The Rubberband Man
24 years ago - Adam Evans is born in Dakota City.
10 years ago - 14-year-old Adam Evans starts making his own music.
9 years ago - 15-year-old Adam Evans brother Ivan Evans is released from juvie, but again arrested for dealing, this time tried as an adult.
6 years ago - 18-year-old Adam Evans dyslexia prevents him from graduating high school. He start working as a professional session musician while working on his own album.
4 years ago - 20-year-old Adam Evans brother Ivan Evans is paroled and starts taking over gang territory across Dakota City, leading to a street war. Their gathering is targeted for a secret experiment by Edwin Alva, detonating Alva Technologies Gene-Bomb & exposing everyone present to their experimental mutagenic compound. Adam is rejected from his record company due to his mutation, and attacks their studios, only to be stopped by Static.
3 years ago - 21-year-old Adam Evans is paroled for good behavior after eight months. He starts dating Sharon Hawkins. His brother Ivan Evans tries to convince him to join his Bang Baby gang the Meta-Breed. When he refuses, Ivan frames him for robbery. Static helps Adam prove his innocence.
1 year ago - 23-year-old Adam Evans, Virgil Hawkins & Richie Foley work to stop Ivan Evans & the Meta-Breed from setting off another big bang when they steal a tanker of unfinished Alva Technologies mutagenic compound that was scheduled to be destroyed. They finally defeat Ebon so he can be imprisoned. Adam releases his first album.
now - 24-year-old Adam Evans starts working at the community center with Sharon Hawkins, and gets his GED.
I personally really thought the name 'Rubberband Man' was something that had to be updated, if we were going to use this pretty important supporting cast member from the Static Shock animated series. It just seemed to silly to me, nevermind that the character was a musician and the name was a reference to a classic song by the Spinners. It was the discord that pointed out how it could be a name given to him as an insult by the Meta-Breed that he turns around and claims as his own. Somehow the idea of him saying that he's "THE Rubberband Man" just makes that name feel much more acceptable.
The Rubberband Man's Comic HistoryThere are plenty of original characters in the animated Static Shock series, and The Rubberband Man practically is one as well, although the name came from a completely unique character that appeared in a couple issues of the original comic, a thug named Karmon Stringer who just wanted to fight Static for the fame.
Adam Evans, as he appeared in the Static series, was a musician who got elastic Plastic Man powers and who confronted Static several times before he actually started to turn his life around, even dating Virgil's older sister Sharon. What resulted was a very cool redemptive arc for a character in a kids show. |
Our Rubberband Man's StoryGiven that Adam was the last of the Static supporting cast page we built, this one was almost unprecidentedly easy, because once we filled in his timeline with all of his interactions with other character's whether it's growing up with his brother Ivan or later being blackmailed into almost joining his gang, meeting and dating Sharon, or even starting to work with Virgil as one of the heroes of Dakota City, his story practially told itself.
As Dakota City begins to evolve, creating support systems for its small population of Bang Babies, or young people effected by Edwin Alva's mutagenic compound, the real story is about how the people of the city come together to take care of each other. To that end, we really like the idea that, while Adam does continue to persue music, as he gets closer to the Hawkins family he starts to work in their community center, helping counsel other kids like him who had to find a way to live with their mutations. |