While reading a couple blog posts on the DRAW! blog of Mike Manley, co-creator and artist of Darkhawk back in the early 90s. I came across an interesting line he wrote. Manley mentions that at the start of Darkhawk, when he got pitched the idea, he wasn’t overtly excited about it. Mostly it was because of the teen angst element that was also prevalent with Spider-Man. By the time he left at issue #25, the storyline started getting more interstellar and tapping into cosmic roots–I’ll let Mike Manley speak for himself for a sec–

“… the last storyline featuring interstellar weapons manufacturers and aliens was much more to my liking. The suit after all was a weapon. Much like the updating of Batman’s suit crossed with the Guyver.”

War of Kings: Darkhawk

This line is interesting to me because it speaks about something I, personally, thought was a retcon-infused twist on Darkhawk’s evolving continuity. During War of Kings, we got to see Darkhawk discover bits of his past that connected him to a greater intergalactic cause and order with the Fraternity of Raptors. He gained the power to change his armor into alternate modes based on his will and requirements.

Now, I’m not ignoring the whole “Darkhawk 2.0″ armor upgrade with all it’s new powers, including a “stealth mode”. Then there was that flub where Marvel’s editorial decided to revert the character back to his first armor after the Darkhawk series has come to an end. The logical business argument was that Darkhawk’s books were at their strongest during the first half of his run–on a narrative level they, without reason or explanation within the books themselves, threw continuity out the window. Then with Darkhawk’s return in books like Marvel Teamp-Up, Runaways and Loners, the armor design got a little… well… “liberal”. It’s this concept that has me telling the artists I commission for Darkhawk pieces to “not worry about getting the armor exactly right–and if they want to modify it and add stuff, or combine design elements, to go right ahead!”

Furthermore, this caused me to think (and still does I suppose) that the whole current framework of the concept behind Darkhawk’s armor is one of “retroactive continuity” remodeling. It’s a way to just keep momentum of the character going with an “Uuughh… what do you mean? It was always the plan” kinda argument. And you know what? I’m fine with that.

Hearing Mike Manley connect the Darkhawk armor to Guyver–that’s something greater. Not because it was Mike Manley who said it, but because the seeds for the potential of the Darkhawk armor where, in fact, always there–even if just in surface level pondering. It rekindled my own thoughts in a whole new light after seeing the direction of the character in War of Kings.

Knowing that makes Darkhawk still feel like he’s trying to find the footing he was always meant to have in the Marvel Universe. Abnett & Lanning at this point are behind the wheel, and so far so good, right?