Comic Review #32: Darkhawk #1 (1991)

 

A tip to any collectors who also want to read these things and don't have enough money. Do not, I repeat DO NOT spend the insane amount of money people want for this #1 First Appearance right now. This is not Thanos or the Fantastic Four where you won't find a copy of it. No this is a comic book that sold well enough that you'd be able to find tons upon tons of issues of it in 25 cent to 1 dollar bins. I don't know how or why it went up in price. Probably someone speculating that they are going to be in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that I'm growing to kinda hate more and more. Seriously keep looking long enough and you'll find this comic. It's a pretty good comic that I enjoy quite a bit but is it in no way worth $300 bucks which it goes for in NM condition I guess. The second he gets put in a Marvel Movie (and trust me if the Eternals can get a Marvel Movie, Darkhawk can too. No hero is obscure enough anymore. Also expect Howard the Duck to get him self a new tv series or movie. Even if the one from the 1980s probably will end up having more charm to it. Once you realize that most of the Marvel movies are very similar you kinda get bored of them. The comics are better than the movies and I will fight anyone who says differently.

I'm also going to fight portnoyd because this comic was a lot of fun to read. I really had a great time but I'll get that into the review. First up is a bit of history about the writer or artist. I think I'm gonna go wit the artist this time. Mike Manley doesn't seem to be anyone's favorite artist from the 1990s but honestly I like him. He's got a good style. It's just not as flashy in a good way (like say Jim Lee) or flashy in a bad horrible ugly awful way (Rob Liefeld) so he kinda got lost in the fervor of the 1990s. I think his art is good and I like it.  He worked on  Batman, Superman, The Phantom and even a Aliens Vs. Predator comic. He also co-created the character we are going to talking about today.

I mostly picked this comic despite what portnoyd said because I realized I have not talked about a first appearance or a first issue. I might say this character is a bit more 1990s than I remember but this is a story and character created by talented people who knew how to create characters like Tom DeFalco and Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley who created a likeable character and a neat costume. On the other hand Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld pretty much created bad ripoffs of Marvel Characters. Youngblood and W.I.L.D.Cats are bad and I refuse to ever read them. They can suck my taint something fierce. So It's not that I dislike 1990s excess in comic books I just dislike when it's bad. Like Youngblood. Portnoyd likes Youngblood and has read every issue.

So what was this comic book about then Clawzy! Well thank you for asking person I made up! I will tell you all about Darkhawk #1. It starts with the Hobgoblin who at this point was the Jason Macendale Hobgoblin (who was cooler when he was the original Jack O Lantern). The people who wrote him tried so many things. To give him demon powers in the X-Men crossover Inferno. To give him a cybernetic  eye. To having him fight other heroes all the time. They just never made him as cool as the original Hobgoblin even if I do have a nostalgic love for some of those issues Demon Hobgoblin issues. The Second Hobgoblin wants this powerful item that he's been told exists somewhere in New York. He is working with Phillipe Bazin, a crime lord to find this item. 

Phillipe Bazin is trying to buy off the mother of our soon to be new superhero who is a District Attorney but she won't budge period! She's not that kinda lady, Bazin! You fuck! Then we go to Chris Powell and he talks about Wonderland a theme park that's going to be torn down (If you guess that's where the super powered item the Hobgoblin and Bazin want then you'd be right! Congratulations! Have fun and do a happy dance!  Chris has two brothers Jason and Jon. They are twins and like 11 years old. They really want to go see Wonderland before it gets torn down. Oh and their dad is a cop who doesn't want to be a cop anymore. Totally broken down about crime and all that stuff and yes if you guess he's going to take Phillipe Bazin's money then have a second happy dance for being right! Except if you portnoyd. No dancing for him. The jerk.

So Chris is babysitting and his cool early 90s friends come and take him out to the milkshake shoppe. He says he will only be 15 minutes but is an hour and when he gets back he gets a earfull from his mother. He goes to Wonderland to look for them and meets some hobo. The hobo tells him where they are and he and his brothers end up finding their dad taking money from Bazin! Not a good sight! There's a fight and Chris and his brothers get away. Chris finds an amulet that is the POWERFUL ITEM OF DOOM and uses it and becomes THE DARKHAWK. Or in a joke I found amusing was when Chris quickly thinking of a name to call himself calls him the really lame name of Edge-Man because Chris mentioned how he wanted to help his dad fight crime but needed an edge. He fights off 3 goons and one of them while trying to kill Chris kills himself and all thats left is a damn skeleton. Don't play around with electricity people it's not cool! Chris goes back to his dad who leaves them! We get a scene of the family where the two twins fight over one of them calling their dad a crook. Chris goes back to Wonderland to find it all destroyed, his hope to find anything about the amulet destroyed. THE MYSTERIOUS HOBO mentions the name he will take on DARKHAWK.

FINAL VERDICT: Yeah it's a little silly and you can easily tell what's gonna happen but I found a bunch of Darkhawk comics in a dollar bin at one point and had fun with them. It's not the best first appearance or a origin ever but it still keeps me intrigued enough to see what happens to Chris Powell and his family. Whats up with the amulet and all that stuff. I've pretty much forgotten those comics so re-reading them will be a treat. I will re-read an issue and review it every time Portnoyd is a really big shithead instead of a regular shithead so expect a new review every now and then.