From Darkhawk #1 (1991)
It was his look that made me love him.
When Darkhawk debuted in his own titular title in 1991, I was smitten. Here was a young teenager named Christopher Powell who stumbled across a magical amulet that transformed him into the mysterious Darkhawk. That was grade A wish fulfillment and I was completely on board. When he was armored up, Darkhawk was a completely different physical body from young Christopher, but it was the teenager’s brain who controlled the new hero. Complete with underarm gliders that remind me of the early Spider-Man design, a wrist mounted grappling hook, and a really sleek helmet, Darkhawk captured my young imagination.
As the series progressed, the mysteries surrounding Darkhawk mounted. What did he look like under that helmet? Where did the amulet come from? How did his injuries heal when Christopher switched back to his normal form and then back into Darkhawk? It was a tantalizing bit of business and something that drew me as a young reader to this new superhero.
Created by editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and penciller Mike Manley, it was Danny Fingeroth who wrote these early Darkhawk adventures. While the character would go on to other venues, including being a part of Marvel Cosmic and ending up inside Avengers Arena, Darkhawk’s simple beginnings as a teenager in Queens granted awesome power will always hold a special place for me. But mostly it’s because of that neat helmet.
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…am I the only one that thinks his crotch looks…strange?
I’m with you; it is a very odd shaped cup for sure.
Its a crotch tie.
Oh forgive me, I t apostrophe s. My mistake.
Awesome! When does this come out? I’m gonna buy 10 copies!
It comes out in 1991 right before Spawn comes out.
That was a Ron-related joke.
Ya i realized after i posted that it had something to do with everyone buying multiple copies of stuff in the early 90’s. Good joke sire. Apologies.
sir not sire …. ha… well whatever. SIr or Sire pick one.
Hoping eventually this comes to Marvel Unlimited. I loved this series when it came out.
I was a huge Darkhawk fan in 1991. I still have the first 10 to 20 issues in a long box.
If you re read the first 10 issues, it’s pretty damn enjoyable. A little goofy, yes….and the art is pretty mundane..but the book does have some sort of “it” factor going on.
Goddamn I loved this book….
Big sleepwalker fan as well?
In 1991 I was reading four comics. Amazing Spider-man, Transformers (then after it got cancelled What If?), New Warriors, and Darkhawk. I actually got onto DH in the fourth issue, which co-stared Captain America and Daredevil. DH was probably the first comic I went looking for the back issues for, which involved me scouring three different 7/11s, a Five and ten store that had two comic racks, and one newsstand.
Like Spider-man did in the 60s and Ultimate Spider-man does now, I felt like I could be that hero. If I found a magical amulet I’d be just like Darkhawk. DH and New Warriors were the two comics that made me a life long fan of superheros.
During summer vacation. After buying comics. My friends and I would pick superhero teams. Dream line ups we would put together into a new book if we had the chance. Mine always had Darkhawk on it. He was something really cool.