Static

Sharon Hawkins (Sister)

## **History**

### **Virgil Hawkins: 2000 - 2014**

Virgil Hawkins is the youngest child of Robert and Jean Hawkins. At a young age, Virgil lost his mother, a paramedic, was hit by a stray bullet, while helping the victims of a gang riot. She died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. To combat this gang violence which nearly tore his family apart, Virgil’s father set up the Freeman Community Center in Dakota City. This place became a second home for Virgil and his sister and through it, Virgil became involved in a number of extracurricular activities to work through his mourning and depression. These interests fostered a curiosity for knowledge and developed a strong work ethic, which in turn combined to make Virgil a promising honor roll student.

Yet despite his father’s best efforts, Virgil still became embroiled in the gang culture. At age 14, Virgil became the preferred target to the school bully and a member of a notorious street gang, Francis “F-Stop” Stone. When the school’s teachers failed to help Virgil’s predicament, Virgil allowed himself to become groomed by a gang that rivaled F-Stop’s own and found the protection he sought but at an uncomfortable price.

As Virgil began to realize that he was becoming the type of person responsible for his mother’s death, he became withdrawn and distant from his family, afraid that his involvement in a gang would not only disappoint his father and sister, but may put them in danger as well. As Virgil’s conscience reached a boiling point, he heard of an unprecedented intercity gang summit. Virgil devised a plan to record the summit for the police, hoping such would be his ticket out of the thug life. However, upon Virgil arriving at the summit in a warehouse on the docks, he discovered that the meeting was not some turf negotiation as expected but instead called by the Red Claw who was looking to recruit a small army of Dakota’s street kids to help transport, store, and deal some new designers drug on Dakota’s streets.

In the midst of this meeting, Dakota City PD rolled up and surrounded the place. With what happened next you can say Virgil’s life was in for quite the shock!! (Oh, I love puns)

### **Static: 2014 - Present**

The Dakota PD was expecting a big gang bust, not a big bang. At the first sign of trouble, Nyssa al Ghul and her elite guard of ninja cosplayers fled, hanging the gangbangers out to dry. To make sure the designers drugs could not be connected to the League, Nyssa set off explosives hidden among the barrels of drugs. A dozen of Dakota’s young gangbangers died in that first explosion, dozens more in the inferno that followed. Those that didn’t die were transformed by the drugs’ fumes mixing with the smoke and tear gas from the ensuing police raid or when they were showered from the particulate debris of the drugs’ base ingredients. In Dakota, they call this event the “Bang” and overnight Dakota’s gang problem took a backseat.

Those transformed by the Bang were dubbed “Bang Babies” and since most used their powers to further their criminal rep, they were such a problem that Icon and Rocket requested aid from the Justice League and martial law was declared in Dakota for a time. But relief was on its was, for there was one participant who survived the Bang and he was determined to do good with his powers.

Virgil Hawkins had been endowed with control over electricity and magnetism and though his newfound powers had wiped the memory of his phone (and with it the recording of the meeting), these powers would be Virgil’s path toward redemption. With the help of his best friends Richie Foley and Frieda Goren, Virgil made a makeshift costume and dubbed himself “Static”. After some learning curves, Virgil became a regular hero. You know the drill: fight criminals, chase the bad guys, save the world, fly through skies, et cetera. Things were looking good for this trash-can surfing high-voltage hero that he made joining the Titans look easy. Now, if he could just get people to stop calling him “Static Shock”…

Nowadays, Virgil has a surprisingly posh lair hidden inside a dilapidated gas station. He’s even got not one but two “Oracles” with Richie and Frieda having an impressive set-up for all of Virgil’s communication and investigation needs. Not bad for a trio of high-school heroes. Barbara even inducted Richie and Frieda into the Network with the codenames “Gear” and “Wunderkind”.

## **Trivia**

* Virgil’s best friend on the Titans is Jaime Reyes.
* He has a rivalry with Jennifer Pierce, she also has a crush on him.