Comic Title: Blackhawk #1
Publisher: DC
Cover Date: 1988
On Sale Date: November 24, 1987 Shipping Date November 24, 1987
Source: DC Releases, #46

Shipping Date November 24, 1987
Source: Amazing Heroes, #130

Copyright Date December 15, 1987
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1987

Cover Price: $2.95
Page Count: 48
Editor: Mike Gold

Title: "Blood & Iron"
Pages: 46

Feature(s):
Blackhawk (Post-Crisis)

Writer/Artist: Howard Victor Chaykin
Letterer: Kenneth Bruzenak
Colorist: Steve Oliff

Reprinted In:
Blackhawk:Blood and Iron HC (2020)

Feature Character(s)

• Blackhawk (Janos Prohaska; first post-Crisis appearance; last appearance in Blackhawk #1; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)

Supporting Character(s)

• The Blackhawks (first post-Crisis appearance; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Chuck (first post-Crisis appearance; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Chop Chop (first post-Crisis appearance; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Lady Blackhawk (Natalia Gurdin Reed; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)

Villain(s)

• Death Mayhew (a former Birtish actor and Nazi agent; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Emil Albert Bronski (an American gangster; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Shlomo Boychik (Bronski's lieutenant; no further appearances)
• Reba MacMahon (a former actress; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Shadrack Hightower (a U.S. senator; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Fyodor (a Nazi agent; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)
• Amahl (an arab thief; no further appearances)
• Lazar (Shlomo's uncle; no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Ilse Koepler (a receptionist working for Mayhew; no further appearances)
• Fred and Warren (army soldiers; both die in this story; no further appearances)
• Kurt (Hightower's chauffeur; no further appearances)
• Robert L. Tunis (a guard; no further appearances)
• Bert (an airport employee; no further appearances)
• Malcolm de'Beau de Solell (a presidential aide; no further appearances)
• An unnamed woman (employed by Shlomo and Lazar; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Captain Upton Mantee (a smuggler; not named in this story; next appearance in Blackhawk #2)

Cameo Appearance(s)

• Adolf Hitler (in a newsreel)

Comments:
Although the year is not given, this story takes place late in World War II before the fall of the Germany.

This story continues in Blackhawk #2.

Synopsis:
Blackhawk, aka Jonas Prohaska a polish war hero, who has been granted honorary citizenship in the United States is disgraced when the U.S. Senate investigates his former communist connections. His citizenship is revoked, so he retreats to London where he proceeds to lose two weeks getting drunk. When he regains his senses, Chuck and Chop Chop brief him. Chuck, now working for the O.S.S., has gotten backing from a joint British and Soviet operation. The Blackhawks are tasked with combating a German air unit led by Death Mayhew.

Mayhew, a former British actor, had his Nazi sympathies exposed earlier in the war by Blackhawk. Mayhew is now tasked with retrieving an atomic bomb stolen by the American gangster Emil Bronski. However, when Bronski, a jew, learned that the bomb was intended for the Nazis, he backed out of the deal. He has now offered to sell the bomb to the Allies with the promise to use against Hitler.

Blackhawk is sent to Iran to meet Bronski and take possession of the bomb. His orders are to keep it out of Soviet hands as well. He arrives too late. Mayhew has killed Bronski and stolen the car which is supposed to have the bomb in the trunk. However, the bomb is actually in another car stolen by an arab thief. Mayhew returns to his contact Senator Hightower, whom he blames for hiring Bronski. Blackhawk and his Soviet counterpart Natalia Reed then escape Iran together aboard her specially constructed fighter.