I’m too old for GI Joe. I missed the 80′s toy craze by a few years. My younger brothers were into it. But for me, it was Star Wars and the Superfriends. Blackhawks #1 owes a lot to GI Joe. But then GI Joe borrowed from just about every military-minded action story ever written. So, I suppose turnabout is fair play.
I have seen some fans dismiss Blackhawks as nothing but a GI Joe clone. And maybe it’s just that I have no particular affinity for the Joes, but I don’t think that’s fair. Yes, there’s similarities. The Blackhawks are a crack military squad loaded with eccentric characters with snazzy nicknames. They even discuss their tradition of calling each other by nicknames at some length.
But Blackhawks has something going for it that GI Joe doesn’t. It takes place in the super hero universe of the DC Universe. That may seem like a relatively minor distinction, but the book makes use of its setting. Not in the form of cameos from recognizable DC characters. At least not yet although you know that’s coming. Instead, there’s a super-hero related mystery going on.
The book throws the reader right into the action. Given this is an action book, that seems appropriate. It makes familiarizing yourself with the large cast of characters somewhat challenging. But no doubt we’ll come to know these characters better in future issues. This issue focuses pretty heavily on agent Kunoichi. Kunoichi is an agent in the Starbuck mold only with a pink streak in her hair. She lives hard, she fights hard and she play hard.
During a mission, Kunoichi is exposed to nanites which slowly change her in some frightening ways. Watching her deal with her secret as her changes grow more and more out of control was an interesting hook for me. It was enought to bring me back for issue 2 in which writer Mike Costa will get another chance to make me care about guys like Irishman (who’s not Irish) and Canada (who’s not Canadian).
Like a lot of books in the relaunch, I appreciated Blackhawks because it was different from the usual super hero offerings. It wasn’t a great book, but it was different and interesting enough for me to give it a second look.
Green Lanterns New Guardians #1
