Military Comics Issue No. 11
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Writer: Dick French, Artist: Chuck Cuidera (Cover art by the Will Eisner Shop)
On Blackhawk Island, an argument rages. The team is debating whether to stay in Europe and fight the Nazis or assist America in its war with Japan. The predominately European Black Knights are leaning toward staying where they are when an indignant Chop-Chop tells them they should be ashamed, that America is the only place in the world where people can live like human beings and he is proud to help them in their fight. He stalks off to join America. Unfortunately for his idealism, America really doesn't want his help and they assign him to KP on a transport ship headed for the Phillipines. In the Phillipines, the families of American soldiers are fleeing in small boats from invading Japanese. At the same time, the Blackhawks, learning of Chop-Chop's whereabouts, are winging swiftly towards Panama, enroute to the Phillipines. Low on fuel, they spot a Nazi aircraft carrier. They land, subdue the entire crew, fuel their planes and take off. (DLT's note: This is one of the most ludicrous scenes I have ever read in a Blackhawk comic book. The German's never had an operational aircraft carrier. If they had, what was it doing in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama instead of the North Sea destroying Allied convoys? And as good as the Blackhawks are, I don't believe the six of them could have defeated the 600 Germans that would make up the crew of an aircraft carrier. And if they had, why did they just fly off without destroying the aircraft carrier? The whole thing is damn silly.) All the forces converge on a small island where the American refugees have landed. An American cruiser, the "El Paso," arrives to rescue the soldiers families but is attacked by an overwhelming force of the Imperial fleet. While the Blackhawks are in a fierce dogfight with Japanese fighters in the air above, the gallant cruiser battles the Imperial fleet. It is sunk but has slowed the enemy long enough for the rest of the American fleet to arrive. The Black Knights land on the island where they find Chop-Chop fighting the Nazi masters who had ordered the Japanese attack (at this early stage of the war, propaganda tended to portray the Japanese as stooges of the Nazis, since it was assumed that the Orientals weren't smart enough or brave enough to start a war on their own. This soon changed and the Japanese were promoted to full partners in villainy in the official viewpoint). They help Chop-Chop wipe out the remaining bad guys and decide to use the island as their new base of operations.
This story had plenty of action and some enjoyable artwork, especially of the sea and air battles, but the story was a mess with little logic or cohesion.
Other stories in this issue:
Sniper
Loops and Banks (by Bud Ernest)
Shot and Shell (by K. Nordling)
Death Patrol (by David Berg)
Phantom Clipper (by Kida)
Inferior Man (by Allan Jaffee)
X of the Underground
We'll Moider d' Bums (a text story by Richard French)
The Blue Tracer (by Fred Guardineer)
Secret War News
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