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During the Second World War, the Blackhawk Squadron was a group of pilots fighting Nazi oppression in Europe, and after V.E. Day in the Pacific Theater, against Imperial Japan. After the war, the team stayed together as a check against Communist expansionism and a wide variety of independent international criminals.

History

During the Second World War, the all-volunteer, mostly-refugee pilots of the Blackhawk Squadron were equipped and supplied by the Allied Forces.

In their post-WWII role as global peacekeepers, the famous and popular Blackhawk Squadron enjoyed an incredible latitude of operational freedom, and functioned almost as a law unto themselves. Their arrangement with the western world's international authorities was formalized in 1948, in a secret meeting in Washington DC, in which a high-ranking official told Blackhawk: "We will invest you with complete power and authority to take immediate action! We'll back you to the hilt with all the concentrated power of the International Security Force."[1]

In 1949 Blackhawk's authorizers were called the League of Democracy,[2] or League of Democracies.[3] In 1950 Blackhawk attended at least one secret meeting, in an undisclosed location, of the Committee for Justice of the Allied Democracies, which might have been a different part of the same organization.[4] By 1951, the United World (UW), led by its World Council, in London,[5] acted in the combined roles of the early UN and NATO and SEATO. Seemingly no dictatorships were members of UW. UW had its own armed forces. UW had, or seemed to have, at times, direct authority over the Blackhawks.[6]

Blackhawk Roster

Secret Geography

  • The hidden Roman Colony of Publius has superior technology, which has been entrusted to the Blackhawks by Emperor Tiberius; in return the squadron has kept the location of Publius a secret.[7]
  • Another secret location known only to the Blackhawks is that of the former site of Polar City, and its rich deposits of gold, silver and pitchblende, somewhere within the Arctic Circle.[8]
  • Another secret location known only to the Blackhawks is that of the "tomb" of seemingly-immortal ancient Egyptian royals, Ra-Ameth and Princess Noma, who lived and supposedly died around 2500 BC.[9]
  • Apparently the Blackhawks are the only people in the world to know that the towering, hollow, mountain range between Huanec and Galardo conceals within itself a golden city of enormous step-pyramids.[3]
  • The Blackhawks, and apparently nobody else before or since, discovered a hidden civilization of air-breathing humans, under a glass dome, at the bottom of the Southern Seas,[10] and the still-splendid remains of another, similar civilization, elsewhere under the ocean.[11]

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Over the years, the Blackhawks have defeated a significant number of lunatic inventors and have captured many of their weapons, vehicles and other technology. Examples include:

Blackhawk Captured Technology

Attire

  • Blackhawk #46 They captured and reverse-engineered several "Robes of Invisibility" from the Society of Assassins. The fabric of these is treated with a special chemical dye, that refracts all light waves, and makes them appear almost invisible, in normal lighting. A man wrapped in this material also casts no shadow.
  • Blackhawk #55 All of the captured "Rocketmen" outfits, of Da Vinci's one-man helicopter-harness flying devices.
  • Blackhawk #60 The flying harnesses of the captured "Vampire Men" of Kunwalo were certainly confiscated by the Blackhawks.
  • Blackhawk #97 Vampira's Bat-Winged Raiders, and their pressurized flying suits, were captured by the Blackhawks.

Energy Sources

  • Blackhawk #13 The strategically-crucial Z-20 formula was recovered and returned to Marlanx for further development. It is not known whether Blackhawk or his team retained a copy of it, although the opportunity certainly existed.
  • Blackhawk #32 Frayman, the villain, claimed to have found a secret ancient Egyptian formula, for "the force that built the pyramids," a fuel, by which they powered a vast mechanical hoist. Blackhawk intended to turn over the formula to the government for the benefit of the world. It was never heard of again.

Vehicles

  • Blackhawk #47 Rhodl's Future Men's "Time Globe," which can fly and can turn invisible, but can't move thru Time.
    • The "Future Men's" amazing array of weapons and tools, was also captured by the Blackhawks. All of this technology was turned over to "the engineers."
  • Blackhawk #49 Some wreckage from Valkyrie's "Hell Diver" squadron was salvaged for aeronautical research.
  • Blackhawk #50 Three of Killer Shark's "Shark Planes".
  • Blackhawk #53 At least one captured pirate submarine
  • Blackhawk #54 Three Soviet "Monsters of the Deep" (amphibious armored four-legged giant walking machines, armed with flame rays).
  • Blackhawk #56 The original War Wheel was sunk in quicksand. However in Blackhawk #109 there is a fully operational War Wheel in the Blackhawks' Victory Museum. (salvage, capture or replica ?)
  • Blackhawk #57 The Blackhawks captured one operable, Darkson-design "Termite Tank".
  • Blackhawk #62 General X's Robot Tank was captured intact.
  • Blackhawk #64 Capt. Massacar's Flying Submarine.
  • Blackhawk #74 At least one Tyrannist Sky-Sled
  • Blackhawk #86 Two intact copies of Boshki's high-speed heavy-artillery "War Tractor".

Weapons

  • Blackhawk #14 Joyce's Light Ray, which could kill at a touch, or fly an airplane, or operate other machines.
  • Blackhawk #72 General von Brokton's electronic antivehicle engine-killing "Neutralizing Weapon"
  • Blackhawk #77 Professor Kotsky's Disabler Ray (it can stall any machine, car, tank, or plane.)
    • (One Disabler Ray was built into Chuck's plane, and Prof. Kotsky was captured alive, and encouraged to defect.)
  • Blackhawk #88 Phantom Sniper's X-ray gun-sight and his super armor-piercing snub-nose bullets.

Other

  • Blackhawk #74 Dr. Paul Renard's book, "1001 Ways To Defeat the Blackhawks!"
  • Blackhawk #48 At least one of Ivander's ram-jet robot hawks.
    • The Blackhawks may also have Jeensen's "Sea Monster" growth formula.
  • Blackhawk #77 Professor DuBois's "Fiendish Electronic Brain" was damaged and captured by the U.S. Army. In Blackhawk #81, the Blackhawks retrieved, rebuilt, and reverse-engineered this device, and deployed it against Eric Von Ackheim's "Monster Dynamo".
  • Modern Comics #95 King Earthquake's underground electrical system for causing earthquakes was captured and dropped into the ocean by the Blackhawks. There was no obvious legitimate commercial or industrial application for it anyway.

Blackhawk Developed Technology

Between and during their adventures, the Blackhawks, and especially Blackhawk have also made considerable contributions to the science and technology of their world.

  • In 1953, Blackhawk and his Squadron supervised an atom bomb test, for a weapon based on a principle discovered by Blackhawk. Also the Blackhawks are the only known users of a "Semi-Atomic Bomb".[12]
  • Also in 1953, the Blackhawks adopted bulletproof uniforms.[13]
  • In 1954 the team obtained some transparent, fireproof, heatproof, radiationproof suits.[14]
  • The buttons on Blackhawk uniforms and Chop Chop's clothes, are removable, throwable and highly explosive.[15]
  • Blackhawk invented a robot dog capable of tracking someone by their brainwaves.[16]
  • Chop Chop invented an extremely powerful explosive substance.[16]
  • Blackhawk designed a jet fighter plane, with a fiery coating that made it virtually bulletproof. He shortly later designed the CO2-extinguisher counter-weapon. These jets were built and deployed, by a villain, at a time when the Blackhawks themselves were still flying propeller-engined fighter-bombers.[17]

Transportation:

  • Grumman XF5F Skyrocket from 1941 to 1948
  • North American F-86 Sabre from 1949 to 1950
  • Lockheed XF-90 from 1950 to 1956
  • In 1947 the Blackhawks had at least one jet-engined submersible scouting craft. After its first appearance, it was never seen or mentioned again.[10]
  • In 1948 the Blackhawk Squadron was equipped with five jet-powered submersible warplanes, armed with oxy-acetylene undersea blowtorches. These were never seen or mentioned again, and their designer/builder is not named.[18]
  • Hawksub from 1955 to 1960

Weapons:

Notes

  • During their rare interludes of down-time, at the barracks on Blackhawk Island, and more frequently, on their return flights from their many international adventures, it was commonplace for the seven aviators of the Blackhawk Squadron to join their voices in a hearty chorus of their Blackhawk Anthem, often improvising new verses to fit the circumstances of that particular adventure.
  • Some of the Blackhawks smoked,[19] most or all of them gambled,[20] and all of them drank beer.[21] Only Chop Chop and Chuck have not been shown to be smokers.
  • In addition to their main base on Blackhawk Island, the team also once maintained a headquarters in France,[22] and another in the Rocky Mountains.[23]
  • All of the Blackhawks have spent time on the Moon, where they captured some renegade Soviet agents.[24] They have also encountered and defeated Red forces on a runaway asteroid.[25] On Earth, the Blackhawks have encountered and defeated at least one extraterrestrial species.[12]


See Also

Links and References

Footnotes

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