Static Shock is getting his own animated movie

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Static Shock, the Black teenage DC Comics character with electroshock powers, is getting his own animated movie.

The movie was announced during DC Fandome, an online substitute convention held by Warner Brothers.

Static Shock is a franchise that dates back to the early 90s when it was first introduced by Milestone Media, a Black-owned comic print that exclusively handled Black characters.

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Milestone Media, an alliance of Black artists and writers, including Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek Dingle, was created in response to the lack of diversity in comic books.

Filmmaker Reginald Hudlin, who is one of the founders and CEO of Milestone Media and the executive producer and writer of the Black Panther animated series, is in charge of the project.

“One of the things we’re really excited about, we really want to live up to the name of the company, Milestone Media,” Hudlin said. “When we spoke to Jim [Lee] about reviving the Milestone line, we said ‘Look, we all know this has been a hit comic book and hit animated series. It’s time to expand back into all those areas and then some.’ So we’re in serious conversations about, as we’re launching the comic book series, developing the ‘Static Shock’ movie. That will be a theatrical feature film.”

Static Shock is tells the story of Virgil Hawkings, a teenaged boy who lives in the fictional city of Dakota City, based on Detroit, Michigan. Similar to Spider-Man, the high school student must balance his life as a superhero with his school life and family life, all while keeping his identity a secret.

The comic series was a part of a comic universe called the Dakotaverse, a world where Black superheroes were commonplace, The universe included other characters such as Hardware, a Black Iron Man archetype, Icon, a Superman archetype, and The Blood Syndicate, a Justice League archetype.

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Static Shock is perhaps Milestone Media’s most successful series, having a hit animated adaptation on WBKids.

Milestone Media had a publishing deal with DC Comics, but it was not owned by them until 2008, when the Black-owned business merged with DC Comics.

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