60 BLACKHAWK
Black Condor’s adventures grew in popularity and soon became the lead feature in
Crack Comics , though it would lose that position to Captain Triumph before leaving
the book entirely by issue #31 (October 1943). In the 11th issue, the Black Condor’s
origin took another turn, when the hero uncovered a plot by racketeers, led by corrupt
power-broker Jasper Crow, to assassinate U.S. Senator Tom Wright. Th e hero failed
to stop the assassination, but due to his strong resemblance to the deceased senator,
Black Condor adopted the senator’s identity and cast the deciding vote that foiled the
racketeers’ plans. Grey chose to maintain the Wright identity at the behest of the father
of the senator’s fi ancée. Th is turn introduced frequent plots involving political corrup-
tion and the war eff ort, which were also common in many Golden Age superhero strips.
Crow became the Black Condor’s primary nemesis, returning in later stories as a Nazi
sympathizer and saboteur.
Lou Fine’s dramatic, dynamic style, strongly infl uenced by Eisner, Alex Raymond,
and Hal Foster, elevated the quality of stories in this strip. Fine also gave Black Condor
one of the more distinctive costumes of the era. Fine’s skills as an artist also leant them-
selves to both science fi ction and pulp adventure stories.
Th e character of Black Condor was revived in the 1970s when DC Comics brought
back several Golden Age heroes that the company had acquired from Quality. Th e
Quality heroes were revealed to exist on Earth-X, a parallel dimension where the Nazis
had won World War II and the surviving superheroes formed an underground team
known as “Th e Freedom Fighters.” Th is team was featured in its own short-lived series.
At this time, Richard Grey was revealed to be a mutant with the power of fl ight, in
an attempt to make the character’s origin less preposterous. Th e Black Condor later
underwent two more revisions. In 1992, a new Black Condor, named Ryan Kend-
all, headlined his own series. Later, in 2006, DC created a third Black Condor: John
Trujillo, a Native American with the power of fl ight and super strength who serves as a
member of the new Freedom Fighters.
Andrew J. Kunka
BLACKHAWK. Introduced in early 1941 in Military Comics #1 from Quality Comics,
Blackhawk was a heroic pilot who used his fl ying skills to battle against Nazi aggres-
sion in Europe. Th e character was the brainchild of Will Eisner (writer) and Chuck
Cuidera (artist). Blackhawk was originally Polish; however, as the character evolved in
his own long-running self-titled comic, he would later be described (beginning in 1968)
as an American of Polish extraction. Th e original inspiration for Blackhawk and his
adventures came from the real invasion of Poland in 1939, and the comics featuring
this character engaged the reality of World War II even before the U.S. entered the war.
Early on, Blackhawk’s arch-enemy was the evil (and stereotypical) German, Baron von
Tepp. Meanwhile, Blackhawk became the leader of an international-themed squadron
of fl yers opposed to the Germans, including Olaf the Scandinavian, Andre the French-
man, Henderickson the Dutchman, Chuck the American, Stanislaus the Slav. Perhaps
the most racially insensitive character from the series was the stereotypically Chinese
