Batman Past and Static Are Teaming Up Once more for a New Comedian

Terry McGinnis and Virgil Hawkins have a protracted historical past collectively, ever because the traditional Batman Past/Static Shock crossover episode “Future Shock,” all the best way as much as their team-up within the Milestone Comics thirtieth anniversary one-shot a few years ago. Now, the dynamic duo are again with an all-new comedian sequence, with the assistance of a well-known face to longtime io9 readers.

Right this moment DC Comics formally lifted the lid on Batman/Static Past, a brand new six-issue miniseries coming to its Elseworlds comics imprint. That includes artwork from Nikolas Draper-Ivey, who wrote and illustrated Terry and Virgil’s team-up in “Static Past” for the aforementioned Milestone thirtieth Anniversary Particular in 2023, the brand new sequence can be penned by Evan Narcisse—author behind Rise of the Black Panther, Waller vs. Wildstorm (alongside Spencer Ackerman), and extra, and naturally, a comics journalist who beforehand labored at each Kotaku and io9!

“I beloved the dynamic Nik arrange between Static and Batman within the Milestone thirtieth Anniversary Particular the place these characters first teamed up with one another,” Narcisse mentioned in a press launch. “Essentially the most thrilling a part of this new venture has been exploring how completely different Terry and Virgil are from one another.”

Batman/Static Past will see Terry and Virgil working collectively as humanity finds itself on the cusp of big societal change: planet Earth’s submission into an interstellar coalition of worlds often known as the Cooperative, ushering in a brand new period of peace and prosperity for the world, off the again of Virgil’s technological genius and the invention of the Q-Wave Power Grid. However when a nefarious villain makes an attempt to foil Earth’s new age with a worldwide blackout, Batman Past and Static must forgo their technological prowess and work collectively to save lots of the day in a extra grounded method.

“This story is meant to be a commentary on our overreliance on know-how and the upcoming risks of changing into complacent and too comfy utilizing AI to substitute our personal creativeness and human ingenuity,” Draper-Ivey added. “We now use our watches to seek out our telephones, we use our telephones to connect with every thing else. We don’t depend on our personal recollections. We depend on know-how to recollect for us. That deeply issues me. I fear that we’re getting to a degree the place if all these items have been to be all of the sudden taken away from us instantly—on the fee we’re going now, humanity can be at an enormous drawback.”

The brand new sequence will sort out how Terry and Virgil see one another, impressed by their dynamic in “Static Past”—a tough and prepared younger hero in Terry, nonetheless wrestling with inheriting the duties of the Darkish Knight, and Virgil, who’s already labored via being a teen hero and grown as much as be a key member of the Justice League.

“Static is a former teen hero who grew as much as tackle much more duty for his metropolis and the bigger world, whereas Terry continues to be determining how one can do these issues in his personal method,” Narcisse defined. “Terry’s nonetheless a highschool pupil however he’s additionally bought the burden of the Batman mantle and the expectations that include it as key elements of his life now. As an grownup member of the Justice League, Virgil’s at a unique a part of his journey. However he’s pushed by an adolescence the place systemic injustice modified what it meant to dwell in his hometown of Dakota.”

“Their approaches to creating the world a safer, extra simply place are extraordinarily completely different. That distinction energizes the massive query they should take care of,” Narcisse continued. “Can they be taught to work collectively throughout a essential second when every thing they’ve taken without any consideration has fallen aside?”

Batman/Static Past‘s first situation will hit cabinets November 12.

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