TITLE: Shadowhawk II Issue #1
YEAR: May 1993
COMPANY: Image Comics
CREATED, WRITTEN and PENCILED BY: Jim Valentino
INKED AND LETTERED BY: Chance Wolf
COLORS BY: Frank Lopez
COLOR SEPARATIONS BY: Rob Schwager, Todd Broeker, Paul Rivera
COMPUTER GRAPHICS: Glenn Kaino & Jon Dixon
ART DIRECTION: Diane Valentino
EDITING: Laura Tavishati
PRODUCTION: Randy Chalenor
Jim Valentino’s “Shadowhawk” came onto the scene with great fanfare.
The story of Paul Johnstone, a troubled child who was taught right from wrong courtesy of his caseworker Paul, who would become his stepfather.
Paul would become a district attorney, tried to help his half brother Hojo who worked in Wall Street but developed a coke and crack addiction. Unfortunately, Hojo’s circle of friends would lead him to being attacked and injected with HIV-infected blood.
News got out of Paul’s infection and no one wanted to work with him and led to an altercation which landed him out of a job and in jail.
Wanting to make a difference and become a hero and exacting justice against criminals, his friend Christina Reid (who was kicked off the police force for using excessive force), would train Paul in how to fight and he would don the suit of armor and become known as Shadowhawk.
Which leads us to the second mini-series, “Shadowhawk II”. Only three issues long, it would focus on Shadowhawk vs. Hawk’s Shadow, a psychotic person who kills people. Unfortunately, he is racist and kills Black people.
And with media reporting how Hawk’s Shadow is a copycat of Shadowhawk doesn’t sit with Paul that well.
Meanwhile, Vendetta has created a group of supervillains to have business owners to submit and pay them a protection fee but also to rob others who do not want their protection.
After news gets out how Hawk’s Shadow murdered a couple (African American man and his wife, a pregnant Caucasian woman) along with murdering the witnesses), both Paul and Christine know they must stop him.
For the most part, I remember reading “Shadowhawk II” and thinking it will be interesting to see this fight between both Shadowhawk vs. Hawk’s Shadow, especially since the racist HS, doesn’t know SH is an African-American.
Where the first series was heavy hitting in showing how Paul Johnstone became a superhero and how he was infected with HIV, this second series takes on racism.
My memories of how cool the die-cut cover was with the silver metallic foil underneath, but in 1993, paying $3.50 for a comic for its special cover was hard for a college student. I was surprised to see in Image Comics comic box that I purchased several, which was no doubt part of the sales gimmick that I bought into in the early ’90s of thinking “this comic will be worth a lot in the future”.
But nevertheless, a cool story and mini-series, that is definitely worth checking out!