Comic Review #79: Darkhawk #5 (1991)

 

Alright! It's finally time to get back to Darkhawk! Hopefully I can do Darkhawk (and Vigilante reviews) among the other stuff I want to do for THE COMIC REVIEW. I don't want it to go another several months before I talk about him again but I don't want them to be the only two comics I talk about. The last time I talked about Darkhawk was in August! I need to keep some kind of list of upcoming reviews. Even if it's just for me. Anyway today we are going to discuss the fifth Darkhawk comic! There are I believe 50 regular issues and 4 annuals. We will be done with Darkhawk sometime around my 47th birthday if we are going to keep doing it at this rate. That'll be 2032. And we still won't have Flying Cars or Robot bodies but someone will have talked about every issue of an obscure comic book which really to be fair is not a good trade off.

So what happened the last time we discussed an issue of Darkhawk huh? Well he went up against his first Super powered foe of his own. That's SAVAGE STEEL. A very late 80s/early 90s character. Mostly in his design. I do like the fact that he's controlled by crooked cops. I'm sure something interesting will happen with that. We ended the last issue with Chris Powell taking off the Darkhawk mask and freaking the fuck out. So let's see what he's freaking the hell out about! And we get a cop out...he has a freak out and before we can see anything a sheet lands on his head. Okay yeah, I'm not a fan of that! Of course it's something that comics end up doing, I'm sure we will see his face but man couldn't you guys come up with a better way of keeping the suspense?

Anyway he decides to leave the house and startles the guy I believe is there to kill his mother. So that's a good thing. He then realizes he can't chase after the car but he can go to the ruins of the amusement park to talk to St. Johnny, a homeless man who said he knew the last Darkhawk. He says some cryptic shit and nothing is really accomplished! Damnit man is this gonna be something that drags on forever or what?  I would have been more into "oh man whats gonna happen next?" if you actually got to see how ugly Darkhawk's face is. Anyway I guess Chris and his family go to the Museum and they are attacked by the damn hitman and after he chases after the Hitman fucking PORTAL comes out of a Portal and we get a great little fight after Darkhawk asks him some questions about him. We get to know something about Portal here which is way more than the face stuff. NO I'M NOT GOING TO LET THAT GO.  The fight is really good actually. Portal has all these weapons (of course one of them is a huge fuck off 1990s comic gun but hey it looks better than how Rob Liefeld would draw it). We learn he can travel the multiverse AND is a Native America. Much more than what the face reveal. I ALREADY TOLD YOU I WON'T LET IT GO

Darkhawk pretty much ruins the HELL out of Portal's day at the end of the fight. Darkhawk was pretty much getting his ass kicked until the end of this. Yeah, Portal thinks this Darkhawk is after him so we learn a third thing about him. Portal gets his ass knocked out and Darkhawk tries to go after the Hitman who is still there in the museum like a complete idiot. Anyway he catches him but has to let him go so he can turn back into Chris Powell. Chris Powell was shot in the leg by the hitman earlier and passes out. He wakes up in the Hospital and his mother is talking about how it's just a flesh wound. We also see some Guardsmen from the Vault talking about Portal and Darkhawk. Apparently Portal fought the Avengers and I don't remember that issue at all. It had Puma AND the U-Foes who are some of my favorite obscure characters. 

FINAL VERDICT: I didn't like the face reveal stuff. It just screams "oh shit I shouldnt have ended the last issue like that!" and not a good way to keep the mystery going. Still I'm interested in whats up with Portal and other Darkhawks, and I liked the fight. Not as good as the first four issues but still pretty good. I'm a little irked but still into the story. Let's hope it's not June before I tackle issue #6