Blackhawks - Super Powered Fiction

The cover to "Voodoo #9"

Voodoo #9 takes some weird turns.

Priscilla Kitaen wakes up from a dream where her parents were murdered by Voodoo, her clone. However, she is still with Lincoln, head of the Blackhawks, after she accepted working for him to help him with the Daemonite problem. Meanwhile, Voodoo is somewhere in South America, and seems to have found one of Helspont’s hideouts. She wants to prove she is worthy to continue the Daemonite legacy while she thinks the new Daemonites or the hybrids should be the ones in charge now as they are more advanced. The issue then highlights both Priscilla training to fight, and Voodoo fighting some of Helspont’s brainwashed humans. Priscilla stops, and meets her new trainer and possible love interest Axel Walker. Pris is not too happy to hear she worked at the Voodoo Lounge or at least her clone did. Helspont send Voodoo to the Dead City of the Daemonites. She is sent away while Pris has a vision of what Voodoo was hearing from Helspont. Lincoln then takes them to what seems to be a Daemonite sleeper transport, and it seems to be reaching out psychically to Pris. She is able to control it, and flies off to find Voodoo.

Joshua Williamson continues to make me confident in the narrative he is trying to tell with each issue. While I missed Ron Marz, Williamson is quickly making me love his crazy new direction for the book. Sami Basri continues to excel in his artwork for the book. To all who read this, you should join the Daemonite fight, and read this book asap.

Nightwing by Higgins & Barrows recreates the pulp noir of the classic Dixon/McDaniel run.

This article originally appeared at New Pulp.

DC Comics recently relaunched its line with 52 new number ones. Many titles were canceled, others were brought back. All that being said, several titles seemed to take inspiration from the pulps.

With his origins, many might think the Batman titles would find their way on to the list. Strangely though, most of the Bat-titles instead focused either on his enemies or on his bigger plans for the future. It took his former sidekick Dick Grayson to really bring the pulp forward. Writer Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows have brought Nightwing back to his own book. Dick has been turned in to something of a lone wolf again as he faces a mysterious vigilante somehow related to his former circus.

Deathstroke is a classic pulp anti-hero in a very modern setting!

Deathstroke is the pulp hero through the filter of modern anti-heroes. Also written by Kyle Higgins, but drawn by Joe Bennett, Deathstroke introduces an aging assassin in search of meaning in his career. This book is clearly meant to give us a dark view of the reality of the new DC, but Deathstroke’s powers and motivations could come straight from the pulps.

Blackhawks takes the tried and true specialist team structure from classic pulps like Doc Savage and Suicide Squad, then runs it through G.I. Joe and Wildstorm filters. This book is all about a specialized unit designed to move in and quickly destroy threats to mankind, though the tech jargon may need to be scaled back to really make it work long term. With Phantom artist Graham Nolan on layouts (and eventually full art), the book will look gorgeous nonetheless.

Finally, DC revamps Jonah Hex in to All-Star Western. The book takes the classic pulp western hero and moves him out east, specifically to Gotham City. Of course he ends up involved in a grizzly crime which may be related to an old enemy of his.

Other titles show hints of classic pulp influences: Batwoman, Voodoo and Grifter for example. How well these influences play out in the New 52 remains to be seen, but one thing seems certain.

They can’t be any worse than First Wave.