Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985) 2
Apr 1985
07/22/21 - Page 22 - Bizarro
Bizarro is a copy of Superman but he isn't the original Bizarro. The first Bizarro was introduced in 1958 in Superboy 68 (Oct 1958) and was a copy of Superboy. That Bizarro was created by Professor Dalton. The subsequent and better known Bizarro was created by Lex Luthor.
Bizarro World is also known as Htrae which is Earth spelled backwards. Bizarro and and Bizarro Lois Lane used the duplicator ray which created them to populate their world. Their are Bizarro copies of many other characters. The entry in Who’s Who shows copies of Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Krypto, Batman, and Green Lantern in addition to Superman and Lois Lane.
07/24/21 - Page 24 - Black Bison
I bought The Fury of Firestorm 1, which was the first comic book in which Black Bison appeared, on my 12th birthday. All of his early appearances, prior to Who’s Who, were in issues of Fury of Firestorm.
07/25/21 - Page 25 - Blackbriar Thorn
Blackbriar Thorn only had one appearance prior to Who’s Who. I was completely unfamiliar with him, having not read that issue. He was created by Len Wein and Joe Kubert. He only appeared 5 times in the 1980s and once in the 1990s, not counting appearances in reference books like Who’s Who.
Blackbriar Thorn was found by Professor Lewis Lang, Lana Lang’s father, centuries after he disappeared.
07/26/21 - Page 26 - Black Canary I, Black Canary II
The two Black Canaries history is intertwined because they are mother and daughter. Their history is explained in the entry which interesting for a few reasons. There is one History section and one section on Powers & Weapons for both of them. They each get their own Personal Data sections.
This is the first case that I can find in Who’s Who where the art seems to have been designed with the layout of the page in mind. All other pages up to this point have the text above, below, or to the right or left of the art. There are a few exceptions that have the art in the middle with the art above and below or in some other such configuration. This is the first case where the art seems to interact with the text. It is also notable that both of the Black Canaries have their own logos. I don’t know enough to know if the artist created either or both of the logos.
Black Canary I first appeared in Flash Comics 86 (Aug 1947) in a Johnny Thunder story. She continued to appear in his stories for a few more issues until Flash Comics 90 (Dec 1947) when they became co-stars. She was featured on the cover and Johnny Thunder was dropped from Flash Comics starting with issue 92.
Black Canary I appeared in her own solo feature in all the remaining issues of Flash Comics (92-104). She also appeared in All-Star Comics 38-57 as a member of the Justice Society of America. Her last appearance in the golden age was in All-Star Comics 57 (Mar 1951) which came out about 2 years after Flash Comics 104 (Feb 1949).
07/27/21 - Page 27 - Black Condor
Black Condor first appeared in the pages of Crack Comics 1 (May 1940) which was published by Quality Comics. His final golden age appearance was in Crack Comics 31 (Oct 1943). His next appearance was in Justice League of America 107 (Oct 1973). This is when the Freedom Fighters were retconned into existence.
07/28/21 - Page 28 - Blackfire
Blackfire was in the first issue of New Teen Titans that I bought, Annual 1 (1982).
07/29/21 - Page 29 - Black Hand
I had no clue as to who this character was before reading this entry just now. According to DC Database he sometimes breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the reader.
07/30/21 - Page 30 - Blackhawk
Blackhawk first appeared in Military Comics 1 (Aug 1941) which was published by Quality Comics. The rights to Blackhawk were sold to DC Comics. Blackhawk’s first appearance after the sale was in Blackhawk 108 (Jan 1957). That is considered to be the Earth-One version of Blackhawk but that fact isn’t established for several years.
There is an Earth-Two version of Blackhawk. He first appeared in Justice League of America 107 (Oct 1973), the same issue in which Black Condor and the rest of the Freedom Fighters were retroactively established as having moved to Earth-X. The Earth-Two version of Blackhawk also appeared in a few issues of All-Star Squadron.
There is a page in the DC Database called Blackhawk Is Confusing which enumerates some of the contradictory facts of Blackhawk’s history.
07/31/21 - Page 31 - The Blackhawks
The Blackhawks (aka the Blackhawk Squadron) first appeared in Military Comics 1 (Aug 1940) alongside their leader, Blackhawk. There are six members of the Blackhawks listed in the Who’s Who entry. Unlike many other group entries this one has a brief description of each member of the team.
Stanislaus is from Poland and first appeared in Military Comics 2 (Sep 1941). He was a pilot in the Polish Air Force before becoming a member of the Blackhawk Squadron. He almost went blind in Military Comics 32 (Sep 1944) but his vision was restored by transplanted corneas which came from a dog.
Chuck is from Texas and first appeared in Military Comics 11 (Aug 1942). He is the communications expert of the team. He speaks Japanese and at least one dialect of Chinese.
Olaf is from Sweden and first appeared in Military Comics 2 (Sep 1941). His nationality wasn’t established until Blackhawk 93 (Oct 1955). He was previously referred to as being Norwegian.
Hans Hendrickson is the oldest member of the squadron. He first appeared in Military Comics 2 (Sep 1942). He was originally said to be from the Netherlands but later on he was established as being from Germany.
Andre is from France and first appeared in Military Comics 2 (Sep 1942). He was badly injured and believed to be dead after the events in Military Comics 3 (Oct 1941). He was later found and restored thanks to a plastic surgeon in Military Comics 10 (Jun 1942)
Chop Chop is from China and first appeared in Military Comics 3 (Oct 1941). He is a pilot but he is also the team’s cook. He was depicted as a racist stereotype of a Chinese person in the Quality Comics era of the Blackhawk Squadron. He was the star of a backup feature for several years from Blackhawk 10 (Mar 1946) to Blackhawk 95 (Dec 1955).
There are three other members of the team Baker (from England), Boris (from Russia), and Zeg (from Poland) but they only appeared a limited number of times in the early 1940s and are not mentioned in the Who’s Who entry.
The Blackhawks of Earth-One were similar to those of the Quality Comics era. They first appeared in Blackhawk 108 (Jan 1957). Some of the inconsistencies of the Quality Comics era did not carry over into the Earth-One era of the team.
The Earth-One version of Chop-Chop was born Lou Huang according to Blackhawk 203 (Dec 1964). This story, Operation White Dragon, was written by Bob Haney. His name was changed to Wu Cheung and his backstory was modified a couple decades later by Mark Evanier.
08/01/21 - Page 32 - Blackhawk Plane, Blackhawk Island
Blackhawk Island is located in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Who’s Who entry. There has been more than one Blackhawk Island according to DC Database. The first one was located in the Atlantic but in later years another island base was established by the Blackhawks in the Pacific. It’s location was supposed to be a secret but apparently there have lots of people other than the Blackhawks who have found it.
08/02/21 - Inside Back Cover - where to find (most of) the entries in this issue
There a few entries that don’t get a mention on this page (Automan, Bat-Mite, Batwoman, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Barda, Big Bear, Blackbriar Thorn). They didn’t cram quite as many covers on this page as they did in the previous issue. There are just six this time around. I have 4 of them (Tales of the Teen Titans 53, Batman and the Outsiders 20, Crisis on Infinite Earths 2, All-Star Squadron 44) but the other two (Batman 382, Swamp Thing 35) are absent from my collection.
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