Darkhawk

I ran the proposal [past] Gruenwald and later submitted anonymously to Marvel's creative panel…who approved it I wanted to write it myself, but I just couldn't find the time… Besides Danny Fingeroth did a much better job than I could have and I still have forgiven him for that affront.

After his own series ended, Darkhawk co-starred or cameoed in other titles over the following years, such as New Warriors, Avengers/JLA, and Iron Man, eventually resurfacing in Runaways (vol.

While witnessing his policeman father accept a bribe from a crime boss at an abandoned amusement park, teenager Chris Powell discovered a mysterious amulet.

[17] Darkhawk battled the cyborg Midnight, Thunderball, and the Secret Empire alongside Spider-Man, the Punisher, Night Thrasher, Nova, and Moon Knight.

[23] The Darkhawk body was then transformed into a new shape when it accidentally downloaded data from the ship,[24] later re-emerging so that Powell could change back and forth between the two without teleporting to Null Space.

Members of this group included Phil Urich (a former Green Goblin), Turbo from the New Warriors, Lightspeed from Power Pack, and Ricochet from the Slingers.

The group was hired by a mysterious benefactor – later revealed to be former Avengers sidekick and Captain Marvel and Hulk partner Rick Jones – to track down the Runaways in Los Angeles.

[27] Powell decided to never turn into Darkhawk again, but this decision did not last long, as shortly thereafter the group battled the notorious Avengers villain, Ultron.

[28] Excelsior eventually change their minds about being superheroes and instead become a 'superhero support group' due to the events of the superhuman Civil War rendering moot their original purpose to dissuade and/or help young superheroes cope with their powers/superhuman identities, as this role was now being officially fulfilled by the U.S. government[29] (though Excelsior's new group mission was also fulfilled by the U.S. government).

However, a new addition to the group, Mattie Franklin convinces Powell to use his powers to help her take down the MGH dealers that moved to Los Angeles.

The new Darkhawk introduces himself as Talon and claims to be part of the Fraternity of Raptors, an order created as "the curators of history, and the custodians of the future," of which he and Powell are the last two members.

Meanwhile, in the Negative Zone, Talon and Razor offer Blastaar the Cosmic Control Rod, in exchange for his assistance influencing the outcome of the War of Kings.

His old friend Nova, not willing to believe Powell could be a murderer, tracks him to the planet Shard, which is in danger of falling into a rift in space known as the Fault.

[40] Darkhawk returns to Earth and Project: Pegasus to help Nova fight the evil Quasar from the Cancerverse on the other side of the Fault.

The evil Quasar damages Darkhawk so badly that his suit shuts down, leaving him alive but unable to accompany Nova as he goes to warn the universe about the threat posed by the Fault.

[volume & issue needed] When Death Locket stumbled into an underground facility, she comes across a room where Christopher Powell's body is alongside the others who have died in battle.

[48] After the events of Avengers Arena as seen during the "Infinity Countdown" storyline, Powell is shown to have joined the New York Police Department and is engaged to a woman named Miranda, with whom he has shared his history as Darkhawk.

He experiences frequent visions of the Tree of Shadows in Null Space despite the Darkhawk amulet being damaged and no longer allowing him to change form.

The group is soon attacked by two members of the Shi'ar Fraternity of Raptors, with one able to take Powell's amulet and use it to change into a heavily damaged Razor.

[51] As Powell dragged himself across the ground, he encountered his other half Razor who revealed to him the origins of the Tree of Shadows, a creation of the Gardner and of the first Raptor who was of primitive Shi'ar/Skrull descent.

After some coaxing from Razor, Powell tapped into his hidden strength and emerged with a new Darkhawk body after fully fusing his mind with the armor.

They had him in a mental simulation where he believed himself to have been separated from Razor, run through and across time and space; seeing past, present and future iterations of himself while in the black hole, only to finally find release in the care of a ship piloted by the Kree, Shi'ar and Skrulls.

[55] Darkhawk's body is a Raptor, a techno-organic construct that possesses enhanced physical abilities, including strength, agility and reflexes, powered by the extraterrestrial amulet embedded in the chest, a seed from the Tree of Shadows in Null Space.

[52] The retractable glider wings under his arms initially only allow him to glide on air currents, but Chris later discovers the ability to outright fly at variable speeds that let him soar from New York to California in a matter of hours.

Chris discovers that now, whenever he changes into Darkhawk and vice versa, the amulet actually completely deconstructs and rebuilds his body from stored data.

[60] The Raptor android body's most prolific abilities exist within a hive mind dubbed "The Datasong," a form of radio-telepathic infonet shared between all Raptors which enables vast clairvoyant and techno-psionic abilities, allowing for the absorption, processing, projection, sharing and manipulation of information and memory that is digitized then broadcast directly between their collective cyberminds as well as the mindscape of organic beings.

[61] Powell often weaponized this function to drive out the normally parasitic android intelligence subverting an amulet hosts mind as the supplicant takes their place within their pod on the Tree of Shadows.

[64] In the mini-series U.S. War Machine, set in an alternate universe, Darkhawk was a psychopathic android, which could only be controlled by running a virtual reality program.

The team defeats Chronok, but at the end of the story, Richards reveals they can't go back to their present, due to time-travel and alternate timelines.

During the various battles with Chronok and his army, Chris did not appear prone to irrational violence or uncontrollable anger while in his Darkhawk form, as he had during Excelsior's encounter with the Runaways.

Darkhawk's second android body. Art by Ron Lim .