Virgil Hawkins a 14-year old boy who lives with his sister Sharon, and his father Robert in Dakota City. He attends high school with his best friend Richie Foley, and has a crush on a girl named Frieda. He also has a dispute with a bully named Francis Stone, nicknamed "F-Stop" A gang leader named Wade recently helped Virgil, hoping virgil to recruit him but Virgil is hesitant, as he knows his mother died in a exchange of gunfire between gangs. Wade eventually leads Virgil to a restricted area for a fight against F-Stop's crew, but is interrupted by police helicopters. During the dispute with the police, chemical containers explode, releasing a gas that causes mutations among the people in the vicinity (this event was later known as the "Big Bang") As a result, Virgil obtains the ability to create, generate, absorb and control electricity and magnetisim he takes up the alter-ego of "Static". The gas also gives others in the area their own powers and several of them become supervillains. The mutated people become meta-humans known as "Bang Babies" and their mutations apparently spread to other people around them.
