Issue No. 71
December 1953
The Man Who Could Defeat Blackhawk: Von Tepp, a long-time Nazi nemesis of Blackhawk, appears to keep returning to life after having been killed numerous times by the Blackhawks. In fact, several von Tepp imposters have been given plastic surgery by communists and sacrificed their lives to distract the Blackhawks from their plan to take over some (mythical) Eastern European country.
Ed. Note: By introducing Von Tepp, Blackhawk's origin story can be retold for an audience that may not be familiar with it. And, at the same time, changes could be made. This time we are told explicitly that Blackhawk, his brother and sister, are all Americans working as volunteers in Poland when Germany invades. There is no ambiguity about whether Blackhawk is a Pole, or a Polish-American returned to his homeland. He is simply an American, fighting the evils of Nazism before the rest of America is ready. When the rest of the team is introduced in a page-wide panel, standing at attention with their name and country of origin beneath each one, we learn that Stanislau is from 'Free Poland', Hendrickson from 'Democratic Germany', and Chop Chop from 'Free China'. It is not at all clear where Free Poland and Free China are. I was impressed that the artist for this story (it looks like Dick Dillin's work to me, but I can't say for sure) did a fine job of recreating the panels of the WW II dog fight between Blackhawk and Von Tepp. Of course, the inker for this story was probably Chuck Cuidera, who drew the origin in the first place.
Lost Horizon of Terror: The Blackhawks foil an attempt to conquer the world by seven foot tall aliens who fly around in saucers. (Ed Note: this story is full of psuedo-scientific gimmicks, like the lead face cream that protects the Blackhawks from cosmic and atomic radiation, and the infamous 'semi-atomic bombs' with which Blackhawk destroys the would be conquerors' hidden base. The flying saucer cover has been featured in books about flying saucers in pop culture).
The Human Reptile - a text story. Blackhawk tricks a saboteur into revealing the location of a hidden atomic bomb by putting him in a glass bottomed cage with a poisonous green mamba snake. The trick is that snakes can't move on glass, according to Blackhawk.
The Red Tiger: A large mechanical red tiger built by Russians terrorizes superstitious villagers in Afghanistan. The Blackhawks are captured but manage to destroy the tiger from within.
Thanks to Doug Husak for submitting the synopsis for this issue and to David Chapman for supplying the cover scan.
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