With so many comic fans dismissing a new series or a a run on an existing series with the simple line, “I’m going to wait for the trade on that one…” we thought it would be good to take a moment a remind you of some of the comics that you may have forgotten about, as you waited for the trade and remind you why you should give them a shot.
DARKHAWK CLASSIC VOLUME 1
written by DANNY FINGEROTH
art by MIKE MANLEY
Collects issues #1 through #9
Marvel Comics
216 PAGES / $24.99
WHAT IS IT?
Darkhawk is, in my opinion, one of the more underrated characters to come out of Marvel in the 1990s. A brand new character launched in 1991, following in the grand tradition of Spider-Man and Nova, Chris Powell is a teenage kid in New York City who finds an amulet that turns him into Darkhawk, a hero with armor and a grappling hook.
WHY SHOULD YOU READ IT?
If anything, you should read it just to get the Darkhawk jokes we make on the podcast. But beyond that, I really did enjoy this comic when it was originally published. It was from a time right before comics blew up in the speculator boom, but after the somewhat simplistic stories of the 1980s. It was the classic Marvel recipe for a hero and it was done well. The character was created by then Editor In Chief Tom DeFalco, but Danny Fingeroth is credited as the writer, and back then, he was one of the best along with artist Mike Manley who helped to define a time period with this great character design.
IF YOU LIKE…
Spider-Man, Nova, Invincible, Kyle Rayner Green Lantern or any super hero story that involves an unsuspecting kid getting powers that he has to learn how to use and how to fit this change into his life.
WHAT DOES THE COMMUNITY THINK?
Well, since these original issues came out over 20 years ago, we don’t have pull list data for them, but you can go pull this trade in the comics section and we can see just how many people are going to check this classic volume out
Darkhawk Classic Volume 1 goes on sale this week, on April 25, 2012
You can order it from Amazon:
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I love darkhawk . I really dug when he,was on new warriors mike Manley art was a huge draw for me. Now if we can get a dan ketch trade, sleepwalker and Dwayne mcduffie Denys Cowan deathlok trades this marvel zombie will has a 90s flashback.
Sleepwalker, I’d love to a trade of him.
Blue Beetle is today’s Darkhawk.
“TRADEWAITERS GONNA WAIT” may be the greatest title for a feature ever conceived.
Will the “TRADEWAITERS GONNA WAIT” articles ever be collected? Maybe with a nice slipcase?
Also, I think the link that was meant to follow “You can order it from Amazon:” is missing. (Or I simply can’t see it in Chrome for some reason.)
It’s a good feature but I’m gonna wait for the ABSOLUTE Tradewaiters!
There’s a little Amazon box that loads underneath that line – but if it’s not loading for you for some reason, here’s the link: http://ifn.by/I1cmwg
Absolute Tradewaiters! Lol, thats great, too bad they’ll be waiting forever for most titles but I’ll tell ya one that I think deserves the absolute treatment or Images equivalent, library edition, ultimate edition, whatever… Savage Dragon, Erik Larsen has been writing and drawing every issue for 20 years, it deserves the treatment.
Thank you for the link.
Darkhawk IS my favorite charcter. I have a sketch book dedictaed to him!!
Yes. Loved its casual kid gets powers vibe. Early Spider-Man and Nova are an apt comparison.
This came out when I was about ten and I’d been reading comics for only a couple of years. It was refreshing because it was a genuinely new hero that was just a teenager. It was the first comic I ever got an issue 1 of. I dropped off after a couple of years and I still don’t know the whole story about the alien spaceships and Nu Space and stuff but it brings back awesome memories. Plus, what ten year old wouldn’t love the idea of wings AND a grappling hook?
I drew my own Darkhawk comics when I was a kid.
Darkhawk is nearly as old as I am, but I love the series. Over the past 4 years of reading comics and dollar bin surfing I’ve managed to find almost all 50 issues of the run. But this would be so much easier to read.
Is waiting for trades not cool? I felt like I’m left out of a secret loop again
Nothing wrong with it.
@bobby2889 – you have passed the test. You are now in the secret loop.
love it darkhawk needs daniel way or ric remender bring him bacl
bring him back i ment
Still have all the single issues in my box, the only 90’s comics that I couldn’t get rid of in the purge. There was some good setup in these issues, including the character “Portal”, hinting at other Darkhawk armor that they never really paid off. The series seemed to peak around the heart of the hawk story, and fizzled around issue #25.
Also, I heard Ron Richards is sitting on 500 copies of Darkhawk #1. That might be an urban legend. But it might not.
Maybe Sleepwalker is next.
you say Tom DeFalco creating him but i think he just over heard his thirteen year olds somber party game “create your own super hero”
‘ohh wolvie claws! spidey webswinging!BMX helmet! healing power!yesss this is the GREATEST HERO EVEERRR!”
Hopefully marvel will also give us Thunderstrike vol 2 soon too
The DeFalco/Frenz run on Thor prior to Thunderstrike is pretty decent, if you’re a fan of Eric Masterson. One of the subtle and, yet funny, parts of their run is that Thor never has thought bubbles but Masterson is constantly thinking.
I loved the Darkhawk stuff when it came out and really liked when he showed up in Nova and War of Kings during DnA’s cosmic run, he might’ve been in Thanos Imperative briefly too, I can’t remember but love that story. Btw, Darkhawk jokes in the podcasts are great!
For some reason, when I see the title for these articles, I hear R. Kelly’s voice with a smooth R&B jam behind it.
I went back to my copies of the early original Darkhawk run (1-15) this past summer. It was quite fun and I really enjoyed reading them again. I won’t need to buy this trade, but it I’m glad to see it’s finally out.
I agree that he was an underappreciated and underrated character then — as I do now.
Cheers.
I have a full run of Dark Hawk and tried rereading the series. Made it to issue ten. Whew. It didn’t age well and, sadly, fell victim to Marvel’s mid-90s art making Mike Manley the strongest artist on the series. As a teen, I did enjoy the mystery surrounding DH’s true face/identity.
I used to love Dark Hawk when I first started collecting comics. I’ve tried to read some again recently, and it didn’t age well for me.