Out of all the villains that Virgil Hawkins faced in the Static Shock animated series, Ebon was the most persistent – and the most horrifying, at least to teenage me. With his ability to teleport and manipulate shadows, he was a formidable force. Static: Shadows of Dakota #3 taps deep into the potential of horror that Ebon has, resulting in some disturbing imagery courtesy of co-writer/artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey.
Draper-Ivey isn’t pulling any punches with this issue, choosing to open with a scene where Ebon confronts the Blood Syndicate. He draws Ebon as a towering mass of shadows that nearly blots out the entire page, with the only sources of light being his soulless white eyes. As for the Syndicate themselves, they’re no match for the master of shadows. He’s able to repel all of Tech-9’s bullets, shrug off Wise Son’s punches, and displays a new ability that even affects Fade – who if you didn’t know, is virtually untouchable due to being out of phase with time.
In fact, the entire issue looks immensely gorgeous due to Draper-Ivey’s illustrations. A large part of that is due to the anime influence permeating his work; for example, when Tech-9 summons his arsenal of guns, the end result feels like something you’d see in an episode of My Hero Academia. The colors also help set the mood, with most of the issue being drenched in dark blues and deep blacks. That same color scheme permeates Ebon’s word balloons, with Andworld Design making them appropriately creepy-looking.
The dread doesn’t just stop with Ebon. Draper-Ivey and co-writer Vita Ayala seed a current of unease throughout the issue, from Virgil worrying about the missing metahumans to the very last page – which puts his protege Quincy at risk! It’s enough to make me overlook the fact that there’s not much Static in this Static comic. Granted, not every comic can be a full on fight scene, but it would have been nice to see some Static action.
Static: Shadows of Dakota #3 tilts into the horror genre, reworking Ebon into one of the most frightening villains ever to graze the pages of a comic book. Now that we’ve hit the halfway point of the series, the stage is set for Static to battle one of his most fearsome foes. Let’s hope it’s a good matchup!
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