"this peace, like any other, was a temporary thing" (Blackhawk, 1989–92)

The third and final (so far, anyway*) volume of Blackhawk comprised sixteen issues in 1989 and 1990, plus a 1989 annual and a belated 1992 special. It picked up from what artist Rick Burchett and writer Martin Pasko had been doing with Blackhawk in Action Comics (see item #10 below); Burchett would illustrate all sixteen regular issues of the title (occasionally with various assists), while Pasko would write the first eleven, with Grant Miehm taking over at the end.

Back when I began this series of posts, I said the question I was interested in was how various creators made use of the Blackhawks outside of their original context. Can a premise and set of characters originally anchored to a very specific time and place have any viability outside of it? The last couple incarnations of the Blackhawks have seemed to indicate "no": both Mark Evanier (see #9 below) and Chaykin returned the Blackhawks to World War II. 

Somewhat cleverly, Mike Grell and Martin Pasko followed on from Chaykin by making the viability of the Blackhawks outside of World War II the very topic of their stories. At the end of the Action Comics run, Pasko set up that the Blackhawks would be operating at the behest of U.S. intelligence, their cover story being that they were a charter air service. These warriors need a new war to fight, even if it's one they don't totally agree with themselves.

Glamorous even with one eye.
from Blackhawk Annual #1
(script by Martin Pasko, art by Rick Burchett & Bill Wray)

This is the topic of the first three issues and the annual, which see the Blackhawks go on missions like distributing anticommunist leaflets to influence elections overseas, but of course they get into fights and scrapes, and of course Janos himself gets into shenanigans with local women. There's lots of moral ambiguity here; it's a strong follow-up to what Pasko and Burchett were doing in Action Comics.

In that run, Pasko had also set up that Natalie Reed (the so-called "Lady Blackhawk") had a child she was unable to reenter the U.S. to see, thanks to increased anticommunist sentiments postwar. This is the main spine of those first four issues; from Mexico, Natalie is writing comics stories about the Blackhawks and sending them to a publisher in the U.S., who illustrates them with her name under a pseudonym. But the fact that Reed is a former communist means a right-wing member of the publisher staff informs on her, and soon the Blackhawks are battling enemies at home, not just abroad. I really enjoyed this subplot, particularly some of the revelations about who the father of Natalie's baby was, and what happens to him.

I agree, Janos.
from Blackhawk vol. 3 #1 (script by Martin Pasko, art by Rick Burchett)

(If you want, this subplot can also be used to kind of maintain previous versions of Blackhawk in continuity. Pasko and Burchett include interpolated bits based on the original Military Comics run [see item #1] and Chaykin's miniseries [item #10]. Any story you want to keep can be an in-universe fictionalized comics based on on actual adventure!)

After this, though, the comic moves into an ongoing plotline that runs from issue #4 to 12. This takes the conspiracy thriller tone of the whole thing to a new level: the government decides they want to the Blackhawks to go to China and stop them from developing an atomic bomb... so they kidnap them and make it seem like they're dead? Meanwhile, other members of the Blackhawks are being abducted and put in suspended animation. I can enjoy conspiracy thrillers, but one that bugs me is when the antagonists are so powerful in the way they manipulate the protagonists that it doesn't really make sense that they need the protagonists to do anything to begin with. If the government can force the Blackhawks to do all this, why can't they just do it themselves directly?

As the story goes on, it gets increasingly convoluted, with the villains trying to (I think) copy the Blackhawks' memories into other people's bodies for... reasons, I guess? I don't really know, and that's despite two different issues where the plot stops so that people can explain to each other what's going on! And like I said, this plotline dominates nine issues of the title! It's pretty bad, and feels like it must be the reason the title ended up cancelled.

Martin Pasko doesn't even see it all the way through; issue #12 is actually written by Doug Moench, who wraps everything up implausibly quickly. Oh, did the Blackhawks go through the most traumatic events of their lives? That's fine, they're back to work... for the same people who did all this to them to begin with! Natalie goes through some particularly twisted shit, and he writes her out rather than deal with it. On the one hand, I'm frustrated to lose one of the new Blackhawks' best characters, but on the other hand, I'm not sure what Moench could actually do with her given how much Pasko screwed up the character that he had made so interesting!

After that, Moench quickly moves onto a four-part storyline about the Blackhawks flying experimental planes... and possibly also there are UFOs? To be honest, I found this disjointed, confusing, and pointless. Again, it's not very clear what the conspiracy is or why the conspirators want the Blackhawks; there are several different parts to the story that don't go together. A disappointing conclusion to a series that had a very strong start.

Other stuff: The series contains a couple "Blackhawk Express" stories set in the present day of the DC universe (following on from "The Crash of 88" in Action Comics) starring Weng Chan. These have good writers (Elliot S. Maggin and John Ostrander) but unfortunately a terrible artist in Dick Rockwell, and to be honest, neither writer ever does anything with the premise that convinces me it was worthwhile. Finally, 1992's Blackhawk Special (script by John Ostrander, art by Mike Vosburg) chronicles 1963 to '68 for the Blackhawks (the main body of the ongoing covered 1948 to '50), mostly focusing on the Blackhawks getting involved in a conspiracy surrounding the deaths of JFK and RFK. It's decent enough but a bit too jumpy to be engaging; I feel like Ostrander was trying to do too much even if he had 57 pages to work with.

This is the eleventh in a series of posts about the Blackhawks. The next installment covers Lady Blackhawk in Guy Gardner: Warrior. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Blackhawk Archives, Volume 1 (1941-42)
2. Military Comics #18-43 / Modern Comics #44-46 / Blackhawk #9 & 50 (1943-52)
3. Showcase Presents Blackhawk, Volume One (1957-58) 
4. Blackhawk vol. 1 #151-95 (1960-64) 
5. Blackhawk vol. 1 #196-227 (1964-66)
6. Blackhawk vol. 1 #228-43 (1967-68)
7. Blackhawk vol. 1 #244-50 / The Brave and the Bold #167 (1976-80)
8. Blackhawk (1982) 
9. Blackhawk vol. 1 #251-73 / DC Comics Presents #69 (1982-84) 
• Pre-Crisis Continuity 
10. Blackhawk: Blood & Iron (1987-89) 

* There was a short-lived ongoing series that ran 2011–12, but it was called Blackhawks.