BLACKBIRD

Real Name: Unrevealed (see comments)

Identity/Class: Unrevealed; presumably extradimensional/alternate reality (Earth-712/"Earth-S") human

Occupation: Sidekick

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond)

Enemies: Unrevealed

Known Relatives: None (see comments)

Aliases: None (see comments)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed; likely Cosmopolis, New Troy, Earth-712 (see comments)

First Appearance: Design sketches

Powers/Abilities: Unrevealed

Height: 5'4" (by estimation)
Weight: 130 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:
(Design sketches) - Blackbird was the teen sidekick of Earth-712's Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond).

Comments: Created by John Byrne and presumably Mark Gruenwald.

   Prior to Mark Gruenwald launching his Squadron Supreme miniseries he apparently tasked John Byrne with working on design sketches for many of the characters intended to appear within. Byrne produced a number of "handbook-style" images, some of which have subsequently made their way online in recent years. Interestingly, alongside the characters who actually appeared in the Squadron Supreme series, there were two characters who didn't - Nighthawk's teen sidekick, Blackbird, and the Apparition; the sketches also confirmed that Remnant was originally named Wild Card.

   It's fairly obvious that since Nighthawk was a analogue of Batman, Blackird would have been the analogue of Robin. Given that parallel, it's entirely possible that he is the second Earth-712 Nighthawk, Neal Richmond. Neal's creator, Len Kaminski, seems to have been aware of at least some of the characters Mark Gruenwald and John Byrne had developed for but ultimately not used, as he namechecked the Apparition in the same tale that introduced Neal (Squadron Supreme: New World Order). Even if it wasn't the intention from the outset that Neal be the adult Blackbird, it would still be a good fit. However, given that Batman has had several Robins and since there's no firm evidence that Neal was once Blackbird, it's still possible Blackbird was another individual, so they get separate Appendix entries.

   Whether he is Neal or not, if the parallels to Robin hold was likely Kyle Richmond's ward or son (adoptive/step/foster/biological); if he's not Neal, then Neal is likely a brother of some sort. His base on operations would presumably match that of Kyle.

   The design sketch was in black and white; the colored version to the left is my somewhat amateurish colorization assuming that he shared the same color scheme as his mentor, done purely to get an idea how he might have looked.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Blackbird has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Squadron Supreme character design sketches (main image and colored version)

Appearances:
None.

First Posted: 02/13/2024
Last updated: 02/13/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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