Issue ten introduces the established character of Mademoiselle Marie, who — judging from the number of fans seen wearing red berets at comics conventions — is arguably the most popular character of the series. The former French Resistance fighter is now a courageous journalist whose investigations take her from the royal palaces of Markovia to the jungles of Dinosaur Island. Marie’s adventures would sometimes intersect with Kanigher’s, but often Gaiman sets the character as the star of multiple issues with no reference at all to the titular protagonist.

From BLACKHAWK KID #60 — Art by Brian Bolland

As the series progresses, the issues increasingly shift focus from Blackhawk Kid to an expanding cast of supporting characters, with Gaiman utilizing a variety of genres and settings: Ulysses Hazard (an African American veteran who served during WWII as the commando code-named “Gravedigger”) fights racism and zombies in the Deep South; in a local tavern, WWI German air ace Hans von Hammer recounts his service as the legendary “Enemy Ace” to a young American soldier named Elvis Presley; after assuming the guise of the despotic ruler of an Asian nation, the American spy and master-of-disguise code-named the “Unknown Soldier” finds himself trapped in the role, becoming the monster he pretends to be.

Issue 65, illustrated by acclaimed artist Russ Heath, jumps from the 1950s to the present and introduces bullied teenager Molly Sprang, a docent at the town of Smallville’s war museum. Molly’s favorite exhibit is a WWII-era M3 Stuart tank; Molly doesn’t believe the stories that the tank is haunted by the ghost of a Confederate general, but when one of Molly’s tormentors is found dead — the only clue to the girl’s demise is the tread marks of a tank over her crushed body — she changes her mind.

Gaiman uses Molly’s perspective in subsequent issues to reference the past adventures of other recurring characters. Molly’s favorite book is Law’s Hercules Unbound, and her father loves the classic Kanigher movies Our Army at War and The Losers. Always wearing a red beret similar to the one worn by Mademoiselle Marie in an iconic photo taken by Dennis Stock, the bookish Molly often takes inspiration from the past adventures of the other characters, finding the courage to face her present-day challenges.

In Blackhawk Kid, Gaiman and his collaborators utilize great craft to invest DC’s bygone stable of war genre characters with new energy and ideas. Like the fictional Molly, fans of the series remain inspired by the characters’ exploits, and it is unsurprising that the series is considered a masterpiece of the comics medium.