His official Image Comics debut was in the second issue of Youngblood series (June 1992), written and illustrated by Rob Liefeld.
He avoided a life of crime due in part to the encouragement of a man named Richard Woodroe, who was originally assigned as a caseworker to Paul when he was caught stealing, and eventually married his mother, becoming his stepfather.
While his life was going so well, his half brother Hojo had taken his success in college, moved to Wall Street and developed a Coke and crack addiction.
She informed Paul that she and a man named Carlton Sun had been developing an exoskeleton suit of armor that could help aid him in accomplishing this task.
Johnstone decided to don the suit, christening himself "ShadowHawk" after his favorite superhero (a name that would eventually lure out the psychotic and racist villain Hawk's Shadow, who believed he was the one entitled to bear the mantle of ShadowHawk), and was taught how to fight effectively with the help of Christine, promising to "take back the night".
This led to ShadowHawk garnering a reputation as an urban legend as well as being hunted by both criminals and law enforcement alike.
Johnstone would also face various supervillains, including crime-boss Vendetta, her gang the Regulators (Blackjack, Vort-X, Arson, Hardedge and Scandal), the acidic mutant Liquifier, super-powered hitman Dedline and the racist ShadowHawk copycat Hawk's Shadow.
He encounters Trencher and his dispatcher Phoebe; who agrees to assist him in his search for a cure to his infection or another way to extend his life.
This led to encounters[3] with the likes of Youngblood's Chapel (another hero also infected with HIV), Bloodstrike and ShadowHawk team-up with each other in the hopes of finding a cure.
He then teams up with the WildC.A.T.s (who offered a possible solution involving a robotic body to transplant Johnstone's consciousness into – which would ultimately fail to work).
He is then transported into an encounter with Supreme (in which a battle would ensue, leading to the discovery of ShadowHawk's true identity to the world), then encounters Badrock and company in another attempt at changing his body's structure in order to live longer, again leaving in failure, and finally meeting Spawn in his alleyways who, with the help of Trencher and Phoebe, convince him to accept his inevitable death from the virus.
The saga of the robot ShadowHawk was told in a crossover story called "ShadowHunt", which ran through five Image titles in April 1996.
After the robot is destroyed, Eddie Collins, a young high school student, makes his debut as the new ShadowHawk.
Having just moved to New York with his recently widowed father James, an electrician, Eddie was walking down a street when the helmet literally fell into his hands.
[6] Blacklight, a 1960s "hippie hero" wakes up from a 30-year coma and learns his wife Dayglo was killed 10 years ago by a villain called Firepower.
[12] A man-beast named Komodo kills Eddie's best friend, Steven "Skeeve" Evans and defeats ShadowHawk.
The story "Rising" in issue #11 of Jim Valentino's ShadowHawk described Hatfield Sr and his family's final fight against the Hyena and the death of Lady ShadowHawkette.
[19] In Bomb Queen VII: The End of Hope, released from December 2011 to May 2012, after being killed by Rebound 100 years prior, Bomb Queen awakens in a techno-dependent future protected by ShadowHawk, who now inhabits the closest members of the human race to ongoing crimes, regularly switching between bodies.