Of the many DC animated series from the 90s and early 2000s, KidsWB’s Batman Beyond and Static Shock are among the most beloved. In the comics, both characters have received their own solo books within the last several years, mostly Batman Beyond, both because of obvious reasons and DC’s revival of for Static (and by extension, the rest of Milestone Comics) is still fairly recent. Now the two heroes are teaming up for the second time.
Announced at New York Comic-Con on Friday, Static Beyond is a short story set in the future that’ll see an older Virgil Hawkins cross paths with a still pretty green Terry McGinnis in Neo-Gotham. Written and drawn by Nikolas Draper-Ivey (Static), the one-shot will be part of a larger 30th anniversary anthology meant to celebrate Milestone, which first went into print in 1993.
Static and Batman Beyond first met in the former’s season four episode “Future Shock” when Virgil was accidentally blasted into the future and had to save his future self. Outside of that, the two were featured in the Justice League Unlimited two-parter “Once and Future Thing” as members of the League in their time; Virgil got randomly yanked into a time portal, and Terry…died. (It’s fine, time got reset, so they’re alive.) The Static of Beyond, teased Draper-Ivey, would be one “in his prime.”
The overall Milestone 30th Anniversary Special will feature various stories focused on Milestone characters such as Icon, Rocket, and Hardware. Along with Draper-Ivey, creators attached to the project include Stephanie Williams (Wonder Woman: Trial of the Amazons, Wakanda), Chuck Brown (Black Manta, Flawed), and Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan (Power Man & Iron Fist, Hardware). In February 2023, Milestone will also release two miniseries events: the first, Static: Shadows of Dakota, is sequel miniseries to the 2021 comic from the returning team of Vita Ayala, Draper-Ivey, and ChrisCross. And the second, Icon vs. Hardware, is a clash between the two heroes co-written by Reggie Hudlin and Leon Chills.
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While you wait for the special to release in 2023, there’s an hour-long documentary on the history of Milestone available to watch on HBO Max.
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