The 90’s were a time of dark heroes with metal and claws. Introduced in Darkhawk #1 (1991) by Tom DeFalco and Mike Manley, Chris Powell saw that his father was taking bribes from a mobster. Trying to escape, he found an amulet that gave him a superpowered suit. He defeated the mobsters and took the name Darkhawk. He would fight crime and would team up with other heroes like Spider-man. He would eventually become a long-standing member of the New Warriors. He would later learn that his suit was actually a living entity that he would swap places with. After helping the team for a while, he was given reserve status on the Avengers West Coast.

After upgrading to version 2.0, Chris and Darkhawk would merge and later joined the hero self-help group, the Loners. They were hired to track down the Runaways. A skirmish with Turbo made him admit he had a nervous breakdown and decided not to become Darkhawk again, but this was later overturned with a battle with Ultron. After a while with the group, he would be hire by Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. as security chief where he would help fellow New Warrior, Nova, with an invading Skrull party. An encounter with Talon made Chris learn the truth about being Darkhawk. It was a creation of the Fraternity of Raptors, an evil group which used Chris’ body to assassinate Lilandra of the Shi’Ar. Returning to Earth, he was one of 16 teenage heroes that was captured by Arcade and made fight for their lives. He was one of the first victims, but he was healed by Arcade.

The amulet would become inert, and Chris would begin living a normal life, gaining a fiancé, and becoming a police officer. Finding a pair of corrupt cops, they were slaughtered by the Fraternity of Raptors, but Chris managed to beat the Raptors without his powers. After learning that the Raptors had become even more corrupt, he once again became Darkhawk. He was later captured by Death’s Head and taken to the Raptor home base. He was captured by the Raptor and had the amulet removed, which was given to Nova’s brother. He would be left for dead when the Raptors went to destroy Earth but an encounter with Razor, Darkhawk’s other half, caused the pair to fuse more than ever. He would work with Nova and other cosmic heroes to stop them. He would later encounter the Church of Universal Truth which caused him to become younger again.

Darkhawk is a character that fans have been wanting for a while. Toybiz revealed that they were working on a version before they lost the license but couldn’t figure out how to do the wings. Hasbro would eventually release one as part of the GOTG Vol.2 Titus wave.