War of Kings: Darkhawk #2 came out today–and of course I devoured it! I am going to try to keep this short and sweet and keep my enthusiasm down enough to actually create a “unbiased” review (if that is possible). The premise is pretty simple: Darkhawk is confronted by a new Darkhawk called Talon who is part of a Fraternity of Raptors who basically manage the balanced expansion of galactic cultures. Ya, kinda upper-brow and conceptual at this point–what is important is that there is something great and grand that Chris-Darkhawk gets called on to face and leave everything he knows and loves behind.

In this issue Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning come onboard to co-write with C.B. Cebulski. I felt it was a little heavy handed with the anger management situation that Chris Powell is dealing with and why it’s there in the first place. I enjoyed this story mechanic when it was more subdued. We discover in this issue that the anger is tied to content stored inside the armor that Chris is rejecting. It was therefore a full comic of Chris coming to this realization. There’s a bit of character closure between him and his support group friends in The Loners, his “long term girlfriend” Micky (Turbo), and his hospitalized mother and two brothers. From here on, it seems helmet head is heading to space with his new mentor Talon with a whole new destiny ahead of him.

With all my positiveness about this series in general, as well as the anticipation for War of Kings: Ascension mini-series that will also feature Darkhawk and Talon, I do have more concerns or complaints. The highest concern was with the art by Harvey Tolibao. I just had NO clue what was happening during the fight scene early in the issue with some tracker droid hunter thing. It was just fields of color. Finally as an uber-fan I have to wonder about what happened to some of Darkhawk’s previous continuity: There is mention that Talon and Darkhawk are the last surviving members of this mellenia-old fraternity–so I wonder, huh, what happened to Null Space and the creation of the five Darkhawk suits by intergalactic crime lord Dargin Bokk, otherwise known as Evilhawk? Or what about the Darkhawk that was killed in self-defense by Charles Little Sky, otherwise known as Portal, the guy who now wears his armor? There was a reference to “Null” as an expression of concern by Talon, so it’s not completely forgotten about… and the two Darkhawks–er–Raptors are heading to The Negative Zone which almost sounds like it could be the same place…

Frig… I never kept this review short–I knew this was going to happen. Conclusion: Pick up the book, support Darkhawk’s return to the main stage of the Marvel Universe. He deserves another chance is all I’m saying! I’m thinking I need to read an Abnett and Lanning take on this whole thing before making up my mind about the new direction.