Static Shock And The Homeless Episode

We all know that when people say they wish their entertainment would "go back to when it wasn't political!" what they really mean is they wish they could go back to a time when they didn't realise their entertainment was being political. These people I will never understand as more often than not, it's these exact properties that stand the test of time and only improve as I get older. Static Shock was no stranger to dealing with complicated issues such as racism, gang violence and even school shootings(!). For the most part they never went with the half-measure, if a subject was important to talk about, they treated it with the respect and delicacy it deserves, granted sometimes that means they go a bit overboard, such as the school shooting episode ending with Static addressing the audience with a PSA, but I get it, in the case that you have to deal with this situation (Which is sadly all the more likely these days) it’s important to get all the information across.

Part of me feels because there was such a huge separation between me and the show in a social aspect – the series following a black teenager in a crime ridden stand in for Detroit, then there’s me, a white kid in England in a relatively low crime-area – it introduced me to issues and environments that I would never have become aware of without. Which is often why people who grew up closer to Static’s situation would have caught on to the deeper issues sooner rather than later. From what I can remember it was the only superhero series that would address the existence of criminals as not such being science experiments gone wrong or aliens attacking, but instead as just poverty-stricken youths who had no choice, their environment decided their fate for them as this was their only method of survival. The fact a character like Virgil Hawkins would choose to use his powers for good is not just the act of a normal kid with a moral compass, but as someone actively challenging the role the world tried to force him into. Hell, the only reason he got his powers was because he was forced into a gang war that he had no stakes in.

I know none of this is to do with the meat of this post, but I just wanted to address that this is not an outlier of an episode, the entire series was built upon these type of characters and stories being told. It was a series that was consistently smart and mature, mostly do to the late and great Dwayne McDuffie who spent the better part of his career creating characters and telling stories of this magnitude. So now let’s discuss the episode that stands out the most to me personally, that being season 2 episode 5 ‘Frozen Out’, a Christmas episode that sees a new antagonist Permafrost attacking the city, Static intervenes and it turns out the threat in question is no threat at all, just a teenage girl who is homeless and struggling with mental health issues, both of which a result of the sudden & tragic death of her mother. Once Static learns this it doesn’t become a matter of taking down a villain, but giving support to a young girl in need, and even a moment of admitting fault in himself, with Permafrost delivering the moral “When you’re homeless, people look through you, like you’re not even there” a fault that almost all of us have to admit to as well, including Static. So from there he does what he can, by showing compassion he finds her the support & shelter she needs to help get better.

The idea of superheroes dealing with villains suffering from bad situations is nothing new, the idea of superheroes dealing with villains suffering from mental illnesses is nothing new. The idea of a superhero acknowledging fault, making strives to be better, actually succeeding in helping redeem a foe, and tackling issues such as mental health, homelessness and death of a loved one all at once while being mature & honest about the issues, that is rather rare. These are also issues that rarely get addressed in any media, let alone ones aimed at children, Permafrost’s mental illness isn’t a cause for her super powers, nor is it really linked, but to see a realistic representation that isn’t vilified is quite rare. Static Shock as a series is one that receives plenty of acclaim from its audience, but frankly I still feel that is rather too small to fully acknowledge just how good of a show this was. It told stories that don’t get told, it dealt with issues people would say are too serious to put in a kids show. While I love all the other superheroes shows that were coming out around this time, none of them were like Static Shock, and we probably never will get a show like this again.

-Danny