Issue(s): Darkhawk annual #2
Cover Date: 1993
Title: "Dreamkiller / Force of evil / Taking a stand / Savage is the night"
Credits:
Danny Fingeroth - Writer
Aaron Lopresti / Don Cameron / Larry Alexander / Scott Kolins - Penciler
Andy Mushynsky & Don Hudson / Don Cameron & Steven Mitchell / Ian Akin / Tim Dzon - Inker
John Lewandowski - Assistant Editor
Nel Yomtov - Editor

Review/plot:
Our obligatory new character is Dreamkiller.

I don't know, he's kind of like a Jim Starlin design gone horribly wrong.

For his story, we have to remember that crime boss Phillippe Bazin, currently presumed dead, had acquired a mystic artifact, as we saw in Darkhawk #21-25. That artifact is now in the possession of an Alex Tennyson. Tennyson uses it to summon and control the Dreamkiller. He sends him after a Craig Blenholt, but then opts to not kill him when he's seen by a kid named Adam that will turn out to be Alex's son.

Meanwhile, Phillippe's daughter Allegra gives Chris (Darkhawk) a call, inviting him over. Chris leaves his mother and younger brothers, living in a shabby motel, with little explanation, furthering the rift between them. When he gets to Allegra's mansion, he learns that she wants his help because someone creepy has been calling her, offering to sell back the artifact and buy others (and she also wants to put the moves on Chris). But Chris sees Dreamkiller on TV, wearing the amulet, and leaves to fight him as Darkhawk.

Darkhawk isn't able to make much headway against Dreamkiller, and then Dreamkiller decides that he's gotten the rage out of his system, so Tennyson de-activates the amulet and Dreamkiller fades away.

We learn that Tennyson was an occult shop clerk that was obsessed with the likes of Dr. Strange and Baron Mordo. His obsession lead to abuse of his wife, and he left her. She divorced him and married Blenholt.

Chris learns from Allegra that Tennyson works at the occult shop, so he stalks the place waiting for him to show up. He tries to stop Tennyson before he summons Dreamkiller, but no such luck. He still figures out Tennyson himself is still vulnerable, and that might have worked if the police didn't show up to blast the place with tear gas, allowing Dreamkiller to grab Tennyson and flee. And... that's it. Dreamkiller will appear again in next year's annual.

Our first back-up shows Evilhawk trying to escape from his prison on the sentient ship, Ocsh.

Ocsh overloads his own power systems, killing Evilhawk's life support, but he's not sure if he'll be able to remain diligent forever.

The next back-up shows Chris taking his brothers out to a baseball game. Actually, Chris is working as a concession vendor to help raise money for the family. Chris' brothers have been really down on him lately, so these are good moves to improve his standing with them. He does have to take some guff from some very violent and persistent bullies sociopaths, though.

Getting into a "fight" with these "customers" gets Chris fired.

The final story features Savage Steel and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I think the Savage Steels collectively have to have managed to achieve some kind of record about having appeared the most in a character's book without interacting with the character.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place after Darkhawk #29. The MCP assures me that the Savage Steel portion also takes place after the back-ups in Darkhawk #26-29, and i'll believe them because the alternative is trying to read all that myself.

References:

• Allegra saved Darkhawk's life in Darkhawk #8.
  
• Darkhawk, as Chris Powell, saved Allegra's life in Darkhawk #21. That story kicked off a related plot about one of Phillippe Bazin's mystic artifacts.
  
• Darkhawk learned to fly in Darkhawk #29.
  
• We saw this occult shop previously in Darkhawk #10.

Crossover: 1993 Annuals

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Just out of curiosity, is it appropriate to post in this comments section about how, if the retcon to Darkhawk's origin that appeared in the War of Kings: Ascension miniseries were ever enforced, then that would mean that both Dargin Bokk and Ocsh had never existed as anything more than hallucinations in Chris Powell's fractured mind? Or should such a comment be made elsewhere?

Don, i mentioned in the Considerations section for Darkhawk #21-25 that characters like Evilhawk and Ocsh will later be retconned as hallucinations but that i'll continue to track them. But it's totally fine for people to bring it up in other entries.

Evilhawk and Ocsh are such vivid hallucinations that even *they* think they're real :)