written by Jim Valentino, edited by Tim Holtorf
On the next couple of pages, you will see, for the first time anywhere, the ShadowHawk that might have been, had the character been published by Marvel.
What's that, you say? Marvel?! But, ShadowHawk is one of the original characters from Image! And therein, to paraphrase the Bard, lies the story:
Like most fictional characters, ShadowHawk did not spring full blown as a character that first appeared in Youngblood #2. He had a series of flase starts and a period of gestation where he grew, changed, and otherwise evvolved. In fact, as with nearly all characters, ShadowHawk continues to change and evolve, revealing himself to his creator in surprising new wrinkles all the time. But that's another story.
This story is about one particular turn of the the trick, how we got there and why we didn't stay.
And
it all begins with Archie Comics. 
That's
right, we said Archie Comics! In the later days of 1988, an
energetic young man named Scott Fulop attempted a darker,
grittier revival of the Archie/MLJ heroes. Already underway were
revamped versions of the Hangman (keeley Jones) and a Michael
Bair project. Scott wanted my then studio-mate Rob Liefeld to
revive the Shield (as I recall). I asked if I could do something
with the Fox.
The Fox was a third-string Batman-type character that never amounted to much, and deservedly so. My idea was to take Batman and strip him down to the core--what makes him work, what doesn't. It occurred to me that a man of mystery would not drive a souped up power car down the street, hang out with brightly coloured children, or involve himself with similarly dressed "heroes." It occurred to me that if this person's mission was to strike fear in the hearts of criminals, he would strike without warning--he would be a shadow. If you saw him, he was after you. That was the scary part. Worse, he would not allow homicidal maniacs like the Joker or the Penguin to continue inflicting their lunacy upon the innocent. He would stop them. Permanently. This, of course, would not endear him to the police. Therefore, he would have, at best, an adversarial relationship with Commissioner Gordon, instead of a friendly one.
Scott liked the idea, but before we could
set things in motion, the owners of Archie Comics decided to back
away from the gritty direction and the Fox got filed. The Archie
Heroes went to DC as the Impact line, 
and
I went on to send several proposals to Marvel for a new series:
One was a polished off version of the Fox (this time as a new
Nighthawk), which was rejected; another a new take on the
Guardians of the Galaxy, which I did for 25 plus issues.
During the course of the Guardians series, I decided to change Starhawk's personality radically (mostly because he was one of the group's most popular characters and my personal least favourite!). My idea was to make him dark and evil, bringing out his true nature. To this end, I changed both his costume and his skin colour, and offered the suggestion that we call this new character ShadowHawk (since my first choice for a name, Darkhawk, had recently been taken!). My editor took the idea to Big Kahuna and all-around swell guy, Tom DeFalco, Marvel's editor-in-chief. Tom liked where I was going and dug the name ShadowHawk, but didn't think it was a good idea to change Starhawk's name! Tom suggested I create a whole new character called ShadowHawk.
And then Image happened.
I was almost self-consciously aware of
the fact that I was the only original member never to crack 500,000
(let alone the million barrier, like most of the group had!). 
Plus, I was pretty anxious about my
ability to hold up my end (thanks to buds Rob and Todd for their
encouragement).
I thought about dusting off the Fox proposal and calling him ShadowHawk, but at the time, Todd was touting Spawn as Image's Batman and I didn't want to infringe on his turf.
So, with these two things in mind, I worked up two brand new proposals for Image ("I, Mutant" later called "Klone," and "The Pact"), and I approached Mark Texiera about working with me on ShadowHawk for Marvel.
Why?
I believed that with the ever growing popularity of Guardians, with my increased visibility as a member of Image, and with Mark's fan favourite status as the artist on Ghost Rider, I would have my million selling book. I would therefore be on par with the other guys, more or less. Mark thought I was nuts to a: offer this concept to him and b: to give it to Marvel; but he agreed to join me. He did the character sketches, I wrote up a proposal and we dropped it off on a Marvel editor's desk.
Where it sat.
In the meantime, Image was building up steam and I wasn't really happy with the direction The Pact (the concept I had decided to do) was taking me. I phoned Mark and told him I was taking ShadowHawk to Image. Since he was under contract and couldn't go, he did the gracious thing and gave me his blessing.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
ShadowHawk went on to be the sleeper hit of 1992, and has seen three different versions and a cross over with Vampirella.