So, why did Nick bully Jimmy? Well, it all has to do with Nick’s last name, Connor, and before you ask me “Why does this matter” it matters because he shares his last name not with some random character but Maureen “Permafrost” Connor, now why does that matter? Well she was one of, if not the most sympathetic backstory in all of Static Shock as her mom died and her stepdad left her on Christmas Eve and she became homeless ever since.
Now, before we answer the first question, let’s answer the second question, what happened to Maureen’s birth father? As the guy that abandoned Maureen and her mom was her stepfather. I’ve came up with three possibilities:
1. They’re divorced
2. He died prior to her mom’s death
3. She was born out of wedlock
Now, let’s get number 1 out of the way, unless there was a reason why Maureen’s birth father couldn’t take care of her (i.e. substance and/or domestic abuse) there would be no reason for the social worker to take her into foster care instead of in his custody.
Number 2 seems much more likely as that would explain why she wasn’t just taken in by her father after her mom died, but there is just one issue, why would she move on so quickly from his death? Considering how young Maureen must’ve been when her mom and her stepfather got married (She was 5-6 years old when her mom died), unless she never actually moved on and only married him either because:
1. She wanted to distract herself from the grief
2. She believed that children need two parents, even if the other parent is as awful as him
Number 3 seems like the most likely to me as none of the issues from the other two possibilities apply, especially if her birth father is unknown even to her mom (i.e. she was born after a one-night stand).
But that begs the question, why would you point out that Nick and Maureen have the same surname if they can’t be related? Well, what if they are only half-siblings on their mom’s side?
If this is true, then does this mean Nick was also born out of wedlock as well? Well, yes and this all connects into my theory about why Nick bullied Jimmy.
So, why did Nick bully Jimmy? Well, what if it’s because Nick and Jimmy are paternal half-brothers whose dad cheated on Nick’s mom with Jimmy’s mom and due to that, he thinks that Jimmy and his family ruined his life?
That would explain:
1. Why Nick only targets Jimmy
2. Why Jimmy is only bullied by Nick and his friends but not by anyone else
Coming back to the question which asked rather Nick was also born out of wedlock, yes he was and this is how Nick’s dad cheating on Nick’s mom culminated into Maureen’s birth:
Sometime after getting pregnant (It’s unknown when exactly this all happened and rather she knew she was pregnant at the time), a friend of hers sent her a picture of her then-boyfriend out on a date with another woman who looked like she was pregnant as well and when she confronted him about this, he admitted everything and they broke up. She was heartbroken after everything, to the point where she would party constantly to distract herself from all of her negative feelings which all culminated into her giving birth to her second child, Maureen.
That would explain why Maureen wasn’t taken in by her dad after her mom died, why Nick and Maureen share last names even though they are maternal half-siblings and not paternal half-siblings, and how Nick could’ve found out about his dad’s betrayal (besides his mom talking about him, of course).
But how would Nick know who Jimmy’s parents are? Well, what if prior to Nick finding out about them being half-brothers, what if they were best friends? That would explain why Nick knew Jimmy’s parents and why Jimmy was so reluctant to forgive Nick after he apologized to him.
To add on to this theory, Nick supposed “parents” look nothing like him, indicating that they aren’t his real parents.
There is just one problem with the idea that Maureen and Nick are related, it is that Nick didn’t appear in Maureen’s flashback, but this could be explain through Maureen having PTSD as a result of all the trauma she’s been through and according to Mayo Clinic, PTSD can cause memory problems which could cause Maureen to not remember that her brother was there on Christmas Eve or that she even had a brother at all.