Russkie-Smashers PRIMUS "Saboteur"

Before "detente" occured in the mid-1970s...

...the Russkies were reliable baddies in fiction, as this never-reprinted comics tale, derived from a short-lived TV series in 1971-72, demonstrates!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Joe Staton, this tale from Charlton's Primus #7 (1972) was one of two tales in the same issue with Russkies as the bad guys!

(The other story involved a plan to have an impersonator replace President Nixon!)

The syndicated TV series detailed the adventures of Carter Primus (Robert Brown), scuba-diving scientist-adventurer dealing with everything from eco-terrorists to drug-runners to Russkie spies!

Because it ran during the Family Hour (7-8pm) it was limited as to how much violence it could show.

As a result, it wasn't even as action-packed as it's 1960s predecessor Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges!

So, unlike Sea Hunt, which ran for 155 episodes, Primus sank without a trace after only 26 shows.

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Primus
by Bradford Street
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Nazi-Punchers BLACKHAWK "Coward Dies Twice"

Last Week We Brought You Russkie-Smashing Blackhawk and his team...

...this week we bring you his younger self...when he and his crew were first organized to do some serious Nazi-Punching!

Added bonus: the first appearance of their distinctive aircraft, the Grumman Skyrocket!

Scripted/laid-out by Will Eisner, and penciled/inked by Chuck Cuidera, the second appearance of Blackhawk, from Quality's Military Comics #2 (1941) clears up a number of aspects, including the fact the team isn't operating openly as a part of the Allied forces!

(America hadn't entered the war at this pre-Pearl Harbor point in history,)
Besides the core group, we're introduced to Boris (Ukrainian/Russian) and Zeg (country unknown) along with numerous other unidentified personnel.
Zeg appeared several more times during the Golden Age, but Boris disappeared after this issue, popping up again in the Bronze Age as a one-shot villain seeking vengeance against the Blackhawks!
Trivia: Though this was the only appearance of the split-tail Skyrockets in the Golden Age strip, when the Blackhawks made their debut in the animated Justice League series in "The Savage Time", an episode set in post D-Day Europe, the original version of the aircraft was front and center!
(DC's 1980s revival of the WWII version of Blackhawk restored the split-tailed version to pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, helping to define which WWII stories were Earth-One and which were Earth-X)!

Director/Animator Dan Riba even constructed a custom maquette of the Skyrocket and sent it to the Korean animation house for reference in animating aerobatics with the distinctive ship properly!

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

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Russkie-Smashers BLACKHAWK "Nightmare Cruise"

We're Winding Up a Month of Russkie-Smashing with the Busiest Russkie-Smashers of All...

...awww, you guessed!

Scripted by Robert Bernstein, penciled by Dick Dillin, and inked by Chuck Cuidera, this never-reprinted story from Quality's Blackhawk #105 (1956) showed no matter what environment (air, land, or sea), nothing stops the Dark Knights (yes, they were referred that way long before a certain Caped Crusader) from defending democracy!

Next Week: We're Back to Nazi-Punching...with Blackhawk and his team!
(He was around a loooong time!)

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Blackhawk

by William Rotsler

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Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Incredible Sleep Weapon"

 Though the Villain of This Tale is Named The Sandman...

...the foul fiend doesn't use sand or knockout gas, as DC's Golden Age hero did!

So, the one-shot Sandman, who used hypnosis, from Quality's Plastic Man #51 (1955) was a sandwoman!

Such a gender-swap has been a moderately-common trope in comics, usually detectible by any or all of the following...
A) villain wearing bulky or shapeless costume.
B) villain using voice-altering mask/filter.
C) villain usually not performing any sort of hand-to-hand combat.
In this story, written by Dick Wood, pencilled by Charles Nicholas, and inked by Chuck Cuidera...it was all three!

Russkie-Smashers DATE WITH DANGER "Spies Walk Alone!"

Not All Russkie-Smashers Wear Costumes...

...because sometimes...to battle spies, you need a spy...like this guy!

Remember, this was the era before we had elegant secret agents in dinner jackets, carrying various kool gimmicks!
(But he still got to make out with the "bad girl"! Some things never change!)
It was a time of down n' dirty action and survival meant using your wits and whatever was at hand!
Illustrated by Ross Andru and inked by Mike Esposito, this never-reprinted story from Standard's Date with Danger #5 (1952) featured a character the publisher might have wanted to do an ongoing strip about, but since the book ended with the next issue, he never returned!