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Darkhawk (Christopher Powell) is a fictional comic book superhero who first appeared in his own self-titled series, Darkhawk #1 (March 1991). He was created by writer and then Marvel editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, and artist Mike Manley.
Christopher Powell was born in Queens, New York. While witnessing his policeman father accept a bribe from a crime boss at an abandoned amusement park, teenager Chris Powell discovered a mysterious amulet. This amulet allowed him to switch places with a powerful android that his mind controlled. Chris vowed to use the amulet as "an edge against crime." In this role, he worked with other superheroes and battled a number of costumed villains.
Originally, Darkhawk's powers included force blasts and flat energy shields projected from the amulet in his chest; a set of three claws on his right arm that extended as a grappling hook (often referred to as a 'claw cable'); retractable gliding wings and enhanced vision, including night and telescopic vision. Darkhawk's face, covered by a helmet, is apparently intensely ugly or terrifying. While never revealed to the reader, nearly every character that has seen Darkhawk's face has been horrified by it. When the android body was damaged, Chris could heal it almost instantly by transforming into his human form, and then back into his android form again. Darkhawk originally glided through the air using his wings, but later gained the power of flight, a power which later carried over to his upgraded form.
Chris discovered that the armor was stored and repaired aboard a starship in a dimension called Null Space. When he used the amulet to access the armor, his human body switched places with the armor. The Darkhawk amulet and armor were one of several commissioned by an alien crimelord named Dargin Bokk. The scientists who created the technology eventually used it to assault Bokk. After Bokk's defeat, the Darkhawk amulet was sent to Earth for safekeeping.
The Darkhawk body has enhanced physical abilities, including strength, agility and reflexes, powered by the extraterrestrial amulet he wears. The retractable glider wings under his arms allow him to glide on air currents, and he can also fly at speeds that let him fly from New York to California in only a matter of hours. Even major injuries to his Darkhawk body can be repaired by switching back to his human form; his Darkhawk body teleports back to its holding space on the Darkhawk ship in Null Space, where it can be repaired almost instantly. As the Darkhawk body is no longer separate from Chris and does not teleport to Null Space when not in use, it is questionable whether it can be repaired as quickly as it once was.
Darkhawk can project energy from the amulet in his chest as a focal point, either as concussive force blasts, or as a circular energy shield; (Chris referred to his force blasts as "darkforce blasts," until he encountered the actual Darkforce Dimension in New Warriors). Darkhawk also has telescopic and infra-red vision, and a grappling hook claw-cable on his right arm shaped like a claw.
In his human form, Chris Powell has no superhuman abilities, though he has taken some karate and kendo classes.
For a time, Darkhawk was upgraded to a new body design, which gave him greatly enhanced powers. His amulet could project force bubbles in various shapes and he could combine his force fields and force blasts into a giant, hawk-shaped construct around his body. He could fire heat beams from his eyes, be healed by generating an energy pod around his body, and had a single extendable claw on each wrist. He could also mentally communicate with the Darkhawk ship, and could teleport weapons from the ship when he was on Earth. At one point, he was outfitted with additional body armor on top of his android body.
In this body, he was separated from Chris Powell, and also retained Chris' memories. The two were later merged into one being in the final issue of the Darkhawk series, so that Chris could turn into Darkhawk on command. The Darkhawk android body no longer existed and the two separate entities became one.
At some point after the cancellation of his own series, Darkhawk reverted to his original form under unrevealed circumstances, although he can still summon his second armored form. No explanation was given about that fact, causing an inconsistency in Darkhawk's continuity. The reason for the change seems to be for recognition. The popularity of Darkhawk's comic waned prior to the costume change, therefore his original outfit is the one associated with the character.
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