Friday 18 July 2014

Black Hawk, Part 4

NAME
Black Hawk, Part 4

FIRST PUBLISHED
Tornado Issue 7

DATELINE
5 May 79

PAGE COUNT
4

REPRINTS
Black Hawk: The Intergalactic Gladiator.

SYNOPSIS
Black Hawk's men clash with German tribesmen, find a Roman legion slain in their camp and are surrounded by flames.

FIRSTS & LASTS
The Bird is now nameless for the first time.

INFORMATION
The Black Forest is home to Germanic tribes.

BLACK HAWK
He leads his men from Rome to the Black Forest. With his men under attack by Germanic tribesmen, he breaks formation and uses a discarded battle-axe to fell a tree containing a pair of archers. This act inspires his men to fight and defeat the Germans. They encounter a Roman camp in a clearing and discover the soldiers have all been killed. As they explore the camp they are surrounded by flames.

OTHER CHARACTERS
THE BIRD
It spots a lookout for a Germanic tribe and alerts Black Hawk to his presence. When the Roman camp in encircled by flames, the Bird's wings catch fire.

DEATHS
At least two. The Roman auxiliaries stab German

BEST LINES
Roman auxiliary (upon seeing a German warrior): "By the pit of Hades...look at the size of them!"

WORST LINES
Black Hawk: "We can also attack!"

Well, yeah.

CATCHPHRASES
German tribesmen shout an "Aieeeeeeeee!", a "Graaaieee!" and an "Aiee!"

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
The Tortoise (or Testudo) Formation sees Roman align their shields to surround themselves with shields on the front, back, sides and top.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
The Black Forest is 634 miles from Rome and would take approximately eleven days.

CREDITS
Script: G.F. Day
Artist: Azpiri
Letters: Unknown

REVIEW
Disappointingly, Black Hawk has very quickly gone from Nubian slave to Roman through and through. It would have been nice to see him struggle with the parallels of putting down the Germanic tribes, but there is nothing of the sort here. Instead, this is a big scrap and a fire.

Next Week: Fires Of The Forest!

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