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"The Web of the Black Widow": Black Widow was present when the Blackhawk Squadron captured the criminal Mogreb, who had stolen and hidden the only set of plans for an Atomic Ray Projector. Posing as a reporter from "Ocean News", the Black Widow tried to get access to Mogreb, to learn the locatio

Quote1 Chop Chop's a Blackhawk! And no Blackhawk can refuse a call for help if he's able to answer it! Quote2
Blackhawk

Blackhawk #94 is an issue of the series Blackhawk (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1955.

Synopsis for "The Web of the Black Widow"

Black Widow was present when the Blackhawk Squadron captured the criminal Mogreb, who had stolen and hidden the only set of plans for an Atomic Ray Projector. Posing as a reporter from "Ocean News", the Black Widow tried to get access to Mogreb, to learn the location of the plans. While she was thwarted on that occasion, she later was able to interview him, in his cell on death row. She had an elaborate plan, and told him part of it.

At the scheduled time of his execution, Mogreb was rescued by the Black Widow and her squad of masked terrorists, and their escape went off without a hitch. From her castle in the mountains, the Black Widow sent her henchmen out on a series of robberies, assembling the materials to build Mogreb's Atomic Ray Projector. Necessarily, they escaped in the same direction every time, and this was part of a plan by the Widow to give Blackhawk a clue to the location of her base.

As she and Blackhawk both knew, the critical element of Mogreb's Projector was the radioactive fuel, the nearest source of which would be at an atomic energy plant, not many miles away from her mountain base. The Blackhawks disguised themselves as peasants and janitors, and staked out this power plant. She spotted and recognized them, but still went ahead with the robbery, stealing a supply of radioactive material, and fleeing directly back to her mountain castle. The Blackhawks immediately got airborne and followed her gang to her base.

When she had confirmed, with radar, that the Blackhawks had parachuted into the courtyard of her castle, she set off an explosive charge which knocked down the whole castle. Prior to this, she had moved Mogreb's laboratory and some other items to a deep underground cavern, where they could now safely work on rebuilding Mogreb's device.

However, earlier, Blackhawk had dropped tin foil dummies into the courtyard, spoofing the Widow's radar, and had used a geiger counter to track her team's movement into the cavern, AND had substituted unrefined uranium ore for the power plant's fuel. Black Widow was still safe on her throne, surrounded by enormous sticky webs, and when the Blackhawks rushed at her they got stuck. They stayed stuck long enough for Mogreb to assemble his projector and try to use it on them, which was when and how the villains found out that the atomic fuel had been swapped out. The Squadron also had coated their uniforms with a thin layer of tear-away plastic, and now escaped from the adhesive webbing, subdued Black Widow's henchmen, and entangled both Black Widow and Mogreb in their own webs.

Appearing in "The Web of the Black Widow"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Black Widow, aka "Della Dale, Ocean News" (Single appearance)
    • six henchmen in masks and costumes
  • Mogreb (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • two airport mechanics

Locations:

Items:

  • Black Widow's henchmen's paralysis-gas-shooting handguns
  • Mogreb's Atomic Ray Projector

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Chop Chop: "Painless Dentist"

This story is reprinted from Blackhawk #42.

Appearing in Chop Chop: "Painless Dentist"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • two desperadoes: Pete, other one

Other Characters:

  • Dr. Painless Pullem
  • Lady with Dog
  • 3 cops

Synopsis for "Blind Victory"


Appearing in "Blind Victory"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Darkk (arrested)
    • his three lieutenants (arrested)
    • his armored divisions (many casualties)
    • his many jet fighters (most or all destroyed)

Other Characters:

  • President Matton (Behind the scenes)

Locations:

Vehicles:

Synopsis for "The Prophet of Doom"

On the first anniversary of Brez's freedom, the little nation's elected government is almost overthrown by the renegade General Harv, who has adopted a secret identity as the Prophet of Doom, and who has done some spectacular feats of sabotage. Harv has already prearranged and predicted the destruction of the national arsenal, and the crash of an airliner into the airport's roof, inflicting hundreds of civilian casualties on his own citizens. The Blackhawks expose his scheme, defeat his numerous ill-armed underlings, and arrest General Harv, and his henchman Hamo.

Appearing in "The Prophet of Doom"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Prophet, secretly General Harv
    • Hamo, henchman
    • flash mob of prearranged rioters
    • platoon of blank-shooting soldiers

Other Characters:

Locations:

  • Brez, a little nation, celebrating its first year of democracy, in 1955, in Europe
    • Brez Arsenal (Destroyed)
    • Brez Airport (Damaged)
  • Blackhawk Island

Items:

  • Hamo's Super Frequency Radio Controller

Vehicles:

Notes

  • The Web of the Black Widow:
    • According to one airport mechanic, "Don't you know whenever one of Blackhawk's prisoners is condemned to die, he gets all upset! He hates capital punishment!" Olaf seems to also believe this. Blackhawk says nothing that supports this contention.
    • Blackhawk switched the real atomic fuel with "harmless uranium ore". At this story's end, Mogreb's Atomic Ray Projector was fully assembled and lacked only a supply of atomic fuel. Presumably the Blackhawks confiscated the prototype, along with the plans, before destroying the underground laboratory.
    • No geographical clues whatsoever are present in this story, regarding the names or locations of the Mogreb-condemning court, the prison, the atomic plant, or the castle in the mountains.
  • Blind Victory:
    • Chop Chop examines the eyes of his teammates and determines that their optic nerves are paralyzed but not destroyed.
    • The third story in Blackhawk #75 was also titled "Blind Victory", but that's another story.
  • The Prophet of Doom:
    • In Brez the townspeople are all or mostly white, the men wear French berets, English flat caps, Turkish fezes, and Swiss snap-brim hats, ladies wear Spanish-style peasant blouses. A banner in the town says "VIVE CASANO" and "VIVE LE BREZ". So Brez is in Southern Europe.
  • Also featured in this issue of Blackhawk was: "Incident In a Storm" (text story)



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