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Static Shock Reading Order

Helped by a popular 4-season animated show titled “Static Shock” broadcasted between 2004 and 2004 on the WB Television Network’s Kids’ WB programming block, Static became the most popular superhero from the Milestone Comics imprint (distributed by DC Comics). Even before the show started, he was already one of the highlights of the line.

Created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, Derek T. Dingle, and Christopher Priest, Static made his first appearance in a 3-page preview in Icon #1 before the launch of the ongoing Static comics series written by McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III and illustrated by John Paul Leon. The comic book would last 45 issues but the characters appeared in more comics from the Milestone line as it was part of the shared universe called the Dakotaverse.

Static is really Virgil Hawkins, an African-American teenager living in Dakota City who gains his superpowers during the “Big Bang.” The Big Bang happened when the police disrupted a gang conflict by using an experimental gas with catastrophic consequences. This gas gave many people in the area superhuman abilities.

As one of those “Bang Babies,” Virgil developed electromagnetic powers, allowing him to generate, manipulate, and control electricity and magnetism. He can create electric blasts, form force fields, and even use metal objects like a disc to fly. He put on a costume and, as Static, he started fighting crimes, using his powers but also his intelligence to defeat villains. But Virgil was also a geeky teenager playing video games, reading comic books, going to school, dealing with friends and family, and facing the inequalities of the real world, from racism to economic disparity.

The original Static series ended with the Milestone comics line in 1997, but the character came back in miniseries before eventually joining the main DC Universe and becoming a member of the Teen Titans. Eventually, the Dakotaverse came back with one-shot Milestone Returns #0 opening the door for a new Static Shock comics series.

Static Shock Reading Order

Static in the Dakotaverse

Not long ago, DC Comics finally decided to reprint the comics from the Milestone Universe and chose to do it with a collection of compendiums. Those massive paperback 1300-page volumes collect all of the series, meaning Static and the crossovers, but also every other series. It’s the only way to read on paper every apparition of Virgil during that era.

Nevertheless, the Static Comics series is available by itself, but only in digital format. If you choose to read them like that and want more information about the placement of the crossover, I invite you to check out our issue-by-issue reading order of the Milestone line.

  • Milestone Compendium One
    Collects Blood Syndicate #1-12; Hardware #1-12; Icon #1-10; Static #1-8; Xombi #0-11; Shadow Cabinet #0
  • Milestone Compendium Two
    Collects Blood Syndicate #13-23; Hardware #13-21; Icon #11-21; Static #9-20; Shadow Cabinet #1-4; Steel #6-7, Superboy #6-7, Superman: The Man of Steel # 35-36 and Worlds Collide # 1.
  • Milestone Compendium Three
    Collects Deathwish #1-4, Blood Syndicate #24-27, Hardware #22-28, Icon #22-27, Static #21-25, Shadow Cabinet #5-13, and Kobalt #1-14.
  • Milestone Compendium Four new
    Collects Blood Syndicate #28-32; Hardware #29-38; Icon #28-37; Static #26-31; Xombi #12-21; Shadow Cabinet #14-17; My Name is Holocaust #1-5; The Long, Hot Summer #1-3.
  • More to Come!

With the success of the animated series (but has no connection to it), DC Comics and Milestone Media brought back Static for a limited series by Dwayne McDuffie, Robert L. Washington, and John Paul Leon in 2001–now titled Static Shock. Set a few years after the end of the original Dakotaverse adventures, Rebirth of the Cool shows Virgil living his life after he stopped being a superhero, but he is forced to come back to it when Bang Babies start disappearing.

Static Shock in the DC Universe

For a long time, the return of Milestone’s superheroes was discussed and it finally happened in 2008 when Static appeared in the limited series Terror Titans (2008-09) in issues #4 & #6. It was not the main Earth though.

In 2010, Dwayne McDuffie came back to write his last Milestone Comics story with Milestone Forever, a 2-part that marked the end of the original Dakotaverse, the goal was to have its continuity merged with the DCU. McDuffie continued with the Justice League of America: When Worlds Collide storyline, but Static was not part of it.

  • Milestone Forever #1-2.

In Teen Titans #69 (2009), a new Teen Titans line-up was introduced, one that now features Static.

Dwayne McDuffie died in 2011 and DC Comics put out the one-shot Static Shock Special #1 a few months later as an homage to his work.

  • Static Shock Special #1

Soon after, DC Comics launched its New 52 initiative, a rebooted version of its multiverse in which Virgil came back with Static Shock, a new series in which the Hawkins family has to relocate from Dakota to New York City. Virgil joins a new high school and gets an internship at S.T.A.R. Labs–but also a new uniform.

Static Shock in Milestone Returns

Entry Point! In development for years, the return of the Milestone Comics line was finally launched in 2020 with the one-shot Milestone Returns #0. With it came a rebooted version of the Dakotaverse that is set in Earth-M, in the DC Multiverse. Of course, Static is coming back, next to Icon, Rocket, Hardware, and others. 

The Milestone Returns introduced new origin stories. The story starts with Virgil and his friends going to a BLM protest in Dakota where the police use an untested tear gas created by Alva Industries, creating this universe version of the “Big Bang”

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