Thanksgiving Turkey: BLACKHAWK "My Brother - My Enemy" Part 3: Return to Blackhawk Island!

When Last We Left the Original Magnificent Seven...

...(yes, Blackhawk and crew pre-dated the 1960 movie) with G.E.O.R.G.E., the spy organization that supplied their new super-hero identities and equipment totally-annihilated, the Blackhawks dig out their mothballed WWII uniforms and weapons and seek out the group that wiped out their co-workers.

The only clue is a security camera's footage showing the killers' leader...Black Mask...whom Blackhawk recognizes as his long-believed dead brother, Jack!
An attempt to negotiate or capture Black Mask fails, and as he escapes, Jack tells Blackhawk where they can meet for a duel to the death...

Thus ends the first of two issues under editor Dick Giordano, who intended for Golden Age Blackhawk artist Reed Crandall to illustrate the pair of "return to basics" tales before the book's already-scheduled cancellation.

Unfortunately, personal problems prevented Crandall from doing so, and with two weeks until deadline, Giordano enlisted one of his Charlton art mainstays, Pat Boyette, to do the entire book (24 pages [plus cover] of pencils, inks, and lettering) in just under two weeks!

The finishes are a little rough, but, it's an amazing job!

We hope you've enjoyed our Thanksgiving Turkey (plus dessert) for 2016.

See you on the RetroBlogs next year at this time for more succulent stories!

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Blackhawk: the Movie Serial

starring Kirk (Superman) Alyn

Thanksgiving Turkey: BLACKHAWK "My Brother - My Enemy" Part 2: Fort Fear

We Have Already Seen...

...with G.E.O.R.G.E., the spy organization that supplied their new super-hero identities and equipment totally-annihilated, the Blackhawks dig out their mothballed WWII uniforms and weapons and seek out the group that wiped out their co-workers.

The only clue is a security camera's footage showing the killers' leader...Black Mask...whom Blackhawk recognizes...

...which, in the case of the presentation on this blog, means

TOMORROW!

Long-time fans may note that the Blackhawks are not flying their distinctive Grumman XF5F Skyrockets in the flashback sequence.
This indicates the flashback occurs before the story in Quality's Military Comics #2 (1941), where those aircraft debut!
Of course we won't go into the fact this never-reprinted story from DC's Blackhawk #242 (1968) totally-contradicts the original origin in Military Comics #1 (1941) and modifies the origin's retelling in Blackhawk #198 (1964)...

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Blackhawk: the Movie Serial

starring Kirk (Superman) Alyn

Thanksgiving Turkey: BLACKHAWK "My Brother - My Enemy" Part 1: Black Mask

For almost two years, Blackhawk fans had been subjected to...

...seeing the beloved WWII veteran aviators mutated into Swinging '60s superhero/spies!
(Thank heaven none of the middle-aged warriors were jammed into skintight suits!)

Sales had deteriorated to the point where the book, which had been continuously-published since 1944 and survived switching publishers without an interruption, had been reduced from monthly to bi-monthly publication and was scheduled to be cancelled.

But Dick Giordano, who had just replaced long-time editor George Kashdan, had no intention of just letting the old soldiers fade away...

The Story Continues...Tomorrow!

Plotted by Marv Wolfman (his first professional comics credit), scripted by Bob Haney, and illustrated by Pat Boyette, DC's Blackhawk #242 (1968) was unlike any previous issue of the title.

It not only reversed the superspy/superhero revamp of the strip, but retold the origin of Blackhawk himself, making several changes to the long-established story, including allowing Blackhawk's brother (who died in the very first story in Quality's Military Comics #1) to survive!

Giordano, fresh from a long tenure at Charlton Comics came on board at DC to inject a new attitude into the comics line.

Besides introducing several new titles, he took over a couple of ongoing books, including Blackhawk.

Knowing that the series was being cancelled, Dick decided to return the strip to the basics that made it a favorite among Golden (and to a lesser extent) Silver Age fans.

The details of what happened can be found at the wonderful blog DC Comics 45 Years Ago.

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

The only novel based on the comic book!

Thanksgiving Turkey: BLACKHAWK "A Blackhawk a Day" Part 2 (Conclusion)

When Last We Left Our Middle-Aged Guys in Jumpsuits...

...they were being captured, one-by-one by Baron Booby Trap!

With two down and the third about to fall, things are looking grim for the original Magnificent Seven...

With script by Bob Haney, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Chuck Cuidera, the "New Blackhawk Era's" final tale is a mediocre reworking of the classic whodunit "And Then There Were None."
New editor Dick Giordano, moving from Charlton to DC, came in mid-stream during the book's creation, so he didn't have much imput into the content of this story.
But the next issue was another matter...as we shall see tomorrow!

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Official Blackhawk

12" Action Figure

Thanksgiving Turkey: BLACKHAWK "A Blackhawk a Day" Part 1

We previously brought you the notorious revamp...

..of Golden Age aviator-hero Blackhawk and his team into Swinging '60s superhero/spies!

However, things didn't work out quite as DC Comics had hoped!

13 issues later, the book had gone from monthly to bi-monthly and the final tale of the "New Blackhawk Era" was about to be told...

You'll see Part 2 TOMORROW!

BONUS: Here's the original art for the book's cover.

Layout by Carmine Infantino, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Chuck Cuidera.

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Official Blackhawk

12" Action Figure

Thanksgiving Turkey BLACKHAWK "Junk-Heap Heroes: Book III" Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Yes, this is the cover from #229, not this issue (#230), but it shows the Emperor in the Centurion of Doom armor...

...intercepting a message ordering the Blackhawks to rendevous, the Emperor dons a suit of high-tech armor and heads out to destroy the team personally...

Did the Emperor happen to leave the instruction manual in the armor?
If not, how did the less-than-brilliant Stan figure out how to use it (and all the built-in weaponry?
Plus, since it's powered by ionizing gold, did anyone think of how much it would cost to operate it?
(Heck, the Lone Ranger was always cautious about his silver bullets...)
And, why didn't Stan take the skull-and-crossbones logo off it?
Speaking of Stan being something of a dim-bulb, when did any of the team demonstrate the skills and abilities they suddenly picked up as of two issues ago?
I've looked over several dozen issues of both the Quality and DC runs prior to #228, and none of them show any of the crew being anything but a bunch of talented flyers/proficient hand-to-hand combatants with different accents!
At least they didn't put any of the old guys into tights/spandex!

Here's the cover for the issue (#230), showing the entire team...

...but if we showed it to you earlier, you might have thought the Emperor had killed/trapped Stan and replaced him as a spy within the team.

Hey, that's not a bad idea!

The undercover Emperor could claim he can't remove the armor because it's a life-support system keeping him alive...nah, it's been done.

Too bad writer Bob Haney, penciller Dick Dillin, and inker Chuck Cuidera didn't think of going that way...it would've added a bit of tension and excitement to a concept that quickly went downhill both in terms of story logic and sales until, in #242, the series was rebooted back to the original WWII flyers concept (complete with the classic black leather uniforms), but was cancelled as of the next issue.