A Monster Lives In The Shadows: Reviewing ‘Static: Shadows Of Dakota’ #3

Often it’s assumed that the middle chapters of a story are slow/“boring” or lack a spark shared by the beginning/end. When done well though it’s those middle spaces where all the foundation, character building, and stuff that helps make the rest of the story land the way it’s meant to are born. This is for sure the case with the third issue of Static: Shadows of Dakota.

All of the first season of this series was structured in a way where things kept escalating around the character and the world being built. Here most of that world foundation was built in the first season, therefore the goal here is to keep building upon the foundation and expanding it more. Which is what Vita Ayala and Nikolas Draper-Ivey are doing spectacularly. Functionally this season is working as basically a horror story in a sense with these moments serving as the buildup to the main characters coming face to face with the looming horror – which in this case is of course Ebon.

We can feel this because Draper-Ivey, tackling both writing and art for this series, makes the character so dark and looming. In the first part of the issue, as Ebon takes on and interrogates Blood Syndicate, he’s so huge over them and uses his powers in such a way that not only is he untouchable but he feels unstoppable. Just slipping out of and right back into the shadows as he arrives and leaves. One of the best things done by Draper-Ivey is to play up the power of shadows through every page, making us more and more afraid of just any panel that has shadows or blackness there because Ebon might be lurking.

Oh, that shot after Virgil is told about Ebon the “Boogeyman” and goes to his room with the panels of his room shrinking till he’s staring out the window with the rest of the page being blackness…truly horrifying in the best ways.

These feelings permeate the whole issue not just because of Ebon’s presence and non-presence, but because of what Virgil and others in the community are going through. Virgil worries about the vigilante group coming after Bang Babies and those that are going missing as well as how he’s about to lose his friend support group for the break. His protégé Quincy was worried about his parents missing in his life but they stepped up and realized what they needed to do, so now his worries come at the end with a stranger that is acting shifty (because he’s part of the group going after Bang Babies, but only we the audience know that now).

There isn’t a bit of Static action in this issue and that is perfectly fine. There is more to Static/Virgil and others than their powers and fight scenes. We get a fight scene at the start to show off what Ebon is capable of and more info about the various forces that are colliding in Dakota City right now. We have four more issues and I know for sure that this creative duo has plenty more big stuff planned for us.

I just love the style and influences on Draper-Ivey’s work here because it has weight and depth and feels real but also the almost painted-like style of it fits well into the larger-than-life fantastical elements that come into play. We’re talking about large shadow beings, one of the Blood Syndicate members conjures up guns so massive they would 90s comic book characters jealous, and so much more that is not ‘normal’ but feels very much so thanks to the styling.

Besides the shadows, there are some other neat color style choices in effect. Draper-Ivey, with assistance from Wil Quintana on a handful of pages, goes with a palette that is more muted in a sense that allows for him to bring in even brighter pops of color at the right moment to enhance some of those fantastical elements referenced above. Most of the scenes, therefore, feel very real and relatable because they are colors and lighting that are just like what we would see if those places on the page were in our world rather than on the page. It also works with all the shadows that are spread around always keeping that darker horror mood in our sight.

The folks from Andworld Design are always on their A-game with the work they bring to any given issue. Much like the colors help set a mood/tone for the issue, so too do the letters when they are given the right space and enhancement. Many pages have a lot of dialogue, and it fits within the panels in a smooth way, never taking away from anything and just dancing around the characters and spaces to flow in a way that keeps our eyes moving just as they should. Even on the “silent” non-dialogue pages the lettering is doing what it does with the colorful strong SFX that help enhance any of the moments and give the spaces even more life.

Static: Shadows Of Dakota #3 is now available from DC Comics.