Blackhawk (comics)

Blackhawk is a long-running comic book series published first by Quality and later by National Periodical Publications (which became DC Comics). The series was created by Will Eisner, Chuck Cuidera and Bob Powell, but the artist most associated with the Blackhawks is Reed Crandall.

The series' protagonists, the Blackhawks, are a small team of World War II-era ace pilots of varied nationalities:

• Blackhawk himself is their leader, variously shown to be Polish and/or born in the United States.
• Andre is French.
• Olaf is from Sweden.
• Chuck is a Texas-born American.
• Hendrickson is a Dutchman.
• Stanislau is Polish.
• Chop-Chop (Wu Cheng), by far the most controversial of the lot, is Chinese.

Chop-Chop is both the youngest member of the team and the most stereotypical of them all. His initial portrait, while perhaps not atypical of World War II-era perception, would now be considered offensive. The character has however been developed in a more respectful way since, and some fine stories have actually been written around the fact that for decades he was not given enough respect even to wear the same uniform that all his teammates wore. After the series Crisis on Infinite Earths, when many of DC Comics' properties were revamped, the old depiction of Chop-Chop was explained away as a depiction in a comic book featuring the team's adventures which Chop-Chop, now a more realistically drawn man in a standard uniform, found profoundly insulting.

Supporting cast included Zinda Blake a.k.a. Lady Blackhawk, who has been time-displaced due to Zero Hour and became a regular character on Guy Gardner comics. As of late 2004 she was the pilot (and supporting character) of the Birds of Prey since they left Gotham City.

Publication history

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 a long while. 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 up until #107 in 1956. Quality itself had folded by then, but the title kept being published by DC Comics, with little or no disruption at all. It 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 continuous adventuring up to present days. A short run from #244 to #250 was published in the 1970s, but since then nearly all Blackhawk sightings (few and far between) are of a flashback nature or feature new characters instead of the original team. A notable exception 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.

Other media

• Blackhawk: Fearless Champion of Freedom was a 1952 film serial based on the comic book, starring Kirk Alyn as Blackhawk.
• 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.

External links

• The Unofficial Blackhawk comics website (http://ourworlds.topcities.com/blackhawk/index.html)
• Toonopedia: Blackhawk (http://www.toonopedia.com/blakhawk.htm)
• DC Cosmic Teams: The Blackhawks (http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/cosmic/index.html)
• Panel that discusses Blackhawk's creation (pt 1) (http://www.povonline.com/cols/COL305.htm)
• Panel that discusses Blackhawk's creation (pt 2) (http://www.povonline.com/cols/COL306.htm)
• Satirical yet informative page on the Blackhawks (http://www.geocities.com/cheeksilver/blackhawk1.htm)
• A tongue-in-cheek review of the short-lived period of "Blackhawks as superheroes" (http://www.geocities.com/cheeksilver/blackhawk2.htm) (pt 1/4)
• A tongue-in-cheek review of the short-lived period of "Blackhawks as superheroes" (http://www.geocities.com/cheeksilver/blackhawk3.htm) (pt 2/4)
• A tongue-in-cheek review of the short-lived period of "Blackhawks as superheroes" (http://www.geocities.com/cheeksilver/blackhawk4.htm) (pt 3/4)
• A tongue-in-cheek review of the short-lived period of "Blackhawks as superheroes" (http://www.geocities.com/cheeksilver/blackhawk5.htm) (pt 4/4)