Darkhawk #2

Darkhawk #2

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Kyle Higgins

Illustrated by Juanan Ramírez

Coloured by Erick Arciniega

Lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham

Connor Young: star point guard, recently diagnosed with MS and the new armored hero, DARKHAWK! But why was he chosen? Was it destiny? Fate? A cosmic coincidence? And what does it mean for his path forward? He’ll need to figure that out soon, before he has a run in with a certain web-slinger…

Part of me misses Chris because he was the original and I have a long history with him and yet the other part of me thinks what Kyle is doing is pretty groundbreaking. This is one of those great examples where the real world becomes more and more a part of the superhero world. Not all heroes are perfect, physically and mentally or emotionally and that we’re seeing this creep in more and more makes the whole idea that anyone can be a hero even more of a reality. I think one of the most powerful moments in this issue is seeing how the treatment is as painful if not more so than the disease itself at this stage and it really manages to hit you in the feels in a massive way.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job bringing their personalities out. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we’re unexpectedly drawn into this emotionally.

I am enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how we see the layers continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. How these layers open up new avenues to be explored and whether or not they are essential to the main arc is not really relevant because they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. There is a huge revelation that happens within this issue and a nice guest appearance here and it cements this in the Marvel Universe nicely. The way everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how we see it move the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are extremely nice to see. The linework we see is incredible and how the varying weights and techniques that we see being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work that we see is phenomenal. I am such a fan of the way that we see backgrounds being utilised throughout the book because they really do wonders expanding and enhancing the moments. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a really great eye for how colour works.

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The duelling desires I have with who Darkhawk is aside, this really has so much untapped potential given the characters we are meeting and how we see personal conflict at its onset gives the book new directions to grow and evolve. There is also this freshness that comes with this book and it gives me hope that one day we’ll see an ongoing series. This has some absolutely spectacular writing and intense characterisation with these really phenomenal interiors that just make me want to see more.