"The End" Week: Static #45!

The title seems to imply they saw it coming, but I don't think they did: from 1997, Static #45, "...Gone." Written by M.D. Bright, pencils by Jeff Moore, inks by Hector Collazo. With a cover by Moebius!

The latest super-villain to give Static the hassle, Laserjet, continues to display new powers: appearing in multiple places at once, he takes a few shots at the hero with a stolen laser gun, before seeming to disappear at super-speed. But after class the next day, Virgil realizes something about Laserjet...while not noticing his friend Chuck's problem.

Static's electrical powers probably aren't that dissimilar to those of Marvel's Electro; except that even though he was only 15, Virgil is a million times smarter than Electro, and used his powers in subtle, more clever ways. Here, he sets a trap for Laserjet, covering the floor in paper and holding it down with a static charge; since he realized Laserjet wasn't super-fast, he was invisible.

The next day at school, though, someone gets shot...and although the cover and next issue teaser are on the letters page, this was the last issue. The Milestone Media editoral page even celebrates the line's 250th issue, Icon #43--and I don't think it even came out! Hardware #50 may have been Milestone's last regular book, and the line would be dead in the water until a brief revival with 2001's Static Shock! Rebirth of the Cool limited.

I had been mildly worried that some issues of Static weren't going to be as good as I remembered, and was a little concerned that Bright was writing and not drawing this one, but it's fine. Milestone deserved much better than it got; here's hoping it gets some respect in the future.