Storm Hawks


Storm Hawks is a Canadian-American animated television series created by Asaph A. Fipke and was produced by Nerd Corps Entertainment. It premiered on YTV in Canada on September 8, 2007 and on Cartoon Network in the United States on May 25, 2007.

Plot

Storm Hawks is set on a fictional world called Atmos, a largely mountainous world consisting of scattered, towering, plateau-like land masses known as terras. Directly below the terras lie the Wastelands, the most dangerous area of Atmos, with infernal fires and wicked creatures. Because of the geography, travel is mostly dependent on flight. The technology of Atmos is based around energy-generating crystals, used to power the various devices in the series. Patrolling the skies of Atmos are the Squadrons, groups of warriors who pilot motorcycle-like vehicles called Skimmers that can semi-transform into flying machines. Each Squadron is led by a Sky Knight and these warriors are loosely managed by the Sky Knight Council.
In the backstory of the series, an evil ruler named Master Cyclonis and her servants, the Cyclonians, threatened Atmos. The original Storm Hawks led the Squadrons in a war against them, but were betrayed and defeated by one of their own. Ten years later, the main characters of the series stumble upon the wreckage of the Storm Hawks' carrier, the Condor, and unofficially take on the Storm Hawks name in the hopes of becoming Sky Knights themselves, despite not being old enough to even legally fly the vehicle. Their youth defeats their ambition, however, as neither friend nor foe take them seriously because of it.
This changes when they are brought into conflict with a new Master Cyclonis, granddaughter of the previous one. Among her followers are the Dark Ace, the man who betrayed the original Storm Hawks and now serves Cyclonis as her right-hand man; Snipe, a mace-wielding strong man with a fondness for smashing things; and Snipe's sister, Ravess, an archer who always brings violin-playing henchmen into battle for theme music.

Characters

Main

The Storm Hawks squadron consists of six members:

Reception

gave the series three out of five stars, stating "Tweens -- especially thrill-seeking boys -- are sure to enjoy the Storm Hawks' high-flying adventures, and parents can rest assured that, aside from the prevalence of typical cartoon peril that never seems to cause lasting injury, there's not much to be concerned about. That said, there aren't too many overwhelmingly positive messages or strong role models. But on the whole, it's a cartoon vacation for the brain that kids and tweens will welcome and parents shouldn't fret over."
In another review by Jeffrey Harris of IGN, Harris states that "For an animated kids show, Storm Hawks is OK. However, it's somewhat difficult to get wrapped in the story since it plays for laughs and cheap, dumb comedy. The stakes of the story never really feel serious or all important. When you look at other animated action/adventure cartoons such as Avatar: The Last Airbender today, which contains superior storytelling, it's harder to get into a story such as Storm Hawks. There's nothing particularly interesting or cool about any of the characters. Aerrow seems to desire recognition and respect over helping people. Stork is a bit of a cowardly lion type, and usually opts to stay out of battle with the other Storm Hawks while he pilots their airbase the condor. Despite that, Stork turns out to be one of the more genuine, funny, and interesting characters, at least an extreme opposite to the rather plucky and flat personalities of the other Storm Hawks."

In other media

Comic books

In May 2009 DMF Comics and Beach Creative Studios were reported to be working on a comic book series for Storm Hawks. At the March Toronto Anime Con 2009, 50 "ashcan" copies of a special issue #1 were distributed. It featured one story, a short story, and a few pin-ups by various artists.
In July 2009 the book was made available to dealers for September release.
Only Issue #1 was published.
A mini Storm Hawks comic book entitled "Storm Hawks: The Escape" is included free with the region 2 release of the Storm Hawks Season 1 Volume 1 DVD.

''SkyRace'' video game

A MMORPG called Storm Hawks: Skyrace was developed by Bitcasters utilizing BigWorld Technology, a middleware game engine. On November 7, 2008, the RPG was announced to be in beta. However, by August 5, 2011, the game was taken down and is no longer available to play.
The game was available to play for a time on the Nerd Corps website, but that site no longer exists. Nerd Corps was bought out by DHX Media in 2014 and the name "Nerd Corps" was completely phased out of use by 2016.

Beta

The game was launched for beta testing in Australia on December 16, 2008, but was only available for Australians. It was available on the official website of Storm Hawks on YTV but the site no longer exists.