This week I resume our examination of Johnny Cloud's missions. This mission (the seventh in the series) is special, as it is the only Cloud adventure that is writing by Bob Haney -- but of course, Kanigher edits.
Combat erupts from the first panel: Johnny Cloud’s P-51 is riddled with lead, so he bails out and falls for as long as he can. The Hun sprays his bullets across the sky, but Cloud keeps himself small.
As he falls, a flashback is triggered. His father bemoans how he was shamed during the Great War, and so he wears a white feather. He recounts that the armistice was near when a German pilot strafed his infantry unit at a river crossing. Cloud’s father was knocked back into the water where he stayed submerged until the marauder finished his run. When he stood, he found his comrades killed. The war ended, but Cloud’s father felt defeated since he could not avenge the deaths of his men.
Just before Cloud left to join the Air Force, his father asked him to be on the lookout for a black fighter with white stripes, the one that killed his troop, the one he called the Hawk of Death. This was his shame. Cloud vowed to settle the score so that his father could remove the white feather from his bonnet, but he agonized how he could seek vengeance in a new war some twenty-five years later.
The flashback ends, and the story shifts to the present day.
That morning, Cloud had taken two new pilots on a patrol when they spotted ten Me-109s at twelve-o-clock high, plus one lone bandit hugging the carpet below. As they drew close to the lone fighter, Cloud sensed a trap, and with two new pilots, he did not want to lose them on their first sortie.
On his order, the P-51s reached for cumulus cover, but it was too late. The high-flying bandits were diving fast. Plus, four more bandits joined the lone fighter below and climbed in pursuit.
The Mustangs were pinched. Cloud's new pilots were in danger!
Image Credit:
AAMOW#88 (December 1961): Story Art: I. Novick; Writer: R. Haney.
Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics
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