Darkling #1

Darkling #1 (January 2024), by Sarah Kuhn and Carolla Borelli (Archie Comics)

This one-shot stars one of the more obscure members of the Archie/MLJ/Red Circle superheroic pantheon, who made her debut in the third issue of the 1983 Mighty Crusaders revival. A seemingly supernatural heroine with the ability to teleport herself and others, Darkling made only a handful of appearances before being abruptly excised from the title and never again referred to until the 2010s ‘New/Mighty Crusaders’, where the children and protégés of the originals were joined by a teenage Darkling, cast much more in the mode of the Teen Titans’ Raven.

Not every hero + sidekick meet-cute goes smoothly at first…

Written by Sarah Kuhn, and illustrated by Carolla Borelli, this story takes us back a couple of years before teen-Darkling’s debut, when she’s a student at Ivy Hollow University, a school for the supernatural, seeking a way to rid herself of the shadow cloak that has been attached to her since birth, and which she regards as a curse, despite it giving her those handy teleportation abilities.

Even among a student body devoted to the dark arts, Darla Lang is an outcast, shunned by the other girls as a ‘weirdo’—except for another self-styled ‘weirdo’, podcaster Phoebe Hayashi. She seeks Darla’s aid in investigating the disappearance of some of their fellow-students—the scholarship girls and others who just don’t fit in. Folks just like them. Okay, so far, so Buffy; but what we get is a snappy, lively origin tale, with appealing characters and a nice easy sequel hook, as Darla and Phoebe buddy up for future adventures—with Phoebe having handily coined the term that’s going to become Darla’s nom de guerre.

Darkling as we first met her, back in ’83

What we don’t get, to my mild concern, is:

—a) Any acknowledgment that Darkling was originally created by Rich Buckler, one of the driving forces behind the Crusaders’ 1980s revival, as a creator-owned character;

b) Any mention of the fact that Darkling was unceremoniously erased from the Crusaders continuity after an editorial shift, when Buckler attempted to exercise some control over the use of his character; or

c) Any indication that Archie Comics has obtained the consent of Buckler’s heirs or estate to use the character.

Which is a bit disappointing, as this iteration of Darkling is pleasingly presented, and further similar adventures would be welcomed—provided those nagging queries about intellectual property rights could be made less… shadowy.