CURIOSITIES #34: 'THE KILLER SHARK" (BLACKHAWK #50, 1952)

I found most of the DC BLACKHAWK comics of the 1960s easy to acquire without much expense, and never thought they were anything but slightly entertaining formula-fare. I don't imagine I knew anything about the Blackhawks' earlier incarnation under Quality Comics until sometime in the seventies, which was both the era when DC began reprinting some of those adventures, and when I obtained a copy of the two volumes of Steranko's HISTORY OF COMICS. 

Even without knowing anything about Early Blackhawk, I could tell that DC's version was dependent on the same sort of menaces I saw in other Silver Age titles: lots of space-aliens and costumed super-villains. Not many in either category ever made return appearances, but the one exception was a costumed fellow named Killer Shark. Once or twice, I remember wondering if DC kept giving this character exposure because he'd been a familiar face at Quality.

I never made any deliberate attempt to find out, not even by consulting online resources. But I found out, by accident, that Quality Blackhawk did have just one encounter with a version of Killer Shark. Artist Reed Crandall's design for the villain-- shark-fin cowl, goggles, and sharp teeth-- was pretty much followed by DC later. However, Quality only used the character once as far as I can tell, killing him at story's end-- probably because that Killer Shark was a literal killer, inviting a certain rough justice.

I'm not minded to search out DC's first usage of the character, but I think that, aside from costume modifications, he stayed much the same throughout the Silver Age: a sea-raider who kept coming up with gimmicks to confound the heroic aviators. The above scene is from BLACKHAWK #170 (1962), and involves Lady Blackhawk getting turned into a mermaid for some reason. 

It's likely that Killer Shark is the only villain DC transplanted from Quality, and the DC editors probably brought him back into use only because the original series did not use costumed villains very often, and it was easier to rework an earlier character than make a new one. Though no versions of Killer Shark rate as great villains, he has some distinction for another transformation: he brainwashed Lady Blackhawk into becoming his mate, Queen Killer Shark, which gave Blackhawk and his partners more than a little aggravation. And these are probably the only sixties BLACKHAWK stories that have any dramatic oompf.