2 out of 3 or 4 seasons.
There will absolutely be weaponized pearl-clutching levered against it in the stupidest ways.
@@ぷードーモI don’t want to now since the original creator is gone now, and it worst that the person writing it doesn’t understand Virgil at all, so I hope they don’t tarnish his legacy.
The original origin is a lot better compared to how it is now, using real peoples names to bank on them and using them in a way for superhero origins is messed up
Honestly after reading both origins I enjoy them both the only difference is that one is based on gang violence which I don't think most people care about very much now but BLM is a lot more relevant and something everyone can relate to regardless of how you feel about it
How is Static banking on George Floyd and Breanna Taylor's names though? It's not like the book is promoted as Static got his origin specifically for going to a BLM Protest in honor of those two, at least it's not promoted that way by DC itself
Straight up if I was killed by police brutality I'd be fucking jazzed to be named drop in a Static comic.
@@prideguy3233 You'd be killed to forever be known in some comic book?
@@WinstonPoptart That's not what I said but go ahead and pretend I said thay
People seem to forget that one of the most famous superheroes of all time was literal WWII propaganda.
Comics have always been political, arguably more than they currently are. Get the fuck over it.
Some folks just feel it's a personal attack. They felt accused of doing things that they as individuals didn't really do. So they felt this need to defend themselves. Toxicity happens through fear of permanent misunderstanding. Humans don't like to be judged.
How are they being attacked?
Then they can either grow the fuck up or keep crying in their parent’s basement. We’ve spent too long trying to meet bigots half way. Besides, most people who say they “feel attacked” by people who are just pointing out racism are just making bad faith arguments so they can play the victim
@@sterling9314 Everyone is different so it's partially true. But being aggressive isn't going to help. It just going to cause more trouble. We can't know for sure on who's racist and who's not.
@@tyronechillifoot5573 Well it depends on how you put it in words. If you are civilized enough and their still aggressive than it's their problem.
@@UnrealNeoBat Dude, are you 15 or just trolling? It's the same with racists as it is with ducks, if it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck, it's a duck.
I ain’t gonna lie they should of just kept the original origin
War on Drugs is still going on but it was much more relevant in the 90s for black people. Today direct police brutality is a hot topic so it makes sense to change it if it's set in modern day
@@MrInuhanyou123 It was gang violence based, and gang violence is still rampant now
@@jocoolshow gang violence was a huge part of war on drugs. Infact drugs and the way inner cities were decimated by violence and heavy handed police response cannot be disassociated from one another. Unless your gonna say they arent connected but i dont think your that kind of poster
@@jocoolshow gang violence was a huge part of war on drugs. Infact drugs and the way inner cities were decimated by violence and heavy handed police response cannot be disassociated from one another. Unless your gonna say they arent connected but i dont think your that kind of poster
@@jocoolshow gang violence was a huge part of war on drugs. Infact drugs and the way inner cities were decimated by violence and heavy handed police response cannot be disassociated from one another. Unless your gonna say they arent connected but i dont think your that kind of poster
My problem with Static's new origin is this.... it immediately dated itself. Yes, Milestone as a general whole has always been overt in it's intentions much like a lot of other comics and fictional media. The thing that people ignore though is that those politics, more often than not, serve to actually build the universe these characters live in. Often times creating placeholders to stand as a general representation. Yes, originally, Virgil got his powers from a gang war. But they never specifically named the gangs and set it in a fictional city so that the message could. Be. TIMELESS! Gang wars haven't gone away. Police riots utilizing dubious tactics have not gone away. A kid growing up similar to Virgil can easily slide themselves in there both yesterday when the comic first came out and today decades later.... That's the point. That's why people hate it when writers decide to try and tackle current events with little to no grace by name dropping this or that organization/group. Hell, this is why Watchmen still holds up. In spite of being grounded in the 80's the majority of it looks and feels like it could take place at any point in time. This is also why the X-Men holds up. It was never about one particular movement or group of people. It created a whole new group of people to serve as placeholders for literally everyone.... There's having political themes, character objectives, and messages. Then there's just being overtly political for the sake of trying to be trendy.... This is the latter, most people don't like it, and it almost never ages well.
Alagory can only go so far..
Besides any media set in a version of our world will be dated literaly always. our world changes the media has to change with it or be dated in the past risking irelivency
@@jay15951 Alagory is only limited by whatever you're referencing overtly. Otherwise it has vastly more leg room to speak to the human condition as a whole and leaves more ground to use your imagination as a creator. Once again, something like gang violence in the original Static comic is pretty universal. A kid in the US, the UK, Pakistan, or Indonesia could pick up those books and place themselves in Virgil's shoes. A better option for the reboot would have been to leave names of organizations/demonstrations off the table, or just make up a new name. Once again, it broadens who it reaches and affects allowing more people to relate to the character....
Subsequently that's how you make things more timeless. Any deviations from there on compared to reality can then be chalked up to either being set in a parallel world similar enough to our own, or one that simply halted due to the endless conflict. Making for even more nuance as it ages far better than it otherwise would or even had the chance to had someone just name dropped a bunch of stuff to be trendy for a brief moment in time.
Honestly, if a comic book gets political, I’m not surprised, because superheroes during World War Two and the Cold War were used to “spread the message”…as I would say. To me, politics would mainly discuss problems in a community or the world in general.
A WHITE GUY is talking about a BLACK SUPER HERO and saying he has ALLWWAAYYS been POLITICAL???
Yeah, he is and I agree with everything he said.
What a world.
Welcome to the channel, you must be new. Hope you decide to stick around and continue to enjoy what you see.
@@ComicDrake Long time lurker. 😅
I'll second one other point I saw: using George Floyd and Brianna Taylor's names specifically does both date the comic and, whether in good faith or not, profits off their deaths.
I'm a little torn on if it might not be more appropriate to have an in-universe character parallel one of their stories and have them be the inciting incident for the riot. That way the parallels are still clear to modern readers while those 20 years down the line won't have to do some research.
Alternatively maybe a little inset at the beginning explaining their stories in full would save future readers work and at least give the victims their own full stories in the issues rather than making them a footnote in Static's.
Thank you for making this video. I really enjoyed it, truly. I never read the old Static comics (I have 2 modern volumes, but I haven’t read them yet), and it’s been a long time since I rewatched the cartoon. However, you refreshed my memory on the political aspects of the show. Especially the episode about the racist father (I actually referenced that episode in a college project, which was a good 9-10 years ago). I love(d) Static Shock and love(d) how it would tackle certain issues every so often because they were important ones. Thank you for shedding light and facts on something I didn’t even know was going on in the comic book world. :)
Ah it's " X shouldn't be political!" " uh oh who's gonna tell them?" one of my favourite modern games
Its not that they don't want it to be political its that its not THEIR politics. Conservatives LOVED the Rosanne return that had her be SUPER political when that WAS NOT the nature of the old show BUT it was in their favor so they love it. Its how they treat anything they do not like berate it and belittle it.
It's genuinely sad to see you slowly explain that "No, BLM does not mean other lives don't matter, it just means that black lives matter" as if you were talking to toddlers. But you kinda have to.
My favourite metaphor for this is that if you say "Save the Rainforest, it doesn't mean you don't care about all the other Rainforests being cut down"
@@QTRemnant what
@@QTRemnant What the fuck?
If people are whining about that, they clearly haven't read Claremont's X-Men run (arguably one of the best runs in comics history). Stan Lee himself said that he had Charles and Magneto written as analogues of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, respectively. And if we REALLY wanna get into it, Captain America and Superman fought Nazis. Shoot, when they did the Marvel / DC crossover in the 90s, Joker REFUSED to work with the Red Skull because while he acknowledged he's a psychopath, even HE has standards and wouldn't work with a Nazi!!! People need to stop having such tender Fee-Fees!
God I hate how comics have suddenly become political, why can’t we go back to the good old days of X-Men and Captain America?
Yes this post is sarcastic.
Lol
@@carbootstudios2459 Yeah, like the subtlety of punching Hitler in the face.
@@thesamuraiman Yeah, but that’s old Cap, old Cap wasn’t meant to be subtle, but what Henry means is that Static was political before, focused on many actual issues, but they never made it seem so forced in. And I don’t mean with it having a protest, that happened before, but with it being quite literally about Floyd. I think the comic’s fine and expect it to get better, but I don’t want it to only be this.
@@Void_Out No they pretty blatantly and unambiguously called out racism and police brutality.
@@ravenfrancis1476 But they never made it so ‘black and white’ and that’s kind of what I meant, Static both criticized and worked with the police, Static both helped and stopped activists and protesters, but it’s about context, when you change that, you take away a part of what makes a ‘hero’ a hero. I do believe the comic can turn out really good once you they bring in familiar characters, since I feel the best part of the Static cast is how varied they all are.
Static's gonna be putting shocks to our systems once again.
What bothers me about of the comments here are they're.. passive aggressive and ultimately stupid. Your entitled to your opinion no doubt but... I feel like most of what im hearing is your upset (the folks who are saying they are) because of his new origins are too real or not depressing enough for you like... Bro what? If seeing a black kid about to kill his bully with a gun but ends up not going through with it- inspires you to think he rightfully deserves that origin story in todays world you need to wake up. The real world needed to see this new origin especially young black kids. Its essentially and tbh very obviously telling us... You dont need superpowers to be a good/wise person. Like mlk said "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". And in todays world i think its important to tell black peoples current story anyway we can. Maybe this didnt make sense to you either, cool. Or maybe this did sense make to you... Either way i wanna read what you guys think of my opinion.
@@princewya ill try to despute that but tbh its gonna be hard because that was a really good reaponse gg bro lol. But i think the new version os very realistic. By that i mean in a hood type of since. Where i from back then that the view to realise your situation and stop yourself can get you killed if you realised too late (based off the og v) because even if your hostile ways was soothed it doesnt mean the threat of theirs is gone. I get that it is a really good trait to have and it is something that should be able to teach black kids or any kid too think and to pick & choose your battles. But lets be honest... thats a luxary now a days.
This new take on the world it is today for a young black kid who already has a head on his shoulders and is still political (like the og) standing up for whats right is a good sign to me. And when you say "getting angry is ok just as long as you handle your shit"... Yes. I agree even if you dont like it tbh oh well. I can tell you right now every black person that has too watch brutality on tv or in person will wait and calm themselfs ... Then watch tv to see no justice happen... It is infuriatingly gut wrenching to see and know how under valued p.o.c are. To see a black kid with the power to stop evil like that and not take any shit from a villian is realistic and dope asf. The new static understands that he has to match their ferociousness in order to deal with the threat on the city or himself. And its just extra credit that he snaps and whoops ass & also still thinks of what hes doing/ needs to do. (Sorry if i misspelled somewords i was trying to get this done quick)
I'm going to go one further than the idea that they're fans of a version of the character that only existed in their head.
They're _not_ fans of the character. It was enlightening to me when I saw the backlash to the announcement of Batwoman and people complaining that she 'wasn't a lesbian in the comics'; these are not fans, these are far-right entryists trying to use anti-Social Justice agitation to stir up feelings of resentment amongst casual superhero fans who are susceptible to their messages but might not be familiar with the character and concepts directly. There's a genuine fascist misinformation campaign going on and it's dangerous to ignore it.
It’s the CW batwoman the writing is bad I didn’t hear any complaints about batwoman being lesbian it was more about how cw was atrocious tell me more
You lost me at “far right”
And I stopped at “fascist”
You are right. Same thing happened with Sandman, and it was fun seeing Neil Gaiman himself answering those...people
I don't get why this should be something people complain about it's miniscule its normal
I love Static. My issue is that the big bang happened at a protest.
TL;DR - The police's action is just plain evil and not shades of gray. Does not reflect real life. Muddies Virgil's origin unnecessarily. Villains suffer too.
Maybe I'm a bigot or closet racist or something, but I'm not a fan of BLM itself. Of course black lives matter, of course there is racism in the country that needs to be fought, of course said racism is everywhere. But a movement as all encompassing as BLM can be easily used for harm, and it has.
That being said, Virgil being a part of a BLM protest is 100% in character as much as I disagree with the movement as a whole - I would be more upset if he wasn't in some way working to end racism. Specifically calling it a BLM protest might be bad optics for the general public but who gives a shit. Call it End Racism Now and somebody would just bitch that ERN is a stand in for BLM and we are back at square one.
My ultimate issue is that someone somewhere within the story decided to tag protesters with a chemical marker to track them down after the protest? And you expect me to believe this is the work of a nuanced "everything is a shades of gray" police force? Nope, this is a cartoonishly evil force that seemingly wants to track down perfectly peaceful protesters to....arrest them later?
The BLM movement stands for something good, but it is used to shield bad actors way too much. If a protest is 100% peaceful the only people arrested are those breaking that peace. Yeah yeah, perfect world and all that. But here's where that nuance comes into play. The protesters are shown to be nothing BUT peaceful and the police are shown to be nothing BUT corrupt and evil.
The point of the chemical marker is to mark so they can investigate further. That's a charitable "we wanted to do good" viewpoint. Even using this charitable viewpoint you can't see the police as anything but evil using it on peaceful protesters that have the right to be there. You're going to track down and arrest someone for protesting. Yeah you're the baddie. Oh that peaceful protester shone a high power laser into a police officer's eye? Ok, track that guy. That ONE guy.
The chemical marker being used at a gang war is way more believable while still being overkill. You're going to use a barely tested chemical compound to tag gangbangers and track them after the scuffle to arrest them? Maybe don't? But there is a shades of gray here. The police take drastic overkill action from something that you can believe is good faith or plain evil if you think about it. Rather than stand by and let violence run rampant AGAIN, they wanted to stop it before it happened. By dousing people that are not 100% innocent but also not 100% guilty of anything with a...uh.....dangerous......compound.....to track them after......being stopped from committing a crime......so they cant commit a different crime in...the future.
See? Shades of gray.
There is no gray for the police in the origin. "Lets tag these protesters, we can kill the protests at the source" is cartoonishly evil to the core no matter what way you slice it. "Lets tag these gangbangers, we can kill gang violence at the source" is nuanced and can have good faith arguments from either side.
And Virgil being at a BLM rally - as I said earlier - is fine. Police overreaching and taking drastic measure is fine. The big bang happening at the protest informs a ton of things though. Virgil being at a gang war is happenstance and firmly solidifies his character by making it a multifaceted conflict - and explains why a lot of bang babies are "evil". Virgil was the one good guy in a sea of (potentially) bad guys that were accidentally given super powers.
Virgil is arguably not the only good guy at that protest. Accidentally give superpowers to random BLM protesters and I would like to believe you just made a big ass super hero team and *maybe* one or two baddies. And if we argue the chemical marker was a good thing to use in that situation, we argue that if innocents didn't want to get hit by it they shouldn't have been there. Which again circles back to the police being evil - even with a charitable view on their action they are still purposely stifling civil rights.
But hey, maybe that's the point. Good men assist evil by not doing anything. But then who is Static going to fight? More extreme BLM members using their powers for the greater good and ultimately hurting people? Nah, too nuanced. A cartoonishly evil police force? likely. And why would it be called the big bang when the bigger common factor is BLM activity? Wouldn't it be called something like the Black Lives Matter Tragedy or the Protest Tragedy of 2022? Unless the media in the story spins it as "everyone at the rally was a gangbanger" which I could buy.
Tbh politics have also had some story with superhero’s but it’s only when it’s something someone disagrees with them it becomes “too political “
And for some inexplicable reason the notion that a comic book is telling you that you are correct is more valuable then one where you would think, reconsider, learn and conclude.
I get what you’re saying. What’s with these people?
I dont really like the reboot origin. But not because its "woke" or "political." I just think the gang one from the 90s was much more interesting. Thats it. Probably because it was written by McDuffie who is unmatched. I'm still curious to see where this new story goes. I hope he joins the new DC Universe.
I think it fits
Its was written about issues at the moment in both cases
Gang violence in the 90s was pretty massive
And today the protests and police killing are massive
So they fit in the POV of a black kid within those eras
@@G3N-0F-D00M This one is far too one the nose, the original had a bit more to it.
@@ExeErdna This series literally just started
i know this video is a year old but i just have to thank you for telling the truth about static i watched the show as a kid i never read the comics but it taught me alot about myself & my culture if you think that static was not politcal your dreaming all comics were at one point in time I grew up proud to have learned what really goes on in the world & it inspired me to create my own comics I miss you Dwayne we all do & static is my all time favorite to keep the peace in the world Nuff Said
Thank you Drake.
This is the reason why I hate the internet.....
i am 6ft 8In tall, people are regularly caught off guard by how tall i am, it wether they admit it or not, it has made many people uncomfortable throughtout my life. but im a dorky looking white guy, so i only have to project a friendly vibe in certain situtations. i can't imagine what it must have been like for dwayne.
The original origin still just sounds a lot better, sorry.
Your missing the point it was changed for modern black kids to relate to it. What’s something a lot of us can relate to? Getting gassed at BLM protests or seeing people argue that our lives really don’t matter with the original origin not as many black kids can relate to being around gangs and being peer pressured to join or having the thought of killing your harasser
@@3risssss do you really think more black kids relate to joining blm protests over getting peer pressured into gangs or growing up in that culture?
@@3risssss ima go with the gangs over the blm protest I don’t know a single black teen that’s actually gone to one of those
Some Cartoon’s are based on comic books no matter what happens or how it plays out, it’s all about understanding life lessons to teach and educate people to what makes them in inspired that can relate to them of their lives.
I am so excited to finally be able to see Static back. As a kid I most definitely did not understand the context, even less since I watched a Spanish dub version of it being in Mexico. But I did get back in touch with Static as a young adult and the messages are so powerful it just made me love and appreciate him more.
Congratulations on the video! Even though the stubburn people will not have it, it is important to pinot out why these type of changes are relevant and even more so, where do they come from.
Static shock is an ícon, especially here in Brazil, hes basically part of our childhood, im happy hes gonna be back
The issues with this political message is that alot of people hate and are disgusted by the blm riots. No one would have an issue if static got his powers from being hosed down by corrupt southern cops during the de segregation protest. Also original static show did political issues in s beautiful and accepting way.
Your falling for a narrative designed to make you react that way, watch the video and Drake actually goes over the fact that the violence was a minority of what happened. If you're going to judge a movement by it's worst offenders at least do the same for the modern cops. Racism isn't exclusive to "corrupt southern cops" and all a story like that would do is fail to highlight how the issue is wider spread than that.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/16/this-summers-black-lives-matter-protesters-were-overwhelming-peaceful-our-research-finds/
@@BrandonCharlesHouser I was at the riots just to watch and those that behaved were the minority not the majority. Even the non looters were breaking stuff just to do so. It's a majority rule and yes some areas were peaceful but Los Angeles people were not.
This looks like a way to villainize Black Lives Matter to be honest. The Big Bang isn't just Static's origin. It's also the origin of most of his villains. Making peaceful protesters into fodder for their villain of the week seems like a terrible choice. And using the counter-protesters doesn't seem like it'll solve the problem, since that still leads to the question of so few of the BLM protesters are standing up and opposing the villains using their own new super powers, leaving Virgil to carry so much of the weight.
Glad you spoke up about this! I'm so glad Static is back. Hopefully some people get a little stronger thanks to you :)
Wasn’t there an episode with Richie’s dad being racist
What about Jimmy bringing a gun to school cuz he was tired of being bullied
yep, but i have no doubt that they will f**k up that story if they do decide to touch it, but anyways i dont read comics.
Does anyone else feel like using the real names of the real victims of blm is a bit iffy? I just feel a little weird about using the real people in a fictional superhero comic
Because it leads to a plot problem, is the Static in the same DC universe that Supermen exists. If so how and why would anything like this even happen? There's the problem, it's a dated take because DC is ironically beyond this due to pretty much everything else that has happened.
I do agree static has always been political you'd have to be blind to not see that. Though I'd also prefer if it stayed about gang violence.
Personally as a black man I am for police reform, against police brutality, but I don't support BLM. Reason being police brutality is an issue in general and not just a black issue. Also growing up I was more in danger from other black people in my community than police. Especially with the amount of times I was assaulted and snitches definitely got stitches so usually not an option.
If you support BLM I have no issues with you. I see groups as bad just the people in them. Unless the group itself is literally bad like 3 of my first initial they are bad.
I am buying ALL the new Milestone comics that come out
Every time people raise a ruckus about "when did X series become 'woke' or political", the answer tends to be that it always has been. In Static's case, it's baffling how people weren't aware of it before.
It's particularly funny when they mention that about the X-Men... Do you know know WHEN this comic came out and the climate in the nation at that time? When has it NOT been political? Goverment spying and collecting info on a persecuted minority group? I can see some ppl have never heard of COINTELPRO.
There is a difference between being "political" and the "identity politics" we see today. For instance, many of the messages included the concept of personal responsibility, while identity politics is about collective responsibility and punishment. The original didn't pull any punches but was still something everyone loved (the show at least that most people were exposed to). Identity politics are divisive and I for one don't want "woke" ideology thrown in... almost EVERYONE hates it regardless of race.
i like reading the new static reboot comic he is like me at 16 with powers in high school because im a young black nerd myself
Really powerful and it couldn't be stated or done any better than you did. Respect to you and your team 😤
*I wonder if they're going to change Icon's conservatism ...* 😂
That's why they haven't really used him.
🍿 🧐
@@MerlinTheCommenter *Exactly -- hypocritical* 😂
Thank you fou breaking down the BLM movement not the organization people need to know the difference.
The movement is trash
Brilliant break down!!! Love everything about this well thought out analysis pertaining to all angles of the franchise and it’s reception.
I don't think people dislike stuff for being "political", they dislike it for being a direct reflection of real life events, rather than allegories, metaphors, or fictional settings that one can brush off anymore, because it's stuff that literally happened.
By reading the comments... People are complaining about the very thing that made him good in the first place??? When he was created before modern time ideology even existed
My issue isnt that he supports BLM i too agree with the movement. It just feels poorly writen to me. It doesnt ruin it for me im just not a huge fan either
Its more realistic why is him supporting blm a problem
@@yobama6052 nah cheif see i actually like him being for BLM. I mean as a modern static shock it'd have to bring it up and virgil would of course support it. Something about how the modern boom babies origin story comes about just idk the logic isnt there for me. I understand that police violence at marches is a serious issue but something about the stuff with tear gas just doesnt hit my personal suspension of disbelief right
the speech Virgil's dad gives about the world changing around bigots without them noticing is really....extremely relevant to these people who always complain about wokeness in their favorite comics. Most of them were challenging politics at the time, but we don't notice that as a kid, so we don't think of those issues as political when we grow up, because that's just how much the world changed.
And its litterally season 1
I think the issue lies on the fact that a lot of people can’t distinguish between a story that contains “woke” messages vs. an inclusivity piece that happens to tell a story.
@@Watermelon_Man blm Is far from inclusive.
@@Watermelon_Man define woke
@@runningbetweenspaces Woke is a catch-all term, for the center-right and the Right, to describe Far Left ideals and messages. Saying there is racism and that racism is bad is not "woke". Saying that racism is everywhere, all the time and that white people are *born racist* (yes, some major Far Left figures believe this) is "woke". Saying that gay-bashing is a thing that is bad and should be stopped is not "woke". Saying that not allowing trans-identifying people to participate in Women's *competitive* sports is akin to Genocide is "woke". Having the male protagonist of a show or movie being the only person who makes mistakes (or the vast majority of the mistakes) and never (or almost never) does the heroic things or (especially) saves the female character is "woke" (See: "Wendy & Peter Pan" & the live action "Little Mermaid"). Creating a new show or movie that primarily stars "people of color" (I hate that term) is not "woke". Deliberately changing well established characters from white to "people of color" is "woke" (See: every example of a redhaired fictional character changed out to with a black actor... see the *dozens* of examples in WotC's "reimagining" of the Lord of the Rings character art).
"Woke" isn't *a* thing, or even *a* point of view... it can range from subtle, to blatant. But, like the famous quote about pornography: "I know it when I see it".
The boy's mom died in the show in a town-wide riot, his best friend endured anti-gay sentiment in the comics, and in the show he dealt with the temptation of joining a gang due to bullying, PLUS got his powers during a fight between gang members and police.
To claim Static is too political is to ignore his very history as a character.
@@OEMPlus Propaganda can be good. Black Lives Matter
@@OEMPlus If you hate propaganda then you must hate Captain America, given that he's blatant propaganda for America
@@OEMPlus it’s real life. To you, being one who doesn’t live this life, it’s propaganda. Maybe it’s exposing you and others like you to a world you don’t know but too often criticize without knowledge.
@@aetherkid lol. . . . .:eyeroll:
I think the issue is that the way the new comic handled it was too on the nose. In the old comics, Vergil got his powers via coincidence. He was a victim of bullying, and one day he got so tired of it, that he tried asking a gang leader for help with dealing with his bully problem. In hopes of recruiting him, the gang leader gave him a gun, and it just so happened that his bully was a member of a rival gang.
Vergil arrived at the docks to find the two gangs fighting, and hid so he would not be spotted when he took the shot- he was trying to psyche himself up to pull the trigger, but he had a crisis of conscience that helped him not to pull the trigger. As he was about to sneak off, the police showed up in helicopters to deal with the gangs and in the ensuing firefight, a stray bullet struck gas canisters storing experimental mutagen gas. This resulted in everyone present being exposed to the gas, and later gaining powers.
This is common knowledge, but i bring it up in order to contrast it with the near one-sided portrayal of both Vergil and the riot police in the new comics. They are called in to monitor a BLM protest out of fear it will become a riot, which Vergil is attending, and the police happen to be equipped with 'experimental' anti-riot gas grenades. As things escalate, the police leader orders them to use the experimental grenades, and when an officer questions the ethics of using untested chemical weapons on civilians, the squad leader says something along the lines of "Look at them, they deserve it".
This portrayal is the first issue I have with the new comic, because it completely removes any nuance of the gassing being an accident and the nuance of Vergil's character, directly contrasting both the old comics and the TV show. the clear malice of the squad leader towards the protesters, portrays the police as brutal assholes who don't value the lives of innocent civillians, and is a blunt allegory about real world events. However, portraying vergil as a harmless victim, comes back to bite the writers on the ass with how they portray Vergil one he discovers he has powers.
In the new comics, he faces his bully and with his new powers, begins to torture him as payback. This is the scene that put off many fans, because it makes Vergil act like a psychopath.
He confronts his bully at school, and decides to torture him with electricity, freaking out his friend (Gears) who begs Vergil to stop, to which he eventually listens... but he doesn't stop because he remembers his moral values or out of a sense of remorse, he isn't fazed by the risk of killing him- He only stops because he realizes that the guy's screams are drawing attention and that "It would make him look bad if he was caught torturing him". This not only directly contradicts how he was presented in the protests, but offers not a single sign of nuance.
THAT is not the behavior of a good person, much less someone who wants to be a superhero.
Static throwing away the gun seems like way more of a defining moment honestly.
True but in the new one he has the chance to kill the bullies but he doesn't
@@10tailedbijuu imma take a leap here and say the active behavior or stopping to kill someone is usually a morality tied one
It really does because it shows that even with the bullying and threats you don't have to be part of that lifestyle. If there was any real world connection between the show and black society is that moment right there. To many people I know personally came to that same crossroad with bad results
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This is a way they can actually work that in he can Template going to use the gun, but instead of taking a life he goes to a protest to spare lives
I honestly prefer the original origin story. It felt more personal to Vergil and got its political points across just fine. Saying he’s involved with BLM is one thing (which I honestly felt the original Static would’ve been a part of if it happened back then), but having that as his origin story kinda feels like he had nothing to learn from this. The original had him learn that he had to be the bigger man and not simply kill his tormentors (throwing away the gun), this version sounds like he already knows that (peaceful protesting, not getting involved with the criminals, etc) and it kinda just feels like he’s being punished for standing up for his beliefs.
A way they could have kept the gun part in is by having a racist that was in the fight drop a gun and it lands infront of him. He sees all the hate, fighting and idiocy around him and hes filled with anger himself. He picks up the gun and aims it at a white old guy but then eventually stops himself and decides to be the bigger person. Realizing that hate against hate only leads to more hate. Sure it still would've been about blm mostly but what is racism? Bullying. So it still would've kept the original message but it just wouldn't be personal to him.
@@maximumforce8275 Why a racist? Why not another black person or a so called Ally. I agree Hate against hate is bad a bad thing but what you just said proves a bias. Why not have him doing an Actual march that people involved start to riot and loot and have him realize that not everyone there is for a purpose only a selfish gain, have it show the muddled grey than a black and white. When you paint with broad strokes it doesn't help find the issues it just creates more, because now you have a good Cop who is deemed evil just because a cop in a different state did something bad, and it's not he police who keep these people on the force it's the Police unions that threaten strikes and boycotts against the Departments.
@@rannenw6207 you do realise the ones who started the whole thing is the racists right? Since when were the protesters rioting before hand? Your comment is just hypocritical because now it shows your bias XD let's just agree to disagree here and leave it at that.
@@maximumforce8275 No because the world isn't that black and white. There are people who just go to these protests to hurt other and have a selfish gain there are police who are bad people and should never wear the badge ,but as I said the world is grey never black and white there is no good and evil just various greys. Do I agree with a white Supremacist no ,but do I agree with a CRT that all white people are racist no. Because I'm not willing to narrow my world view. I'll keep my eyes and ears open and learn from those around me regardless of race and make my own opinions of the world and treat people as their character deems not the look of them something it seems you haven't yet seem to learn.
Learn from what? Well somebody doesn’t do their research. He’s obviously learn a lot with BLM involved and learn from it.
Shout out to my friend Nikolas Draperivery he’s the illustrator/Artist behind the new comic...proud of you my guy
Your friend is very talented. I love how unique his art style is.
Word, Nik killed that shit. So glad he didn't let the internet stop him from executing his vision.
🔥🔥🔥 facts
Fellow blerd and game developer and game tester
Respect 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
Nice :)
Static: Sometime I wish there was a black superhero back home to look up to.
John Stewart: Am I a joke to you?
To be fair he's in space most of the time.
@@Gundam_JAY black lightning? Cyborg? Wallace west? Vixen? Come on bruh
@@porassrivastava8242 yeah but they’re not in Dakota
@@porassrivastava8242 depends on if he knows any of these caracters. Many comics tend to make it so only superman are well know, or only he exists. At least until they get teamed up with them
I think Vergil is talking about his city, Dakota
I fell in love with static because of the real world story plots. He faced real problems real issues and that's what made him a really cool hero.
I honestly prefer his original origin with him learning to throw away the gun it’s kind of his uncle Ben moment
That's why people are mad, before his origin story came with personal growth and that whole momento of "taking accountability for your own actions" like in spider-man, he was out seeking blood and got involved in something horrible, now it's just like he has no agency, it's just someone else fault, now he is a victim rather than someone that while trying to stop being a victim was about to become a murderer, those moments of growth are what made the character so compelling to everyone, now he is just poster boy for BLM
@@miguelmacias2401 Yeah I much prefer an Origin where a character grows and learns something through it that's why Spider-mans is easily one of the most iconic with this New origin I just find it to be way less interesting since Virgil Doesn't really learn anything from it I'm not against BLM being in it I feel like they could have easily had static going to a violent protest and breaking things up or something like that
@@miguelmacias2401 And how when he was about to murder the person he didn't care about if he was gonna kill them or not. He cared about his own image of what they'll think of him.
@@jaredfisher-ramos7744 And that's awareness, that's agency, that's the character making choices that moves the story, that was good story telling, his actions took him where the story begins, instead of the story coming to him
I'm not a writer but there is a simple yet fundamental lesson I learned about writing characters from playing D&D.
Character development isn't all contained in the origin story.
While that particular event can only occur at the beginning of the story and wouldn't make much sense later on, it might have even a better developed character by the end of the new comic run than the original cartoon or comics.
It might be optimism but regardless, the worst case scenario is a less impactful story for the reboot.
Honestly I see few reasons to complain as now, maybe later on we'll all hate the new comic together who knows.
Dwanye McDuffie is rolling in his grave,
from people using him to criticize the politics that they're uncomfortable with
This is just like when people say MLK wouldn't be like that.... even when he was accused of being too "political" by many of his contemporaries. A common attack meant to remove perceived legitimacy of a cause.
Is this what he just did to confirm his own thoughts ?
@@princewya evidence?
Yes I too sometimes feel as though I am entitled to speak for the dead. Lol
Dwayne McDuffie... man, what he did as show runner for JLA and JLA Unlimited was awesome. RIP to a great one.
I honestly didn't know Static was political, I would try to wake up early on Saturdays and watch it as a kid, and I loved it. A few years ago watching Young Justice Static made an appearance and I was like "Static?" with a big grin on my face. Political or not Static is awesome, easily one of my favourite heros ever.
It can be politcal as much as the creators want, good, I love when stories have elements of real life in them, for me they make the story more emotional and worth investing in.
Bro i love his character in YJ, he's honestly just so lovable
Relating so hard to watching it on tv early in the morning.
That part
The best lesson is the one you don't notice being told. Static Shock cartoon did a TON of good while being surprisingly subtle, yet not subtle at all. That's what's missing from the current comic books. It's not that I don't WANT to see that messege. It's that I don't trust modern writers to tackle it correctly.
@@playahsan No no its not. Demon in a bottle. Speedy's drug addiction. The best lesson is the lesson itself not some generic watered down analogy for the lesson.
As long as they keep the moral Complexity of static I'm happy. Because that what made static so interesting is he used to be in the wrong alot. Like dude was gonna kill a bully or i think was starting to become on later. And his dad told him you can't. Because we need to talk about the social issue of the time but not define the character in them. That why I love captain America he went from just being the poster boy of America to being what America should stand for
This, a big reason I liked Static was that despite all the stuff he was involved in or witnessed, he still saw the best in people, he was an altruist first before anything else. It was this nature he gained from his dad and it was because of this nature that they were even willing to give a racist a chance, which ultimately ended up changing his views a bit.
@@Void_Out yeah argee! I think sometimes because we want our heroes to he right we make them flawless. But I learned stuff because static could be wrong too but he got better. So I'm curious to see what they do with the character long term and ik some people are just gonna hate but man it so cool seeing one of my favorite in the limelight he deserves
@@princewya i think to to early to tell yet but he has movement of flaws and weakness in all the comics and cartoon. So I want to see how its handled
They will remove the moral complexity
The only surprise to me was that Virgil's mom was still alive.
She's alive in the original comics. She's only dead in the show which Dwayne McDuffie didn't like.
A hero with both parents? Wooow
@@henrytm188 I hate that. Not realistic. People want politics and realism, meanwhile they don't want consequences of such realism? So do you want it or not? Picking and choosing is so inconsistent and lacks the integrity of a really good story. I want problems in my stories. Not "everything is perfect here" tropes.
@@ShadowProject01 there's actually a lot of hero stories with in tact families.
It's just that Americans and other westerners tend to read mainstream American stories which have some family death here and there. Mostly because of so many reboots they have to shake things up to get old readers back.
Heck, even some mainstream stories have intact families. Animal Man, for example.
@@ShadowProject01 miles mother dead af bro. Thats canon. Cyclops was still an orphan till they made that retcon that his dad is a space pirate lol. Fantastic 4 are all superheroes so they a bit different