Asian Avengers BLACKHAWK "Operation White Dragon" Part 2

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

...during World War II, the Blackhawks are sent to Japanese-occupied China to help the Resistance against the invaders.

They encounter a costumed hero named The White Dragon who leads a band of rebels harassing the Japanese!

The team then contacts the local leader, who refuses to help them in their operations, to avoid antagonizing the Japanese, and his son, who collaborates with the occupiers!

To appease the Japanese military governor, the leader gives up the location of the White Dragon's headquarters.

When the invaders ambush and capture the hero, he's revealed to be the Chinese leader's son and ordered to be executed...

Though still called "Chop-Chop", Liu Huang was an equal member of the team, even flying his own aircraft (In the old days, he was stuck in the passenger seat of Blackhawk's plane.)
A couple of years later, with sales dropping, DC "updated" the series by making the middle-aged aviators into superhero/spies with outlandish  powers and code-names.
Liu, as the youngest of the group, became "Dr Hands", started speaking hipster jive, and was given a tuxedo...and titanium gloves...

There was never an explanation of how the gloves worked.
At least DC didn't put the team into spandex, considering their ages ranged from mid-30s to mid-50s...

To read the entire sordid story, click HERE and Follow the links at the end of each chapter!

Bonus: Click HERE to read Chop-Chop's Golden Age origin in our "brother" RetroBlog, Not Safe for Work Comics!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

The only novel based on the comic book!

Asian Avengers BLACKHAWK "Operation White Dragon" Part 1

Previously, we brought you the Asian super-hero known as The Green Turtle...

...and we'll be returning to his story shortly!
But now, we present the never-reprinted Silver Age tale of The White Dragon...a Zorro-like character leading the local Resistance against the Japanese in World War II-era China!

The story concludes...

Next Wednesday

Note: writer Bob Haney makes a common mistake!

In China, family names are first, and given names are second.

"Liu Huang" and "Khan Huang" should be "Huang Liu" and "Huang Khan"

And, since "khan" is like "caesar"...a title of office...is it the elder Huang's title or name?

This story from DC's Blackhawk #203 (1964) by Haney, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera is radically-different from Chop-Chop's premiere appearance and intro to the Blackhawks in Quality's Military Comics #3 (1941).

DC had a similar problem with it's other characters who had uninterrupted runs from the Golden Age to the Silver Age like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

The creation of Earth-Two, placing the Golden Age versions on a separate world solved most of those problems with the exception of clearly-defining where the Golden Age-related tales ended and where the Silver Age versions began, which varied from character to character.

(It also gave the opportunity for Golden Age and Silver Age versions of the characters to meet!)

BTW, the Quality Comics characters were on Earth-X ((where Nazis won World War II).

The Blackhawks were shown as deceased in DC's Justice League of America #107 (1973), during the annual "Crisis on..." team-up between the Justice League and Justice Society.
So we can take it as given that the post-WWII stories (most featuring Communists) by Quality were part of the Silver Age Blackhawk history.

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

The only novel based on the comic book!

Asian Avengers GREEN TURTLE "The Wrath of the Green Turtle!"

With all the negative "Yellow Peril" stereotypes in Western fiction about Asians like this guy...

...we're "counter-programming" by presenting heroic Asian and Asian-American characters in pop culture!

First up...The Green Turtle!

Created/written/illustrated by Chu F Hing, one of the few Chinese-American creatives in the Golden Age, The Green Turtle was the cover-featured character for the first four of the six issues of Rural Home's Blazing Comics anthology series.

Here's his premiere appearance (but not his origin) from #1 (1944).

May be NSFW due to mild racist stereotypes of Japanese characters common during World War II.

BTW, look carefully at Green Turtle's face throughout the story...

You may have noticed that The Green Turtle's face (even with his mask on) is never shown.

There's much speculation as to whether it was simply to create an aura of mystery about him or writer/artist Chu Hing's refusal to show him with White facial features rather than Asian.

His skin has the standard 25% Magenta/25% Yellow coloring used for Whites in comics while all the Asians have skin tones at 50% Magenta/50% Yellow.

At least the publisher didn't use the "Bright Lemon" 100% Yellow skin tone some other publishers used for Asians...

The Green Turtle WILL Return...

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Shadow Hero

(the award-winning revamp of Green Turtle by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew)

St Patrick's Day Special NOT WHO YOU THINK: BANSHEE "Origin"

Before a certain Marvel villain-turned X-Man...

Art by Dave Cockrum

...acquired the name, there was this guy...who also used the name of a female Irish demon!

(And yes, I know Sean Cassidy's daughter now uses the name, but this is Hero Histories, not Heroines!)

Illustrated by Louis Cazeneuve, this premiere/origin of the Banshee plays more off the classic "Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot..." shtick with a costumed athlete than the later, sonic super-powered mutants from Marvel.

Of course I'm curious as to why a villain named "The Scorpion" is wearing a Devil mask instead of, say, a hood with an embroidered scorpion image.

Was he working on a really tight budget?

Debuting in Fox's Fantastic Comics #21 (1941) and continuing until the book was cancelled two issues later, the Banshee migrated to a new book, V... Comics, for it's brief two-issue run, then disappeared into comics limbo.

He didn't even appear in Dynamite's various Project SuperPowers series which brought back characters whose names had been co-opted by later, currently-trademarked (though totally-unrelated) characters like Daredevil and Yellowjacket.

(Blue Beetle is a whole 'nother story...)

BTW, HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!

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Project SuperPowers

Vol 1

(Even without The Banshee, if you're a Golden Age fan, it's worth reading)

SPIDER-MAN, STORM AND CAGE "vs SmokeScreen" Part 2: Where There's Smoke...

When Last We Left our Non-Smoking Heroes and Heroine...

Luke Cage is mentoring a teen track team of kids representing every district in NYC.

He confides to photographer Peter Parker, who's covering the team for a human interest story, that one of them, Bret Jackson, isn't performing up to his previous levels.

But why?

As Spider-Man, Peter recruits the X-Men's Storm to trail a couple of suspicious fellows who are supplying cigarettes to Bret and other kids!

Though Ororo eludes detection by flying after the creeps, she's caught when entering their headquarters...

And if that sounds familiar, it's the synopsis I used HERE!

Now let's continue this twice-told tale...

What would you do, True Believer?

If you're still undecided, perhaps this back cover will sway you...

And, as a final treat, here's the inside front cover with some background about the heroine and heroes...

Talk about deja vu...sort of!

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