Monday, September 5, 2022

Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Battle on the Moon"

From a lone Black Cobra to a flock of Blackhawks...
...there's no end to the lineup of Commie-crushing Russkie-Smashers who will fight for freedom anywhere on Earth...or beyond!
Though the writer of this never-reprinted tale from Quality's Modern Comics #99 (1950) is unknown, it's illustrated by penciller John Forte and inker Chuck Cuidera.
The "Dark Knights", as they're often referred to, went whole-heartedly after Russkie and Chinese Communists during the post-World War II days of their Quality Comics run.
But, when the characters were continued by DC after Quality closed up shop, their other opponents, mad scientists, aliens, and the occasional ex-Nazi, took center stage, along with newly-created super villains until the middle-aged aviators became superheroes/spies in the Swinging '60s as shown
 HERE!
But, Quality's two books featuring the "Ace Aviators", Modern Comics and Blackhawk have more than enough Russkie-Smashing stories to keep this feature going for months to come, so they'll be popping up again...
Trivia: John Forte is better-known to present-day comics readers as the primary artist on the first few years of The Legion of Super-Heroes' run in Adventure Comics, while Blackhawk co-creator Chuck Cuidera remained on the strip after DC took it over, almost to the very end of the Silver Age run!
Plus, Cuidera inked Dick Dillin (who penciled almost all the DC Blackhawk stories) on Dillin's Hawkman run after Blackhawk was cancelled!
And, in an ironic turn, that the Blackhawks adopted uniforms surprisingly-similar to the Russkies' outfits in this story when they entered a "scientific adventurer" phase in the early 1960s...
..yet nobody noticed!
(Of course it was over a decade later...)
Next week, another Russkie Smasher takes center stage!

No comments:

Post a Comment