ACW #604 – Blackhawk

Action Comics Weekly #604 (Blackhawk)
“Another Fine War, Part 4”
Writer – Mike Grell
Pencils – Rick Burchett
Inks – Pablo Marcos
Letters – Steve Haynie
Colors – Tom Ziuko
Editor – Mike Gold

Welcome back to the Action Comics Anchor… Blackhawk!


Boy-o-boy… I never would’ve guessed that this here feature would be my favorite… hell, I wouldn’t have guessed it would be in my Top Four!


But, here we are… 


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We pick up right where we left off last week… Janos and Cynthia have just taken off in their hooch-plane, and are en route to track down the Red Dragon’s gold.  As part of our weekly “Blackhawk lech watch”, I guess I gotta point out that, no sooner did they hit altitude, than Janos asks if his navigator would be interested in joining the “Mile High Club”.  I don’t think he’s talking about Chuck Rozanski, either.  What’s more, he throws the plane into autopilot to… uh, initiate “liftoff”.

After he’s turned down (and off, I reckon), Janos recounts their current mission (for those just joining us)… and finally apologizes for being… well, being the way he is.  They agree to a truce, and to trust one another.  Ya see, Blackhawk’s got friends in low places who can give them a hand.

Remember that Saigon-bound letter from last chapter?  Well, that’s being delivered to a buddy, an Andre Blanc-DuMont.  The Clerk from the airfield hands it over… however, our pal seems to currently have his hands full.

Back in the air, Blackhawk trips a gimmick he had installed on the plane before takeoff.  It pumps oil into the engine, which burns up, and gives the impression that they’re going to have to come in for an emergency landing.  Pretty clever!

They safely land outside a temple… find themselves surrounded by locals… annnnnnnd, captured.  I actually chuckled out loud here.

Inside we meet Massie… ya know, the Parachutist who originally stole all the gold.  He’s immediately drawn to Cynthia… and claims to know her.  Before he can “let his fingers do the walking” however, he is yanked back by a whip!

The whip of… could it be… Red Dragon?!

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Still loving this as we hit the halfway point!  I’m definitely going to miss this one when it’s gone.  I haven’t shared our “road map” here yet… but, Blackhawk will be going on a brief hiatus in about a month.  Eh, ya know… might as well just go ahead and share the “map” here.

So yeah, over the course of this “project”, we’ll have three stints with Janos… and I’m pretty sure he gets a bit of “play” in the crossovers.  I know for sure he shows up briefly in the Action Comics Weekly “alternate ending”.


Okay, enough about the future… let’s talk about this one.


I’ve mentioned before that Janos’ lecherousness is a bit surprising.  I mean, it’s certainly a sign of the times, and probably shouldn’t be ignored, but I definitely don’t see this sort of thing being produced during “current year”.  Wow, a “certainly”, “probably” and “definitely” in the same sentence… that’s a bit much, even for me.


This was very much a “bridging” chapter… in which we get from Point A to B, and finally get a gander at our possible antagonist.  I haven’t read ahead, so for all I know, she might turn out to be friendly.


I appreciated the humor here, and did legitimately laugh when Blackhawk and Cynthia were captured.  I’m really enjoying their banter… yet another reason I’ll miss this one when it’s gone.


Art continues to impress.  I see that Burchett continues drawing Blackhawk in the Baxter series that follows ACW.  That’s definitely something I’ll have to try and track down more issues of… and ya know, actually read!


Overall… still having a blast with this feature.  It is a weekly highlight!


Tomorrow: Putting all the pieces together for our compilation post!