DCnU & Elseworlds Blackhawks
SIXTH ERA
ERA 1 | ERA 2 | ERA 3 | ERA 4 | ERA 5 | ERA 6
Created by Mike Costa, Ken Lashley, and Graham Nolan
FIRST APPEARANCE: Blackhawks #1 (November 2011)
+ History
When DC Comics relaunched its entire line, the Blackhawks received a thoroughly modern makeover. In an early interview with CBR, writer Mike Costa described his outlook for the book: "It's a corner that really focuses on the technological advancements that occur within the DCU … I don't think you have a place where you're really understanding the scope of what's going on in this universe that's become so much more advanced than ours. … It's also a book about espionage and action and intense emotions."
Unlike its forebears, the new book was titled in the plural, and did not reuse any of the legacy Blackhawk characters. Instead, a new "magnificent seven" were introduced:
From Blackhawks #1-3 (2011-12). Art by Ken Lashley, Graham Nolan
and Trevor Scott.
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Their commander is Col. Andrew Lincoln, who is the Deputy of Operations at their mountain top base, called the Eyrie. It is a remote mountain top location, which aids their secrecy and freedom of movement.
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Lady Blackhawk, the primary field leader. Her eye patch harkens back to that of the post-Crisis Lady Blackhawk, Natalie Reed.
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Attila, with a ponytailed powerhouse.
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Kunoichi ("female ninja"), a Japanese woman named Nikki, a deadly female operative. She is in a relationship with Wildman and once auditioned for the Japanese pop group called Team A.
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The Irishman (Corporal Costello), a red-haired Ukrainian. His parents had international business in the USSR and he was born there. nickname from from his comrades in the Spetsnatz (the Russan special forces).
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Wildman is a communications specialist who grew up in Vanity City. He is often paired with …
- Canada, who is from Atlanta but got his nickname because of an incident in Calgary. Canada oversees the team's high-tech gear and planes.
Their "infantry" men are called Austringers (an obsolete term meaning "keeper of hawks"). These operatives are not all pilots, and their transport vehicles are called Peregrines.
Their first recorded mission was a covert operation to Kazakhstan, where their secrecy was compromised by civilian photographers. These photos wound up on the Internet, which sparked the attention of the Blackhawks' parent organization, the United Nations. Further, Kunoichi was bitten by an enemy soldier and when she returned to the Eyrie, she found she'd been infected with "nanocites," that granted her super-strength. The nanocites were designed by Mother Machine, a techno-organic being herself, who used the technology to destroy a meta-human detainment facility in Asia. (Blackhawks #1)
Titus and Mother Machine,
from Blackhawks #2 and 3 (2011-12). Art by Graham Nolan, Trevor McCarthy,
and Trevor Scott.
When Lady Blackhawk led a team to investigate the prison's destruction, they were met by one of Mother Machine's operatives, Titus. Titus was a ruthless killer and promptly sliced off Irishman's arm. Kunoichi and Lady Blackhawk managed to bring him down but in the process, Kunoichi was exposed as having been infected. Meanwhile, Canada and Wildman were kidnapped and taken to the Mother's hidden city. (#2) They met her minion, Flynn, and learned that Mother Machine's technology was far more advanced than anything they had experienced. She asked them to join her. Meanwhile at the Eyrie, Titus escaped and infected the computer systems. Kunoichi hooked herself via IV into the system and served as a sort of antivirus. (#3)
As radiation levels rose in the Eyrie, Kunoichi took down thw weakened Titus. And Canada attacked Mother Machine directly (after learning that her consciousness would take time to upload to a new form). He flew her craft out—into space! (#4)
Notes
A design sketch of Col. Lincoln by Ken Lashley.
Artist Ken Lashley was cited by Mike Costa as having created the look of the new Blackhawks, although Lashley did not ultimately pencil the series (he did draw the covers). Lashley himself explained the situation at Bleeding Cool: "The problem was that we started really late on the project. Chuck Austen was writing it … l was given the job and we got rolling. DC also provided a layout artist [Graham Nolan] to speed things up … DC decided to make a story change after a few pages were done…but that meant a 4 week delay, because the new writer had to get started, then get approved. … l love comics but its so hard to find the time when you have other commitments."
Appearances + References
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