Blackhawk (comics)

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Blackhawk #12 (Autumn, 1946), Quality Comics. Cover art by Al Bryant.
Blackhawk #12 (Autumn, 1946), Quality Comics. Cover art by Al Bryant.

Blackhawk, a long-running comic book series, was also a film serial, a radio series and a novel. The comic book was published first by Quality Comics and later by National Periodical Publications, the primary company of those that evolved to become DC Comics. The series was created by Will Eisner, Chuck Cuidera, and Bob Powell, but the artist most associated with the feature is Reed Crandall. Future Justice League of America artist Dick Dillin succeeded him in the 1950s, continuing on through DC's acquisition of the series.

The Blackhawks are a small team of World War II-era ace pilots of varied nationalities. The original team, who first appeared in Military Comics #1 (August 1941) and last appeared in Blackhawk #273 (November 1984), included:

  • Blackhawk the group’s leader, his actual name was unknown until Blackhawk #242 (Aug.-Sep. 1968) revealed that his name was Bart Hawk, an American of Polish extraction.
  • Andre (last name unknown) is French.
  • Olaf Bjornson is Swedish.
  • Chuck Wilson is a Texas-born American.
  • Hans Hendrickson is a Dutchman.
  • Stanislau (last name unknown) is Polish.
  • Chop-Chop Liu Huang (in the origin story in Blackhawk #203; Mark Evanier named him Wu Cheng in Blackhawk #251 to 273), is Chinese.
  • Zinda Blake (Lady Blackhawk) is American.

Other short-term members were Zeg and Boris (both Russians)and Lt. Theodore Gaynor, USMC (American).

Chop-Chop is both the youngest member of the team and the most stereotypical. His initial portrait, although now considered offensive by many, was not atypical of World War II-era depictions of Asians. The character has been developed in a more respectful way since, and some latter-day stories have referenced the fact that for decades he was not given enough respect even to wear the same uniform as his teammates. After DC Comics' company-wide crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths revamped and streamlined many of DC's properties, Chop-Chop's old depictions were suggested to be those of a comic-book-within-a-comic-book style format that featured the team's adventures, with Chop-Chop playing the role of sidekick. He was subsequently a more realistically drawn character in a standard uniform.

In 1987, comics innovator Howard Chaykin updated the Blackhawks with more adult characters and story in a Prestige Format, three-book limited series. Chaykin’s revised team consisted of:

Other members added to the Blackhawks in the Chaykin inspired series were Grover Baines (American), Quan Chee Keng, a.k.a. "Mairzey" (Malaysian), and Paco Herrera (Mexican).

Chaykin’s version of the Blackhawks was successful enough that DC gave it a place in Action Comics Weekly and then a short-lived series of its own. The Chaykin version of the Blackhawks replaced the original team in DC continuity from that point on, with a few exceptions:

  • 1999's JLA: Year One limited series, by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson, included a cameo appearance by the original Blackhawk team that even showed them putting away the superhero costumes they sported for a short time in the 1960’s.
  • And Zinda Blake (Lady Blackhawk) was time-displaced due to another DC event, Zero Hour, and became a regular character in comics starring the character Guy Gardner. As of 2006 she is the supporting-character pilot for the costumed crimefighters depicted in the series Birds of Prey.

Contents

[edit] Publication history

Blackhawk #230
Blackhawk #230

The Blackhawks debuted in Quality Comics' Military Comics #1 (August 1941) and were published in that title as well as in their own book for years. Military Comics was renamed "Modern Comics" and eventually cancelled with #102 (October 1950), but their self-named book (which debuted in 1944) continued to be published by Quality until #107 in 1956. Quality itself had folded by then, but the title was integrated with the DC Universe and published continuously until #243 (November 1968), by which time its genre had become too anachronistic to compete with the rising superhero books.

Time itself also played a role in the cancellation. The Blackhawks as a concept were heavily tied to World War II, and as the years passed by it became more and more difficult to suspend disbelief about their contemporary adventures. After a disastrous attempt to turn them into superheroes (#230-241), they were restored to their original roots for two issues before the 1968 cancellation. A short 1970s run (#244 to #250) attempted an update, but since then nearly all Blackhawk sightings (few and far between) are of a flashback nature. A well received 1980s series, written by Mark Evanier and illustrated by Dan Spiegle (#251-273), was set in World War II. In the 1980s a mini-series by Howard Chaykin reimagined the WWII team (notably in reinventing the title character as a Pole rather than American), with their adventures continuing in post-war stories in Action Comics Weekly and then their own short-lived ongoing series in the early 1990s.

Since then, only modern hints of the team have appeared, usually with "Blackhawk Express" or the time-displaced Lady Blackhawk. One of the best examples of this is the 1990s appearance of Chop-Chop in a few issues of DC's Hawkworld series, which naturally enough depict him as an aged, resourceful and respectable man, long rid of his racial stereotype trappings. However, other Blackhawk air pilot groups have been shown during present time or alternate future events such as Our Worlds At War and Kingdom Come. It is unknown which connection beyond homage and inspiration, if any, those groups have to the classic Blackhawks. Blackhawk currently is an extension of Checkmate.

Three weeks after 9/11, DC coincidentally reprinted the early pre-Pearl Harbor 1941 issues of Military Comics in The Blackhawk Archives, Vol. 1 (2001) as part of its hardcover DC Archive Editions.

[edit] International Incarnations

The Blackhawk concept and characters proved to be popular on the international market as well as in the United States. Quality licensed the rights to Blackhawk, as well as many of their other characters, to London's Boardman Books which used them in a series of three-color reprints from 1948 to 1954. Boardman also reprinted Blackhawk stories in their Adventure Annual series of hardcover Christmas publications. Many of the British Blackhawk reprints were repackaged by Boardman art director Denis McLoughlin, who created at least one British original Blackhawk story as well as the illustrations for several Blackhawk text stories. After Boardman's contract lapsed, Strato Publications launched a square-bound 68-page Blackhawk series which ran for 36 issues between 1956 and 1958.

[edit] Aircraft

[edit] Trivia

In 1942 Blackhawk was involved in one of the earliest examples of fictional crossovers when Kid Eternity summoned him in his second appearance (Hit Comics #26).

[edit] Other media

Blackhawk shown in the Justice League series
Blackhawk shown in the Justice League series
  • Blackhawk: Fearless Champion of Freedom was a 15-part 1952 film serial based on the comic book, produced by Sam Katzman and starring Kirk Alyn as Blackhawk. Alyn had earlier been the first screen Superman.
  • The Blackhawk radio series was broadcast Wednesdays at 5:30pm on ABC from September to December 1950. Michael Fitzmaurice portrayed Blackhawk.
  • A hard to find Blackhawk novel by John Rotsler was published in 1982, apparently due to hopes for a Blackhawk movie that never materialized.
  • "The Savage Time", the first-season finale of the Justice League animated series featured appearances by many of DC's best-known World War II-era heroes, including the Blackhawks. Blackhawk was voiced by Robert Picardo.
  • "I Am Legion", the third-season premiere of Justice League Unlimited (or the fifth-season premiere of Justice League, depending on how you look at it), featured a now-elderly Chuck, voiced by Seymour Cassel. According to Chuck, he was the only Blackhawk still living, and he was married to Marzey, as the character was in the comic books. It was not revealed how the others died. The episode focused around Lex Luthor, The Key, and Dr. Polaris raiding the decommissioned Blackhawk Island in order to steal the advanced technology the Blackhawks had acquired on various missions and stored there. During a chase through the museum on the island, a statue or mannequin of Lady Blackhawk can be seen.
  • A Blackhawk G.I. Joe action figure was produced in limited edition in the late 1990s. The figure wore the classic black flight uniform from World War Two. Two uniform accessories were produced. The first was Blackhawk's red and green uniform from the mid to late 1960s. The other had a special arctic survival uniform in sky blue.

[edit] Awards

The 1989 series of comics was nominated for the Squiddy Award for New Continuing Series in 1989.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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