Geek Syndicate
Blackhawk appeared in Tornado issue 4 and by issue 22, Tornado was done. It was amalgamated into the fantastic 2000AD. Blackhawk was one of the only two strips to survive the transition but it needed to be Sci-fied up. So at the end of the last Tornado strip, Blackhawk was beamed up to an intergalactic gladiatorial arena. The biggest problem here is that he was taken without his hawk so really his name should have been shortened to Black but I guess the inherent problems with that are obvious. So now it all gets a bit wacky. Blackhawk faces the terrors of the arena, space pirates, a hell dimension controlled by the Great Beast, has his soul stolen by a soul sucker and becomes friends with a giant singing bear called Ursa and a psychopathic dwarf called Zog. The Tornado stories were written by Gerry Finley-Day and drawn superbly by Alfonso Azpiri. The wacky space stuff was written mostly by Alan Grant and the majority of the art which was stunning (and had cleaner lines than Azpiri) was by the late Massimo Belardinelli. So, is this collection any good? It has many, many flaws. Prime among them is the prejudice experienced by Blackhawk from the Romans. While not overrun with black people, they certainly were not an alien sight at that time. Racial prejudice based solely on colour is a fairly recent invention. However this was the first time I had seen a black character take centre stage like this and experience the things that I myself was experiencing. So I happily accept the artistic license. For this alone the story is lifted to greatness in my eyes. The characterisation in both incarnations of the story is fairly week with no sense of a meaningful backstory. However I loved Blackhawk, what he stood for, his pursuit of justice, his indomitable will. I loved his space adventures, even though I kept querying the absence of the hawk and his wacky companions were a source of delight. The art was consistently fantastic. When Blackhawk loses his soul, his eyes become pupil-less reflecting galaxies and nebulae from far away. The imagery has stayed with me for over 30 years, and that I think speaks for itself. It is truly a product of its time and must be taken as such but reading Blackhawk in its entirety is a joy. And to its credit, no comic has done what this one has done. Buy it, read it, celebrate it. ZOG!!
David Monteith
Rating:
GGGGG
53