| Ebon | |
|---|---|
 Ebon | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Milestone Media |
| First appearance | Static Shock |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Ivan Evans |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations | Meta-Breed |
| Abilities | Transmorph; a living shadow-like mass. umbrakinetic; shadow manipulation. |
Ebon (real name Ivan Evans) is a fictional character in the animated series Static Shock, the archenemy of Static. He is voiced by Gary Sturgis.
Fictional character biography[]
The leader of the Meta-Breed, he has a personal grudge against Static for having foiled so many of his plans. He got his powers from the Big Bang incident, which also granted Static his powers. Ebon's real name is Ivan Evans, and he is the older brother of the Rubber-Band Man, aka Adam Evans.
Ebon has been a recurring character on the show since season one, and is the leader of the always-changing Meta-Human group called the Meta-Breed. Ebon is weakened by intense bright light, similar to how Superman is weakened by Kryptonite.
Ebon has also worked with Hotstreak and with Madelyn Spaulding in She-Back, when she broke Ebon, Talon and Hot-Streak out of jail and announced herself as the new leader of the Meta-Breed. This union was short-lived, due to both Ebon and Spaulding's desire to control the group. Spaulding's exhaustive defeat of Ebon in a power struggle allowed Static, Gear, and Shebang to make quick work of the rest of the Meta-Breed.
Ebon has tried to get his brother, the Rubberband Man, to join up with the Meta-Breed - going as far as to frame him for a prison-break.
Ebon has tried to learn Static's secret identity. He was once able to go back in time to try and cause an earlier, larger Big Bang, which would turn Dakota's entire population into Meta-Humans. Static, Gear, and Time-Zone thwarted this plan.
He later recruited a group of underground Bang-Babies called the Night-breed to help him take over the city. This plan was also thwarted when the Night-breed turned on him.
When the cure was spread throughout the city, Ebon stole the last of the Big-Bang gas and used it with Hotstreak. They then fused together and began causing havoc.
Notable storylines[]
- In his first appearance, in "The Breed" (Season 1), when Static & D-Struct were escaping in an abandoned subway train, Ebon was about to use his powers to send them "on a one-way ticket to oblivion", until Static used his power to lighten up the subway carriage, which banished Ebon's shadowy form.
- In his second appearance, in "Sons of the Fathers" (Season 1), when Ebon is following Static and spying on him after Static captured Talon during an attempted robbery at a shopping mall, and is put on police lock-down; Ebon abducts Richie Foley, planning to threaten Static with Richie's safety, if he did not return Talon to Ebon.
- In his third appearance, in "Bad Stretch" (Season 2), after a couple of Ebon's planned robberies (and an initiation) are thwarted with Rubber-Band Man's help, Ebon frames his own brother, the Rubber-Band Man for Meta-Breed's escape from prison. When his deceit is revealed by Static, uses his powers to send Static falling into an underground magma chamber - until Static is saved bungee cord-style by Rubber-Band Man.
Ebon wraps up Richie to capture him.
- In his fourth appearance, in "Gear" (Season 3), after Kangor, Talon, and Shiv free Ebon from prison, Ebon crashes into Richie Foley and recognises him from before as Static's best friend. Ebon wraps up Richie in his body and attempts to carry him off, but Static foils his plan. Ebon escapes and has Richie followed in the hopes of discovering the face behind Static's mask, so that they can finish him off. Believing that Virgil Hawkins is Static, Ebon abducts Virgil outside of Dakota Union High and locks him up in a padded cell, in the abandoned Dakota Juvenile Detention Centre, spying on him with a security camera. This plan falls apart when Pre-Gear shows up and hacks into the security system - manipulating a feed-back loop of old footage. In the end Static overpowers Ebon.
- In his fifth appearance, in "Flashback" (Season 3), Ebon is in pursuit of a girl named Nina Crocker, a Bang-Baby with the power to move herself and others backwards and forwards in time, an ability he thinks ideal for evading Static, Gear and the police. Static and Gear come to Nina's rescue, but a scared Nina moves the three of them back ten minutes in time to escape. Later in a park, when Gear introduces Nina as Time-Zone, and the Space Time Demodulator and remote control unit he built to exert control over Time-Zone's power. Ebon, who is spying on them in the park, learns that her powers could now be controlled with a remote control unit. He steals it and, in the resulting skirmish, all four of them are sent five years back in time, to the night of the Dakota City Riots. Ebon finds Nina, subdues her, and steals a tanker of Big-Bang Mutagen Gas from Alva Industries with the intention of causing a bigger Big-Bang. In the end Static incapacitates Ebon and the four of them, and the Tanker, back to their present, with Ebon still unconscious.
- In his sixth appearance, in "Romeo in the Mix" (Season 3), Ebon is one of a handful of Bang-Babies: Hot-Streak and Talon, who were abducted by a Meta-Human called "The Leech", who wants to steal all the powers of all the Bang-Babies, so he can be a "Mega Meta-Human". At that point, Ebon wished that Static had not been captured as well, because he could have save them all. When Lil Romeo traces The Leech's hide-out to an old abandoned film studio and releases all captive Bang-Babies, Ebon, Talon and Hot-Streak double-cross Static and Lil Romeo by locking them in the film studio with The Leech. Ebon, Talon and Hot-Streak were however captured and taken into police custody as they were all still without their powers at the time.
- In his seventh appearance, in "She-Back!" (Season 4), Ebon is one of a handful of Bang-Babies: also Hot-Streak and Talon, who were broken out of jail by none other by Madelyn Spaulding, who wished to start her own Meta-Breed, with herself in charge, and with the intention of taking down Static (who she blames for losing her telepathic powers), once and for all. Ebon and Madelyn Spaulding clash repeatedly, which results with the both of them fighting for control of the Meta-Breed, and Ebon is knocked out by Madelyn Spaulding with a barrage of scrap-yard junk.
- In his eighth appearance, in "Army of Darkness" (Season 4), Ebon, having come across a collection of light-sensitive Bang-Babies called The Night-Breed, 'enlists' the services of four members of the Night-Breed: Nightingale, Brickhouse, Fade, and Tech. Having seen Nightingale's power to generates and control a substance called "Dark-Matter" - which can block out light - Ebon planned to cause a permanent black-out of sunlight over the city of Dakota by having Tech - who like Gear has a Super-Genius Intellect build a "Black-Out Box" - a Dark Matter Generator, which would create so much Dark Matter (more than Nightingale) that it could black-out the sun over Dakota. Ebon had Nightingale, Brickhouse, and Fade stealing the parts Tech needed to build the Black-Out Box, while Ebon himself gathered needed parts. After trying to deal with Nightingale for stopping him from killing Static and Gear, Ebon set a trap for Static, Gear & Nightingale at the Night-Breed's hide-out. Ebon then had Fade & Tech move the Black-Out Box to the very centre of Dakota City - an abandoned Gas Station (Static and Gear's headquarters) and Static, Gear, Nightingale and Brickhouse arrive to stop Ebon, Tech and Fade; in the end, Ebon is overpowered by Brickhouse, Gear shuts down Tech's Black-Out Box and Nightingale absorbs the large amount of Dark-Matter that the Black-Out Box had already generated.
- In his ninth and last appearance, in Power Outage(Season 4), Ebon, along with every Bang-Baby in Dakota, was unknowingly exposed to the cure to the Big-Bang Gas that was secretly dispersed throughout Dakota to restore all Bang-babies to normal. As Ebon and others begin to lose their powers, he gathered together a number of Bang-Babies in order to steal a sample canister of Big-Bang Gas to restore their powers - as long as they all recognises him from then on as leader. Ebon even abducted Talon/Teresa from her hospital room when Teresa refused to become Talon again. When Hot-Streak tries to make off with the canister of Big-Bang Gas to keep it all for himself, Ebon pursued, and in a fight between the two, Ebon and Hot-Streak were both exposed to a concentrated dose and fused together into a giant two-headed monstrous mass of shadow-flame and covered in flames. When up against the newly empowered Static and Gear on the deck of the boat where Ebon had gathered together the depowered Bang-Babies, Static uses his powers to throw a fuel tank into the hole and make it explode as it goes into the monster Ebon-Streak. Weakened, Ebon-Streak escapes down an inter-dimensional portal, as the boat sinks.
Powers and abilities[]
Ebon has shadow powers, labeling himself the "Master of shadows and darkness"; a transmorph, he is a living shadow, with the ability to use shadows to his liking: he can slide on wall surfaces, go under doors, through cracks; he can also become an inter-dimensional portal, able to take others with him; he can also make shadow portals to teleport things through (a reference to the Shadow Cabinet's Shadow-slide, which only worked in total darkness); furthermore Ebon's powers are a reference to Obsidian's and Shadow Thief's. He is also a physical shapeshifter capable of twisting at the same level as his brother Rubber-Band Man. But, despite this amount of power, Ebon also has two major weaknesses: he can be physically harmed like any normal person(though he can quickly recover due to his shadow form), and intense light is like Kryptonite to Ebon. It was exploiting this weakness that lead to Static first defeating him, producing light with his electromagnetic power.
Trivia[]
- Ivan Evan's Bang-Baby name, Ebon, is a reference to the color ebony, a dark color. "Ebon" itself is a word, meaning black.
- As Ebon's brother Rubber-Band Man was named for his creators, Milestone writers Adam Blaustein and Yves Fezzani, Ebon's given name, "Ivan", is likely to be a nod to former Static and Blood Syndicate comic writer Ivan Velez, jr..
- The opening credits features a number of shorts in which Static dispatches a series of villains: all four seasons feature their own lineup of different adversaries depending on who Static faces in each season. Ebon (as well as Hot-Streak) appears in every opening sequence.
- Ebon is the most recurrent villain in the series, appearing in nine episodes throughout four seasons:
- In season 1, Ebon appears in "The Breed" and "Sons of the Fathers".
- In season 2 Ebon appears in "Bad Stretch".
- In season 3, Ebon appears in "Gear", "Flashback", and "Romeo in the Mix".
- In season 4, Ebon appears in "She-Back!", "Army of Darkness", and "Power Outage".
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