Modern Cancelled Awesome

The recent reboot DC went through was certainly controversial. Whether it was the right move or not has been debated back and forth a bunch, but DC comics has had more comics in the top 10 bestsellers list since the reboot than in years, so from a purely business standpoint, it was the right thing to do.

From a creative standpoint? Well, there have been, in my opinion, more misses than hits, but those hits have almost all been knocked out of the park. There have also been several surprisingly good series that sort of came out of nowhere to be more interesting than they had any right to be. Despite this, at issue eight, they were still cancelled. Which brings us to Blackhawks #8, written by Mike Costa with art by "CAFU" and "BIT."

So, Blackhawks. The original Blackhawks were WWII-era mercenary fighter pilots. They have a longish history and were very popular in the 40s. They even had their own themesong. Heck, Steven Spielberg even purchased the film rights to the series in the early 80s! No movie was ever made, so presumably the rights lapsed, but still. Steven Spielberg?

Needless to say, their popularity has waned since the war years, being little more than a measurement of true geek cred by the 90s and early 00s, although they did have the occasional revival. But, it's a new war era, and a new comic era, so at the beginning of the new 52 relaunch, they were pitched as a modern-day mercenary group exclusively funded by the U.N. and whatever equipment they appropriate from their opponents. And they have a particular mandate to stop rogue nano-machine development. In fact, they are keenly paranoid of a nanotech infestation of their secret base, the Eyrie. So much so, when one of their operatives, Kunoichi, comes back from a mission with powers given to her by a nano-infection, she keeps it a secret, even from her lover, Wildman.

It's been eight issues, so plenty has gone on and I can't recap the whole series. The highlights: the Eyrie has been infiltrated by one or more nanotech agents of someone called "Mother Machine," who also kidnapped a pair of 'hawks, the aforementioned Wildman, and also one called Canada; "Mother Machine" is an advanced nanotech consciousness who controlled her own "city," called Bespoke; the U.N. has sent an auditor to ensure that Blackhawks' budget is being used properly, but he actually grew sympathetic to the 'hawks' mission, and got himself essentially permanently assigned to them; Wildman seemingly died in an attack on the Eyrie after getting free, along with Canada, from Bespoke; Kunoichi was compromised and the team learned about her nano-tech powers, but they were still willing to work with her, and in the same attack that killed Wildman was injured and seemed to be speaking the way Mother Machine does (distinctive word baloons). That . . . should be everything you need to know.

So this issue begins with the team medevacing (is that even a word?) Kunoichi to another part of the Eyrie, and bantering.

What with Kunoichi's body so filled with nanobots, the doctors can't perform an MRI--presumably the magnets would interfere with them, or they would mess with the readings--but they need to check her for brain injury. Before they can proceed with whatever tests to check that while she's unconscious--

Before I go on, I really want to give props to the art team for this issue. Kunoichi is in a hospital gown, her legs bare, and she's never depicted as over-sexualized. Unless . . . you've got a thing for feet? Uh . . . anyway, those distinctive word balloons are Mother Machine's, basically meaning she's taken over the nanobots in Kunoichi's body, and thus Kunoichi's body as well.

Ah . . . .

Yeah, and she's inside their main base.

. . . Uh-oh!

Yeah, she shuts off most of the power, and jacks into their mainframe.

And insults them. That guy in the bottom panel is Canada, and he's all "Oh no. Oh no." because, well, he was kidnapped by her and knows who she is and what she's capable of.

Being a soldier, he comes up with a direct solution: get somebody to fire a missile at their servers' cooling array.

Okay, so she's got a point.

They realize they've got to find Kunoichi, and launch an offensive against their own base to search for her.

But where is she?

She's in her mind, at her old home from when she was a kid. The person talking to her is her lover, Wildman, or rather an incomplete download of his brain from back when he was a . . . "guest" of Bespoke. As he puts it:

He explains he's acting sort of like a computer virus in her brain because of the nanomachines she has, and that she's constructed her old house as a model of her consciousness. And that Mother Machine is currently setting up shop in the model's front room, and that they've got to evict her.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, so it's a little bit rushed. Whatever.

Mother Machine is still in the computer systems, so they have to rush out of there and set off the nuclear safeguard to make sure the nanomachines don't escape, and that she doesn't turn on the transmitters at the base to, like, turn the internet into her own neural network, or whatever.

And since the only thing more awesome than walking away from an explosion is flying away from a nuclear explosion:

Awesome.

And so the comic ends on a rather sombre, but hopeful note:

Because this is sadly the last issue of the comic. But it's a pretty freakin' awesome way to go out, I must say.

This issue came out the day this post is published, so you can get it as you like. I don't know if it'll be collected in a paperback, DC is kind of . . . waffley when it comes to that, particularly for short-lived or more obscure series. I guess we'll see.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; seriously, watching your headquarters that you just NUKED. That's how I want to be cancelled!--Wait.