Night and Day

Though largely unacknowledged throughout most of his adventuring career, Nighthawk's strength doubled at night yet returned to normal during the day. The back-up story in Marvel Team-Up #101 brought that limitation to the forefront.

While flying above New York just before dawn, Nighthawk needed to let off steam. This was not surprising given that the main story that issue revisited the tragic mistakes of his past (Defenders #32).

With mini-lasers newly added to his costume, Nighthawk fired at the side of a run-down building. Yet in doing so, the self-doubting hero only made matters worse.

Hearing a cry for help, Nighthawk saw that the wall he had damaged was now coming loose—and about to collapse on top of a girl. Nighthawk used his superhuman strength to hold up a wall just long enough for the the girl to crawl to safety—and just as the sun was beginning to rise. Nighthawk felt his strength slipping away as the wall crashed down on him.

But the hero soon emerged from the rubble relatively unharmed. His reinforced wings had shielded him from injury.

The above image of Nighthawk appeared in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Marvel Team-Up. Vol. 1. No. 101. January 1981.

"To Judge a Nighthawk!" J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Jerry Bingham (artist), Mike Esposito (inker), Diana Albers (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist), Denny O'Neil (editor), Jim Shooter (ed-in-chief).

"Don't Let the Sun Come Up on Me!" Mike W. Barr (writer), Steve Ditko (artist), Jean Simek (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist), Denny O'Neil (editor), Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief).