Blackhawk Squadron Recommended Reading

The Blackhawk Squadron is a team of daredevil aviators who fight over land and over sea to make men free, and don't care of danger. They have been around since 1941, first appearing in Quality's, and later appeared in their own , which has been a quarterly, bimonthly and monthly title with three Blackhawk stories, one text story, and one Chop-Chop tale for comic relief. Quality and its characters were bought by DC Comics, and Blackhawk was one of the few titles continued by DC, picking up at issue 108.

Over the years, the team's been the subject of a lot of changes. They started out as a World War II squadron, fighting Nazis, pirates and petty dictators. When they war was over, they fought commies, pirates and petty dictators. But decades after the war, the shtick got old. They were reimagined first to tie in with the adventurer-teams like Cave Carson and the Sea Devils, and much later, after Batman and Superman told them how outdated they were, they became costumed super-heroes. It did not sit well with fans, and the series was cancelled.

Mark Evanier rebooted the series in 1982, keeping the original numbering, with. It placed the team back in World War II, and erased most of their post-war adventures. The series lasted until issue 273.

After the Crisis, Howard Chaykin gave the team another reboot, starting with a new #1 in a three issue miniseries. The team was completely changed, and the tone was made to match the then-current themes in comics. The miniseries was followed by a new ongoing series, and they were featured in Action Comics Weekly. They were gradually written into other parts of the DC Universe as well; Chop-Chop, in old age, became Cheshire's mentor.

Zero Hour changed a lot. Zinda Blake was brought back into continuity, and the current team - in their rare appearances - is a mix of the original team, the Evanier reboot, and the Chaykin reboot.

Quality Era

 *  - reproducing the Blackhawk segments of Military Comics #1-17, this is the only commercially available collection of Blackhawk stories.
 * Blackhawk
 * Military Comics
 * Modern Comics

Silver Age

 * Blackhawk
 * The super-hero Blackhawk stories started with .
 * Mark Evanier's reboot started with 

Chaykin Reboot

 * Blackhawk (Volume 2)
 * Blackhawk (Volume 3)
 * Action Comics Weekly

Post-Zero Hour
Most appearances of the Blackhawks center on Lady Blackhawk (Zinda Blake).
 * Guy Gardner: Warrior
 * Birds of Prey (issue #75 onward)
 * Birds of Prey (Volume 2)
 * Batman Confidential: The Blackhawk Down arch, issues 36 - 39.

Miscellaneous

 * The Savage Time
 * Kingdom Come
 * First Wave