Blackhawk

[Kan-Man]

I've been posting and reading here for about a year or so and I think have a pretty good feel what most of the regulars like and dislike.

It dawned on me that I have no idea of what the consenus opinion is of Blackhawk. I know that's an open-ended question since there have been a number of series to consider, but I don't recall this title being brought up too often (of course I could have missed the discussion).

I thought perhaps it would be a candidate for the Showcase series since there were so many issues published.

I was looking over my collection while putting my 12 Days of Christmas list together and I realized I have several issues from the 60s-80s but I haven't read them in years.

Well, there you go. Have at it.

[Cei-U!]

The Golden Age stuff is pretty cool for its time, especially Reed Crandall's art, and the Mark Evanier/Dan Spiegle Blackhawk was a highlight of the '80s. Most of what comes between the two is mindless fun, especially the late '60s 'hawks, where they were lamoid super-heroes with names like The Listener, Dr. Hands and M'sieu Machine (and yes, I'm collecting them!). I've never been able to warm up to Chaykin's grim-n-gritty interpretation of the characters (e.g., Blackhawk as hard-drinking cocksman), which remains the standard at DC today.

Cei-U!
Hawkaaaaa!

[Mike Kuypers]

I started reading Blackhawk during the red-&-green outfits period when they were tackling things like giant robot squids. Mindless fun indeed. Didn't care much for the short-lived super-hero period. And having no prior exposure to the team I was confused when they switched to military uniforms in the final two issues. (All I knew was that I could no longer tell them apart!) But when Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle took their turn I finally "got" the Blackhawks. The team should exist only in the WW2 period.

[prince hal]

I'd generally agree with Kurt. I've only read a few Golden Age Blackhawk stories, so I won't comment on those except to say that any with Crandall art are certainly worth a peek.

When they came over to DC from Quality in the 50s and up to the "Swingin'" 60s, the Blackhawks were a kind of odd hybrid of the Challengers, Doc Savage and the Howling Commandos fighting the usual DC menagerie of purple gorillas, dinosaurs, former Nazis and Schiffian aliens, with an occasional flashback to WW2 tossed in.

If only Dr. Wertham could have done a treatise on these guys, though. Except for Zinda, aka Lady Blackhawk, the guys all hung out together on their secret island in their skintight unis. Except for Blackhawk, the "dad" of this madcap crew, and Chuck, who was American, the Blackhawks' stereotypical personalities were defined by their accents. (If I had a nickel for every time I read a "Py Yiminy," I'd be a rich man.)

Back then, it was never made clear that Blackhawk himself had begun as a Polish pilot flying against the Nazis. That part of the origin was seemingly ignored.

For a while there was a backup feature called "Detached Service Diary" that would feature one of the boys in solo action.

Eventually the notorious "Junk Heap Heroes" saga stripped the Blackhawks of whatever dignity they'd ever had. Only Blackhawk himself escaped being transformed into a super-hero during the camp craze years. As Kurt said, they were the saddest bunch outside of the Terrific Trio. One identity was worse than the next. The Leaper (Was that Olaf or Stan...I never could keep them straight!) wore a Michelin Man outfit; guess it gave him extra bounce. Chop Chop became Dr. Hands, wearing a tux and a pair of gigantic metal gloves. Andre was M'sieu machine, a proto-Magyver; Tan (or Olaf) was the Golden Centurion, whose power I think was to be able to cover his enemies in golden sludge. (Why waste that on your enemies?)

The worst fate was Chuck's, who was relegated to being the guy who monitored the world for danger. Known as The Listener, he got to wear a purple onesie covered with pictures of....wait for it...wa-a-a-it... okay: EARS!

They even got to have an acronymic super-spy organization as their nemesis: G.E.O.R.G.E. Someone else can look up what it stood for. I just remember it was...strained.

After a while, the book reverted to the adventurer phase, but it was too late. By 1968, "DC's Magnificent Seven," as they were sometimes called in ads, were finished. When Dick Giordano came over from Charlton, he was given the last two issues to do; instead of going through the motions, he and Pat Boyette (Can't remeber who wrote these) turned in what were undoubtedly the two best Blackhawk tales since the Golden Age. They brought back the "Black Knights" costumes, and invented a powerful origin and villain in the finale. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. But that was the end.

Evanier's run was excelelnt, marked by a slew of solid covers and great dan Spiegle art. I loved that run. A good mix of nostalgia and modernity, set in WW2, the team's best milieu.

Chaykin's take: Bleeeah!

Hope this helps. Check out those final two issues from '68 whatever you do.

[gatchamandave]

Chaykin's Blackhawk comic is, to me, the most representative example of an unfortunate trend in DC of the late-80's, post - Dark Knight Returns - of taking a perfectly reasonable character, or set of characters, and giving them a " what-if-they-existed-in-the-real-world" twist - losing the point of them in so doing. In an interview at the time - I think it was in The Comic Journal- Chaykin explained that for him the exciting thing about Blackhawk was that " ... he's a Fascist on our side" and to prove it set about trying to turn him into one.

Blackhawk here is a Polish exile continuing the fight against the Nazis - so far, so reasonably in keeping with the established continuity for the character. Alas, Chaykin turns him into yet another variation on Reuben Flagg - over-sexed, cynical, sneaky and a bit mysoginistic. Now, that works fine for American Flagg - still my favourite ever comic book, lest you wonder - but doesn't work quite so well for a mainstay of the Golden and Silver Ages. In fact, Jan Prohaska aka Blackhawk seems to never miss an opportunity to be an arsehole - presumably this is part of Chaykin's agenda to set the man up as a fascist.

Thus the Blackhawks as a team get about six pages in three 48 page volumes and obey his every word implicitly. Every problem gets resolved either by Jan acting alone or in tandem with a proto Lady-Blackhawk whose name I forget, but who is really well stacked and allows Jan to occasionally paw her shirt open, despite her pro-feminist quotes from Stalin and the like - the Blackhawks are pretty much reduced to the Keystone Cops in their own book.


Oh, and one of them gets killed in an off-hand manner. Worse, when another Blackhawk attempts to eulogise their fallen comrade, Jan-the-Dick cuts him short with a snarl about, IIRC, " Cut the shit, let's get out of here ". Not a nice moment.

There is a minimum of flying sequences, and on the evidence this would seem to be because Chaykin isn't confident about drawing them - most of the flying sequences that are depicted take place at night, keeping everything dark, and are very statically framed. Since it's supposed to be an aviation orientated title, and the Blackhawks fly one of the most visually exciting fighters ever made, this is something of a disappointment.

So what do you get ?

Well, typical Chaykin obsessions - sleezy politicans, women in suspenders, pro-Nazi actors, more sussies, whose-got-the-bigger-tadger-conversations, yet more sussie action and cynical musings on the media. Oh, and hot women in suspenders - did I mention that ?

It's not bad, per se, so much as not being terribly good, or fun. If you see it, get it - but don't pay a lot of money for it.

[JeffreyWKramer]

The Golden Age BLACHKAWK is an astoundingly good strip in many ways, and in fact is among my very favorite of all Golden Age comics, but uncomfortably so given the extremely unflattering racial and ethnic stereotypes. BLACKHAWK includes a level of stereotyping that is extreme even for Golden Age books, and while one can excuse the cheesy accents most of the 'Hawks are stuck with, there's no real way a modern reader can help but cringe at Chop-Chop.

The various silver age incarnations range from superfluous but often not bad (most of the pre-superhero stories, the brief '70s revival) to awful (the superhero-era ones - just too painful to endure). Evanier and Spiegel's run is exceptional. I feel mixed about Chakyin's version - it is better than some credit it, yet the criticisms by Kurt and others above aren't incorrect, either. The Chaykin version was used as the launch for a run in ACTION COMICS WEEKLY that spread into its own book for awhile. A more political version than usual, set post-WW II and full of Cold War-era politics, it was not bad at all on its own terms, though certainly different in tone than the classic strip.

Janos himself was also featured in a good story arc in SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE, dealing with the Polish freedom fighter's career right before he got his team off the ground.

BTW, I'll admit to some bias in the decriptions above, in that I'm an unabashed fan of all things BLACKHAWK, save the superhero era. BLACKHAWK is one of those comics concepts for which I have vast affection, and I'll always give a BLACKHAWK appearance or revival a try.

[MilkManX]

I have only read the HC Blackhawk. I didnt care for it too much. I did however love the Blackhawks appearance in Justice League(Bruce Timm animated version) TV Series. I think they were based on the GA versions.

[Scott Shaw!]

Many of my cartoonist friends who are a generation older than myself (I'm 55) have told me that, when they were in their early teens, that BLACKHAWK was the "coolest comic" being published at the time (middle-to-late 1940s), one that they weren't even worried about being caught reading by their "normal" friends. For example, BLACKHAWK (a translated version) was the very favorite comic book of the young Sergio Aragonés; he's mentioned this often to me.

And although I really love the goofy Silver Age BLACKHAWK, with all of its nutty cover-concepts, I think that Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle's version is the finest version of BLACKHAWK ever published, although a lot can be said for Reed Crandall's earlier incarnation as well.

And I think that the "War Wheel" is one of the coolest comic book gizmos ever! (BLACKHAWK's "Flying Buzz Saw" and "Flying Tanks" were also in this vein.)

Aloha,

Scott!

P.S.: Ever see Hunt Emerson's THUNDERDOGS? It's a funny, surrealistic look at BLACKHAWK, although not quite as good as the Kurtzman/Wood version in the original MAD comics. -- SS!

[Kan-Man]

Thanks to all who have replied.

Upon further review, I have 3 issues from the 60s including the one that started their superhero phase. I also have the entire 70s revival, which was probably my brother's. I also have the majority of the Evanier/Spiegle run which now that everyone has sung its praises, I do remember enjoying quite a bit. I might have to dig those out to read them again.

I stopped collecting before Chaykin took over and I think I would have been tempted to buy them at the time since I've always been a fan of his art. But as someone else pointed out, it does sound an awful lot like American Flagg so I might have been left wondering what the point was. Not that there's anything wrong with American Flagg, but why do it twice?

[hondobrode]

Blackhawk truly is classic. It's probably Reed Crandall's best known work. They were big shot characters back in the Golden Age along with fellow Quality character Plastic Man.

I love Chaykin's stuff but it all tends to read like American Flagg! lite. His take was ok but not great, though I loved his Shadow.

The Action run was good but I missed the Evanier / Spiegel title. Both of those guys are cool and you guys have praised it so I'm going to hunt them down.

Years ago Dan Akroyd had bought the rights for a movie. It could work Ba Ba Black Sheep-style but not comedy.

[MDG]

Years ago Dan Akroyd had bought the rights for a movie. It could work Ba Ba Black Sheep-style but not comedy.
I don't anyone's mentioned it yet, so I will--The reason DC put out the Evanier/Speigle Blackhawk was that Speilberg had optioned the rights so they wanted the title on the stands.

I wish I'd read more GA Blackhawks--the half-dozen or so stories I've seen were pretty good, with some very nice art by Crandall and others. I think Chuck Cuidera's run as artist and/or inker on Blackhawks is one of the longest in comics--I think he started in the GA and was involved up to just about the end of the DC run.

Last bit of trivia--when Bill Ward drew the Blackhawks, he'd have their hats knocked off in a fight as early as possible because he hated to draw them.

MDG

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

I don't anyone's mentioned it yet, so I will--The reason DC put out the Evanier/Speigle Blackhawk was that Speilberg had optioned the rights so they wanted the title on the stands.

I wish I'd read more GA Blackhawks--the half-dozen or so stories I've seen were pretty good, with some very nice art by Crandall and others. I think Chuck Cuidera's run as artist and/or inker on Blackhawks is one of the longest in comics--I think he started in the GA and was involved up to just about the end of the DC run.

Last bit of trivia--when Bill Ward drew the Blackhawks, he'd have their hats knocked off in a fight as early as possible because he hated to draw them.

MDG


When a big name producer like Speilberg options the rights to your film, it is a good thing!

J.A.P.

[jam]

I started reading Blackhawk during the red-&-green outfits period when they were tackling things like giant robot squids. Mindless fun indeed. Didn't care much for the short-lived super-hero period.


I *think* I may've started reading Blackhawk just before the red-&-green outfits, but it's the latter period that I remember quite fondly.

Sure, the super-hero phase was weird, but again I have fond memories of it perhaps just because it was weird!!!

Dick Dillin was the artist in the silver-age period, yeah? I *loved* his work on Blackhawk, that's for sure.

As I usually say in threads like these : a Showcase Presents of silver-age Blackhawk would be most welcome round these parts.