I blame the trade paperbacks.Every comic series these days is written in six-issue story arcs, to make it easier to collect the series later into a trade paperback.
The problem is, some stories lend themselves to an extended series, and some do not.
The opening story in the "New 52" version of Static Shock is a great example. What should have been a one or two-issue story has been extended. We're at issue #3 and counting, but it is not a better story for the padding.
A sure sign of a story that's struggling is when I can't remember the details from the issue before. As best I can remember, the story has Static under attack by some kind of monstrous assassin. The assassin is working with some kind of high-tech gang for hire. They're all trying to assassinate Static because a group of criminals wants him dead for some reason.
Each issue so far is identical - Static shows up and fights the bad guys, only to have them escape. Monster guy tries to kill Static, fails and escapes.
Oh, and Static's real-life sister has a clone, and they each think the other sister is the real clone. No idea where this story came from.
The art by Scott McDaniels is quite good - it has a nice, loose, Gene Colan quality to it. It flows nicely and the characters are easy to distinguish.
It's the writing by McDaniels and John Rozum that doesn't work - they just keep covering the same ground, and the villains are so generic as to be completely unmemorable.
I still say this is a character with tremendous potential - he's smart, powerful and able to out-think and out-maneuver his opponents - when he's written well.
Right now, that potential is going to waste. A pity.
Grade: C
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