Blackhawk # 247 (DC/1976)

 

BlackHawk #247 (DC)

David Kraft (w) Ric Estradoa & Al Milgrom (a)

With DC contracting it's publishing schedule for the immediate future it seems appropriate to look at a title that fell in the last DC "implosion". Having already been cancelled as the Blackhawks had fallen out of favour as more modern material this "pulp" series inherited from Quality Comics had once been a top seller. 

Blackhawks was not on my reading list as a kid having not being impressed by the one issue I did read. However with a higher budget as an adult I did buy a few and honestly every time I read one I cannot make my mind up about the team.

This particular issue is just typical fare for the seventies. There's a threat in Belgium which is to be dealt with by Duchess Ramona Fatale a one eyed curvy seductress with a team of equally hot sidekicks, Tani, Ayn and Prudence. One of the Blackhawks who has (cough) previous "experience with Prudence buggers off with them.

Meanwhile the team receive a call from the CIA asking for the Blackhawks to escort something from Greenland to old Blighty. However as usual not all is as it seems as Agent Robertson takes off his mask and introduces himself with a monologue in an empty room .

Ambushed over Greenland by flying robots the team are eventually shot our the sky and taken prisoner by our villain. He states his purpose as wanting to save the world by nuking bits of it starting with Britain using a bomb made with a stray atom of anti-matter found in South America.

Of course   the Blackhawks escape Biolords clutches and watch in horror as the anti-matter missile takes of for England's green and soon to not be pleasant lands.

To be continued.....

Now I have to decide whether to bother to find the next issue. It's not that memorable as a story and the team soon fade away. Taken after their prime by a financial crisis.  There were a couple of revivals later down the line but that lasted.

Oh and don't bother with the "New 52" version that was awful.