Beau Smith stalks the night

by Beau Smith

I’m like a lot of other comic book writers. I grew up reading and collecting comics. I pretty much read and bought most any comic book I could find. When I was a kid the outlets for comics were many; grocery stores, drug stores, department stores, gas stations, the kindness of a grandmother, but the chances of finding continuing issues were not always that good.

I can remember buying Daredevil issue 4 and 5, then not finding another issue of Daredevil until issue 9. By then he had changed costumes and I was left wondering for a few years how that happened. Of course now days you can find comics at the click of a computer mouse or your fingertips on a tablet, so in some ways the thrill of the hunt is a little diminished. If you’ve got the cash then you can have the comic.

By growing up with a vast array of characters you tend to put some emotional investment into them even if you don’t always realize it and even if the stories are pretty crummy. It could come from the mood you were in the day you bought and read the comic. It could come from being sick as a kid and having the time to read them. It could be because you were just a dumb kid. It could be a million things. The main thing is we all have our attachments for a million different reasons.

I’ve got more than my share of personal favorites, characters such as Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Sub-Mariner, B’Wana Beast, M.A.R.S. Patrol, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Sgt Fury, Capt. Savage, Modok, Wildcat, Space Ranger, Blackhawk and many others. I’ve been VERY lucky as a writer to have written some of these characters as a professional. It’s something I’ve never taken for granted.

Art by Phil Jimenez

During my two year run of writing Guy Gardner (#20 through #44, #0 and two Annuals) I made a point to try and bring back as many of my favorite “forgotten” characters as I could. Sometimes it was okay with DC Comics, with characters like Wildcat and other times such as with B’Wana Beast, it didn’t happen. I tried to haul in The Blackhawks, but at the time they had something cooking in the back kitchen with the characters and I couldn’t put them on my menu, but… they did say yes when I asked about Lady Blackhawk. I remember they were a little puzzled why I would want to haul back a character they thought no one cared about, but the way I looked at it was if I cared then chances are I wasn’t alone. I was right.

In the middle of my Guy Gardner run DC was doing an event called Zero Hour. Love it or hate it, they did it and as writers, we all pitched in to make it work. I looked at this as my chance to bring Lady Blackhawk back as well as a few others. With Lady Blackhawk I made it stick. Some of the others like Space Ranger, well, at least I got to haul him back for one issue.

At the time, the Guy Gardner book was like the home for misfit heroes. I built Warrior’s bar for them all to hang out in and then proceeded to try and fill it up. Guy had a bunch of crazy-quilt hero buddies that I created for him to hang with, folks like Buck Wargo And The Monster Hunters and Probert-The Bad One. In doing that I needed to create some new cool bad guys for him to fight with so I brought in Dementor, Sledge, The Black Serpent and Martika.

Art by Paul Abrams

The most fun I had was saving some great little known and used DC heroes from the land of no return. Tiger-Man (My Greatest Adventure Comics, DC the early 1960’s) Lead, (The Metal Men) as well as some bad guys like Earthworm, Fire Fist and Guy’s toughest bad guy, Major Force. I must admit, I had way too much fun.

Some of you out there that keep up with comics, and most of all you Guy Gardner readers, know that some of the above mentioned characters have been swept under the DC carpet, killed or just forgotten. One of them that stuck was Lady Blackhawk. I’m very thankful to my friend Gail Simone for grabbing the torch for this character and not letting it get snuffed out. Gail not only put Lady Blackhawk in Birds Of Prey, but she gave her some major page time. In Birds Of Prey, Gail treated Zinda Blake (Lady Blackhawk) with respect and dignity. She stayed true to the character as a middle of the century adventurer that was always a Lady, but could bust heads with the boys any day of the week. Gail also made sure to show that even though Zinda was out of her former time and without the rest of the Blackhawks, she didn’t have to go on Oprah or Dr. Phil to whine and cry about lost times. She bucked up and found her a place within the ranks of Birds Of Prey.

Birds of Prey #112

In issue #112, DC dedicated an entire issue to Lady Blackhawk as she toasts a tribute to her recently fallen comrade, Big Barda. (Another favorite character of mine now taken from the DC spotlight for no real good reason.)

In “The Warrior Wake Of Zinda Blake”, Lady Blackhawk is in a bar room brawl and breaking beer bottles over the heads of those that need it. Our .45 auto totin’ girl in black/blue leather is bound for California to take care of business and she persuaded a Taxi driver to get her there not knowing there are assassins tailing her looking to do her in.

It was an action-packed road trip with loads of shooting and fighting. Zinda Blake at her best even when she’s three sheets to the wind. The only annoying snag in the story is too much PC jibber-jabber is placed on her Pakistani cab driver, Masoud. He whines all the way across country making you wanna just skip his word balloons.

Lady Blackhawk in action

David Cole and the great inker Doug Hazlewood did an extra fine job on the art with some straight ahead story telling that makes this book a pleasure to look at and read. The best part of this story is that it was a good old-fashioned stand-alone story. We’re not treated to many of those these days at Marvel and DC so it was really nice to have a good one.

I highly recommend that you try and find this issue and read it. It’s fun and it’s well worth the $2.99. While you’re at it you might want to let DC know that you’d love to see more of Lady Blackhawk. She’s a great character and deserves to be seen more. You might also want to thank Gail Simone next time you see her at a con for keeping the character alive and kicking those shapely legs. Folks need to be thanked for the little pleasures in life.

Next time you see me at a con, make sure you ask me about how I would like to bring back all the Blackhawks. I may not be able to raise the dead, but I can sure try and make ‘em proud.

Your amigo,

Beau Smith

The Flying Fist Ranch

www.flyingfistranch.com

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