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The Blackhawks on Earth-X
As with many stories, the inspiration for this is a compound of several sources. Talking with Kevin Ahearn, reading his stories and seeing his enthusiasm for the idea of Blackhawks made me think seriously about writing my own Blackhawk story. Another inspiration was a discussion I had with Dave Cockrum in which we both agreed that it was a shame that the Blackhawks never flew the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. It is one of the prettiest early jets and would have made a good first jet for the Blackhawks. So I started thinking about a situation in which the Blackhawks flew the P-80 against German Me 262s, and that led to the idea of an alternate history story in which WW II did not end in 1945, but continued on longer. As it happens, I even had a DC comic book that mentioned the Blackhawks in exactly that situation. Justice League of America #107 features an adventure that takes place on Earth-X. This was back when the DC universe contained a number of different Earths with parallel but not identical timelines. Earth-X is the timeline that contains all the characters who were originally Quality heroes, i.e. Uncle Sam, Plasticman, Phantom Lady, The Ray, and so on. Of course, the biggest Quality heroes were the Blackhawks, and they are mentioned but not featured in JLA #107. Earth-X, as described in JLA #107, is a world in which the Nazis won a WW II that lasted decades longer than in our world. The Point of Divergence (POD) provided in JLA #107 is President Roosevelt having a fatal heart attack in 1944 (instead of 1945). The story states that this caused a shift in political power that lead to the Germans and the U.S.A. developing the atom bomb at the same time. A little research and some heavy thinking revealed that is a very good selection as a POD that might indeed lead to an extension of the war and a possibility of the Nazis winning. Starting with those premises, I developed the timeline linked below. And with that as the background, I wrote Shooting Stars, the first of what I hope will be a series of Earth-X Blackhawk stories. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
UPDATE: It took me much longer than I ever expected, but I finally have another Earth-X story, The Night Witches, completed. Check it out below.
Acknowledgments: Most of the illustrations for Shooting Stars were freely adapted from Ted Nomura's excellent work in his Luftwaffe 1946 series. And thanks to Kevin Ahearn for the suggestion that the Night Witches would make a good Blackhawk story. And more thanks to Don Secrease for providing illustrations for The War Wheel.
Shooting Stars
The Night Witches
The War Wheel
The Earth-X Timeline
Who Are The Earth-X Blackhawks?
Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star
Messerschmitt Me 262A Schwalbe
P-80 vs Me 262
Po-2 vs FW 190D
P-80 vs Me 263
Back to Blackhawk New Adventures Page
All characters, pictures, and related indicia on these pages are the property of DC Comics. All text is ©2001 Dan Thompson, except where otherwise noted. This homepage is not intended to infringe on the copyright of DC Comics to its characters, but was created out of gratitude to all the wonderful writers, artists, and editors who created the Blackhawks.