Darkman: The Hangman by Randall Boyll

 

(pb; 1994; sequel to the 1990 movie tie-in novel Darkman. First entry in the book-only Darkman quadrilogy.)

From the back cover

“Darkman: Once Peyton Westlake was a brilliant scientist conducing ground-breaking work with artificial skin─but his life was changed forever when vicious gangsters destroyed his lab and left him horribly burned beyond recognition. At that moment, Peyton Westlake died and re-emerged from the hellish fire as DARKMAN, a creature of the night driven by superhuman rage. Using his artificial skin process and his ability to become anyone for ninety-nine minutes, DARKMAN extracted a deadly revenge on the men who destroyed his life.

“Now, two years later, DARKMAN has rebuilt his lab in an abandoned factory to continue his work. A chance encounter with a young boy leads DARKMAN to a newevil that’s devouring the youth of the city. DARKMAN’s rage grows once again, and he turns it toward a new enemy─an enemy that will soon learn the depth of his fury. . . and feel the bite of his vengeance.”

 

Review

Hangman, more than a rehash of its source movie tie-in novel, is a fast-moving, entertaining and immediately reader-immersive dark-superhero story with mostly relatable characters (the villains are comic book-y, hissable bad guys)─Boyll strikes a perfect balance between action-book character sketching and character fleshing, especially in regards to ten-year-old lead (Danny “Mouse” Frakes). That balance is further maintained with Hangman’s source film/book-true quirky, humorous touches and its eschewing of clichés, and its deftly written, relatively happy ending that is at once familiar and fresh. Excellent B-flick genre read, this, worth owning. Followed by Darkman: The Price of Fear.