Static: Shadows of Dakota #2 // Review
Virgil just found out that he has a lot more in common with a friend of his than he might have originally thought. A little while later, he’s running into Samantha. (Samantha’s in Daisy’s homeroom.) She’s clearly going through something. Then masked people in black suits show up, and things get dangerous in Static: Shadows of Dakota #2. Writer Vita Ayala gives Virgil a little bit more danger in an issue brought to the page by artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey. Virgil’s world continues to develop in a chapter that continues to mount very powerful menace in the path of its valiant, young hero.
Samantha was clearly trying to tell someone about the problem that she’s dealing with. Why else would she be carrying around a huge monkey wrench in her bag? She shows him how she can bend the massive steel thing like putty in her hands. He tells her it’s okay...he’s got powers too. They’re both going to have to deal with bigger problems when the men in black show up. They’ve worked out tech that neutralizes his powers, but there are greater issues with those in power. The world is looking that much less stable for everyone involved.
Ayala is doing a good job of pacing the series. There’s just enough dramatic background delivered in and around the edges of the action to give Static’s world its own specific fingerprint. This can be very, very difficult to manage. The overall concept of persecuted people with superpowers is something that’s been explored from a million different angles both in and out of the comics page for the past six decades. (Doom Patrol celebrates 60 years this June. The X-Men turn 60 this September.) Ayala manages to find a unique shade of menace for the world of Static that serves as an impressive emotional center for the series.
Draper-Ivey’s action hits the page with heavy impact. The color effects that are used for the power leave the panels almost vaguely smelling of ozone. The power of the power feels like it’s practically radiating off the page. By contrast, the drama feels cool and moody. This serves to amplify the overall sense of detachment that resonates through everything. Draper-Ivey finds the right angles for the action and a compelling pacing to it all, but the drama feels just a bit more distant than it should. The scene with Samantha should have a lot more impact given the way that Ayala is rendering it in the plot.
Though it may suffer from a bit of an emotional distance, the current Static has a profoundly unique presence on the page that is quite unlike nearly everything else that’s currently on the comics rack. The angles and impact of the action feel remarkably impressive throughout both of the issues that have come out so far. The plot is definitely moving in a direction that feels thoughtful and respectably complex. Ayala takes some of the more familiar aspects of superhuman struggle and makes them feel new.
