Gear (Static Shock)
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In the animated series Static Shock, Gear (real name Richard "Richie" Osgood Foley) is the best friend and confidant of Virgil "Static" Hawkins. He was the first person to learn of Virgil's powers after Virgil clued him in about them, and Richie suggested that Virgil should become a superhero.
In the first two seasons, Richie served primarily as Virgil's confidant, helping him maintain his secret identity and providing him with behind-the-scenes support.
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[edit] Comics
The character, Richie Foley, did not appear in the Milestone comic book "Static", although he is based on two of Virgil's best friends: superficially, Richard "Richie" Foley is identical to Richard "Rick" Stone - who was blond, wore glasses and they have the same first name, but Rick Stone later admits that he is gay, and Richie Foley's role in the animated series is the same as Frieda Goren's - the friend and confidant of Virgil's, who was in on his secret identity as Static. Richie also bears a resemblance to the actor Anthony Rapp. During an interview after the conclusion of the series, the creators of Static Shock admitted that Rich Foley was very unlikely to be gay as well, and that it was unlikely to ever be brought up in the series.
[edit] Animated Series
In the third season, in the episode "Gear", it was revealed that Richie - like Virgil - was a Bang Baby whose powers had taken a while to manifest. This was due to his indirect exposure to the metahuman gas that transformed Virgil, and had saturated his clothes. As a metahuman, he gains super-intelligence, much to his dismay at first, and an aptitude for inventing technology and programs from scratch. Because of this ability, he started using the name Gear. He has continued to support Virgil and provide new tools for him, though now as an active sidekick.
Richie objects to being called a sidekick once in the episode "Power Play", Richie was temporarily given the power to fly and project force fields, and with these powers, Richie was briefly known as "Push", but he gave up these powers when he saw how they were affecting him and his friendship with Virgil.
In the episodes "Static in Africa" and "The Usual Suspect", Richie states that he has an Irish and Viking heritage; his father is Irish and his mother is Scandinavian, having researched his family tree.
[edit] Richie's/Gear's Inventions and Programs
- Static-Saucer - also known as Static's Flying Disk, it is a foil disk of metal - Mylad; that is "stronger than reinforced steel." Static can carry it folded up in his coat. Richie gave it to him in "The Breed", before which Static 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 - Walkie-talkies that Richie & Virgil made at School for Science Lab in "Grounded"; they're named 'Shock-Vox' by Richie and are used by Richie/Gear & Virgil/Static 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 saying how he really feels about his step-brother Dwayne; in Replay, Richie rewired a Shock-Vox to listen in like an intercom on another Shock-Vox created by Replay's powers. In the episode "Gear", the Shock-Voxes' have apparently been updated with tracers, as Richie/Gear used Virgil/Static's Shock-Vox to track him down to an old Juvenile Hall when Ebon had abducted him. The Shock-Voxes are usefully convenient in that Richie and Virgil never have to pay phone bills for them and Virgil can recharge (see Grounded) and increase (see Static in Africa) their range with his powers.
- Zap-Caps (Mark 1) - energy containment units, first seen in "Winds of Change" and used as electrical explosives. Richie's idea for these was if Static was low on power in a battle then he could pitch them at the enemy, buying some time to recharge. Instead, Static used them to recharge his own drained powers in his final battle with Slipstream. The Zap-Caps (Mark 1) were seen again in "Sunspots" by Static & Richie against Hot-Streak because Static's powers were being affected Sunspot activity on the sun and Hot-Streak was on a rampage.
- 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 radiowaves and the police broadband). Static used one to find the Meta-Breeds hideout by throwing one on Adam Evans/the Rubber-Band Man. In the episode "Gear", Richie mentioned that he had increased the range on the Tracking Device.
- Back-Pack - a sophisticated high tech scouting and surveillance, Utility unit, portable computer all in one active robot, capable of fitting and being carried on Richie's back. Back-Pack can be voice and remote controlled by Richie/Gear (in the episode "Gear", Richie demonstrates that he can see, hear and speak through Back-Pack). Back-Pack was built by Richie when he was experiencing his own active reaction to the Big-Bang-Gas in Gear - his reaction to the Big-Bang-Gas gave him (instead of the much preferred Super-Power or Super-Brawn) Super-Brains, making him more intelligent in the fields of Maths, Sciences and Technologies. In "Gear", when Ebon kidnapped Virgil, (correctly believing Virgil to be Static,) Richie suited up in a helmet, elbow & knee pads & Back-Pack, tracked the Meta-Breed to their hideout at an old abandoned Juvenile hall and used Back-Pack to create a false image of Static on the Juvenile halls security system (which Ebon was using to monitor Virgil's cell,) convincing Ebon that he was seeing Virgil & Static in two different locations; freed Virgil and then later Static helps Richie come up with a Superhero handle. Gear is later able to control and interface with Back-Pack with his thoughts through modifications to his helmet, though this can prove limiting, as when Gear loses his enhanced intellect in Power Outage and can no longer understand or control Backpack.
- Back-Pack's Remote Control - The Remote Control to Back-Pack, first seen in "Gear" along with Back-Pack, and later seen in "A League of Their Own part 2", to free Richie/Gear and Back-Pack from Brainiac, when Brainiac had taken over Back-Pack and Richie.
- Zap-Caps (Mark 2) - First featured in "Gear", an updated version and the next generation of the 1st Zap-Cap, they are used as a Meta-Human capturing device. They work best on Bang-Babies like Talon but not so well on Bang-Babies like Ebon.
- Rocket-Powered-Blades - Or "Jet-Blades", first featured in "Gear" when Richie decides to use the sort of Military Propulsion Engineering used in Harrier Jets to update his Roller-blades, making them flight-capable, so he could patrol Dakota in the air. They have 3 modes: "Shoe-Mode", so that he can walk while investigating a crime scene, etc; "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 needs/wants to fly. In Season 4 Gear's Rocket-Powered-Boots are temporallery replaced with a Rocket-Powered-Board in "Linked".
- Police Broadband Scanner - A radio-Receiver, it was home (or Gas Station of Solitude) made by Richie shortly before he became Gear, it is designed to pick up radiowaves on the Police Communication Broadband. Another feature built in it by Richie, is an alarm programmed to go off when it detected the phrase "Meta-Human" or "Bang-Baby" in intercepted transmissions to warn Static when the Dakota City Police Department are up against Meta-Humans/Bang-Babies. Also it is connected to a computer screen, and is kept in "The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude". First featured in the episode "Gear".
- Gear's Helmet - First featured in the episode "Gear", a helmet modified with a visor and cyber eye connected to Back-Pack; through his helmet, Gear's Meta-Human brainwaves can interface with Back-Pack, and through Back-Pack other machines, allowing Gear to use his Technopathy/Cyberpathy.
- Gear's Crime Database Computer Index - A cross indexed database of 852,000,000 newspaper reported crimes reported from the last 20 years. Richie: "I cross-indexed all newspaper crime reports from the last 20 years, about 852,000,000 items in all". Mentioned only in "The Usual Suspect", when Richie first suggested that Marcus Reed was the unidentified rampaging Bang-Baby.
- Gear's Mechanical Drill - Featured in "She-Bang", a small, hand-held, mechanical drill that Gear has used to open locked doors.
- Gear's Robotic Icebox Dispenser - Seen in "The Parent Trap", a large icebox with robotic arms inside that hands out chilled drinks. It operates on voice-command.
- Gear-Crete - seen in "The Parent Trap", a fast setting rock-hard substance that hardens in seconds. When it hardens, is stronger than concrete, trapping the target inside.
- Gear's Space Time Demodulator - in "Flashback", Gear built this device to help Nina Crocker/Time-Zone control her powers ("energy waves that distort the space-time continuum, allowing her to move back through it time exponentially") with a remote control to help "channel the energy and quantize time-space into measurable units". Later Nina Crocker/Time-Zone decided to erase her powers by going back to the time of the Big-Bang and prevented her past self from getting "Big-Bang-i-fied" because she decided that her powers were too dangerous to keep.
- Gear's Time Manipulator - When Speedwarp was making his moves in "Now You See Him" Gear built a Time Manipulator so that Static would be able to keep up with and take down Speedwarp, when Speedwarp came into contact with both Time Manipulators - Speedwarp's Time Manipulator ends up short circuiting and permanently stuck in time - moving slower than everything else.
- Gear's Counter-virus - Featured in "Kidnapped", when Dr. Karen Roberts/Omnara had forced Static to steal technology from Alva Technologies for her, by kidnapping Robert Hawkins, after she had learned Static's true identity. Karen Roberts/Omnara's "Project Omni", was a computer virus, that would hack itself into the computer systems of the world, giving Karen Roberts/Omnara control over it all. When Static and Gear were forced to face off against each other, Static managed to tip-off Gear that the worm that had affected his systems earlier needed to be analyzed. Thanks to Static's hint, Gear managed to deconstruct the virus and write a counter-virus to undo the programming of Omnara's worm. When administered to Karen Roberts/Omnara's computer systems, Gear's anti-worm program disinfected the computer virus, and Karen Roberts/Omnara ends up in hospital as she was hooked up to her computer system at the time.
[edit] Trivia on Richie Foley/Gear
- Richard "Richie" Foley did not appear in the Milestone comic book Static, although he is apparently based on two of Virgil's best friends:
- Richard "Rick" Stone - who was blond, wore glasses and later admits that he is gay.
- Frieda Goren - the best friend of Virgil's, who was in on his secret identity as Static (Frieda does appear on the show, but in a much more minor role).
- In the episode Power Play, Richie's full name is revealed: Richard Osgood Foley.
- In Gear, when Richie was asking Static about superhero handles, the other names he considered were Hardware and Steel.
- Richie's last name 'Foley' is a possible reference to a "foley artist," who uses everyday objects to make sound effects for a TV show or movie - like how Gear has adapted everyday objects to build his inventions, such as making his VCR remote control into a remote control for his Space-Time Demodulator for Time-Zone, and he said it still worked on his VCR.
- Based on episodes in Static Shock and JLU, it's a good assumption that Richie is part of the future Justice League. During the crossover episode with Batman Beyond, it reveals that Richie is slightly obese, but still wears the usual Gear uniform. (Possibly a homage to the Blue Beetle's weight gain during his time in the Justice League.)
- In "Sons of the Fathers", it's revealed that Richie's father is a racist, and has a dislike of African-American people. Richie never told him that his best friend was black. Mr. Foley's view of African-Americans change due to the events that occur in this episode.
- 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 Vox." Regarding the response of fans, 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]
