In August 1941 a team debuted that would endure for decades to come. As high flying aviators combating the Nazi regime and other treats to humanity, the Blackhawks consisted of the following:- Blackhawk - The group's leader, Bart Hawk, a Polish American
- Andre Blanc-Dumont - He is a French member of the this group.
- Olaf Bjornson - He is either from Norway or Sweden.
- Chuck Wilson - He is an American from Texas.
- Hans Hendrickson - He is their Dutch member.
- Stanislaus - He is another Polish member.
- Chop-Chop - Named Liu Huang/Wu Cheng
And, of course, their unofficial member Lady Blackhawk- Zinda Blake of Earth-One, and Eva Rice of Earth-Two.
And yet, their multiple appearences in latter years beside various superheroes from different eras, and different worlds, caused no shortage of confusion as to whether there was more than one set of seven such soldiers. And indeed there were, for the first such team (appearing in Quality Comics) resided on Earth-Two, that is until Uncle Sam recruited several freedom fighters from that world to the parallel planet of Earth-X in 1942 with no resident heroes up to that point. When the Freedom Fighters reappeared in 1973, only six costumed crusaders remained on that world (Firebrand would show up later), stating that their fellow Quality comrades who aided them against the Nazis had perished. Specifically spotlighted were the Blackhawks and Plastic Man. A second set of Blackhawks, the ones who appeared when DC Comics acquired the Blackhawks' title from Quality in January 1957 onward, resided on Earth-One. Those tales chronicled their modern day adventures, while a latter reappearence of their publication in the 1980's showed their tales during the 1940's (confusing isn't it)? However, two oddities have thus far not been reconciled, until today. First, the Earth-One Blackhawks, who battled during World War II, appeared unaged and still in their prime alongside the Justice League... in the modern day... decades later! And the Earth-Two Blackhawks appeared alongside that world's Batman in September 1944, two years after they supposedly left for Earth-X!
This can be explained a few different ways. First, we may postulate that during the Crisis on Infinite Earths which distorted space and time (at which point Earth-Two's team left for Earth-X), perhaps the Earth-One flying aces were plucked from the 40's ending up in the 60's/70's to work alongside the League. The second possibility is that the original teams inspired copycats to duplicate their idols, even going by the names of the first Blackhawks on each world. It is known that Kid Eternity pulled the Blackhawk from "Eternity" to his native Earth-S, where he operated through the mid-1950's.
These original Blackhawks of Earth-Two returned to their home world, a Blackhawk team labeling themselves as Freedom Fighters eludes to their past history as protectors of a second world at war until they were pulled back to the universe of their birth.
Their former allies like Uncle Sam who were still on Earth-X believed that the Blackhawks has perished when in fact they continued their aviation adventures into the middle of the 1950's. These seven soldiers of victory carried on their mission to right wrongs around the world from the mid 1940's through 1956, having hundreds of adventures. Then, the mysteriously disappeared, while the Earth-One version carried on later that year after having been unseen since the early days of World War II!
What became of this version of the team is unknown as their disappearance on Earth-Two was never esplained. Nevertheless, all three Blackhawk Squadrons on Earths One, Two and S were separate and distinct with only minor variations in their respective members' personal histories.
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