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in: Comics Published by Quality Comics, Everett M. Arnold/Executive Editor, Al Bryant/Cover Artist,
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Blackhawk Vol 1 9

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"Bait For A Death Trap": Deep in the Shan Hills of Burma, the Blackhawk squadron carries out repeated attacks against a single, persistent, Japanese road-building unit, inflicting severe casualties each time. Blackhawk's XF5F gets shot down, and his canopy gets jammed; he crashes in the jung

Quote1 Lucifer! A bull tusker on a rampage! Quote2
— Blackhawk

Blackhawk #9 is an issue of the series Blackhawk (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1944.

Synopsis for "Bait For A Death Trap"

Deep in the Shan Hills of Burma, the Blackhawk squadron carries out repeated attacks against a single, persistent, Japanese road-building unit, inflicting severe casualties each time. Blackhawk's XF5F gets shot down, and his canopy gets jammed; he crashes in the jungle, later regaining consciousness tangled in a big tree. Andre takes command; he and Olaf land in a dodgy-looking clearing; the others are ordered back to base. Four or more Japanese soldiers find Blackhawk, and after a brisk fistfight they are all set to shoot him in the head, when a rampaging bull elephant crashes into the clearing, scattering the Japanese, then it grabs Blackhawk up onto its back, which is fitted with a pad saddle, and the giant beast runs away through the jungle to Burma Jack's teakwood compound.

Burma Jack is a bearded rascal, formerly an elephant dealer and now a soldier of fortune, who has not so much rescued Blackhawk as captured him. Jack's houseboys Mogo and Bhong (who address Jack as "Burra Thakin") tie up Blackhawk, and then Japanese Major Kirisu shows up to conduct business. Burma Jack wants ten thousand pounds for Blackhawk, but first receives five thousand pounds for thirty elephants, to move a light artillery troop over the mountains into India. Andre and Olaf now show up, as prisoners of Burma Jack's men; Jack now wants twenty thousand pounds for the three of them; Kirisu hasn't got that much cash with him, so all four of them will now go with the Major, in an elephant caravan, back to his HQ (which Andre understands to be the secret Japanese invasion HQ, for which the Blackhawks have been searching). Burma Jack insists on having HIS prisoners ride on HIS elephant, until he's been paid; Major Kirisu is very insulted by his attitude. After an uneventful ride they arrive at the secret JHQ which is hidden in a narrow khor.

By this time, on Blackhawk Island, the other four members have grown certain that things have gone sour for Andre and Olaf; leaving Chop Chop to man the radio, Chuck, Stan, and Hendrickson scramble and fly off to the rescue. Outside the Japanese HQ, Burma Jack fakes an injury to his elephant and hangs back as the Japanese soldiers ride their elephants past him, then he pulls a grenade out of his shirt and blows some of them up! This causes a violent stampede and many soldiers are trampled. Jack cuts the ropes on the three Blackhawks and pulls out some tommyguns from under the howda cushions. The Japanese have a light tank nearby, but Mogwe smashes it in a head-on collision, and stands right back up afterward. Right then the three Blackhawk Skyrockets fly onto the scene; wiping out many of the remaining Japanese soldiers with machinegun fire. Burma Jack turns out to be a British intelligence officer, and he stays behind to rebuild his cover identity, as the Blackhawks fly away.

Appearing in "Bait For A Death Trap"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Burma Jack
    • Mogo
    • Bhong
    • Mongwe, a well-trained bull elephant

Locations:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for "The Floating Fort"

The Blackhawk Squadron scouts out enemy activity on the Japanese fortified Reri Atoll, and attacks it by air, inflicting heavy casualties, then lands and takes control of the island. One officer runs into the message center and attempts to burn some important papers; Chop Chop kills him with a thrown cleaver, and salvages one sheet from the fire, a half-burned telegram referring to three geographic locations. From this, they need to work out the Japanese Master Plan for this particular campaign. (The Master Plan is for the Japanese to retreat from the Philippines, and up the coast of Indochina, in a way that draws allied forces into an enormous trap.)

To learn what Captain Shozo (Japanese Intelligence) is up to, Chuck and Blackhawk fly to Manila, meet up with some resistance fighters, and have a meeting with their leader, Professor Gomez. Shozo's office is in the Binondo District; Blackhawk and Chuck leap into it through a closed window, and capture Shozo and his adjutant. Shozo doesn't crack under questioning and his troops quickly arrive to counterattack; Blackhawk uses Shozo for a shield, to fatal effect, and both Americans escape out the window and down a flagpole.

Andre and Hendrickson are sent to Bangkok, Siam, to figure out the plans of Major Figura, whom they find in a waterfront dive bar doing some binge drinking. Figura tries to fight them both with a knife and ends up stabbed dead; the Europeans go through his pockets and capture another fragment of the Master Plan.

Olaf and Stanislaus are sent to an empty ocean spot described only by latitude and longitude, in a 2-seat scouter biplane, to find out what Admiral Sippai is up to. They find, surfacing from a submerged position, an enormous, flat, square, floating platform, equipped with hangar elevators, which quickly produce some Zeros, which take off and engage the scouter biplane, losing only one Zero in the process, before the Blackhawk plane is shot down by deck-mounted antiaircraft guns. Olaf and Stan are fished out of the ocean and taken to Admiral Sippai, who boastfully exposits that the submersible fortress rises and sinks as needed, powered by the geothermal energy of its resting place, within the crater of a submerged volcano. Also it will of course provide the coup de grace to U.S. forces once they're lured into position by two major retreats of Japanese forces. Admiral Sippai then orders the two fliers to be tortured to death but just then two XF5Fs, painted with Japanese markings, land on the floating fortress; four fliers get out, very sketchily disguised as Japanese pilots, and talk their way past enough guards to get to the Admiral's quarters, then they start a big fistfight. Sippai is cornered, but has a destruct-switch which can ignite the volcano; Blackhawk and Andre take him down with a "dive-bomb tackle." The team then rigs a delayed-action lanyard to the destruct-switch, and triggers it by taking off in their disguised XF5Fs. The deadly fortress is destroyed in the ensuing eruption.

Appearing in "The Floating Fort"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Professor Gomez, Filipino Resistance Leader

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Grumman XF5F Skyrockets
  • Blackhawk Scouter Plane
  • Rising Sun (volcano-powered submersible fortress / aerodrome) (Destroyed)

Synopsis for "The Super-Spies of the Rising Sun"

On a small island only a few miles from the Japanese mainland, a secret conference of several generals is disrupted by a Blackhawk air raid. The Blackhawks were tipped off to this conference by a spy, one of the soldiers guarding the generals, Li Lung, a Korean posing as Japanese.

The next day in Tokyo's War Department, General Isumo is briefed by General Anokio on a new secret weapon that's been in development for 20 years; he is introduced to Captains Yoshi, Nakazo, and Harima, specially physically modified with glandular growth serums, skin whitening, and plastic surgery, now posing as "Al Bates," "Spike Donovan, and "Eddy Harris." They look and talk like American white men; the plan is for them to infiltrate the Blackhawks. Meanwhile the sentry guarding this briefing has his throat cut by Li Lung, who eavesdrops on the plan, and on hearing it he runs away to warn the Blackhawks immediately. He's detected and pursued, and cornered in his quarters, but is almost able to release a carrier pigeon before being shot dead; then the pigeon is brought down with a rifle shot. But the next night on far away Blackhawk Island, the wounded pigeon arrives with the message after all, then dies, plus the bullet-damaged message is incomplete, saying only "Blackhawk ... Beware of white ..." .

So for the time being, this case is at a dead end; the next morning the team prepares to attack an installation on Munau, but a badly shot-up P-47 Thunderbolt flies into their radar range, from the northwest, and half-crash lands on the island. The banged-up pilot is "Al Bates," who tells the team a tale about his wounded buddies Spike and Eddy, back on Rentao Island, then rides along, as does Chop Chop, on this rescue mission. They all land on Rentao, and the Blackhawks step into a shack which turns out to be a steel cage. Before the arriving soldiers can shoot them, the team tips over the cage (it lacks a floor) and escape, then they fight the three modified fake-Americans, who are super strong because of the glandular treatments, but whose tactics are inept; Blackhawk personally knocks out all three of them hand-to-hand. Chop Chop swipes a grenade and blows up some soldiers; the rest of the melee seems to be all fisticuffs, and at the end of it the three fake-Americans are "as dead as Tojo's conscience," but the team brings them along anyway, to use in a morale-destroying stunt devised by Blackhawk. The dead fakes are rigged with parachutes and flown to Tokyo, then dropped near the War Department HQ. When General Anokio sees them, he acknowledges his failure by shooting himself in the head. The Blackhawks fly away.

Appearing in "The Super-Spies of the Rising Sun"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Li Lung (Dies)

Antagonists:

  • Japanese Army
    • General Anokio (Dies)
    • General Isumo
    • Captain Yoshi posing as "Al Bates" (Dies)
    • Captain Nakazo posing as "Spike Donovan" (Dies)
    • Captain Harima posing as "Eddy Harris" (Dies)
    • Hirushi

Locations:

Vehicles:

Synopsis for Rasputin: "Rasputin and the Empress"

Rasputin rides around on Merwyn's shoulders and Merwyn complains about it. In Spalightly the Empress has been blinded and carried off by the wicked Gorgon Giant. Merwyn shames Rasputin into undertaking a rescue, and it doesn't go well, but in the end the Giant falls off a cliff and the Empress gets her vision back, and then she gets all smoochy with Merwin, whom she credits for her rescue, while Rasputin is jilted and morose.

Appearing in Rasputin: "Rasputin and the Empress"

Featured Characters:

  • Rasputin, a gorilla (First appearance)

Supporting Characters:

  • Merwyn, a monkey (First appearance)

Antagonists:

  • the Gorgon Giant (First appearance)

Other Characters:

  • the Empress of Spralighty (First appearance)

Locations:

  • Spalighty (First appearance)

Synopsis for Ezra: "Joins the Whiz-Cats"

Dean plays an elaborate trick on Ezra, to beat his time with Myrna, but it backfires on him in an embarassing way.

Appearing in Ezra: "Joins the Whiz-Cats"

Featured Characters:

  • Ezra Jones

Supporting Characters:

  • Gooney
  • Myrna

Antagonists:

  • Dean Dilsbury

Other Characters:

  • Professor Quizzenberry
  • Doctor Cole

Locations:

  • high school

Notes

  • First issue of this magazine with Blackhawk title. Previous issue was Uncle Sam Quarterly #8.
  • Inside and back cover ads match those for Military Comics #35. Therefore this issue came out in Winter 1944-45, not Winter 1943-44, as previously indexed elsewhere.
  • In the first story, Blackhawk gets shot down, for the seventh time.[1] This is also his eleventh plane crash. Over the course of his long combat career, Blackhawk survived at least twenty-two aircraft crashes.[2]
  • In the second story, the secret location of the Japanese submersible fortress is:
    • latitude 22° 6' 28
    • longitude 81° 7' 4
  • Rasputin and his supporting characters are all anthropomorphic animals, having funny-animal adventures.
  • Ezra is a wacky 1940s teenager, and has wacky comedy misadventures.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Blackhawk was: "The Blackhawk Miracle" (text story)



See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

  1. ↑ Military Comics #6, Military Comics #13, Military Comics #19, Military Comics #28, Military Comics #30, Military Comics #33, Blackhawk #9, Military Comics #39, Military Comics #42, Modern Comics #44, Blackhawk #10, Blackhawk #12, Blackhawk #13, Modern Comics #69, Blackhawk #18, Blackhawk #21, Blackhawk #36, Blackhawk #64, Blackhawk #80, Blackhawk #81, Blackhawk #85, Blackhawk #88 May 1955.
  2. ↑ Military Comics #1 (3 in one story), Military Comics #4 (2 in one story), Military Comics #6, Military Comics #13, Military Comics #14, Military Comics #19, Military Comics #33, Blackhawk #9, Military Comics #39, Modern Comics #61, Modern Comics #83, Modern Comics #91, Blackhawk #64 (2, in two stories), Blackhawk #70, Blackhawk #80, Blackhawk #81, Blackhawk #83, & Blackhawk #88
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