Static: Shadows of Dakota #5 – In the Shadow of Tragedy

Tragedy has a way of uniting people with diametrically opposing views.

Bang Babies have been disappearing all over Dakota for weeks and while Static has been doing everything he could to protect them, he couldn’t prevent the kidnapping and death of his young friend and heart of the story, Quincy. With this issue, Vita Ayala and Nikolas Draper-Ivery explore a subject that some in the black community have faced with the senseless killing of a black youth and high emotions that radiate from the people closest to them in the aftermath, both positive and negative. It serves to drive home the point that even those who couldn’t possibly be seen as a threat are still potential targets for those who want to use their power in the abuse of minorities. 

As mentioned in the last issue, Ayala and Draper-Ivey do a great job in juxtaposing the actions and reactions of both Static and Ebon as both of them deal with the horrific sight that they’re left with after Quincy’s death. Static mourns as he knew Quincy very closely; he was effectively his big brother and had been blowing him off to do outreach for other Bang Babies. He feels as though he let down the one person that he was supposed to look after and has to process that feeling of helplessness and rage. It shows a stark contrast to the usually cool and collected Static that has been prevalent for most of the series thus far. What’s even better about this particular low point in this story is that the pair make use of Static’s mother as his rock, the person who keeps him grounded and stable where it would have either been his sister or father in other series in the past.

Ebon, instead of taking the time to contemplate whether his vicious bouts of violence have contributed to the attacks on Bang Babies, continues to take his anger out on the Vigilantes. He definitely strikes more of an anti-heroic balance in this series as now he fights not only to save his brother, but to have a measure of revenge for Quincy as well, driving him to seek Static out after his rampage in an effort to work together, versus staying divided. This shows an arc between both characters, with Ebon showing that he’s willing to finally work with someone else to stop the evils of the Vigilantes and the scientists and with Static learning that he can’t save everyone and accepting that while still wanting to do so anyway, taking on the burden of life that so many superheroes do.

As always, Nikolas Draper-Ivey’s art stuns in every way, from the awesome panel-to-panel storytelling and phenomenal coloring. With the story being more of a character driven affair, Draper-Ivey makes use of introspective medium and close up shots to capture the emotions of Static and his mother, Jean Hawkins, as they have a conversation about Quincy. The way that he’s able to capture their facial expressions, from Static’s hopeless looks and tear filled eyes to Jean’s expressions of care and concern. There’s a warmth to the way that she looks at her son that we saw glimpses of in the first volume of this series. The coloring that Draper-Ivey employs in these scenes is also more than worth the price of the issue alone with a combination of dour greys to capture the low feelings of sadness and that Virgil experiences and warm browns and oranges as his mother tries to uplift him in his time of crisis. 

In contrast to this, the scenes in which Ebon confronts the Vigilantes are rife with full shots that capture the sheer savagery of his attacks on these villainous men. Their faces are full of terror and Draper-Ivey doesn’t completely shy away from showing their contorted bodies as they’re torn apart by Ebon. The colors in these pages are full of cold blues and dark inks to give them a bit more of a horror feeling with splashes of blood in the gutters of the panels as if the action is spilling out towards the reader. It’s a great way to make use of page layout to portray Ebon as being something otherworldly as his powers have shown him to be thus far in the story. 

AndWorld Design’s lettering in this book also does an amazing job in conveying the story at hand. A comic is only as good as its lettering and AndWorld helps to elevate the book through fantastic placement of thought boxes and word balloons, making sure that the panels themselves aren’t over bloated with letters and allowing the art to breathe. They also do a great job of differentiating them in order to give Static and Ebon’s thoughts and words a sense of uniqueness with Virgil’s thoughts being given a blue box with white lettering and Ebon’s balloons being black with purple lettering. It definitely makes what they’re saying more eye-catching to the reader while also differentiating them from the normal black and white word balloons throughout.