Well, took twenty years to get to, but it got getting to, and wow–just wow. The long wait seemed worth it when the very opening sequence focuses on 7 alien crystals. In my head I didn’t believe they COULD have been the very same types of crystals Darkhawk encountered with Portal during the Mahari alien fiasco with Evilhawk, etc. etc. during the last 4 issue series-closer for Darkhawk’s ongoing… but yes, yes, these are the very same crystals! Written by Danny Fingeroth, this mini-series set out to engrain another Darkhawk-linked continuity in to the undercurrent of Marvel C-lister resources. I think the undercurrent development attempt by Fingeroth this time around might have been closer to the sewage level.
This 4-part miniseries. with a release date of January 1995. places the crystal scene at par with Darkhawk #47 when the whole series finale was just revving up. That’s the first awkward continuity blip that I can’t imagine having experienced in real time, month to month. The Spider-Man issues would have come back to back with Darkhawk’s final 4 issues as well. The Spider-Man series clearly has to come AFTER the Mahari/Evilhawk events in Queens–and even so, man oh man, Queens, New York residents must just take all these superheroey event stuff in stride, like a rain day when the weather channel promised sun. No amount of continuity molding can clean this strangeness up, so what Darkhawk fans are left with is a mini-series, directly tied to Darkhawk’s idiocy for leaving the crystals in a park, on the surface of grass, and “not having had time to come back to them due to the Mahari events”. That’s the first narrative misstep of many to follow. This truley felt like a miniseries meant FOR DARKHAWK’s SERIES had it not been cancelled. This would have been “Darkhawk, guest-starring Spider-Man, Nova and Speedball” and it would have been paced better and not framed in such stilted, unbelievable, and non-surprising writing and plot development.
Ultimately, I’m not sure Danny Fingeroth is totally to blame. I feel at this time with Marvel, everything was getting flushed down the can due to many reasons, all of which eventually led to Marvel on the verge of bankruptcy. I can see why this series is buried in memory and left to erode in the acid baths of Marvel mid-90s character continuity. With Tom DeFalco, Darkhawk’s main creator, now out of the Editor-in-Chief seat due to executive complications by part 3 of this mini, it just lines up for bad things to come. I just searched Comicvine.com to see if this series had summaries there, and you know what? Not only does it have summaries, they are pretty much in line with what I could share and I don’t even want to spend my time adding more words to such an experience. Read he summaries for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
I will mini-rant just to let out some tension though: The young crystal-powered teens are controlled by the eldest of the 7, a conman, who names the youngsters “The Metahumes”… terrible name that the conman thinks is “genius”. Here’s what I think: Fingeroth and team knew it was crap and were calling attention to how crappy it was. This was in line with the reveal of the Metahumes in costume… outrageously mid-90s costume crap-fest, and the lead villain, once again, draws attention to the fact they are crap. (Alright, not in those words, but the point was taken: That point told me Fingeroth was aware of the crap). Spider-Man releases frustration–repeatedly–on Speedball with fists and kicks to face–Good thing Speedy has that kinetic forcefield up permanently huh!? Wowza… = stupid. Darkhawk acts like he’s to blame, and needs to be responsible about fixing the problem–convenient timing to be RESPONSIBLE ABOUT ALIEN CRYSTALS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN DARKHAWK!… just saying. Man oh man, memories even hurt. Just read the Comicvine reviews, they are very detailed about plot–and lack thereof–with an equal portion of commentary.
I want to point out only a few COOL things, and I’m digging for “good things” here folks! The first was that I liked the idea of these 4 particular characters coming together for a team-up. Here we have different decade attempts at creating the “next Spider-Man” and it goes a step further in the story when Speedball makes a direct comment on the fact, (this is in 1995 by the way) that the three young heroes at one point where even called “The Next Spider-Mans”. That was amusing on a meta level. Second, I like that they showed Darkhawk using a stealth mode and using enhanced vision; this supported the new additional powers of the 2.0 suit and I actually felt, if anything, this series has done the most to support his new direction in cosmic stuff than anything previous, which tended to keep Darkhawk’s suit very grounded at the early street level stuff.
I 100% do not recommend this series. Just be grateful you missed it and move on. The only thing that disappoints me more then the terrible story-telling and plot, is that this is side-by-side with the sped up, quickly resolved, action-confused-crammed Darkhawk finale. It’s like a double-header of terrible executions followed by a curtain call. Again, I truly don’t think creative teams are at fault here (not 100%), I think executive mandates and changes just escalated to a catastrophe and these are examples of that mess.
After these issues, I really can’t wait to re-read Brian K Vaughan’s Runaways and Robert Kirkman’s Marvel Team-Up featuring the League of Losers. Just be thankful, ALL OF YOU, that there is still a Darkhawk out there, in another timeline that is a version of the non-cosmic-centric Darkhawk, which is still at the street-level that many of us still love. Somewhere, in Marvel’s alternate universes, he leads a team who are that world’s last remaining heroes… and that’ll heal the wounds left from Spider-Man: Friends & Enemies.
I’ve updated the Issue Continuity page, the Creative Teams page, and the Comprehensive Timeline (Year Two, Spring) page accordingly. [And fixed a bunch of glaring errors in this blog post that I didn't bother fixing with a 2nd read-over. I was too ready to put this behind me 
, sorry about the previous mess. The rant style post here might not be that much better still, but I'm not even reading it again. Hopefully it gets some ideas and points across enough for though who survive the long read anyways!]
So, you don’t like the cosmic stuff that’s being done with DH right now? I love it. I for one, always thought his origin story was kind of hokey. Loved the powers, the costume and as a kid I really dug the stories, but Abnett and Lanning has made him a viable character in the fabric of the Cosmic Marvel U. I actually love it.
That being said, the Runaways stuff was great too.
No no, don’t get me wrong, I DO love the cosmic angle from Abnett and Lanning! I think doing ANYTHING with Darkhawk to make him relevant in the Mavel Universe again is a good thing. The retconning that happened I’m even ok with. There are some blips, but that’s the way of comics and continuity. Twenty years pass for us and about 4-5 years might pass for the characters in the comics. I even like Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways angle with the Loners followed by C.B. Cebulski. I think all versions build on the same unit and demonstrate Darkhawk’s potential, as a multi-purposable character.
Ok. Then you just prefer him as a street level character? That’s sort of what I got from your second to last paragraph.
I was a huge fan of the character as his own original series was coming out, but when I later reread them, I felt that his origin story was a bit of a let down, so I was happy to see the retcon and the subsequent use of the character in the mainstream Marvel U.
I was not a huge fan of the Cebulski comic (I don’t think writing is his strong suit, he’s a better talent evaluator) but I liked that Darkhawk was being used. I was really let down by Kirkman’s stuff. His love for the characters he was using was obvious, but none of them had a real voice during that League of Losers arc.
Had you seen that Warren Ellis was contemplating relaunching the book as a Max series at one point?
I like the street-level concept because I feel it offers more of a focus to Chris Powell’s control of the suit while mixing up his fragmented family life and keeping him a broken teen (except he’s not really a teen any more) coping with responsibility. Kind of a darker version of Peter Parker, I guess. Chris tries to be like his mentor, but it simply isn’t him, so the act breaks down. I think that psychological storytelling could be interesting.
In space, Darkhawk becomes more about Darkhawk, and about the Raptors now. The Chris component is there, but it’s no longer at the same potential development as the Darkhawk part of the character. I feel the shift in focus might lose the personal component.
I did read Warren Ellis’ comment a few months back. He had just discovered Darkhawk and was loving the idea of a teenager stuck in an android’s body and what it meant to a kid’s psychology. And you know what? THAT is exactly the angle of Darkhawk book I’d like to read! Instead we got the horrendous Darkhawk appearance ins War Machine Max… ugh. Actually the Darkhawk angle in the books was actually kinda wicked… it was the rest of the book that was infinitely embarrassing and I’m not sure how it cleared through Marvel’s production review.
Nice reviews of those appearance issues. I had been considering tracking down all of DH’s appearances after finishing the solo series, but wasn’t sure about the quality of some of those issues. I really hate buying lemons. Thanks for narrowing down the list for me!
Haha! From a “completest” stand-point… you gotta do what you gotta do
. From a “required reading” stand-point… take the words of a review and make a judgement call. I tended to lean towards the “abysmal experience” point of view, with these mostly because as a Darkhawk “completist” I really REALLY saw the potential in the backbone of this story. Written TODAY, with the modern angle of story-telling and some of the great writers working at Marvel right now, this could have rocked as a TWELVE issue series. So far, easily one of my most disappointing experiences with the character.