Still More Schiff Recycling

I've talked a few times in the past about how editor Jack Schiff would take a story from Batman and run it in Blackhawk (or vice-versa). Here's another good example.

Consider these two covers:



And:



Not hard to see the similarities; in this case the Batman story was the earlier one, appearing in the March 1959 issue of that mag, while the Blackhawk version comes from December 1960. Both tales are "dream" stories; that is to say that they did not really happen, but were a dream of one of the characters; Robin and Lady Blackhawk. Both dreams end with disaster. In the Batman tale, Batwoman's identity is exposed, thus indicating to the world that Batman must be Bruce Wayne. And the marriage of Blackhawk and Zinda ends up causing the dissolution of the team.

At the end of the Blackhawk story (after Zinda has awoken from the dream), Blackhawk asks her to go out to the movies with him, but she has a better idea:

Blackhawk #100

Commander Benson's been posting on the Blackhawk series under DC, and I happened to catch this particular comment:

In 1956, National Periodical Publications, a.k.a. DC Comics, acquired the rights to Quality Comics’ Blackhawk. The adventures of the “Magnificent 7” were still popular with the fans, even though more than ten years had passed since their heyday as World War II Nazi-fighters. So, while N.P.P. allowed most of the other Quality titles it had purchased to die quietly, keeping the Blackhawks in the air seemed to be a bankable proposition.

However, almost from the outset, National Periodical’s tinkering with a successful format would send the famed Black Knights plunging earthward.

I had not read much of the late Quality Blackhawk issues (which technically fall into the Silver Age by my definition), and so I thought it might be worth looking at this particular installment in this series. As a 100th issue, it's historically significant, since it was actually the second comic dedicated to a single feature to achieve that milestone, after Superman about a year earlier, and before Batman, the following month.

The opening story is the cover tale, The Delphian Menace. It's a pretty typical, "aliens attack Earth," scenario. Indeed, the ending is trite and a bit too obvious a swipe: the alien death machine which could not be defeated by any of our weapons, was beaten by water/rust.

So the story goes in as nothing special. The art?

Yeah, I'd call that pretty special. Note in particular how carefully and tightly drawn everything is by Dillin/Cuidera. One can deplore the depiction of Chop-Chop, while enjoying and admiring his strong character at the same time.

Anyway, the scientists do laugh at the Blackhawks when they present evidence of the new planet, since apparently they've been whooping it up at the scientist convention instead of paying attention to their telescopes:

This is definitely an area where the DC Silver Age would not have agreed with the direction of the Blackhawks at the time. The idea that the scientists could possibly be wrong? Not a common theme in Mort Weisinger's or Julie Schwartz's comics.

Overall an okay story, with spectacular artwork.

The second story has its moments artistically. The Nazis and the Japanese cooperated on an giant ship called the Hirumu, that was such a huge expenditure that each ally wanted an equal presence on board, and an equal vote. You can tell where Stan Lee would have taken that story, with the two supposed allies ending up battling each other, right?

But (Editor) Busy Arnold's uncredited (at GCD) writer gives us instead a story of the Nazis and the Japanese working together even after the war to cooperate in a (ten years later) plot to defeat the Blackhawks and then the world:

But they have created atomic power at the South Pole that is unshielded, and so they die when the Blackhawks jet away.

Comments: Mildly entertaining story, that depends on too many variables. I like the artwork a lot.

The third story is about Blackhawk assisting some rebels who are trying to overthrow a dictator named Scorpio. He looks a little like Dr Fu Manchu, but he's got a Caucasian queen:

He also has a pretty fearsome secret weapon:

The tail shoots out balls of lightning, which have a devastating effect:

Chuck manages to survive, but it appears that the rest of the team has been killed. He feigns death himself and tries to gather his strength to seek revenge:

Eventually he attacks, but the odds appear to great, until the rest of the Blackhawks suddenly revive. They defeat Scorpio and his wife, and the rebellion is successful.

Comments: Excellent story! I particularly like the part where Chuck is thinking to himself about his dead comrades. One interesting note is that both this and the second story feature Chuck much more than Blackhawk himself.

Catman--Batman's Swipe of Blackhawk?

This one requires a bit of explanation. Last fall, I reviewed Blackhawk #148, and pointed out several areas of similarity between those stories and some earlier/later Batman stories. Given that Jack Schiff was editing both magazines, it seemed reasonable to assume that plots and characters had been swiped wholesale in some cases.

So it is with the Catman. Before we get into the history of the character, let's just post two covers that show the swipe:





In the original, Blackhawk #141 (October 1959), the Blackhawks encountered a boastful pilot/crook called the Catman, who announces he's going to commit a daring crime, and who then gives his location. The Blackhawks arrive just in time to see the Catman crash his plane, but when they land:



Catman conveniently explains that he has already used up four other lives prior to meeting the Blackhawks, so he has four remaining. Whether he is telling the truth or not, the countdown starts at four for the purposes of the story. He intentionally races through a deadly fire (three) and deliberately causes a landslide (2). But when Blackhawk proves that Catman also used up a life getting over the electrified fence, the crook gives up rather than relinquish his final life. At the end there's a bit of a hint that perhaps Blackhawk fooled CM:



Note as well that the credit for the pencils in the Blackhawk issue go to Dillin; want to guess who drew the covers for the first two Catman appearances in Detective? Yep. As far as I know, those are Dillin's only work on the character (outside of the Justice League), although he did not do the cover to Detective #325 shown above; that one's by Moldoff.

The introduction in the Batman mythology came with Detective #311. Catman (yes, they spelled it with the hyphen, and no, I will not) debuted in that issue and more important, he was one of the rare Batman characters of that time who was not created by Sheldon Moldoff:



Jim Mooney did the interior artwork for the first two Catman stories in Batman, while Moldoff did the last issue.

There is a key subplot in the story that appears shortly after the revelation that Catman is attracted to Batwoman. I'm reading Submariner and Sue Storm, but it's especially interesting because the story mentions him being inspired by the Catwoman, who has been gone from the Batman universe for years and would not reappear for another 3+ years (well after her first appearance on TV).



At the end of that story, the Catman (apparently) dies. It's an obvious plot development, and the next appearance, in Tec #318 actually gave us the return of the Catman and a new Catwoman:



In this story, the Catman returns. Batwoman chases after him, but is stymied when his kitty-car jumps over a ravine. She crashes and looks likely to fall from a ledge, when the Catman comes to the rescue:



Batman may be the world's greatest detective, but he clearly doesn't understand women. Batwoman confesses to having mixed feelings about Catman. Part of it no doubt was the truth of what he told her after saving her life:

"Batman will never marry you! You're a fool to waste your time on him!"

Later, a clumsy mistake by Batwoman results in the Catman getting away. This echoes some of the early Catwoman tales, where Batman would apparently allow her to get away. This leads to an argument between Batman and Batwoman, covered enthusiastically by the newspapers. Batwoman bails out one of the Catman's henchmen and asks to be taken to the Catman, so that she can become his Catwoman. But it was all a plot to locate the Catman's hideout, and a homing beacon that Batwoman carried resulted in Batman and Robin arriving. At the end of this story, Catman is again apparently killed.

His third (and as far as I know, final) appearance is in Detective #325, the cover of which is shown near the top of this post. The story is basically a swipe of the idea from Blackhawk #141, that the Catman has nine lives. Instead of getting his extra lives from an African witch-doctor, he gets it from the cloth that was woven into his cape.

But Batwoman learns this secret when she examines the Catwoman costume she had worn in Detective #318:



Somehow she senses that it's nine lives altogether for her and the Catman combined, so she uses up a couple of them while wearing the Catwoman outfit so that next time they face him, he'll be on his final life. And here's a real rarity in the Silver Age: Robin finishing off the villain:



I think I'm going to have to read more Blackhawk issues to see if I can find similar swipes. I seem to recall that the old Boy Commandos and Robin villain, Crazy Quilt, appeared in a Blackhawk story in the 1960s.

Update: See also this terrific post by Bill Jourdain, that we might call, "When Batman Swiped Robin".

Update II: Bill also did a podcast a few years back on the Golden Age Catman, a character from the Holyoke line of comics. I should also note that there was a one-shot Batman villain in the GA called the King of the Cats who turned out to be the Catwoman's brother.

Single Issue Review: Blackhawk #148

This issue (May 1960) would seem very familiar to Batman fans because the editor at the time, Jack Schiff, was also in charge of the Caped Crusader's books. Check out the cover:



Not substantially different from the September 1961 issue of Batman:



In the opening story, Four Dooms for the Blackhawks, the Blackhawks visit a space research center, where scientists are attempting to recreate conditions in space and on other planets. The plot and setting for this story are direct swipes from Detective #208 (June 1954). Here's the cover of that issue:



And the similar situation in Blackhawk #148:



In the story the bandits are trying to steal a force field projector, but Blackhawk foils the scheme cleverly.

The second story, is another obvious swipe from an even earlier Batman comic. Here's the origin, complete with another classic "Suddenly something snapped in his mind" bit:



From Batman #55 (Oct-Nov 1955), we met another guy who couldn't stand bells:



In a memorable scene from that issue, the Gong lowers Batman and Robin onto a bell buoy where he assumes they will eventually tire and fall off; so too it is with the Bellmaster:



In the cover story, Blackhawk faces the Secret of the Flying Serpent. In this case the story appears original. Blackhawk and his men discover a hidden valley where the Aztecs still remain, now ruled by a corrupt archaeologist pretending to be Quetzalcoatl who has discovered a flying serpent (whose mutation was caused by radiation). The radiation angle is interesting; I'd have to look to see if there's an earlier example of radiation imparting superpowers. Certainly this predates the Marvel Silver Age, where seemingly every character under the sun got his powers from radiation (Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the Sandman, etc.).

The Blackhawks eventually defeat the phony Quetzalcoatl and the flying serpent dies in the battle. As noted earlier, a fairly similar story came up in Batman again a year later, with a flying serpent, a hidden valley (Mayan instead of Aztec).

Overall the stories are entertaining even if two were borrowed from earlier Batman adventures. The artwork, by Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera, is solid if uninspired; I'd much rather read these stories with their artwork than with Sheldon Moldoff, who did most of the Batman stories of the time.

Friday Trivia Quiz #11: Blackhawks

1. Blackhawk, Stanislaus, Andre, Olaf, Chop-Chop, Hendrickson, and _______?

2. What was the real name of Lady Blackhawk? What villainess did she become for several years during the 1960s?

3. Name the villain:



4. What kind of bird was Blackhawk's mascot, Blackie?

5. Name the villain: