The REAL Lady Blackhawk

[mistygeek]

I didn't care for what DC did with the Blackhawks. Putting it simply, I think it ranged from dull in the 1960s to "you should just let it die with some dignity" almost anytime after that. That said I do love Zinda Blake, Lady Blackhawk. I really do. At least I love her modem incarnation. Yes, there are some things I'd rather not talk about, but when so many different writers handle these characters you have to have some give.

Lady Blackhawk first showed up in Blackhawk #133 (1959).

I don't have the issue anymore to share, but Zinda is the prefect example of a woman in a DC sliver age comic. She fails as much as she successes in her first appearance. She has successfully trained herself to be completely badass in fighting moves and weapons, and piloting jets. (Maybe this just doesn't impress these guys. Chop-chop has a similar back story at the start and no one seemed to care.) She has done all this because she is determined to become the first female Blackhawk. Despite saving Olaf from The Scavenger, she is denied membership by Blackhawk himself. No girls allowed, you see. Due to her next scew ups, she decides she's not ready to be on the team.


Now by #140 Zinda rescues the entire Blackhawk team from The Scavenger and becomes an honorary member. Then she gets brainwashed by a supervillain, but I digress.

Her appearance is...disappointing. So in my headcanon it didn't play out this way.

Meet "The Blonde Bomber."

In Military Comics #20 (1943) a woman appears who attempts to become the first woman member of the Blackhawks. She looks and behaves will Zinda will almost two decades later.


Credits for this story to Bill Woolfolk (Script) and Reed Crandall (Pencils and Inks).







"HONEY??" I think for a second there he thought he was getting hit on by one of the guys. He clearly didn't pick up on a female voice.








Witness the "Blackhawk effect". The man can be a complete jerk, but girls still swoon for him. Blonds especially have a weakness for it.

Some fighting. Some freeing. Some running.



Sugar never comes back, but the next time Zinda shows up after the mouse indent, she is a member of the team. Can't we just ignore all logic and pretend that this is how she got her spot on the team?