| Gear | |
|---|---|
 Richard "Gear" Foley (Second Costume) | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Warner Bros. Television |
| First appearance | (As Richie Foley) A Shock to the System (Season 1) (As Gear) Gear (Season 3) |
| Created by | Dwayne McDuffie |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Richard Osgood Foley |
| Team affiliations | The Night-Breed Justice League/Justice League Unlimited |
| Notable aliases | Richie, Rich, Push, Gear |
| Abilities | Superhuman intelligence, Technopathy via Back-Pack. |
Gear (real name Richard "Richie" Osgood Foley) is a fictional character in the animated series Static Shock. He is the best friend and confidant of Virgil Hawkins. He was the first person to learn of Virgil's powers, and the one to suggest that Virgil should become a superhero.
Richard "Richie" Foley/Gear was voiced by Jason Marsden.
Comics[]
Richie Foley did not appear in the Milestone comic book "Static", but is based on two of Virgil's best friends, Frieda and Rick. Superficially, Richard "Richie" Foley is identical to Richard "Rick" Stone, who had very long blond hair and a similar first name. Richie also takes on the role of Frieda, becoming Virgil's best friend and being privy to the secret of his powers.
Animated series[]
In the first two seasons, Richie serves primarily as Virgil's confidant, helping him maintain his secret identity and providing him with behind-the-scenes support. Richie longs to be a superhero himself and tries to live out that dream through Static by controlling his superhero schedule ("Winds of Change"). After injuring his arm, Richie decides to stop jumping recklessly into encounters with criminal Bang-Babies and continues working as Static's backup, in case Static needs some silent help ("The Breed", "Grounded", "Child's Play", "Junior", "Replay"); and hearing news of robberies as well as helping Static to catch criminals by making gadgets like the Shock-Boxes and Zap-Caps.
Richie objects to being called a sidekick in the episode "Power Play", when he is temporarily given the power to fly and project force fields and takes the name "Push". However, Richie gives up these powers when he sees how they were affecting him and his relationship with Virgil; he was expected to steal for the Bang-Baby that granted him these "powers that most people can only dream of". In an interview, Dwayne McDuffie stated that Richie was given superpowers because it was becoming "increasingly difficult to work Richie into stories, without having him order Static around all the time over the Shock Box." Regarding fan response, he said, "Gear worked out very well for us, the ratings improved after he showed up and he arguably bought us an extra season on the air."[1]
The third season episode "Gear" reveals that Richie is a 'Late-Boomer', a Bang Baby whose powers had either developed over time, and/or manifested spontaneously after a period of seemingly no effect. Since Richie wasn't present at the Big-Bang, Virgil proposes that Richie's new powers are due to 'second-hand exposure'; exposed to the gas that had lingered on Virgil's clothes from the night of the Big-Bang—mentioning that Virgil had met-up with Richie straight after the fiasco down at the docks.
As a metahuman, Richie gains superhuman-intelligence and, later, the capability for Technopathy through his visor and Back-Pack. Because of this ability, he starts using the name "Gear". He has continued to support Virgil and provide new tools for him, though now as an active partner. He has also shown to have built-up some muscle on his arms.
In "Gear", when Richie asks Static about superhero handles, he considers the nicknames Hardware and Steel.
It is established during the first season that prior to events of the Big-Bang, during the first season and on into the second and third seasons that Virgil is originally the intellectually-superior of the two before the Big-Bang gas makes Richie a super-genius.
Richie's technopathy through his visor-helmet has given him advantages when in battle or trapped, due to the fact he can communicate with Back-Pack and other machinery mentally with his helmet (which is also a tracer, scanner, sensor) and doesn't have to activate him by hand. His abilities are most handy when they need to break in, hack, override, disable, or shut down a system. In battle his Jet-Blades act as his main transportation, and for melee he uses weapons like Zap-Caps, Gear-Crete, and hand-held liquid nitrogen bomb.
In the episodes "Static in Africa" and "The Usual Suspect", Richie states after conducting family research that he has an Irish and Viking heritage; his father is Irish and his mother is Scandinavian. In "Sons of the Fathers", it is revealed that Richie's father dislikes black people. However, Richie has never told him that his best friend was African-American. Mr. Foley's view of blacks change due to the events that occur in this episode.
Richie also has a passion for junk food, which has been readily exploited by his friends on occasion, most notably when his friends Frieda and Daisy bribe him with cheeseburgers in exchange for information. During the Batman Beyond crossover episode "Future Shock", it's revealed that, in the future, Richie is slightly overweight, but still wears the usual Gear uniform. The canon of this is disputed, as after returning from the future, Virgil promptly tells Richie to watch his weight.
Richie's inventions[]
- The Static Saucer: also known as Static's Flying Disk, it is a foil disk of metal—mylar; which is "stronger than reinforced steel," according to Richie. Static can carry it folded up in his coat and unfold it with an electric charge. Richie gave it to him in "The Breed", before which Static had used either manhole covers or garbage-can lids. In the episode "Gear", Richie mentions that he figured out how to make Static's Flying Disk fold up smaller.
- Shock-Vox (Latin for 'Voice'): Handmade, custom walkie-talkies that Richie and Virgil made originally as a school project for Science Lab in "Grounded" and later kept, the name "Shock-Vox" was coined by Richie. They are used by Richie and Virgil at home or during patrol. In "Child's Play", a Shock-Vox was used as a microphone hooked up to a personal stereo to record Aaron voicing his real opinion of his young stepbrother, Dwayne; in Replay, Richie rewires a Shock-Vox to listen in like an intercom on another Shock-Box created by Replay's powers. In the episode "Gear", Richie reveals that he has updated their Shock-Voxes with their own tracers, as Richie uses Virgil's Shock-Vox to track him down to an old Juvenile Hall when Ebon has abducted him. The Shock-Voxes are convenient in that both Richie and Virgil never have to pay phone bills for them, and Virgil can recharge them (see "Grounded") and increase (see "Static in Africa") their range with his powers.
- Zap-Caps (Mark 1.0): energy containment units which are first seen in "Winds of Change" and used as electrical explosives. Richie's idea for these is if Static was low on power in a battle then he could pitch them at the enemy, buying some time to recharge. Instead, Static uses them to recharge his own drained powers in his final battle with Slipstream. The Zap-Caps (Mark 1) are seen again in "Sunspot" by Richie and Virgil against Hot-Streak, because Static's powers are being affected by sunspot activity and Hot-Streak was on a rampage. The last time the Zap-Caps are used is in "Kidnapped", when Gear fights Static. He manages to use three against Static quite effectively until Static short-circuits his Jet Blades.
- Tracking device: made by Richie in "Bad Stretch". It is a tracking device that transmits on a high-band frequency with a radius of two miles. Static can hear it in his ears with his powers, just like he can hear radio-waves and the police broadband. Static uses one to find the Meta-Breed's hideout by throwing one on the Rubber-Band Man. In the episode "Gear", Richie mentions that he has increased the range on the Tracking device. In the episode "Linked", Richie also mentions that Back-Pack is capable of tracing these devices.
- Back-Pack: a sophisticated high-tech scouting, surveillance, computing and utility unit in the form of a backpack which is carried on Richie's back. Among its functions, it is capable of autonomous legged movement under an operator's control, while the legs keep a comfortable grip on the operator when worn by holding onto the torso with careful pressure. It is built after Richie experiences his reaction to the metahuman gas which increases his intelligence. In the episode "Gear", Richie uses Back-Pack to set a security camera on a loop to make the Meta-Breed believe that Virgil and Static are in two different places. Richie later modifies his helmet (during some offscreen time) so that he can mentally communicate with and control Back-Pack, although he temporarily loses this ability in "Power Outage". Back-Pack acts as a scouting unit, retractor, machine hacker, and weapons unit. It is the main source of Richie's weaponry.
- Back-Pack's remote control: the remote control for Back-Pack. It first appeared in "Gear" and was later seen in "A League of Their Own" part 2 when Richie uses it to free himself and Back-Pack from Brainiac when Brainiac took control of the two of them.
- Zap-Caps (Mark 2.0): an updated version of the original Zap-Cap, larger and spherical that the 1.0s, and, when triggered, release four telescoping, prehensile, artificial, tentacle-like arms that can ensnare/entangle their targets; they are used as a "Bang-Baby restraint device," a device for capturing metahumans. But, while useful for restraining Bang-Babies, like Talon and Shiv, (whose use of powers rely on the use of their arms being free,) the 2.0s are not-so-effective against Bang-Babies like Pay-Back/Tamera Lawrence, (who's super-strong,) or Puff, (a transmorph, who can dissipate and reform her body at will.) It is mentioned in "Gear" that Richie commented that he had also figured out a way to make a 2.0 Zap-Cap play MP3 files.
- Rocket-Powered-Blades/Jet-Blades: Richie uses propulsion engineering used in Harrier jets to update his roller blades and make them capable of flight so he can patrol Dakota in the air. They have three modes: Shoe mode, so that he can walk while investigating a crime scene, Roller-Blade mode, so that he can move with the mobility of roller-blading while in a skirmish and Jet-Blade mode, for when he flies in mid air. In the episode "Linked", the Jet-Blades are temporarily replaced with a rocket-powered board, (a Jet-Board.)
- Police Broadband Scanner: a radio-receiver made by Richie which first appears in the episode "Gear", it is designed to pick up radio waves on the police communication broadband. It also has an alarm programmed to go off when it detects the phrases "Metahuman" or "Bang-Baby" in intercepted transmissions to warn Static when the Dakota City Police Department are up against Metahumans/Bang-Babies. It is mainly connected to a computer screen. Later such a function was incorporated into Back-Pack's many functions.
- Helmet: a modified helmet that includes a face visor cover and cyber-eye goggles, that also apparently provides Richie/Gear with the same vision correction as his regular eyeglasses do - (as he is never seen wearing his glasses whilst in his superhero guise.) Richie uses the helmet to mentally connect with Back-Pack and, through Back-Pack, mentally connect with other machines.
- Crime Database Computer Index: a cross-indexed database of 852,000,000 newspaper reports about crimes from the last 20 years. It is mentioned in the episode "The Usual Suspect" when Richie suggests that Marcus Reed could be the unidentified rampaging Bang-Baby.
- Mechanical Drill: a small, hand-held mechanical drill that Gear has used to open locked doors, which first appears in the episode "She-Bang".
- Robotic Icebox Dispenser: a large icebox with robotic arms inside that hands out chilled drinks and operates on voice-command. It only appeared in the episodes "The Parent Trap" and "Power Outage".
- Gear-Crete: a fast setting rock-hard substance that hardens in seconds. When it hardens, is stronger than concrete, trapping the target inside. Appeared in the episode "The Parent Trap".
- Liquid Nitrogen Bomb: a customized Zap-Cap, with a supply of liquid Nitrogen contained under pressure, which, when it hits a target explodes on contact, freezes over the target, incasing them in a prison of ice. First appears in "She-Back", Gear has Back-Pack launch a capsule of liquid nitrogen to freeze Hot-Streak and contain him. Used again in "Wet and Wild," Gear throws one to freeze Aquamaria solid.
- Space Time Demodulator: a device built by Richie in the episode "Flashback" to help Time-Zone control her time manipulation abilities with a remote control to help her control the time jumps.
- Time Manipulator: a time manipulation device capable of slowing down or speeding up the rate of time. It is built by Richie in the episode "Now You See Him" so Virgil can keep up with Speedwarp. The Time Manipulators are permanently stuck in time after Speedwarp touches his and Virgil’s Time Manipulators.
- Counter-virus: a counter-virus created by Gear in the episode "Kidnapped". The counter-virus is used to destroy Project Omni, a computer virus that can hack into every computer in the world and give the virus’s creator, Omnara, control over every computer system in existence.
References[]
External links[]
- Richie Foley's/Gear's entry at The Worlds Finest.
- Richie Foley's/Gear's entry in allies section at the Official Warner Brothers Static Shock Website.
- Gear's entry at the DC Animated Wiki.
Template:Milestone Media