This one-shot was a good idea on creator Jim Valentino's part, but I think he just didn't take things far enough in terms of using it as a marketing opportunity for his Shadowhawk ongoing series. This one-shot reprints the Shadowhawk story from the Image Comics 10th anniversary hardcover anthology (which actually came out on the company's 12th anniversary or something like that -- take that Civil War), and Valentino is to be applauded for giving his fans an opportunity to sample that story without shelling out the major bucks for the hardcover. But given the repetitive and flimsy nature of the story and the fact that it's a reprint, even the lower price of $1.99 US seems a bit much to ask. I honestly think that at 99 cents, Valentino would have reached a much wider audience and potentially recruited more new readers.
Eddie Collins is a regular teenager who loves playing basketball with his friends and can't believe he's scored a date with his school's head cheerleader. He gets along with his dad, who runs an electronics repair shop to make ends meet. But there's something about Eddie that's different from other kids, and that's his connection to an ancient helmet connected with an alien power. When he dons the helmet, Eddie is transformed into Shadowhawk, and he does so to protect innocent people from rampaging threats such as the human behemoth known as Slam.
The plot and script for this book is very much in the old-school Marvel vein (though the story's title serves as plenty of evidence of that fact as well). Valentino embraces the traditional super-hero formula here with great passion, though I think the dark origins and design of the property somewhat flies in the fact of that more innocent tone. One of the problems with such a wholeheartedly traditional approach is that it seems pretty predictable. Nothing about the characters really grab the reader, nothing about them or the ideas stand out.
Just as the script is traditional in tone, so is the art (aside from the title character's 1990s design). Valentino's art here strikes me as a cross between the styles of Al (Secret Wars II) Milgrom and Mark (Ultimate Spider-Man) Bagley. The backgrounds, when provided, are full of detail, and the artist instills an undeniable energy in Eddie. The flat, ordinary design for the villain is disappointing, and I found the teenage characters don't boast as youthful a look as they could.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the book was the fact that it seemed so familiar. And I don't just mean the afore-mentioned traditional approach. As I made my way through the issue, I got the impression I'd read something almost identical before, and then it hit me: The Return of Shadowhawk one-shot, released in late 2004. This repeats the parental angst, the exposition/character introduction... everything, making question the necessity of this book as part of the character's story. It really should have been more of a promotional tool, perhaps even reserved as a giveaway. 4/10
