Static: Season One #6: The God in the Machine

Talk about an electrifying conclusion.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Static finds himself in a bit of a bind as a few of the Bang Babies he went on to rescue turned out to be working for the bad guys of the series. In any other book, the hero would have done his best to defeat each and every one of them and leave them to the proper authorities, but thankfully Vita Ayala subverted that expectation. Throughout this series, there has been a theme of discrimination and how it ultimately leads to the unjust imprisonment of those that are different or perceived as dangerous by those with arresting power. This is the realization that Static has when he tries to convince the other Bang Babies to escape with him.

He knows that they’ll be used as guinea pigs for experiments or have their powers abused for nefarious purposes and all he can do is try his best to protect them. That’s one of the best things about Static – he knows when to pick and choose his battles, especially when he’s up against far larger numbers and his powers alone aren’t enough to save him. Ayala shows that Static is not only cool under pressure, but that he also can think on the fly when cornered as he finds a way to help his friends make a daring escape by overloading the power grid for the holding facility that they’re held in.

Given what Ayala was able to do with what was practically a six issue origin story, I can’t wait to see what they have in the works for the next season, especially given things teased in the epilogue of this book and the awesome and terrifying villain that will finally make their comic debut years after their creation. 

As always, Nikolas Draper-Ivey continues to prove why he’s one of DCs fastest rising superstar artists. There’s a speed and dynamism to his art that makes the action scenes feel like they’re going a mile a minute. Draper-Ivey makes use of speed lines, blurred edges and various camera angles to give each panel their own sense of urgency and beauty to look at. Static knows he’s outnumbered and looks like he’s in pain, his goggles are cracked, his jacket is ripped and he’s getting hit from all angles; stabbed by Talon’s claws, disoriented by Puff’s whisps of gas, blasted by D-Struct and slashed at by Shiv – it shows that Draper-Ivey knows how these characters operate and differentiates them accordingly.

His coloring is absolutely outstanding in this issue as well! The crux of the sequences in the book take place in a dark facility with its emergency lights on, so Draper-Ivey makes use of a mid-toned red as the background and lighting for the characters and it helps to convey the danger that Static and his friends are in. This is excellently contrasted by the bright whites and blues of Static’s lightning as well as the assorted purples of each of the villains. One scene in particular when Static is powering up for everyone’s escape, Draper-Ivey makes the pages look like they’re overlaid with a filter of television noise – the lightning itself is distorted with reds and blues crackling off of it like a 3D effect. It shows just how powerful Static can get when he’s pushed to his limits and is possibly one of the best scenes in the entire series so far!

AndWorld Design’s lettering definitely pulls this issue together with each word balloon and thought bubble being placed excellently, even the boldness on certain words feel deliberate and give each bit of dialogue a real sense of importance and oomph that they’re included in. As far as sound effects go, they’re included as needed, mostly in areas that need filling to make certain scenes even more visually interesting than they already are, but I find that they aren’t featured prominently. While I do enjoy a good sound effect, I do think that there is a good balance here.