TV SERIES · 2000– · USA
Static Shock
70 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (70)
- #001
Although the series is known as Static Shock, the main character's name was Static. The comic book the series was based on was titled simply Static; it was produced by Milestone Media, distributed by DC Comics and ran for 46 issues between 1993 and 1997.
- #002
According to Dwayne McDuffie, Static was originally set to have a crossover episode with Teen Titans in Season 3, but due to scheduling the two-part crossover would have aired before the premiere of Teen Titans (2003). Someone at The WB Television Network suggested Justice League instead of the two-part crossover. The Justice League crossover, however, aired before the two-part premiere of Justice League (2001) Season 2, where the outcome likely showed the events behind how Brainiac, who played a significant role in the Justice League crossover, obtained his small piece.
- #003
Starting with Season 2, when the series crossed over with The New Batman Adventures (1997), it was established that the show was part of the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), with Static meeting and teaming up with Batman and Robin.
- #004
Richie Foley is adapted from a character named Rick Stone, who is gay in the comics. Dwayne McDuffie said on the subject: "It was never going to be on the show because it's Y-7, but as far as I'm concerned Richie is gay […] My way of dealing with Richie's homosexuality was to write him as aggressively and unconvincingly declaring his heterosexuality as often as possible ('Wow! Look at those girls in swimsuits! I sure do like girls!'), with Virgil rolling his eyes at how transparent it was."
- #005
The series was extremely popular and accepted a renewal for a second season just one month after its debut. As of December 2000, it was the highest-rated pre-teen series among all networks in its time slot for ages 2 to 11 and the third highest-rated show in the Kids' WB lineup. From its debut until July 2003, the series ranked second among boys aged 6 to 11.
- #006
Police Chief Barnsdale was a recurring character in the series who struggled to intervene against crime in Dakota after the Big Bang. One of his first ideas for fighting the Bang Babies was a Metahuman Capture Division that would use non-lethal force to capture them. He would later allow Static to help with metahuman crimes.
- #007
Season 2 featured a new theme song as well as a new intro sequence in which Static fights Kangorr, Hotstreak, Puff and Ebon. The "Static Shock" logo at the end of this intro sequence appeared on a light purple background.
- #008
In Season 3, Richie Foley gained superpowers and became Static's crime-fighting partner Gear. This was done because fitting him into episodes had become difficult and the producers wanted to keep the "chemistry" between voice actors Phil LaMarr (Static) and Jason Marsden (Richie) intact. There was also positive feedback from children in focus groups, so the decision seemed quite clear to the series' producers. Ratings rose after Richie's character gained superpowers; Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that this was what guaranteed the renewal for the new season. In the series, Richie was said to have gained his superpowers as a delayed reaction from being near Virgil Hawkins, whose clothes smelled of the gas created after the Big Bang.
- #009
When Richie's Bang Baby superpowers began to emerge, he invented a reconnaissance robot named Backpack that he controlled, allowing him to see what the robot saw and broadcast his voice through it. He also invented Zap Caps, which subdued Bang Babies, and Chip Blades, spinning blades with rocket thrusters that let him fly alongside them. After using all these inventions to rescue Virgil Hawkins from the Meta-Breed, Richie took the superhero name Gear and began fighting crime alongside Static. Richie also increased the range of Static's viewers and discovered a way to further miniaturize Static's flying disc, the Static Saucer.
- #010
While on vacation in Ghana, Static met an African superhero named Anansi, a spider-themed trickster hero. The character was based on West African folklore, in which the spider is a trickster figure. Static meeting a spider-based superhero was also a tribute to the understanding of Static as a character, since one of Dwayne McDuffie's reasons for wanting to create Static was his inspiration from Marvel's early Spider-Man stories about a self-taught young superhero.
- #011
Ebon was the leader of a large group of Bang Babies called the Meta-Breed and the main villain of the TV series. Ebon was an unusually strong and powerful metahuman. As a living shadow, he could create interdimensional portals and manipulate pure darkness and other shadows, and could also transport others to various locations of his choosing. Ebon was a character created for the series and did not appear in the comics.
- #012
Static/Virgil Hawkins' best friend Richie Foley was a mixture of different characters from the comics. Richie was aware of Virgil's secret identity and encouraged him to use his powers to become a superhero in Dakota City. This is the exact opposite of the comics, where Rick Stone's best friend never learned of his double life; in the comics, Virgil's other friend was Frieda Goren.
- #013
The supervillain group called the Meta-Breed was created for the series and did not appear in the comics. Its first version to fight Static consisted of Ebon, Talon, Shiv and reluctant new member D-Struct (Derek Barnett). This group of Bang Babies was deformed by the Big Bang gas and forced to go underground to live in an abandoned Milestone St. subway station.
- #014
The static disc used for flying was called the Static Saucer. It was created by Richie Foley, who made it from Mylar, a metallized nylon stronger than steel. The Static Saucer was light and folded in two for easy storage, but it turned into a disc when Static applied an electrical charge to it.
- #015
The TV series version of Daisy Watkins was less shy and more popular, as a friend of Frieda Goren and also of Shenice Vale. She was also a smart girl who attended Vanmoor Institute, a school for gifted youths, but after Daisy discovered that the seniors (who had been taken down by Static) were the culprits and were therefore arrested, her parents placed her in a safer public school, which Virgil also attended. When she came into contact with Static, she fell in love with him and repeatedly put him in dangerous situations. She also developed a relationship with Virgil Hawkins (not actually knowing he was Static), an on-again, off-again relationship since Virgil's responsibilities as Static would get in the way.
- #016
In this series, Static's electricity-based powers were shown with a white visual with a blue frame, unlike the comics where they were somewhat more realistic and shown with a white visual with a purplish frame.
- #017
In this series, Static's full name was Virgil Albert Hawkins. In the comics, Static's full name was Virgil Ovid Hawkins.
- #018
Throughout the entire TV series, Static and Richie communicated with a pair of radios called Shock Boxes.
- #019
Shelly Sandoval was Channel 3's field reporter and appeared frequently throughout the series, often reporting on Bang Baby activity. The character's visual design was based on voice actress Maria Canals-Barrera.
- #020
Virgil Hawkins' first job was at a fast food restaurant called Burger Fool, which had a jokester character as its company mascot. This restaurant is a parody of the real-life fast food restaurants Burger King and McDonald's, the latter of which has the clown mascot Ronald McDonald. Burger Fool restaurants and billboards appeared numerous times throughout the series.
- #021
The Freeman Community Center where Robert Hawkins works is named after Augustus Freeman, a superhero known as Icon in the Milestone Media comics.
- #022
In the series, the Big Bang gas was purple rather than the yellow it was in the comics.
- #023
In the series, Static had a weakness to water, which caused his powers to short out on contact with it. In the comics, however, water had no effect on his powers.
- #024
In Season 2, Ebon's voice was altered slightly to give it a more monster-like quality. Ebon's voice returned to normal at the start of Season 3, however.
- #025
In Season 2, Rubberband Man revealed that Ebon was actually his brother Ivan. Since Rubberband Man and Ebon are brothers and both can stretch their bodies, the effects of the Big Bang gas are likely related to the affected person's genetic code.
- #026
Starting July 4, 2004, Subway restaurants released a line of toys based on the TV series in the United States and Canada. Because no retail toy deal could be secured, these were the only toys released based on the series.
- #027
Throughout the entire TV series, Static threw only one punch, and it was against Green Lantern's protective force field in "Fallen Hero" (2004).
- #028
The first episodes of Seasons 2, 3 and 4 all included a crossover with The New Batman Adventures (1997).
- #029
As in the comics, Hotstreak was one of Static's first rivals and challenged him nearly every time they met. Since Static and Hotstreak already had a history together before the Big Bang, their fights seemed somewhat personal. Before the Big Bang, Francis "F-Stop" Stone was a feared school bully and gang leader who often went after Virgil at his expense because of Virgil's jokes. This was consistent with the Milestone Media comic version of Hotstreak, named Martin "Biz Money B" Scaponi. As the series progressed, however, the show's version appeared to soften and could have reformed into a superhero given enough time.
- #030
Edwin Alva Jr. was a Milestone Media character brought into the TV series from another comic series, "Hardware."
- #031
In the comics, Wade (full name Larry Wade) was one of Virgil's closest friends. In this series, Wade tried to recruit Virgil into his gang. Giving him a gun and telling him to join him at the city docks, Wade was going to help Virgil overcome his problems with Francis "F-Stop" Stone, who became Hotstreak. That night the "Big Bang" accident occurred; it is unknown what kind of Bang Baby Wade became or whether he survived that night, since he never appeared again in this series.
- #032
As in the comics, Frieda Goren was Virgil's friend at school and his first love. Unlike the comics, in which she learned that Static was her friend Virgil Hawkins, she was best friends with Daisy Watkins and Shenice Vale.
- #033
The TV series' production team consisted mostly of people who had worked on The New Batman Adventures (1997) and Superman: The Animated Series (1996), but it also included Static's co-creator Denys Cowan. Although the series hired Dwayne McDuffie, co-creator of the comic series, as story editor and writer, McDuffie had no direct involvement in developing the series.
- #034
Rubberband Man was changed substantially for the series. This version of Rubberband Man was an African American man seeking revenge on a music producer for playing his song. His real name was Adam Evans, derived from the names of former Milestone writers Adam Blaustein and Yves Fezzani, who created the character. The Milestone Media comic version of Rubberband Man was a small-time crook and a Bang Baby named Kamron Stringer ("Stringer" was also an alias Rubberband Man used in one episode of the series) who appeared on a talk show and challenged Static on live TV. He later joined Doctor Kilgore's new team of supervillains, the Collective.
- #035
Static's costume in this series differed from the one he wore in the comics. In the series, Static's costume consisted of a white mask, a white shirt with a black lightning bolt and circle symbol, black pants, a purple jacket with a yellow lower section, yellow goggles, and initially black-and-white boots, later gray boots. This differs from the comics, where he wore a blue one-piece bodysuit with yellow wrist gloves, a baseball cap and usually a yellow jacket.
- #036
In this series, Edwin Alva Jr. became a villain called Omnifaious to take revenge on his intimidating father. Like his father, Edwin Alva Sr., the character appeared in one of Milestone Media's comic series featuring another hero, Hardware. In the comics, Edwin Alva Jr. did not appear until the reformed Edwin Sr. died heroically, after which he became Hardware's ally.
- #037
Throughout Season 1, some episodes of the TV series opened before the credits with a fast artist's sketch of a character, edited to be sped up.
- #038
The Season 1 intro sequence featured the original theme song "Gotta Get Up, Gotta Go" and Static fighting Rubberband Man, Hotstreak, Dwayne McCall's giant robot T-rex, and Ebon.
- #039
In Season 3, the series' animation improved significantly, giving the show a more natural look.
- #040
The TV series produced a crossover episode with Superman: The Animated Series (1996) in which Static met Superman for the first time and the two teamed up. Although the episode serves as a follow-up to Obsession (1998), it actually took place during the period when Superman joined the Justice League, since it used the same character design and Superman was voiced by George Newbern, who took over the role in Justice League (2001).
- #041
In the third-season finale, Blast from the Past (2003), Static met Soul Power, an elderly veteran superhero with powers similar to his own. Soul Power and his sidekick Sparky came out of retirement to team up with Static to defeat Soul Power's greatest enemy, the evil genius Professor Menace. The original plan for the third-season finale was for Static to meet Black Lightning, a DC Comics superhero who also has electricity-based superpowers. However, Black Lightning was not allowed to be used by DC because doing so would have required them to pay royalties to Black Lightning's co-creator, Tony Isabella.
- #042
In the series' 2001-2002 season on Kids' WB, only 11 of Season 2's 13 episodes aired. These two episodes were postponed and first aired on Kids' WB during the 2002-2003 TV season, while Season 3 was also airing.
- #043
In Season 3, John Semper became the series' story editor. Semper is best known as the story editor, head writer and producer of Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994). Static's co-creator Dwayne McDuffie was a big Spider-Man fan and decided to create Static after Spider-Man changed so much in the comics, for example no longer being a teenage hero and being married to a supermodel. Semper also did not care about the changes in modern Spider-Man comics and largely excluded the 1990s comic book storylines from the Spider-Man TV series.
- #044
Season 3 was the TV series' most popular run and was the second highest-rated Saturday morning program among boys aged 6 to 11 and male teens aged 9 to 14. From February to April 2003, its ratings among the 9-to-14 audience regularly performed above 4.0, even reaching 6.4 in May.
- #045
In May 2003, Midway Games announced the production of a platform video game based on the Game Boy Advance TV series. Footage of the game was shown at the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo, but it was later cancelled.
- #046
Season 4 included a new intro sequence that was only a minor update of the Season 3 intro sequence, in which Static and Gear fought Doctor Koenig the Heavyman, Hotstreak, Ebon, Talon and Professor Menace, and it also included the same theme song, performed by Romeo Miller (a.k.a. Lil' Romeo). Also, because the footage was originally created for Season 3, Virgil still wore an orange shirt and blue jeans, Richie still wore his green and orange hoodie, and as Gear, Richie still wore his original light and dark green costume rather than the new green and white costume seen in Season 4. However, the Season 4 intro sequence included clips of Static fighting the Nano Tech Robot from Hoop Squad (2004) and of Static trying to stop a statue from falling onto a crowd from She-Back (2004), replacing the footage of Brainiac in the "Shaq-sized" robot body from Season 3's Justice League crossover episode.
- #047
Tarmak was a Bang Baby who appeared in Where the Rubber Meets the Road (2004) and whose appearance resembles the original Milestone Media design of D-Struct from the comics. The animated version of D-Struct in this TV series appeared in The Breed (2000) with a different design, white in color and glowing purple.
- #048
Throughout Season 4, a character named Doctor Todd appeared in several episodes and was part of a major storyline involving the development of a cure for the Bang Babies.
- #049
The series was cancelled not because of low ratings but because of low production of related merchandise and the failure to secure a toy deal. The series' final season, Season 4, was surpassed only by the children's anime series Pokémon (1997). The series' reruns on Cartoon Network were surpassed only by the adult animated TV sitcom Family Guy (1999). It was the only series to rank among the 30 most-watched children's series on Cartoon Network during one week in October 2004. It was also the channel's most-watched series among children during one week in January 2005, and as of March 2005 it was the most-watched series in Cartoon Network's Miguzi block. In the 2004-05 season, it was the 18th most-watched children's series on Saturday mornings across all channels.
- #050
Season 3 is the only one of the TV series' four seasons in which Rubberband Man did not appear.
- #051
A 65-year-old future version of Static appeared as a member of the Justice League in the animated series Justice League Unlimited (2004) at the end of The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales (2005) and in The Once and Future Thing, Part Two: Time, Warped (2005), which first aired in January 2005. The latter follows two Season 4 episodes with Green Lantern. He states that he last saw Static in Fallen Hero (2004), that he was too young to drive, and that he learned details about the future after Batman told Static at the end of Future Shock (2004) not to talk about the future. The 65-year-old Static had grey hair and wore a different costume from the somewhat younger future version seen in Future Shock (2004), which more closely resembled his second costume in this series, only with a different, darker-colored mask.
- #052
Rubberband Man dated Static's sister Sharon Hawkins in one episode of the TV series. He met Sharon when he had escaped from prison and was using the nickname "Stringer".
- #053
In Season 2, Richie began wearing a hoodie with exactly the same design as his green shirt, only with an orange stripe and in lighter shades of green. He also wore an earring in his left ear.
- #054
In Season 2, Robert Hawkins began dating Dakota Police Department officer Trina Jessup.
- #055
In Season 2, Carmen Dillo was shown joining the Meta-Breed as its newest member.
- #056
In Seasons 1 and 2, Virgil Hawkins wore a yellow and red button-up shirt, a blue collar and red cargo pants. From Season 3 onward, he began wearing a long-sleeved orange T-shirt with a black collar and the number 5 on the sleeve, along with blue jeans.
- #057
In Seasons 1 and 2, Sharon Hawkins wore a white sleeveless blouse with green pants. From Season 3 onward, her wardrobe was updated to a pink shirt with a white collar and yellow pants. The white hair ties in her ponytail were also no longer visible.
- #058
In Seasons 1 and 2, Robert Hawkins wore a light blue button-up shirt, a blue tie and dark grey trousers. From Season 3 onward, his wardrobe was updated with a yellow and blue button-up shirt, a red tie, a brownish-grey vest and blue trousers.
- #059
In Seasons 1 and 2, Daisy Watkins wore a purple dress with a red shirt jacket over a white shirt. From Season 3 onward, her wardrobe was updated with a red sleeveless blouse with blue daisies on it and blue jeans. Her hair was also somewhat longer.
- #060
Frieda Goren wore a red shirt, purple trousers and purple sneakers in Seasons 1 and 2. From Season 3 onward, her wardrobe was updated with a white sleeveless blouse, red capri trousers and sandals.
- #061
In Season 3, a new metahuman group called the Meta-Men came together and included Puff, Onyx, Hotstreak and Carmen Dillo. When Static and Gear joined forces with the Justice League to fight them, the group quickly disbanded after being defeated.
- #062
From Season 4 onward, Virgil began wearing a long-sleeved yellow T-shirt with a black collar and the number 5 on the sleeve, along with khaki trousers. This is a colour variation of his Season 3 design.
- #063
In Season 4, Gear wore a new costume that was exactly the same as the original; only the colours differed. The new colour scheme changed from the original light green and dark green to dark green and white.
- #064
In Season 4, Richie began wearing a light blue hoodie with navy stripes. It was exactly the same design as his green and orange striped hoodie.
- #065
From Season 4 onward, Daisy Watkins's wardrobe was updated with a pink sleeveless blouse with blue daisies on it and light blue trousers.
- #066
From Season 4 onward, Frieda Goren's wardrobe was updated with a purple sleeveless blouse and light purple capri trousers.
- #067
Sharon Hawkins was one of the few characters whose Season 4 wardrobe update was small compared with the other characters in the TV series. She updated her wardrobe with only pink trousers and braided pink hair ties.
- #068
Rubberband Man (Adam Evans) changed his costume across the three seasons he appeared in; in Seasons 1 and 2 he had a purple suit that covered his head and his entire body, but when Rubberband Man returned in Season 4 he had already switched to a dark purple suit that left his head exposed.
- #069
In Seasons 1 and 2, Edwin Alva Sr. wore a greyish-black suit with a blue turtleneck shirt. From Season 4 onward, he began dressing in a more business/professional style, wearing a shirt with a red tie.
- #070
It celebrated its 25th anniversary on 23 September 2025.
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