Despite being targeted towards pre-teens, Static Shock stands out from every other superhero cartoon in the 2000s by having a African-American as the main character and actually having the balls to show us the struggles of life. Naturally, trauma-inducing horrors are to be expected.
- In the very first episode "Shock to the System", even before the Big Bang, we open up on a disturbingly realistic take on gang violence in high school. Virgil's constantly getting harassed and beaten for no good reason by Francis "F-Stop" Stone (soon to be known as Hotstreak) and his goons. The only person looking out for him is Wade, an acquaintance and gangbanger. It's made clear pretty quickly that Virgil's only hope of surviving high school is to throw in with Wade and his gang. Then Wade starts talking about a big throwdown at the docks...
- As stated above, before gaining his power and renaming himself Hotstreak, F-Stop was a gang leader who viciously bullied Virgil. F-Stop ragdolls Virgil at a locker and nearly beats him up before Wade intervened. F-Stop doesn't stop there as he and his gang corner Virgil at an alley way after school and proceeds to give him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown before hightailing it when he's told of Wade's arrival, but not before telling Virgil he'll be seeing more of him.
- The whole idea of the Big Bang: a chemical spill affects a large group of mostly teenagers. Many of which die in the hospital and undergo incredibly painful Body Horror in the process. The local government, working with the corporation that caused it, is willing to cover it up.
- Some of the victims, including Dwayne, Maureen, and Mirage, appear to be preteens, making it even worse.
- Many of the Bang Babies have mutated in rather disturbing ways:
- In the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, we see some victims in the hospital, including a guy whose body was melting. It's possible that some of them didn't survive their transformations. The original comic series at least makes that clear, but it's left vague in the cartoon.
- Ebon, who became a shapeshifting Living Shadow who can phase and teleport through walls. You can barely recognize his former human form.
- Royce Axelrod steals some of the gas and sniffs it. At first he's impressed by his gains in height and strength, but he mutates into a hideously deformed purple monster.
- The Night Breed get burned by sunlight, one of them implying it could be fatal if prolonged.
- Edwin Alva Jr overdosing himself on the Quantum Vapor gas in "Junior". First his body starts having uncontrollable mutations then, just as he's seemingly stabilizing, turns to stone right in front of his father. While he does eventually get restored to flesh and blood later in the series, it certainly took months, perhaps more than a year, for it to happen. And the show never addressed if he was conscious or not during the whole time.
- In the final episode, after all the Bang Babies lose their powers, Ebon and Hotstreak steal another canister of the Quantum Vapor to regain their powers. They inhale so much of the gas that they somehow merge their bodies together, transforming into some kind of two-headed giant monster that looks like a Living Shadow covered in flames. The Ebon-Hotstreak monster even tried to eat Static and Gear alive. Their monstrous fusion also provides the page image of this trope.
- In "Aftershock", Static comes pretty close to actually being killed by guards at Alva Industries. Later in the series, the company remains interested in capturing and/or killing Static, as shown by "The New Kid". The real Nightmare Fuel kicks in when you remember that Virgil is fourteen years old at this point. Maybe they don't know that they're hunting a freshman in high school, but the audience sure does.
- There's something deeply unsettling about Ebon's kidnapping of Richie in "Sons of the Fathers". It happens right after Richie tells Static he can get home on his own and since that episode was early in the show's run, Richie is powerless and alone with no one realizing he's been kidnapped until much later. Plus Ebon finally gets sick of waiting for Static to show up and Richie's Defiant Captive act so he apparently decides to kill his prisoner.
- "Jimmy" is both this and a Tear Jerker, as it's about a more realistic problem uncommon in kids' shows: bullying and gun violence. Virgil and Richie befriend a loner named Jimmy, who's repeatedly harassed by a gang of bullies; he becomes so depressed and enraged, that he steals his dad's gun and tries intimidate the bullies into submission with it. As he is lowering it, he gets tackled to the ground and accidentally (though non-fatally) shoots Richie in the process.
- During the two-part crossover with the Justice League, Brainiac (one of Superman's worst enemies) seizes control of the Justice League's Watchtower, intending to destroy Earth while the League is distracted by a fake distress call elsewhere. Brainiac later hijacks Richie's body, and then continues his plans to destroy the world. Poor Static is so troubled about being forced to fight his best friend.
- When Richie briefly breaks out of the mind control to try to give Virgil a hint about how to beat Brainiac, he sounds scared, desperate, and even pained.
- In "Duped", Replikon kidnaps A.J. McLean and steals his identity. Eventually, when he decides he doesn't need A.J. anymore, he shape shifts into a werewolf, says, "All you're good for is lunch meat!", and attacks him. Fortunately, A.J. untied himself and was able to run until Static showed up.
- "Toys In The Hood"
- A giant robot monkey nearly eats Static with mechanical teeth if not for Superman's timely rescue.
- The Reveal that Darci decided to work with Toyman to kidnap Daisy, Capture and Replicate her. Note that Daisy is a high school student. Even though Daisy frees herself from the table, Darci grabs and overpowers, trying to drop her into a vat of acid. Daisy for what it's worth is putting up a fight, but it's not enough and then Static can't tell which is the real Daisy.
- Toyman, while sniffling, activates a new failsafe he installed in Darci's body. As he says, "I may be a fool for love, but I'm no dope." It doesn't stop her; it melts her. He watches while crying under the mask and taunting her that he's tossed the antidote away.
- When Robert Hawkins gets kidnapped, Virgil isn't joking around against his usual suspects. It is made clear why going after a family member is incredibly a ballsy move because Virgil made short work with all the Bang Babies he usually has trouble with, if he wanted to, he could have easily killed them and they knew it.
