Spacehawk
Entry updated 22 September 2025. Tagged: Character, Comics.
US Comic strip created by Basil Wolverton (1909-1978), who wrote and drew (including colouring) the stories. Spacehawk appeared in 30 consecutive issues of Novelty Press's Target Comics between June 1940 and December 1942 (vol 1 #5-vol 3 #10). Aside from the 30 strips, there were also three short text stories about our hero, two written by Wolverton. A similar Wolverton strip, Spacehawks, had debuted in Circus the Comic Riot #1 in 1938 (this contained about 28 different, mostly 1-2 page, comic strips by various hands intended to attract newspaper interest and syndication but folded after three issues).
"With the coming of interplanetary travel, the legions of the law find it impossible to deal with the pirates, killers, and other criminals lurking in space [see Crime and Punishment] ... then apparently out of nowhere comes the superhuman enemy of crime, the mysterious Spacehawk" who uses Telepathically controlled Robots dressed as himself and other advanced Technology. Human in appearance but wearing a mask for the first few stories, he describes himself as "not quite human" and has recently arrived in our Solar System, where he has befriended many of the peaceable species living here. Spacehawk is over 200 years old, whilst the Vulture Men in vol 1 #8 are described as "my ancient enemies" from a "far distant solar system".
In the first tale the pirate Gorvak of Mars attempts to capture a white protoplasmic Neptunian (see Outer Planets) species called the Creeping Death by using an Earthwoman as bait (the plan is to put the creatures into time-locked containers on space freighters: they will devour the crew, then eventually die of starvation, enabling Gorvak to pillage without hindrance). The woman is rescued by Spacehawk, who pursues Gorvak's Spaceship into a tunnel bored by extinct giant Ants, eventually feeding him to a Creeping Death. In vol 1 #7 Aliens accessorize a planetoid with "rocket propellers [that is, jets], artificial Gravity and an amplified atmosphere" and collide with spaceships to steal their cargo: on one crashed liner they find the Earth woman Spacehawk rescued in vol 1 #5, and their leader plans to surgically alter her appearance so she will be "beautiful according to my standards", but she is again rescued by our hero. In vol 1 #8 he interrupts the Vulture Men as they plan to conquer the Earth; their leader, after an exchange, dismisses him with, "Now, if you don't mind, we're extremely busy." Vol 1 #9 has a Martian politician, bitter at losing an election (see Politics), using an Invention that increases an object's "natural mass attraction" (presumably gravity) to send Phobos crashing into Mars. In vol 1 #11 a mortally wounded Plutonian police officer persuades Spacehawk to transplant his brain into an Uranian Dinosaur so he can destroy the pirate city located there.
In 1941 Target Comics decided its serials should join in the World War Two war effort: at the very end of vol 2 #1 Spacehawk suddenly announces to blossoming romantic interest Haba the Queen of Neptune, "I must go now, Haba, Uncle Sam needs me." Vol 2 #2 informs us THAT the threat of hostile, greedy nations has prompted Spacehawk to concentrate "on defending the one great land of real freedom – America". As the series has been set in the future, initially this situation seems only to parallel World War Two: a spaceship disguised as an Asteroid in vol 2 #2 is manned by people who seem to be Japanese; the dictator Moosler's appearance is a combination of Mussolini and Hitler; another dictator is named Nitwitler. However, there is a gradual shift, with the stories increasingly appearing to be actually set during World War Two: for example, in vol 3 #7, people's skin suddenly turn green and they start voicing support for the "Axis powers" – a result of Hypnosis by radio waves; there is also a reference to "Nazi agents". Spacehawk deals with a giant undersea tank, country of origin unspecified (vol 2 #3); Germany's giant Flying Wing aircraft (vol 2 #9); and Japan's immense Zeppelin (vol 3 #8) that acts as a flying aircraft carrier (the planes are stored within the dirigible, flying out of a chute on its underside). He also provides the US with Weapons, such as high frequency sound waves that can kill, vaporize oil and set wood alight. Sometimes Spacehawk is assisted by his alien partner Dork, whilst a regular antagonist is Dr Gore – the "elusive mastermind of science" – who first appears in vol 2 #7.
Wolverton's imagination and distinct, grotesque but clean art style make the space-bound Spacehawk strips one of the highlights of that era's sf comics: though the basic plots are similar to other space crime-fighters of the period, they are tighter, more coherent (though still with Scientific Errors) – also more verbose and with some Humour. Several of the early Earthbound strips are strong too, though the later ones are less interesting (vol 3 #7 and vol 3 #8 being exceptions) – the nadir being vol 3 #9, where he is reduced to dealing with tyre thieves. [SP]
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