Michael B Jordan to produce the Static Shock movie

Back in the 90s DC Comics introduced the brilliant Milestone Comics from Milestone Media. It was founded in 1993 by a coalition of African-American artists and writers, consisting of Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. The founders believed that minorities were severely underrepresented in American comics, and wished to address this.

It resulted in Blood Syndicate, Hardware, Icon, Static, Kobalt, and Xombi. There was also a couple of team-up titles. I enjoyed all of them at the time (my favourite was the wonderfully weird Xombie). Each featured great writing and some brilliant artwork. The character crossed over into the DC universe and there were various comics through the years that saw them pop up, but those original runs are excellent. Go track them down where you can.

Static may well have been the most popular character from the various comics and he was incorporated into the DC Universe and even became a member of the Teen Titans. He has also had an animated show, Static Shock, and featured in various animated moves and video games.

Virgil Ovid Hawkins was not born with his powers. His abilities developed after an incident exposes him to a radioactive chemical. This event renders him capable of electromagnetic control and generation.

During August’s DC FanDome event it was announced there would be a live-action Static movie with Reginald Hudlin involved. Michael B. Jordan has joined the project and he will produce via Outlier Society, his Warners-based banner, according to THR.

“I’m proud to be a part of building a new universe centered around black superheroes; our community deserves that,” said Jordan. “Outlier Society is committed to bringing to life diverse comic book content across all platforms and we are excited to partner with Reggie and Warner Bros on this initial step.”

DC is relaunching Milestone with Hudlin, now a partner in the label, at the center of it. He is writing an all-new Static Shock digital comic series beginning in Feb. 2021, as well as an additional Static Shock graphic novel by Hudlin, with art by Kyle Baker. A series reviving Icon and Rocket, by Hudlin and Milestone founder Denys Cowan, are also in the works.

I hope this is a success as I would love to see a Blood Syndicate and Hardware movie follow on from it. So many great characters and storylines.