I just finished reading the Beyond! trade collecting issues 1-6 of that miniseries. In it a band of supers get brought together and taken to Battleplanet by who is presumed to be the Beyonder. If you want the series ruined for you, read the synopsis of the whole thing on Wikipedia.

I read it because I heard that a mention of Darkhawk is made in the series. That was enough to get me to buy the book over Boxing Week finally, but I have to say, I wasn’t overtly impressed by the series. It is written by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn by Scott Kolins. The art is actually fine–perhaps average expected on a Marvel scale–and the writing was also fine. Just fine.

There were a couple nice dialog deliveries by some of the characters, but in general, even considering the Hank Pym and Wasp development, and the re-introduction of Deathlok to Marvel U, I was just “meh” about it all. And, on top of that poor Darkhawk got no more than a 3/4 page panel and a passing mention (image below). In a story with much potential for serious dangerous or problems, they all seemed resolved in a very unsatisfactory way.

Here’s the Darkhawk reveal grabbed from Wikipedia:

Deathlok manages to overpower Dragon Man, with help from the remaining conscious heroes. Afterwards, Michael reveals that he has been here before, with a group consisting of Captain Marvel, Wonder Man, Darkhawk, Dracula, Terror, Coldblood and Sleepwalker. Michael agreed to stay on the planet so the other heroes could return home.

What’s amusing here is that these are all heroes from the early 90s with their own titles trying to find a lasting foothold in the market. All were canceled and many of these characters continue to have a difficult time finding a permanent place in Marvel story-telling. Many may be wondering how this trip to Battleplanet was never referenced by any of these characters. Well, you can thank brain-wipes for that. When Deathlok agrees to stay behind, the rest return home as if nothing happened.

It’s kinda fun that even though this is a retcon that never actually happened, we still see Darkhawk and Sleepwalker paired up once again. I have to assume this happened after their first teamup in their own titles and obviously before the Kirkman run on Marvel Teampup which created the alternate versions of them in the League of Losers, which also includes Terror on the rouster. Even Gravity, who is featured in this series makes up part of the League of Losers.

All-in-all, do not buy this series for the Darkhawk appearance (that’s what the above image is for!). But if you are even remotely a Gravity fan, buy this series. Beyond! is a story about Gravity more than anything else. I just wish McDuffie pushed this a little more and made it stand out without getting distracting the reader with trivial character squables and plot speed-bumps.