Static Shock #3 and Animal Man #3

SPOILERS AHEAD

Static Shock #3:

What Happened Previously: Getting settled after his family moved to New York Static tries to put a stop to a gang that had a S.T.A.R.S. Lab pilot killed. Static learns that he's more powerful than he realized once he's able to put his severed arm back in place. For whatever reason there are two Sharons, one of which is a clone although the family doesn't know who it is. The Slater gang sets Static up for another show down.

Story Title: "Turnabout"

Thoughts: This issue was hard to get into, I couldn't find the story all that compelling. The villains don't really stand out except for Virule who talks in the third person and that just became annoying. Virule only seems to care about replicating himself and apparently discovers that Static is the only power source capable of giving him the right energy for the job. That came off pretty rushed as we know next to nothing about Virule before this was crammed in. The Slaters all come across as pretty generic with no personality traits that really stand out. The closest thing I can recall was one of them having an accent that I think is supposed be Jamaican.  Then there's the Pale Man who I thought was the Joker last issue. I couldn't find this guys' backstory online so I assume he's new but why would you have a character that rips off the same look? It's confusing and adds nothing to the story except a guy commenting on it before he's taken out.

The technobabble isn't quite as bad as the first two issues. There are two things that I would put on the positive side in terms of storytelling but even those are iffy. I liked Virgil being able to causally get information about the gang by playing up his own history. That was well done and while I don't question that gangs would be interested in recruiting after hearing this information it's hardly proof. The Slater says he thought Virgil was a poser but he's only talking about things that happened, no one there actually knows it's the truth. 

Then there's the Sharon subplot. I like clones, the concept is interesting and I enjoyed the character struggles. But this isn't like one I've read before. There's nothing besides different clothing to tell the two Sharons apart. They refuse to be called anything else so how are we to know who he's talking to when one of them is freaking out over the idea of being a clone? Or the mean one that tells Virgil that the other one can't be trusted because she's a fake? Yeah it creates a sense of confusion and if this situation played out in real life I could see this happening but for new readers? Not good. There's too many elements that are tossed in here and don't work. I think this is a drop but I'm not sure if I want to stick around for the end of the arc.

Animal Man #3:

What Happened Previously: The Baker family learned that the youngest, Maxine, had develop powers greater than her father Buddy Baker (Animal Man) and his own powers are changing. After she causally uses her abilities creating a bit of chaos Buddy takes Maxine to figure out what's happening to them by following her directions to enter the Red. Meanwhile the Hunters have decided to put an end to the family.

Story Title: "The Hunter part 3: Totems"

Thoughts: The strongest part of this series is the family ties. Whether it's Maxine wanting to calm her father when he's scared or Ellen trying to play a violent video game with Cliff to calm her nerves. I want to support a book like that but this issue was pretty weak. Maybe it would have been better if they didn't inform us what the sickness/hunters were going to do beforehand. I thought it was just gory for the sake of being gory. Yes this is a horrible comic and yes this would all be frightening in real life but it didn't do anything for me. It would help a great deal if there was more suspense. That was a huge part of Hitchcocks thrillers and these stories can't carry much weight without it. As a result it was pretty predictable. 

Not sure if I want to keep this on my pull list either.