Comments on: John Seavey’s Storytelling Engines: Blackhawks

By: StereotypeA

StereotypeA — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:23:23 +0000

Eye-blisteringly racist is my new favorite adjective.

By: Eric Tolle

Eric Tolle — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:03:29 +0000

The inner cynic in my quietly points out that back in the day, it was probably easier to do an international team: several white guys (and possibly one girl) from America or Europe, and one grotesque ethnic stereotype from a non-European country. Today one has to deal with the ever-increasing knowledge that a truly international team should really be mostly non-white; it’s harder and harder to disguise the fact that America and Europe doesn’t comprise 90% of the world’s population. Of course the alternative would be to actually make a superteam that was largely non-white. Yeah, like THAT’S going to happen.

I mean, look at how far we’ve come: Original Blackhawk had several guys from America and Europe, and one Chinese guy. Contrast this to the international superteam Authority that was referenced above, which has…several white guys and gals from America and Europe…and one Chinese woman.

You’ve come a long way, baby.

By: comixkid2099

comixkid2099 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:00:08 +0000

“The idea is the same in all cases, though; when coming up with a new superhero team from scratch, it helps writers if they can come up with just one idea, the organizing theme, and then develop that idea to its logical conclusion instead of having to come up with a whole new concept for every superhero on the team and then explain why they all came together.”

However, when a writer is putting together a team, it doesn’t mean that that particular writer created each member of that team. True, Stan Lee co-created most of the Avengers, and wrote that title, and i think any other team is pretty much the same, although it doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual parts are created by the same person putting them together into a machine.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:21:27 +0000

There’s a website out there which offers free copies of what they say are “public domain” Golden Age comics in CBR format. Among them are the entire Military and Modern comics runs from Quality featuring Blackhawk. I’m not sure how legit their claims of public domain are, especially the Quality stuff (Police Comics with Plastic Man and National Comics with Uncle Sam is also there). Can comics with characters owned by DC still be considered public domain? (anyone?)

I won’t put the URL here, but if you search for goldenagecomics, you’ll find it pretty easily.

Anyway, I have no connection to , nor am I promoting this site – but if it IS legal, you can read all the GA Blackhawk stories.

By: John Trumbull

John Trumbull — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:41:02 +0000

The Chaykin Blackhawk doesn’t hold up nearly as well as the Mark Evanier-Dan Speigle version from the early 80s. Start searching those back issue bins, people! There’s some great comics there just waitin’ to be read!

By: Doug Atkinson

Doug Atkinson — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:50:58 +0000

Looking at the historical context of when the Blackhawks were created does shed some light on the team makeup; it’s not as haphazard as just choosing nationalities at random, or based on how easy they are to stereotype. They first appeared a) during WWII and b) before the US joined; therefore, a team (mostly) composed of members whose native countries had been invaded by the Nazis had a different connotations than an all-US team would. (Chuck was from the US, but the comic was published in the US, so his inclusion made sense; there’s no good excuse for Chop Chop.) It can still be argued that it’s a gimmick or a shortcut, but in 1941 the team makeup had a significance that it didn’t retain a decade later.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:46:19 +0000

Not that I’m complaining, because i find these articles to be pretty cool, but this one wasn’t much of a storytelling engine as it was the first group to come up with a specific theme. It basically tells you how to make such a team, but says nothing about how the storytelling engine worked for the team.

By: Stephane Savoie

Stephane Savoie — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:26:55 +0000

While Chaykin’s sledgehammer-style social commentary hasn’t aged very well, his reinterpretation of the Blachawks in to 80s was pretty entertaining, as I recall. The short-lived regular series which followed it was also readable. Both cases involved a thorough deconstruction of the 40s version, though.

By: Bryant

Bryant — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:50:49 +0000

I always enjoy your storytelling engines. Have you ever thought about comparing/contrasting the storytelling engines of legacy heroes (i.e. the storytelling engine of the new Atom or Blue Beetle vs. the storytelling engine of Ray Palmer or Ted Kord)?

By: Blackjak

Blackjak — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:06:23 +0000

Nice piece! Must admit that reading through it made me think of DC’s other titular international team/organisation, Checkmate… I always liked the chess piece ranking (and the old costumes frmo the time around INVASION!)… Any chance of discussing them? any incarnation…