"Darkhawk #1", March 1991 Trying something different in 1991, Marvel debuted two brand-new characters in ongoing series that hadn't appeared anywhere else before. One was Sleepwalker, the story of a young man with an alien in his brain that was only active when his host was asleep. Surprisingly popular with young girls, Sleepwalker had his own bizarre corner of the market, but his fellow new hero was something else entirely. Darkhawk was created by Tom DeFalco (creator of Spider-Girl) and artist Mike Manley, and featured troubled teenager Chris Powell, who while witnessing his policeman Father taking a bribe from a crime boss, stumbles across an amulet at an abandoned amausement park. Quickly discovering the amulet allowed him to switch places with a super-powerful android that he telepathically controlled (well, he didn't find out exactly what happened, but you get the point). Vowing to use this strange new ability as an "Edge against crime!", Powell began a new career as the adventurer, Darkhawk!
When his new life began, Darkhawk was almost portrayed as a "second" to Spider-Man, who guest-starred in Darkhawk's third issue as the two battled The Hobgoblin. The two street-level New York heroes ran into each other frequently in these early years, but others such as Captain America and Daredevil met Darkhawk as well, assisting in fights with Hawk-centric villains like Portal and Savage Steel, as well as The U-Foes and Toad's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (from the pages of "X-Force"! Cha-Ching!). Thankfully though, Chris Powell began to find his own voice and character, the storyline of his Father's corruption and subsequent abandoning his family setting a very moody tone, especially as Powell struggled to care for his younger brothers while also having to be out crime-fighting. Things took a turn for the really dramatic when Tombstone, yet another Spidey villain, ripped the amulet right out of Darkhawk's chest, freezing him in the android body as he slowly bled to death!
"Darkhawk #11", January 1992 "Heart of The Hawk", as this new direction was called, was the biggest storyline in the Darkhawk mythos. As Chris Powell was frozen inside (so he thought at the time) his Darkhawk armor, he obviously couldn't attend to his family responsibilities, namely the safety of his brothers who were always, it seemed, targets of the Mafia. The most successful chapter of this period was Darkhawk's encounter with Venom, Marvel's Cash Cow at the time, who was still hanging-out on a South Pacific Island, thinking he had killed Spider-Man. Darkhawk had escaped Tombstone's clutches, only to run into Venom, who proudly gloated about murdering Hawk's buddy Spidey. Enraged about that bit of info and literally fighting for his life, Darkhawk lunged at Venom with his razor-sharp wings extended, forcing him to play dead so Darkhawk would go away. What this caused though, was for Powell to feel even MORE distraut that he himself became a murderer, "No better than his back-stabbing Dad", he thought.
"Darkhawk #13", March 1992 
Venom Fakes His DeathFollowing "Heart of The Hawk" (he got the amulet back), Darkhawk became both a New Warrior and a very brief member of The West Coast Avengers, Marvel apparently struggling with what exactly to do with the character. He had begun to discover his origins, but Darkhawk was losing steam in a hurry. Having tie-ins with both the "Infinity War" and "Infinity Crusade" cross-overs didn't help much, and so Marvel pulled their "One Last Shot" move that was very typical for the 90's: The costume-overhaul. Daredevil got his wacky grey-and-red armor, everyone had leather jackets and those weird Gambit-masks on that Jim Lee blessed us with. Not one to be left in the cold, Darkhawk was given a new, streamlined update along his path to figuring out just where the hell the amulet came from. It turns out, the Darkhawk armor wasn't armor at all, but an android that had been laying dormant in an alien spacecraft within a dimension called Null Space. When Chris activated the amulet, his body switched places with the android while his conciousness transferred between bodies. The new costume/armor debuted when Powell finds a second amulet, thus trading with a different android body.
Darkhawk's Second Armor While this change briefly shot some interest back into the book, it just as quickly left. Darkhawk became like so many other vicitms of the 90's, in that a character with so much potential in his beginings faded into obscurity with barely a whimper and a pair of shoulder-pads. Making it to a longer-than-average issue #50, "Darkhawk" as an ongoing comic book series was shot-down, most likely putting it out of it's misery. Why most likely? Because nobody, not even me, was reading the book when it was finally put to bed. However, the fact that it made it fifty issues could be a testament to someone's possible fondness for Darkhawk, most likely his creator, Tom DeFalco. Tom is known for being passionate about his creations, most recently being Spider-Girl and her title's constant battles with cancellation, a battle the book finally lost after a ten-year-long struggle. I imagine the man behind both characters felt the same way in 1995 about Darkhawk that he does now about "Mayday" Parker in 2009; like a proud Father, wishing the best for his children in one of the most shallow and competitive industries in entertainment. But in 1995, when his employers at Marvel were sweating over whether-or-not they'd still be in business the next day, books like "Darkhawk" were the first to be culled in the wake of Image Comics' rise to dominance.
Today, Darkhawk lives-on as part of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's ongoing Space Saga within Marvel's rejuvenated cosmic-themed books, most notably taking central stage as the assassin of Empress Lilandra (he was being mind-controlled). Before that, Chris Powell saw his cult-status rise as co-star of C.B. Cebulski's "The Loners", a group of Superhero self-helpers that debuted in the pages of the hit book, "The Runaways" by Brian K. Vaughn. So while the 90's may have crashed-down upon Darkhawk's head, at least his worth was recognized by a select few of the industry's best and brightest, a sure sign that my love of the character was and is validated, that I'm not alone. Comics still remain my main area of expertise, something I'll take to my grave as being a close second to the women in my life as my true love, and a greatly gigantic part of that is all in thanks to this guy...
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