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Character Spotlight: Darkhawk

By | August 17th, 2009
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For anyone following War of Kings, you miiiight have noticed that a certain 90’s character has returned to prominence, even surpassing his role he held when he originally had his own eponymous title: Darkhawk. He was one of my favorite characters when I was a kid(even surpassing Spider-Man), so you can bet I’m excited he’s coming back, and if you’re not familiar with the character(with an admittedly porny sounding name), here’s a refresher course:

Christopher Powell was born in Queens, New York. It was nice enough, until he saw his policeman father accept a bribe from a crime boss in an old abandoned amusement park. While trying to process what he witnessed, he discovered this weird, diamond-shaped amulet. This amulet was the key to becoming the hero we know as Darkhawk.

Now, what the amulet did was switch Chris’ body with that of a technologically advanced android hidden on a ship located in something called “null space.” Chris’ mind stayed in our space, taking over the android body. And he used to for what else? Becoming a superhero.

After deciding on a name(true story, some early names were The Powell, Falconer, and EDGE-MAN, because the amulet gave him…AN EDGE AGAINST CRIME!), he tangled with local criminals and eventually teamed up with another Queens native, Spider-Man, to take down the costumed villain Hobgoblin. This was his first tussle with the supervillain community at large, but not his last. He also teamed up with Captain America to battle the U-Foes, which are like a villainous version of The Fantastic Four. This went on until he battled the Spider-Man baddie Tombstone, who eventually removed his amulet from his chest.

This arc stands out especially to me, and is probably one of the arcs I remember most from my childhood. In this case, removal of the amulet did not mean he transformed back into Chris Powell. Far from it. In fact, it meant quite the opposite. He was trapped in the body of Darkhawk, and could not recharge or repair the android armor. To get it back, he had to fight someone how already defeated him with a damaged body. But he did, which is the mark of bravery.

Later, he allied himself with The original New Warriors and was even a provisional member of the West Coast Avengers. That never really made sense to me, as he’s based out of New York…but ok, I guess his suit comes with wings. Along with the membership to the superhero groups, he battled the likes of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Later on, he encountered a crime boss named Dargin Bokk. Bokk claimed to have created the amulet to use for his own criminal purposes. However, the scientists who created the amulets used the technology to attack Bokk, defeating him. The amulet was then sent to Earth for safekeeping, which was then found by Powell. Much of this is in doubt, however, due to recent events. Don’t worry, I’m getting there.

Some time after this, Chris and Darkhawk were split into two separate beings, each with the same memories, those being that belonging to Chris. While this was going on, the suit accidentally downloaded some data from the “Null-Ship”(as I’ll call it) and emerged with new armor, pictured at left.

When they re-merged, however, Chris learned he no longer needed to “switch” places with the armor, and that it no longer went to the ship. He was now in the suit. Whether or not this affects it’s repair process remains to be seen.

His series last for 50 issues, and after it was canned, he retired from super hero life. Unable to deal with the anger with which the amulet inflicted up him, he joined a support group for former teenage superheroes called “Excelsior!” as a way to deal with the scars of teenage adventuring. They were then recruited by a then-unknown benefactor, Rick Jones, who in turn was acting upon the request of Captain America, to look for the teenage group of Runaways. He even took out one of The Avengers’ most dangerous foes, Ultron, in the process. After this, and the events of Civil War, he registered with the government to become a fully sponsored superhero. He was the security chief of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. when the skrulls began their full-scale invasion of Earth and he teamed with his ally Nova and Quasar to repel this threat.


Most recently, he has been involved in the War of Kings saga, where he learned more about the armor’s history and abilities. He met another Darkhawk suit, called “Talon”, who revealed that he was part of a “fraternity of raptors”, whose goals were similar to that of The Nova Corps, or even The Green Lantern Corps, and humans were not compatible with the suit, which explained why he was so angry all the time. This proved to be a lie, however, as he learned The Raptors were responsible for assassinations and kidnappings throughout history. The suit, now named “Razor”, teamed up with Talon to influence the end of the War of Kings, by first enlisting the Negative Zone villain Blastaar to help them, and then trapping Chris in a great tree adorned with thousands and thousands of amulets similar to his own. There, he met the host for Talon. A skrull whose mind was not strong enough to fight off the control of the android’s attacks. It was then he learned that humans are stronger than the Raptor’s mind. He finally wrested control of the suit from Talon, but it was too late, they had done the unthinkable. Talon had gunned down the Shi’ar empress Lilandra.

Now on the run from the Shi’ar Imperial Guard(and you do NOT want to piss off Gladiator), and even his one-time ally Nova, Darkhawk must find a way to clear his name AND destroy the rest of the Raptor amulets to prevent them from doing anythign more than what they’ve already done! I don’t think a series has been announced(yet), but when or if it is, you know I’m adding it to my hold.


//TAGS | Character Spotlight

Gilbert Short

Gilbert Short. The Man. The Myth. The Legend. When he's not reading comic books so you don't have to, he's likely listening to mediocre music or watching excellent television. Passionate about Giants baseball and 49ers football. When he was a kid he wanted to be The Ultimate Warrior. He still kind of does. His favorite character is Superman and he will argue with you about it if you try to convince him otherwise. He also happens to be the head of Social Media Relations, which means you should totally give him a follow onTwitter.

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