Why Does the Blackhawk Movie Serial Exist?

If you’re one of the multitudes who know little to nothing about Blackhawk, all you need to know is that the Blackhawk Squadron originated as a group of World War II fighter pilots from the various Allied countries. Their leader is also named Blackhawk. They’re like Bon Jovi that way. While pretty obscure now, they were apparently popular enough to warrant a movie serial in 1952.

You might already have noticed several problems with this.

First, movie serials are short, sequential films shown before a main feature. They tended to be made on the cheap, so how did they expect to capture all of the exciting aerial battles seen in Blackhawk comics? They didn’t. Aside from a few brief scenes involving stock footage and unconvincing special effects, the team spends most of their time driving around in disappointingly bland cars. They might have at least painted the Blackhawk logo on the side.

Second, 1952 is well after World War II ended. Seems a little odd that a comic so indelibly linked with World War II would only get a film adaptation years after the fact, no? Unfortunately for everyone, Blackhawk comics limped on after the war, this time featuring our heroes taking up the fight against — you guessed it — communism. Everything was about communism in the 1950s, to the detriment of pop culture generally and this movie serial in particular.

To put this in perspective, imagine if Captain America: The First Avenger, instead of being set during World War II, was set during that mercifully brief period when Cap became a “commie smasher,” or worse, if they updated Cap’s adventures for the then-present day and sent him off to Afghanistan. Not only would that have aged much more poorly than the original story, it wouldn’t have portrayed the character at his best and, in fact, misses the point of the character’s very existence.

The plot of Blackhawk, the movie serial, such as it is, follows our heroes as they put a stop to various schemes engineered by communist agents from the unidentified homeland of Stan, one of the Blackhawks (in the comics, Stan is Polish). First, Stan’s evil communist twin takes his place on the team. This is followed by the abduction of a scientist and his energy weapon, then the theft of a new kind of fuel. In the final installment, they discover the identity of the communist group’s leader, which wasn’t a thing I knew I needed to be concerned about, and which is a profoundly disappointing reveal.

As for the Blackhawks themselves, well, say what you will about Blackhawk (and I’m about to), the characters are all very distinct in appearance and manner. You can’t possibly confuse, say, Olaf, whose chin only Bruce Campbell could hope to match, with mustachioed Andre or baby-faced Chuck.

Note the super subtle Cold War commentary about a small country being seized by an “Iron Emperor.”

This can be a double-edged sword, as their personalities often hinge on cultural stereotypes. This is especially apparent with the team’s Chinese member, Chop Chop, who is drawn in a horribly stereotypical way. (In the serial, this character is, to my pleasant surprise, played by an Asian actor rather than a white guy in yellowface, but the portrayal is still deeply offensive.) But in general, having memorable-looking characters is a big plus in any visual medium.

None of this got translated to the movie serial, where all of the characters (bar Chop, of course) look vaguely the same and have American accents, even Stan. The only one who even remotely matches his comic book appearance is Blackhawk himself, as played by Kirk Alyn. No stranger to comic book movie serials, Alyn made history as the first live-action Superman in 1948.

But I still haven’t mentioned this serial’s worst crime. In the comics, the Blackhawks are known for spontaneously bursting into song after many of their victories. It’s such a big thing with them that Military Comics #8 included sheet music.

Does the serial care? Nope! They don’t sing a single note! A travesty! Truly, this is the worst thing that could ever happen to Blackhawk that wasn’t dreamed up by Alan Moore.

For someone who knows very little about the Blackhawks, I sure do end up defending them a lot. Leave the poor guys alone. Or give them a musical. That could work, if you commit hard enough.

Needless to say, I can’t recommend the Blackhawk serial as entertainment in and of itself. If you’re super into the Blackhawks or just like riffing on bad movies, you might find it worthwhile. If you’re curious, the movie serial is available on Tubi as of this writing, and the early Blackhawk comics — i.e., most everything published before DC acquired the characters — are in the public domain and can be read on Comic Book Plus. Hawkaaa!