Issue No. 30
April 1950
The 3 and 30: Blackhawk is given a demonstration of a new indistructiible metal invented by Mr. Parham. The demonstration is interrupted by saboteurs who are quickly defeated by the rest of the Black Knights, waiting in hiding for just such an occurance. But when the test is resumed the metal is destroyed. Parham is discouraged, but his beautiful new assistant, Ola Hesper, encourages him to continue. When the saboteurs are interrogated, the Blackhawks learn they are part of a cell organization called the 3 and 30, in which no one knows the identity of the leaders. Of course, the sample was switched during the fight and we learn that the beautiful Ola is actually the leader of the spies.
Chop-Chop, Tempest in a Teapot: Chop-Chop is shanghaied aboard a whaling ship leaving on a three year voyage. The ill-tempered captain makes him the cook and Chop-Chop has himself thrown off the ship by cooking really bad food.
The Plane from Nowhere: A text story -- Two young pilots use their racing plane to chase down an air pirate who is blackmailing an airport. A decent story except for the incongruity of a race plane equipped with a machine gun.
Menace of the Meteors: The cover story -- A friendly Asian country is under attack by a mysterious warlord called Lo Chien. The Blackhawks arrive and immediately run into a scientist who was part of an expedition. He starts to tell them something about meteors when he is shot. The assassin takes poison to avoid questioning. Then meteors start bombarding the city. An aircraft flies over saying Lo Chien is responsible for the meteors and more will come if the city doesn't surrender. They shoot the plane down but learn tha Lo Chien claims to have invented away to reduce the atmospheric friction above any location so meterors will not burn up in the air. Blackhawk doesn't believe that is possible but as no proof. Blackhawk flies to Lo Chien's camp where he discovers the warlord is a beautiful woman (big surprise). Meanwhile, Chop-Chop has discovered that the meterors are made of the same clay and rocks as can be found in the nearby Shangshi hills, where he had lived as a boy. Sure enough, Blackhawk discovers that Lo Chien doesn't have a device for lowering friction. She does have a V-2 rocket launcher platform which she is using to launch fake meteors instead of rockets. (Apparently, the writers had no idea how a rocket really works and thought the launcher propelled it like a shell from a cannon. I suppose not many people knew how rockets worked then, but this kind of gross error detracts greatly from the story.) Blackhawk holds off the bad guys long enough for the rest of the team to get there and bomb the launcher. The damaged launcher spits out one more meteror just far enough to smash the bunker in which Lo Chien is hiding.
Thanks to David Chapman for providing the cover scan for this issue.
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