ACW #620 – Blackhawk

Action Comics Weekly #620 (Blackhawk)
“Most Guys Just Leave Her Hanging There”
Writer – Martin Pasko
Art – Rick Burchett
Letters – Steve Haynie
Colors – Tom Ziuko
Editor – Mike Gold

If you recall… when last we left Blackhawk, things looked like they might be heading in a… pretty dark direction.  I have a sneaking suspicion that might’ve been a bit of misdirection.  Let’s not waste another second and find out what happens… after Janos removes his belt!


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We open with Janos, having removed his belt, approaching the prone and bound body of the missing Aviatrix.  She doesn’t appear to be all that comfortable with the look in his eyes… and I can’t say that I blame her!  He tells her not to move and to keep her mouth shut… before using his belt to whip a cobra!  Whew.

As Jan sets the snake on fire, Alice is rather thankful… for killing the snake, for coming to her rescue, for not sexually assaulting her… take your pick!  Our man informs her that he’s there on behalf of her husband, Leslie Richardson… which kinda makes her furrow her brow a bit.

As he unties her, Alice informs Blackhawk that he smells purty.  He doesn’t exactly return that sentiment.  Though, in fairness, the poor lady has been bound and tortured for a number of weeks at this point.

The twosome head back to Leslie, who Alice (in a word balloon mistakenly coming from Janos) refers to as “Steve”.  Hmm.  Anyhoo, she also goes into a little bit of detail about how she came to be in her present predicament.  There was a Japanese L2D jet transporting a Microwave Generator back in 1944.  It never arrived at it’s destination, and was assumed to have gone down somewhere in Sumatra.  We already know that it’s just on the other side of the crater.

So, Alice and Company staged a crash to search for the goods.  One thing they didn’t plan for, however, was the “Provisional Governor” of the district, one Van der Houten.  Her crew was picked up by VdH’s personal army.

Alice leads Janos to the top of the ruins, where there’s a pool.  Remember how I mentioned that she really stinks?  Well, she’s up there to take a bit of a bath.  She undresses in front of our man…

… and, well… it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to guess where this scene is headed.

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Another solid chapter for Blackhawk.  I was happy to finally meet the missing Aviatrix, and to receive a little bit of clarification on the Japanese jet.


It’s made pretty clear here that there’s something iffy about “Leslie”.  Alice is a bit dumbfounded when he’s referred to as her husband… heck, she’s also a bit surprised when she finds out he’s not going by the name “Steve”.


The conversation between Jan and Alice worked for me insofar as a conduit for exposition.  As we were learning all of the details at the same time Janos was, it felt more natural than just a regular ol’ “info-dump”.


It’s been a minute since our man’s gotten any “action”, so I dug the scene at the end.  While it might not be much of a “current year” take, these more “mature” themes are a lot of fun… and don’t veer too far into the gratuitous for my tastes.


Overall, still really enjoying this… perhaps even more than the earlier Grell arc!


Tomorrow: The Compilation of 620!