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"The Volunteers of Doom": A team of scientists who have invented fantastically dangerous weapons ask the Blackhawks to test them. Riga, a criminal chief, has learned of the tests and has one of his men sabotage two of the devices. Piloting the "sea saucer," Andre hits a whale and the saucer plun

Blackhawk #113 is an issue of the series Blackhawk (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1957.

Synopsis for "The Volunteers of Doom"

A team of scientists who have invented fantastically dangerous weapons ask the Blackhawks to test them. Riga, a criminal chief, has learned of the tests and has one of his men sabotage two of the devices. Piloting the "sea saucer," Andre hits a whale and the saucer plunges beneath the waves. The rest of the team rescues him, but did the saucer fail because of the sabotage or just bad luck? Next, Hendrickson steers a high-speed boring machine underground until the engine explodes. The team uses the exhausts from their jets to blow Hendy back to the surface. Stanislaus takes a ride in a "human shell," fired from an artillery piece. The chute that is supposed to lower him to the ground fails and he improvises a chute from his coat to land safely in the water. After this string of "accidents," Blackhawk himself takes up the next invention, a flying magnet that is supposed to snatch the weapons from soldiers' hands as it flies above the battlefield. The gang has fastened vials of nitro to the dummy weapons in the test, but Blackhawk fools them and "reversed the electrodes and sent waves of electrical energy down, to detonate the explosives."

Appearing in "The Volunteers of Doom"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Riga, criminal mastermind (arrested)
    • Martin, hench spy (arrested)
    • Carlos, hench mechanic (arrested)

Other Characters:

  • Professor Lamont

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Blackhawk Lockheed F-90Cs
  • Sea Saucer (Destroyed)
    • theoretically capable of 2000 mph travel
  • Flying Magnet (tested and passed)
    • flyable giant electromagnet
  • Human Shell (Destroyed)
    • man-sized transparent artillery shell, fired from special large-caliber cannon, w/ automatic parachute
  • The Digger (Destroyed)
    • theoretically capable of digging 50 miles into the ground, at 800 mph


Synopsis for "The Saboteur of Blackhawk Island"

A remotely piloted plane brings a group of reporters to Blackhawk Island for a tour. One of them is Chick Evans, a former member of Killer Shark's gang but now reformed. He tells the Blackhawks about a reward for anyone who can destroy Blackhawk Island. After the reporters leave, mysterious explosions start destroying installations on the island. They suspect Chick but radio the plane and learn that he has fallen out in a freak accident, apparently to his death. Blackhawk gets paranoid and even suspects the members of the team. The sabotage always happens at exactly the same time of day. Eventually, they discover that the Electronic Brain, in their souvenir museum, is being activated by the radiation from a nuclear sub, that has been passing the island each day at 4:00 PM.

Also Chick was rescued from the sea by the Navy.

Appearing in "The Saboteur of Blackhawk Island"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Chick Evans

Antagonists:

  • Killer Shark (Mentioned only)
  • J.J. Benson, lawyer (Behind the scenes)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Synopsis for "The Cellblock in the Sky"

Mr. Gaol, following in his family's long tradition of penology, designs an escape-proof prison. When his life-work is rejected by the authorities, he goes loony and decides to prove his ability by designing cells even the Blackhawks can't escape. Now costumed as The Jailer, he builds cells designed for different environments. Andre is sunk in a cell beneath the sea. Olaf is placed in a cell that burrows beneath the ground. He makes a deal with Blackhawk to release them if Blackhawk will voluntarily enter a flying satellite cell, that is suspended in midair by a "repello" ray. The Jailer reneges on the deal and the remaining team members can't rescue Blackhawk because the repello ray will melt their jets. But Chuck flips Blackhawk a wire with which he shorts the repello ray to the lock on the cell, exploding it. He leaps free to land on Chuck's plane. They land and capture The Jailer, saving Andre and Olaf.

Gilbert Gaol's original design for an escape-proof prison actually had been accepted and used by the government; only his bad listening skills and blossoming insanity had convinced him otherwise. Ironically he wound up imprisoned in the very prison that he had designed.

Appearing in "The Cellblock in the Sky"

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Prison Board: 4 men

Locations:

  • North America
    • Prison
    • City Airport
    • Wharf Area
    • Abandoned Airport
      • Jailer's secret laboratory / factory / fortress

Items:

  • Jailer's "Repello Ray" technology

Vehicles:

Notes

  • Volunteers of Doom
    • In the third escape stunt, Stanislaus turns Olaf's jacket into a makeshift parachute. But in the 2nd story of Blackhawk #112, we've seen that the Blackhawk uniforms have actual parachutes built into them.
    • In the final escape stunt, the uncredited writer has confused electrical energy with magnetic force.
  • Saboteur of Blackhawk Island
    • Blackhawks hold an annual press conference on Blackhawk Island, and fly the reporters there in a remote-controlled passenger airliner.
    • The Blackhawk Museum is now on Blackhawk Island, and contains a Flying Tank, a War Wheel, and an Electronic Brain. All three of these super weapons were last seen in Blackhawk #109. The Electronic Brain is destroyed, with flamethrowers.
  • Cellblock in the Sky
    • The Jailer will return, in Blackhawk #131 and Blackhawk #193.
    • The Jailer's individualized escape-proof cells would each be fantastically expensive to construct; we're not told how he can afford this stuff.
    • The Blackhawks now routinely visit childrens' hospitals.
    • The drill on Olaf's special cell is on the top, but it burrows into the earth anyway.
    • According to Blackhawk, the Jailer's "Repello Ray" was really just electricity.
  • Also appearing in this issue of Blackhawk were:
    • full page ad for DC's "Sgt. Bilko" comic
    • Charlie Cannonball by Henry Boltinoff
    • Shorty by Henry Boltinoff
    • "Worldwide Adventures in Science" (one-page illustrated story about proposed experiments to be conducted as part of the Geophysical Year
    • "Reindeer Roundup" (one-page text story about the hazards of counting reindeer in Alaska)
    • Ollie by Henry Boltinoff

Trivia

  • According to Blackhawk, the earlier iteration of the War Wheel was defeated when Stanislaus blocked off its exhaust port, but in Blackhawk #109, Stanislaus actually lobbed a bomb into the exhaust port.


See Also

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