Consume All Media! Blackhawk: "Chapter Four: The Iron Monster!"
Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the third chapter of Blackhawk. This time, they continue with the fourth chapter.
Blackhawk: “Chapter Four: The Iron Monster” - 15:07 (Available on Dailymotion)
Blackhawk rushes over and turns the plane away from Stan with his bare hands.
I've heard of catching a plane before, but this is ridiculous.
And also dangerous! Kirk Alyn did not use a stunt double for this scene and could have easily been all sorts of killed by the propellers. Luckily, there was a pilot hidden inside to safely steer the plane as it's actually not feasible to turn a plane like this. Apparently, the writers were envisioning a much smaller plane than the one they wound up using. However, the stunt looks pretty amazing, even if it doesn't fully make sense.
The plane just kind of wanders off in the background, unpiloted. Seems a bit dangerous, but whatever.
Blackhawk releases Stan and they pursue the villains in a car chase. At one point, Blackhawk jumps from his car to the bad guy's car and gets into a fist fight. The henchmen in that car are taken out by a car crash, while another group gets away in a second car.
Then we just jump to a completely new plotline. Blackhawk gets a message from a scientist named Dr. Rolph (William Fawcett) who is working on some kind of scientific ray. You know the type.
Actor Highlights
William Fawcett (1894-1974)
Other comic book media: Newshawker in Superman (1948), Blinky in Congo Bill (1948), the Mayor of Metropolis in Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950), & Professor Hammil in Batman and Robin (1949)
Anyway, Blackhawk heads over to Dr. Rolph's and is given a demonstration of the ray. It can make chairs get really hot, then explode. This will clearly save hundreds of sick orphans.
However, bad guys want the ray for evil purposes and have been sending Dr. Rolph threats. Blackhawk suggests turning over a fake ray to those people.
Dr. Rolph tells the bad guys he will give them the ray and the Leader immediately thinks this must be a trap. So they call Rolph back, pretending to be the Blackhawks. Rolph confirms that he's working for the Blackhawks, so the henchmen pretending to be the Blackhawks say there's been a change in plans and to meet them somewhere else. Fortunately, the actual Blackhawks are listening in and hear all about this. Unfortunately, they can't get ahold of Blackhawk as his radio is out of range. The (real) Blackhawks finally manage to get through to the (main) Blackhawk and tell him about the (fake) Blackhawks.
There are officially too many Blackhawks in this serial.
The henchmen manage to grab Rolph and his ray before (any) Blackhawk can get there, but they do follow them in a very mundane car chase.
The henchmen with Rolph drive over some train tracks. Blackhawk stops for the train because he is a good citizen. Another car full of henchmen roll up behind him and push his car onto the tracks.
Should you watch it, though? Other than the plane-turning stunt, this chapter is pretty basic and kind of boring. Also, the Blackhawks had plenty of time to cross the train tracks. They just slowly roll up and stop.
Tune in next time for Blackhawk: "Chapter Five: Human Targets!" (Available on Dailymotion.)
A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.
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