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Blackhawk and the Woman Known as Number One, Up for Auction

Blackhawk is the star of the long-running war comic book series first published by Quality Comics in 1941 and later by DC Comics.

Published Sat, 01 Apr 2023 08:48:12 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:25:48 -0500

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Blackhawk is the star of the long-running war comic book series first published by Quality Comics in 1941 and later by DC Comics. Created by Chuck Cuidera with Bob Powell and Will Eisner, Blackhawk and the rest of the team first appeared in Military Comics #1 before later getting their own title in 1944 with Blackhawk #9 taking over the numbering of Uncle Sam Quarterly. They also continued to appear in Military Comics until 1950.

The Blackhawks are a small team of World War II-era international ace pilots, who operate from a hidden base on Blackhawk Island, and fly their Grumman XF5F Skyrocket fighter aircraft to fight, first Nazis, but then other threats to liberty around the world, including the War Wheel. The seven members of Blackhawks were each from a different country, including those who had escaped Nazi occupation, with Blackhawk himself as a Polish air fighter, common in the RAF at the time. However, they fought under their own Blackhawk flag.

At their height, Blackhawk was the second best-selling comic in America behind Superman, and their series continued from the forties into the sixties. Blackhawk span off into a film serial, a radio series, novels, toys, and had at one point been announced as an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie, though that was some time ago.

Quality Comics went bust in 1956, picked up by National Periodical Publications, later DC Comics, who kept the series running uninterrupted. The series was cancelled in 1968 due to low sales but was revived in the seventies, moved into the modern day as well as gaining a female character in Lady Blackhawk, and has been revived repeatedly since, notably by Howard Chaykin. And as part of the New 52, DC Comics launched a new Blackhawks series set in the twenty-first century, as well as from Scott Snyder in Dark Nights: Metal and All-Star Batman. Indeed when Neil Gaiman first pitched his Black Orchid comic book to DC Comics, editor Karen Berger presumed he was trying to pitch "Blackhawk Kid".

But this weekend, Heritage Auctions have a Blackhawk comic from its earliest of days, issue 24, with a lead story by Reed Crandall, The Woman Known As Number One, with an early female Blackhawk villain, Number One, from 1949. Spoilers, she doesn't make it to #25. And currently with bids totalling $51.

Blackhawk #24 (Quality, 1949) Condition: FN-. Reed Crandall cover and art. Overstreet 2022 FN 6.0 value = $156.

Title: The Woman Known as Number One
Characters: Number One (villain, introduction, death); Caparty (villain, introduction, death)
Pages: 11
Pencils: Reed Crandall
Inks: Reed Crandall

Title: The Stone Mountain Wager
Pages: 1
Script: Jack Cole
Pencils: Jack Cole
Inks: Jack Cole

Title: Honest Wong
Characters: Honest Wong (villain, introduction); Chu Gum (villain, introduction)
Pages: 5
Pencils: Bill Ward
Inks: Bill Ward

Characters: Salty Waters
Pages: 1
Script: Bernard Dibble
Pencils: Bernard Dibble
Inks: Bernard Dibble

Title: Atomic Control
Characters: Blackhawk; Alfred Rodin (villain, introduction, death)
Pages: 2
Letters: Typeset

Title: Captain Suicide
Characters: Captain Suicide (villain, introduction, death); Captain Suicide's Phantom Squadron (villain, introduction)
Pages: 11
Pencils: Bill Ward
Inks: Bill Ward