Shadowhawk II #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeShadowhawk II #3 (August 1993) caps the second of Jim Valentino's three interconnected ShadowHawk miniseries by delivering the debut of The Pact — the superhero team of Blacklight, Cutlass, Slam, and Handgunn — in the bound-in ashcan mini-comic 'A Pact Is Formed,' seeding a 1994 three-issue spinoff series. The issue also marks the first appearance of bounty hunter J.P. Slaughter, a character who would recur across the Shadowline imprint. As part of the broader ShadowHawk arc, the series surrounding this issue carried genuine cultural weight: Valentino's decision to write Paul Johnstone — a straight, Black district attorney — as an HIV-positive superhero was, in 1993, a pointed act of outreach toward an adolescent male readership that popular fiction was otherwise leaving in the dark about the AIDS crisis. The progressive cover gimmick, a perforated fold-out that physically lifted to reveal Paul Johnstone's face beneath the mask, tied the book's formal packaging directly to its theme of unmasking and identity.
In "Like Lambs to the...", Shadowhawk faces a deadly twist when a bounty hunter hired by the police targets the wrong person—Paul's friend Christina—due to faulty intel. With the real Shadowhawk arriving just in time, the hunter initially gains the upper hand, only to be stunned by the hero's unflinching methods, which earn him an unexpected reprieve. Written and illustrated by Jim Valentino, with art by Brad Foster, inks by Chance Wolf, and colors by Frank Lopez, Rob Schwager, and Todd Broeker, this 1993 Image Comics issue features a cover by Jim Valentino and Chance Wolf.
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ShadowHawk was one of the founding creator-owned titles launched by Image Comics in 1992, written and drawn throughout by Jim Valentino, who had previously worked at Marvel. Valentino has said he incorporated the HIV-positive storyline both to motivate his protagonist in a way no prior superhero origin had and to deliver accurate AIDS information to comics' primary demographic — adolescent males — at a moment when, in his words, heterosexuals were 'in complete denial' about the disease. The name 'ShadowHawk' itself reportedly originated as a proposed alias for Marvel's Starhawk, but editor Tom DeFalco encouraged Valentino to reserve it for a new character instead. The ShadowHawk II miniseries ran three issues (May–August 1993) and fed directly into ShadowHawk III, which opened the HIV-confirmation storyline; issue #3's cover was co-drawn by Valentino and Rob Liefeld, with the interior 'Pact' story featuring art by Chris Wozniak, Valentino, and Liefeld.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of The Pact (team of Blacklight, Cutlass, Slam, and Handgunn) in the seven-page ashcan mini-comic 'A Pact Is Formed,' bound into the centerfold; the team went on to headline a three-issue Image miniseries in 1994.
- First appearance of J.P. Slaughter, a bounty hunter hired by the police to capture ShadowHawk, who instead targets Paul Johnstone's friend Christina; Slaughter ultimately releases ShadowHawk after approving of his brutal anti-crime methods.
- Published August 1993 by Image Comics; written and penciled by Jim Valentino, with inks/art contributions from Brad Foster, Chance Wolf, Chris Wozniak, and Rob Liefeld; cover by Valentino and Chance Wolf.
- The cover is perforated along the left edge and designed to fold out, physically revealing Paul Johnstone's face beneath the ShadowHawk mask — a packaging choice that mirrored the series' identity-reveal arc.
- Issue title is 'Like Lambs to the…'; the story follows ShadowHawk's encounter with the bounty hunter Slaughter while his secret identity as Paul Johnstone remains under threat.
- Contains a Shadowhawk Gallery section featuring pin-up art by Keith Giffen, Dave Gibbons, Walter McDaniel, and Frank Lopez.
- The issue bridges ShadowHawk II and the subsequent ShadowHawk III miniseries, which opened with the full confirmation of Paul Johnstone's HIV-positive status — the storyline that Valentino designed to reach adolescent male readers with factual AIDS information at the height of the epidemic.
- ShadowHawk was one of the original seven creator-owned Image Comics launch titles; Valentino's intent was to deconstruct the Batman archetype by asking which elements of that character actually 'worked,' arriving at a spine-breaking vigilante who never kills but permanently incapacitates violent criminals.
Cast · 18 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in ShadowHawk II: The Secret Revealed #[nn] (1993), The Pact #1 (1994)
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