Why Does the Blackhawk Movie Serial Exist?

If you’re one of the multitudes who know little to nothing about Blackhawk, all you need to know is that the Blackhawk Squadron originated as a group of World War II fighter pilots from the various Allied countries. Their leader is also named Blackhawk. They’re like Bon Jovi that way. While pretty obscure now, they were apparently popular enough to warrant a movie serial in 1952. You might already have noticed several problems with this. First, movie serials are short, sequential films shown before a main feature. They tended to be made on the cheap, so how did they expect to capture all of the exciting aerial battles seen in Blackhawk comics? They didn’t. Aside from a few brief scenes involving stock footage and unconvincing special effects, the team spends most of their time driving around in disappointingly bland cars. They might have at least painted the Blackhawk logo on the side. Second, 1952 is well after World War II ended. Seems a little odd that a comic so indelibly linked with World War II would only get a film adaptation years after the fact, no? Unfortunately for everyone, Blackhawk comics limped on after the war, this time featuring our heroes taking up the fight agai...