Static Shock: Frozen Out (2002)

Ugh. I feel for the folks who made this, and the folks who love this character, but I cannot recommend you watch this. It’s incredibly dull.

The episode opens with Static bemoaning the busy life of a superhero when he has holiday festivities to attend. Of course, no sooner does he get there, but the power goes out, and he’s off to melt the mysterious ice engulfing the substation. He conveniently ignores the girl on the scene, and then rinse, repeat. Whining, Mysterious Ice, and then he finally figures out it’s the girl.

We are treated to some tedious backstory about Permafrost. She lost her mom at a young age and is living on the street. Sad story, right? Not the way it’s animated here. Instead, it’s boring.

Static finally goes looking for some information about her and learns her sad story. When she shows up again, he reaches out in compassion, and she agrees to accept help. That should be a good story, but the writing is so pedantic that any emotional impact is muted.

It sounded to us as though a lot of the characters were voiced by the same actor run through a voice modulation, which didn’t help us connect to the acting. And I cannot say enough that the writing was boring. It checked all the boxes: multiculti interfaith holidays, learning to give to others, compassion and caring, but it told this story in such a bland way that everything fell flatter than the animation style.

I’m glad that this show existed. Static can be a great character, and all the Milestone characters are important to comics. Just… this episode is not worth your 20 minutes.

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