With the world facing multiple threats, multiple organizations exist to deal with them. Enter the UN backed Blackhawks.
What They Say:
Welcome to a world waging a new kind of war that’s faster and more brutal than ever before–fought by those who would make the innocent their targets. Between them and us stand the Blackhawks, an elite force of military specialists equipped with the latest in cutting-edge hardware and vehicles. Their mission: kill the bad guys before they kill us.
The Review:
Over my many, many years of reading comic books, there are a lot of organizations that have been used that I’ve liked and wanted to see really have a chance on their own. My original exposure to such things came from my Marvel days reading about SHIELD (oh, Steranko artwork and classic Nick Fury) and then on to DC Comics years later with books like Checkmate and to some degree Suicide Squad. Checkmate was one of the books in the late 80’s I really got behind and I enjoyed the more recent incarnation a lot as well until it went to hell in the last main arc under a new writer. The idea of a strong black ops style organization working behind the scenes (even with helicopters that have their logo on it) to deal with problems that the superheroes may not want to tackle for any number of reasons is a solid one. Not all threats are supervillains and there are political and military things that superheroes simply shouldn’t tackle and instead leave to the realm of governments.
With the opening issue, we get a mix of action and introductions that goes a bit heavy in explaining certain things such as the kind of security that’s in place at the Eyrie, the mountaintop location where the Blackhawks base is at. It’s a bit heavy handed with some of it and the threats that are faced, and that it’s a UN back organization, but it doesn’t make its charter clearer, the reason for why it’s really got to be there. The action side of the book is a bit more convoluted at first as it deals with a mission that gets finished but goes badly along the way and some members of the team are hurt. That’s meant more to show the follow-up as they get checked out afterwards and we get an explanation about their names, which of course seem a bit unusual and full of stereotypes. I was actually more amused by it and its logical reasons such as having someone called the Irishman even though he sounds Russian but has that as his origin. It’s the kind of stuff you do get from military and mercenary types.
The focus that does work well here though is the one that involves the operative known as Kunoichi, another word for female ninja. She’s the rough and tumble action type that prefers to do and act more than anything else, and her actions on the mission here had her taking a bite from someone which looks to have some sort of less than subtle effect on her as the issue progresses. The post-mission high has her going after Wildman for a romp, but it’s just the start of exploring what changes she’s going through as we see the strength that’s coming into play and a feeling in her body that she’s just completely wired and unable to get past. The book doesn’t make it clear what’s really going on, though she apparently gets it, but it’s one of those sequences that leaves the reader more confused than intrigued when it’s trying to make a hook.
Digital Notes:
This Comixology edition of Blackhawks contains the main cover as seen with the print edition with no variants or other extras included.
In Summary:
Blackhawks has the trappings of the kind of book I’d like, going back to things like SHIELD, Checkmake and Sgt. Rock by being a solid military style black ops operation in a world that’s become dominated by metahumans in the last few years. The opening issue has those trappings but it’s execution and presentation is choppy and not altogether clear with what it’s stated mission is. The characters aren’t detailed much at this point which is a given, but they introduce a number of them and never really make it clear how they work as a unit. DC Comics has often worked with books of this nature and I have hopes that it can find its footing, but it’s definitely one of the weakest of the launch books in its presentation and vision.
Grade: C