Human flight.
By the early 20th century, it was the one “superpower” that was actually within everyone’s reach.
“For the ‘air-mindedness’ that swept the nation — and the comic books — was not limited to what we usually think of as aviation strips,” noted Richard Lupoff in his essay The Propwash Patrol.
“It seemed that everybody was flying in the comics, and not just the outright superheroes either — Spy Smasher had his marvelous Gyro-sub, Batman the Batplane, Wonder Woman her odd transparent robot plane, while Hawkman flew with the aid of artificial wings and nth-metal belt, Bulletman with the assistance of his gravity helmet, Starman with that of his Star-rod, Ibis courtesy of his magical Ibistick, and so on.
“But the three great aviation comics that flourished during the war (and for some years after) were Fiction House’s Wings Comics, Hillman Publications’ Air Fighters Comics (later Airboy Comics), and Quality Comics whose bellwether feature Blackhawk survived in the comic books until (relatively speaking) yesterday.”
The popular Will Eisner-created feature The Spirit, Blackhawk — created by Chuck Cuidera, Bob Powell, and Eisner — was not quite a superhero, but shared enough superhero conventions to appeal to readers so inclined.
Blackhawk had a snazzy, dashing uniform, an insignia, a superheroic nom de guerre, a cool island headquarters, and a mission, a crusade.
In some ways, Blackhawk’s concept was the inverse of Wonder Woman’s, with an island serving as a hidden base for a same-sex band of heroes.
Lupoff observed that Blackhawk outlasted other features like Captain Wings because of its sheer vividness, and that was on display in Blackhawk 23 (Feb. 1949), in which the crusading commander faced off against Captain Harpy and his bat-winged henchmen.
Another signature stylistic touch that contributed to Blackhawk’s popularity was fanciful military hardware — giant “war wheels,” spinning “cyclone terrors,” “world destroyer” tanks, powered and piloted kites, flying submarines, and so forth.
Harpy’s contribution to the Blackhawks’ island museum was the invention of Hawkman-like powered wings that he used for air piracy, like the later Marvel villain, the Vulture.
Attacking and sinking freighters for their precious cargo, Harpy’s batmen overlook a survivor clinging to a piece of wood.
The Blackhawk pilot Chuck happens to be passing overhead, singing Oh, What A Beautiful Morning (the opening number from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!, which had finally closed the previous year on Broadway after 2,212 performances).
Chuck affects the survivor’s rescue, but no one will believe his wild story about men with wings and claws except the Blackhawks (who’ve had plenty of experience with the outré and the outrageous).
Chartering a ship as bait, Blackhawk lures in the bat-thieves. Finding them too small and maneuverable to be caught in the Blackhawks’ gun sights, Blackhawk burns the air pirates with jet exhaust and chases them back to their island base, which turns out to be a vast submarine.
By the time Blackhawk’s done, Harpy goes to the American authorities, and the island goes to the bottom of the ocean. Neither was seen again.
But three years later, Blackhawk would be seen in a 15-part Columbia movie serial. He was played by Kirk Alyn, the first actor to portray Superman on film, and that wouldn’t be the only connection between the two characters.
In 1957, Blackhawk would be one of the few Quality Comics series that DC Comics kept publishing following the Superman company’s acquisition of Quality’s titles.
“Blackhawk was Quality Comics’ top-selling feature, and while the team was not made up of superheroes, its success, history, and adoption by DC more than qualify the characters for coverage equal to that of Quality’s superheroes,” wrote Mike Kooiman and Jim Amash in their Quality Companion.
“The Blackhawks were essentially Quality’s sole super-team. They all wore the same uniform, but artists and writers on the feature took pains to distinguish each of their looks and personalities. Their commercial appeal can be attributed to several factors. In scripting, the mixture of interpersonal dynamics and globetrotting adventures made for thrilling tales month after month. The feature probably had the best-developed sense of continuity, too. Some villains also recurred. And the art of Reed Crandall wowed readers and fellow artists alike.”
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