DC’s Milestone Imprint, first introduced in the early 90s, is making a comeback. Originally founded by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Dereck T. Dingle, Milestone Media focused on the creation and introduction of minority characters into a medium where they had been typically overlooked and underrepresented. Milestone’s first titles garnished a respectable amount of popularity, with titles such as Hardware, Icon, and their most well-known property, Static, gaining a steady following. DC has now made plans to relaunch all of the aforementioned titles under their original Milestone banner after an extended absence, with Static Season One #1 scheduled to launch on June 15.
CBR had a chance to participate in a conference with two of the creators of the much anticipated comic, writer Vita Ayala (Children of the Atom, New Mutants, Batman Beyond) and artist Nikolas Draper-Levy (Xogenasys), who discussed a little about what can be expected from their take on this fan-favorite character.
Asked about their number one goal for the character, Ayala said, “I really wanted to be a part of presenting Static and bringing the character a little more into the contemporary realm. I’m a huge, huge fan of the original comics and TV show, and I wanted to take him and put him into our context. He’s this funny, cute, slightly annoying, but really smart Black kid, and I wanted to explore what it means to be that kind of character in 2021, and how he survives and keeps his optimism. He’s an incredibly heroic character, but it’s because he sees all this terrible stuff and wants to make things better. He cares about the people around him, and is more concerned with saving his block than saving the world. I wanted to bring that forward into the context of a more contemporary time.”
“We’re working very hard to give the fans something that is familiar, but also very new,” Draper-Ivey added. “We’re telling a story that hasn’t been told before, at least not in this capacity. There comes a point, when you have to realize that you are telling a different story and doing your own thing, and you’re not your predecessors. You have to have respect for them, and have reverence for what they’ve done, but in the end you have to try to make it your own. I think that’s what we’re trying to focus on.”
“I feel like teen characters are much more elastic in terms of what they can do,” Ayala explained. “I feel like as grown ups, we kind of gel in our ways. When you reach a certain point in life, you’re like, this is who I am, this is what I believe, and it takes a lot to shift. When you’re faced with obstacles, you tend to handle them in a very similar way.
“With teens it’s like, that didn’t work, let’s do this,” they continued. “Today I have blue hair, tomorrow I have no hair. That’s what being a teenager is like, and I like that. For people that age, there’s endless possibilities. They really do believe that they’re invincible, and all of the things that we as adults no longer believe about ourselves. It’s like they’re limitless, and I like to to put myself in that mindset.”
“I also like the idea of acknowledging teens as complete beings and having agency because they should. I’m a very big believer in the autonomy of a person. I think that teenagers tend to be kind of pigeon holed as not being fully mature yet, but I think maybe they know more than we do sometimes,” they shared. “Maybe we’re too entrenched. I like to be able to put myself in that mindset because I think it makes me a better person in my own life. It makes me realize that everything doesn’t have to be exactly how I think it has to be all the time.”
Asked what posed the greatest challenge in capturing the look of Static’s powers, Draper-Ivey said, “Trying to find a way to use color to bring attention to certain areas was probably the most challenging. The second most challenging part was the choreography. I had to make sure everything made sense, and that the flow was believable without going too crazy with it. There’s a part of me that wanted to go full anime with it, and I had to remind myself that we only had five pages. I had to make sure it was engaging. I had to sell the action.”
“Nick likes to pretend that he’s not about the quiet themes because his style is really dynamic,” Ayala pitched in. “That’s what people expect from him. But I think that he brings a real humanity to all the quiet moments, such as when Virgil is struggling and he has this great interaction with his sister in the first issue. It’s a beautiful moment where you get to see siblings being jerks to each other, but you can also tell that they really care about each other. So yeah, Nick is really good at action, but he’s pretty great at the quieter moments too.”
“I wanted to examine who Virgil is as a person,” Ayala said. “He’s usually very optimistic and happy person even though he’s been through a lot, just by virtue of being a Black kid. When we see first see him in this series, he’s gone through this incredible trauma and he is not very happy. I wanted to find a balance between those two things. He’s angry, sad, and scared. He literally just watched his classmates die horrible deaths. But he’s also the kid who plays video games and reads superhero comics. My goal was to find a way to synthesize those two things and make it all feel genuine. If he bounced back and was happy immediately after experiencing all these things, he’d be like a caricature. But if he was just super sad all the time, he’d be a bummer. So it was really difficult to find the balance.”
As to what it has been like to rebuild the Milestone universe, they shared, “It’s strange, because we’re working as part of a larger unit with some of the original architects of Milestone. That’s huge, and it has a way of making you feel very small. I’m in the presence of these people who are truly the reason why we are where we are right now, not just in doing this book, but in general. But at the same time, it’s an incredibly supportive environment, and all of the discussions that I’ve had with people both in terms of working on Static and also working on other books have been incredible. I feel like a fanboy but I’ve been treated like a peer.”
“I try to make sure that I’m not doing anything that deviates too heavily from the original source material, but is also in line with what everybody else has planned,” Draper-Ivey added. “But there’s very little resistance when it comes to ideas. I’m really just learning how to do all of this, so that’s kind of like where I’m at with it. I offer suggestions every now and then because I care and I really want to do a good job.”
“We’re on the phone at least two or three times a week talking about just the universe in general,” Ayala revealed. “Nick is incredibly intelligent about storytelling and about character stuff. I think that he just doesn’t have the confidence yet, because he hasn’t had as much experience. But he’s got a really good instinct for it. And he works very hard to better himself.”
The team also weighed in on whether other characters involved in the Big Bang will appear in the series. “We’ll see, but I can neither confirm nor deny,” Ayala teased. “Nick is the one who thinks about that stuff. While I’m concentrating on the here and now, he’s wondering what’s going to happen seven years from now.”
“We’ve definitely discussed some things regarding who might pop up,” Draper-Ivey admitted. “But you just have to stick to it and see what’s coming. There are some familiar faces that you will see eventually, but I can’t say who that is. But I will say that I’m very excited.”
As for what it means to them to work on a character that means so much to the Black community, Draper-Ivey said, “We’re trying to make sure that people feel as represented as as possible. We’re trying to take everything into account and create the best product we can. It’s very hard. There’s no other way to put it, and I wouldn’t put anybody else in this seat. It’s a very heavy feeling.”
“Yeah, it’s a lot of pressure,” Ayala added. “I think that Nick is really delivering though, and it’s like he levels up on every page. The pressure is rough. But he’s handling it with grace. It’s really hard and stressful. But it’s also like, I can’t just stop doing it. I promised myself that I was not going to take on more work because I’m just tired. And then the universe was like, but what about this though? How do you say no to Static? Even if it’s hard, you have to do it. I think it’s an honor, and it’s awesome.”
Static Season One #1 by Vita Ayala, ChrisCross, Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Andworld Design will be available from DC Comics on June 15.
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