Reviews:
Static Shock # 01, Batman Beyond # 39 (SPOILERS)
Craig M.
Sat Sep 23 12:06:04 2000
Static Shock # 1 – “Shock to the System”:
Pretty unimpressive debut…the frequent jive talk could get annoying very
fast. The characters (at least so far) are pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical. The
designs leave much to be desired. The characters and backgrounds look like the stuff on
every low-budget ’90’s superhero show, and the movements are jerky. It tries
alternately to be dramatic and amusing, but succeeds at neither. Seems very firmly-rooted
in today’s teenage pop culture, which is already a major turn-off for me. The setup
is pretty ho-hum—typical teenage everyman, trying to deal with the pressures of
schoolwork and bullies, becomes involved with Da Wrong Crowd. This leads to a fateful
accident that turns him into a superhero. He then develops an identity to utilize his
newfound powers (once he figures out how to get bedsheets to stop clinging to him), and
heads to the school under his new persona to show off in front of the kids he knows and
the girl he has a crush on. Hints that said girl will have a crush on Static, but not on
his street guise Virgil (strains of Clark Kent). Only scene that I liked at all really was
the somewhat-amusing bit where his annoyingly trendy friend tries to help him develop a
costume. Hard to believe that this show was produced in large part by Alan Burnett and a
few of his Bat-crew posse (Dan Riba, Stan Berkowitz, &c.). How the mighty have fallen.
Batman Beyond # 39 – “Untouchable”:
Horribly mediocre episode. Another one of those “let’s just throw together a
bunch of elements from previous episodes and call it new” dealies. Terry gets into a
relationship with a girl he knows he could never become involved with—hoo boy. We tie
this in to the main plot by having the villain linked to the facility that the girl lives
in—ay caramba. We have Bruce identify with Terry a little by dropping some allusions
to his past—I usually enjoy this aspect, admittedly, but it was *WAY* too forced and
pointless here. We have Dana starting an argument with Terry for absolutely no discernible
reason (and saying lots of things that make no sense…“Boys…always longing
for the unattainable.” Ah…actually, most guys I know prefer to, shall we say,
get right down to business with a gal as quickly as possible…). And of course, the
villain is revealed to be the “least likely suspect,” so the result is that he
has pretty much no motive, and is completely unconvincing. Besides, the “some schnook
gets his hands on a superpowered suit that makes him nigh-invulnerable to Batman” bit
has been done to *death*. Whoever provided the girl’s voice gave one of the driest
readings I’ve ever heard on a WB cartoon (usually Ms. Romano can elicit a darn good
performance from even the less-talented performers). Kevin Conroy and Lauren Tom also
sounded unusually lethargic, although I can’t say as I blame them—I’d have
trouble staying awake while reading those lines, too.
Disappointing morning for the WBA action shows—SS’s debut doesn’t bode well
for the future of that show (nor for the upcoming Zeta), but we’ll just have
to wait and see. Maybe next week’s shows will be an improvement…here’s
hoping.
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