Donnerwetter! If I only had THREE fists! 
Blackhawk #77 is an issue of the series Blackhawk (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1954.
Synopsis for "The Jet Propelled Terror"
Suspended in free space above Europe, an unidentifiable object orbits overhead, as observatories all over the world study it in vain. Then it launches a flying weapon, which impacts in Brandenburg, Germany, knocking down many large buildings and killing thousands of civilians. This device is a fully-maneuverable flying 1500-mph battering ram. Blackhawk machine guns and rockets are useless against it, and it can pivot very tightly in mid-air. In aerial combat, this thing takes out Blackhawk, with a ramming maneuver, forcing him and Chop Chop to bail out.
The World Legion is formed, comprising elements of many national militaries. Blackhawk is appointed Supreme Commander of this force, and he delegates command over artillery, infantry, armor, evacuation, communications, and reserves to, respectively, Andre, Olaf, Hendrickson, Chop Chop, Stanislaus, and Chuck. The next day the Flying Ram attacks Cherval, France. Conventional artillery and other weapons are useless against it. A direct hit from an atomic cannon is also useless. Blackhawk figures out a way to use the flying ram as an explosive carrier to destroy the space launcher.
Appearing in "The Jet Propelled Terror"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Ram (Apparent Death)
Locations:
- Europe
- London, England
- Brandenburg, Germany (devastated)
- Cherval, France (devastated)
- Devonshire, England (devastated)
Items:
- Atomic Cannon
Vehicles:
- six Blackhawk Lockheed F-90C long-range interceptors, (one destroyed)
- Jet-Propelled Flying Battering Ram, combat speed is Mach-Two. (Destroyed)
- Flying Ram Launching Space Station (Destroyed)
Synopsis for Chop Chop: "The Baker"
This story is reprinted from Blackhawk #68.
Chop Chop tries to work in a bakery but he is terrible at baking.
Appearing in Chop Chop: "The Baker"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- irate bake shop owner
Synopsis for "The Fiendish Electronic Brain"
A fantastic machine with a super mentality is invented by Professor Dubois and others. But the machine has coercive telepathic powers, and directs its builders to give it legs, and a death ray, and then it rebels against them, and leaves. But really this "rebellion" is a pre-arranged hoax arranged by Dubois, as part of his larger plan to assassinate an important general AND wipe out the Blackhawks.
Blackhawk figures out the remote control system that makes "the Brain" work, and how to interfere with it. They blind the robot, and Dubois recalls it to his base, with the Blackhawks following the machine. At this point his guilt is pretty obvious, but Dubois makes one last attempt to gain control of the robot, resulting in the operating system's destruction.
Appearing in "The Fiendish Electronic Brain"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- "the Brain", electronic artificial intelligence (Single appearance; dies)
- Professor Dubois (arrested)
- Renkin (arrested)
- other assistant (arrested)
Other Characters:
- security guard (Dies)
- General Wright, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- mountains of southern France
- Dubois' laboratory
- Fort Freedom
Items: Vehicles:
- Blackhawk Lockheed F-90C long-range interceptors
Synopsis for "Slaves of the Disabler Ray"
Appearing in "Slaves of the Disabler Ray"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Red Hawk (looks just like Blackhawk) (captured)
- Professor Kotsky (captured)
- Comrade Luboff (captured)
Locations:
- inside an Iron Curtain country
Items:
- Disabler Ray (knocks out aircraft engines)
Vehicles:
- Blackhawk Lockheed F-90C long-range interceptors
Notes
- Jet Propelled Terror
- One more Lockheed interceptor is destroyed in this story, for a running total of 31.
- Brandenburg, Germany, Cherval, France, and Devonshire, England, are all catastrophically devastated with massive civilian casualties. Afterward, this is never mentioned again.
- The mastermind behind the Jet Propelled Terror is never seen, and it is not known whether he was aboard the space station or the flying ram, at any time, let alone at the time of their mutual destruction.
- Fiendish Electronic Brain
- Story opens with the Blackhawks having spent seven weeks guarding one laboratory.
- "The Brain" can walk, has coercive telepathic powers and a gamma ray weapon, and is bulletproof. It actually is a robot, not an A.I. The coercive telepathic powers are fake also.
- "The Brain's" assassination target was General Wright, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, which sounds almost exactly like Blackhawk's job title in the first story of this issue. Perhaps this general is Blackhawk's successor.
- Slaves of the Disabler Ray
- Stanislaus: "Now we take the Disabler Ray home, to be used against the Reds by FREE PEOPLES!"
- Also featured in this issue of Blackhawk was:
- "Airborne Adventure" (text story)
See Also
Links and References
