Just to start of, I’d like to say that the below is not an ABSOLUTE timeline! There is no way to document an actual timeline in most commercial comics from entire “universes” like Marvel’s and DC’s.

Continuity issues will always exist especially in cases like Darkhawk who appeared in the pages of other comics during his run in the early 1990s: The New Warriors, West Coast Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Secret Defenders, Sleepwalker to name the prominent ones. These other titles had their own agendas and didn’t always take into consideration Darkhawk’s personal dilemmas, life-threatening quests of self-discovery and painful tribulations.

During a self-proclaimed journey to achieve “uber-fanboy guru” status with all things Darkhawk, I took it upon myself to read every issue of Darkhawk again, and every appearance as well, and track as best as possible, a theoretical timeline of all events directly tied to Darkhawk’s growth as an individual. My purpose for this is to come to a conclusion about what age Chris Powell would–again, theoretically–be when he appears in Nova #17 as the Chief of Security of P.E.G.A.S.U.S., a program and facility put into place as a defense platform for alien threats.

The way I determined certain dates are based on character references to “yesterday”, “last week”, “Sunday”, “three months ago”, etc that come up as a designator of time. Any time it said “evening”, “morning”, night” or showed a time on a watch or clock in a panel, I would designate a section of the actual day as well. Months came into the picture a little more clearly when Darkhawk appeared in Sleepwalker #17 when his radio star “boss” mentioned it “being summer”. During the origin story issues of Darkhawk (#21-#25), there was a side plot that had him dealing with possible suspension from school. This was the first major continuity glitch I had to work out the best way I could by padding with enormous time gaps.

For the most part, all these events make a certain kind of linear sense and I present it here for the uber-geeks out there with any interest to ponder how immensely complicated a teenage superhero’s life can get. How do they find the time for girlfriends, family, school and other “life” responsibilities? Well, in Darkhawk’s case, as can be seen, it’s very well near impossible… and that has ramifications that define his life and his personality–that makes him different and special to me. He is a hero with a constant stream of flaws and hindrances in his human life, but he doesn’t stop reaching for what he wants to believe is the RIGHT thing regardless of how his life is affected.

Update, Post War of Kings: It was mentioned that most of Darkhawk’s past might have been, or most absolutely was, made up in his head due to his human psyche battling for control of the alien Raptor armor. This kinda sucks–at least to me. At the same time, it can actually “fix” plenty of hockey stuff and continuity glitches. Am I going to retroactively fix the timeline accordingly? Hell no. For the time being this timeline exists as if every experience Chris Powell had was one legitimately tied to real time.

This is a project spawned in the irrationally driven obsessive determination to explore a curiosity. Enjoy!

TIMELINE

The follwoing timeline for all Darkhawk’s appearances are broken down into Year-Season chunks. This allows the timeline to be easier to read online without crampy anyone’s scrolling finger. If any of you know of a Darkhawk appearance not accounted for, I’ll be more than happy to hunt down said issue, read it, and include it into the Timeline collection.

  1. Year Zero – Pre-Darkhawk: This part includes events that take place in Darkhawk #1 as well as a flashback scene from Darkhawk #7. This also includes the first appearance of Charles Little Sky in an issue of Avengers.
  2. Year One – Spring: This part includes events that take place in Darkhawk #2 to Darkhawk #16. It also includes the following appearances: Darkhawk Annual #1 (Multiple Shorts), Round Robin: Sidekick’s Revenge 6-Part Story Arc in Amazing Spider-Man #353 to #358, and New Warriors #14.
  3. Year One – Summer: This part includes events that take place in Darkhawk #17 to Darkhawk #20. It also includes the following appearances: Nothing But The Truth 4-Part Story Arc in New Warriors #22 to #25, Darkhawk Annual #1 (Multiple Shorts), West Coast Avengers Annual #7, Iron Man Annual #13, and Sleepwalker #17.
  4. Year One – Winter: This part includes the following appearances: New Warriors 4-Part “Darkling” Story Arc #32 to #34, Darkhawk Annual #3, “Who’s That Knocking on My Door” and Secret Defenders Re-Launch #1 to #3.
  5. Year Two – Spring: This part includes events that take place in Darkhawk #21 to #50, the final issue. It also includes the following appearances: Avengers West Coast 3-Part Dominicus Story Arc #93 to #95, Darkhawk Annual #2 (Multiple Shorts), Darkhawk Annual #3 (Multiple Shorts), and Spider-Man: Friends & Enemies #1 to #4.
  6. Year Two – Winter: This part includes the following appearances: Darkhawk Annual #3,“Down These Mean Streets”.