Mission Eight: Star Jockey - The Debriefing

Star Jockey is somewhat disappointing: The storyline is tangential and hard to follow at times. The Smoke-maker’s prophecy does not align logically with the jump into the future during the dogfight – both involve smoke or clouds and that’s it. 

Consequently, there is no theme that is developed here, just a fantastical story that leaves you stranded.

Still, to be fair, the magic that resides in the fog does prompt the reader to ponder if Cloud actually traveled ahead in time, or if he just saw it that way. But again, why is this happening? Why now? 

That is what is missing here.

To be fair, it could be a sign that Cloud will go on to fight in the Korean War. However, on a more mundane level we know that time travel is a trope that Kanigher uses to juice the plot lines.

 

Overall, the action is solid, and I particularly like the overshoot when Cloud nails the second MiG-15 for his exuberance – a deadly mistake that was common in dogfights. This is one of more realistic combat moves that Cloud makes when an E/A is on his tail. 

Again, I presume that the MiG-15 was actually a Me-109. Or was it? Well, I suppose these questions make the story memorable if only for a day or two.

 

And here’s a misfire. The title, Star Jockey, suggests that Cloud is flying an F-104 Star Fighter, but he’s not. He flies a swept-wing Sabre.

More important, with respect to development of Johnny Cloud's character, we get to see a snippet of his early childhood that reveals his fascination with flying – an essential piece of his origin story. So yeah, this is an essential detail! So too, we see that Cloud is different from the other boys in his tribe, as he has a mission – he has a war to fight. 

This origin storyline is one of Kanigher's crowning achievements. Brilliant! Well Done!

Mission Eight: Star Jockey - Part 2

Last week, Johnny Cloud and Tex are on a search and destroy mission. Tex's P-51 is damaged by flak. Suddenly, three Me-109s appear. Cloud orders Tex to hit the deck and get to base. Cloud tries to fend off the bandits, but he is hit.

With his Mustang smoking, Cloud climbs to escape the bandits on his tail. His oxygen is hit, but he continues to go higher and higher. He ducks into a cloud, but when he comes out, he is flying an F-86 Sabre jet. Cloud is surprised and dumbfounded. But there is no time to contemplate what just happened, as rockets streak by his cockpit in a loud VROOOSH! 

Cloud looks back to see three MiG-15s closing fast on his tail. 

He whips his Sabre around and nails one. Then he plunges back into the cumulus – the second MiG-15 follows him but Cloud outmaneuvers him by barrel-rolling and pulling back on his throttle. The MiG overshoots his mark and soars ahead of Cloud.

Now Cloud has the kill shot. He blasts him. But there’s one more bandit. The lone MiG-15 latches on his tail as he exits the fog. The battle is all but lost when suddenly the MiG-15 explodes behind him. WHAAAM!

The R/T crackles: Tex had circled back and reports destroying the last Me-109. Cloud looks around and sees that he is back in WW2! 

On the return flight, Cloud wonders if he once again glimpsed the future just as he did when the Smoke-maker revealed his destiny in the smoke when Cloud was a young brave. 

Or did he? Maybe he really did travel into the future, but for a moment.

Back at base, Cloud’s men jostle him to tell another story about seeing the future in a wisp of smoke. Cloud just smiles and quips that he didn’t see a thing: “What can you see when smoke gets in your eyes? – Not a thing.”

But even Johnny Cloud is not so sure.

Image Credit:

AAMOW#89 (February 1962): Story Art: I. Novick; Writer: R. Kanigher.

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics

Mission Eight: Star Jockey -- Johnny Cloud's first experience with Time Travel

What starts out as relatively routine couple of days in the combat zone takes a wild turn, one that highlights the magic that surrounds Johnny Cloud.

While on patrol, the Happy Braves are attacked by a gaggle of Me-109s, but the bandits are summarily beaten. Spirits are high and the men gather in the officer’s hut to carouse.

Johnny Cloud entertains them by telling stories about his boyhood. Even as a papoose, Cloud described being fascinated with flying. Growing up, his gaze was fixed upon the skies, mesmerized by birds soaring above. And while other boys learned to hunt with bow and arrow, Cloud played with a toy airplane.

Cloud tells his crew that the Smoke-maker once cast a glimpse of his future wherein he piloted a strange bird with silver wings. Indeed, he saw his Mustang when he was just a boy. The men are astounded by the story and joke that this is impossible. No one can see the future.

Not only that, but Cloud sees all this before WW2 had started, before the P-51 was even on the drawing board -- this is beyond incredible!

Cloud and Tex are sent on a mission the next day to destroy terror rocket launchers hidden underwater in a lake. While bombing their target, Tex’s ship is damaged by flak. Just then, three bandits arrive, hoping to pick him off. Cloud orders Tex to fly low and return to base while he distracts the enemy.

The bandits zero in quickly and catch Cloud in a barrage of lead. Cloud’s Mustang is hit and begins to smoke – a bullet rips his air hose. He climbs despite his lack of oxygen so as to lead the bandits away from Tex. They follow, angling for the kill.

Cloud ducks into a cloud, but when he comes out, he is flying an F-86 Sabre jet! Rockets streak by his cockpit in a loud VROOOSH! Cloud looks back to see three MiG-15s closing fast on his tail.

There is no time to contemplate what just happened! No! The MiGs are bearing down on Cloud's jet, and he must act or be destroyed ... 

Image Credit:

AAMOW#89 (February 1962): Story Art: I. Novick; Writer: R. Kanigher.

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics

BEEOW! BWEE! and BEEANG! ... Bullet sounds in Johnny Cloud Adventures

Let's go off on a tangent here ... and see how many sounds can a bullet make when it hits Johnny Cloud's P-51.

The first two B-sounds in the title of this post are the most common. I guess most 20-30mm guns make B-sounds. I guess you never knew that. Neither did I.

After tabulating every incoming bullet sound in the original Johnny Cloud adventures from AAMOW#82 to AAMOW#117, I have to admit that I wore headphones to protect myself, and occasionally had to duck lead coming off the pages!

Johnny Cloud was quite colorful with his descriptions of the lead pounding him. He called them "raging steel mosquitoes" in AAMOW#83, and "angry steel hornets" in AAMOW#93 -- so what are they: Mosquitoes or Hornets? In AAMOW#102 he likened the barrage of bullets as "enemy lead licking at my cockpit." And, he calls them "blazing firecrackers" in AAMOW#105. Oh, and here comes another pesky insect, as he put it in AAMOW#106: "...snarling fireflies seemed to swarm into my own cockpit."

Quite the poet he is.

So back to the incoming bullet sounds (not to be confused with explosions or the beat of his own machine guns -- we will explore those on a future tangent) ... all told, I tabulated 19 different sounds.

BEEANG! BEEOW! BWEE! BWEEE! BWEEOW! PING! RRRIIP! SPANG! SPLANG! SPLANGG! TZING! TZINNG! VIP! VIIIP! ZING! ZIING! ZUNG! ZUNNG! ZZING! 

Now try and say them all in one or two breaths.

My favorite is SPLANG! But I have to say that TZINNG! is a close second. Now let me ask: How to you sound-out the double Ns in that last one? 

What fun it must have been for the Letterer to create these sounds. And did Robert Kanigher help?

Image Credit:

AAMOW#96 (April 1963): Story Art: I. Novick; Writer: R. Kanigher.

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics

 

Mission Seven: Ace of Vengeance - The Debriefing

Every comic book hero needs a rogue’s gallery, and the Hawk of Death is the first for Johnny Cloud. This adventure shows that villains are timeless, and vengeance stretches across generations such that a son can restore honor to the father. 

Not only did Cloud vanquish the evil Hawk, but also, he got an opportunity that his father did not – namely, he was able to save his junior pilots by sending them away while he engaged the enemy. He reversed the narrative.

And what a great nail-biter ending it was: Cloud was cornered. He had no weapon. But a quick flick of this wings insignia saved the day -- quite a shot!

But of course, nothing is certain: Is the Hawk of Death the villainous presence that shamed Cloud’s father? 

Or ...

Did Cloud see what he wanted to see – that is, a black bandit with white stripes became the Hawk! 

Either way, a new Johnny Cloud emerges – he is decisive and bold. He saves his young pilots. And, he wins a challenge that stretches across generations. 

This one is a harbinger, as we shall see, the rogues are lining-up to challenge Cloud.

Despite his shine, Cloud loses the cover shot on this issue for the first time, and he does not regain it completely until six issues later. An outrage! 

Of note, Ace of Vengeance was the only Cloud story written by Bob Haney. Maybe this is why the cover shot shows another story (a story that Kanigher wrote). He is the boss, so he gets to choose. Nonetheless, Haney does a great job! 

We will review Bob Haney's work in more detail later, but for now, well done!

Image Credit:

AAMOW#88 (December 1961): Art: I. Novick; Writer: Robert "Bob" Haney.

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics

Mission Seven: Ace of Vengeance Part 2

Last time, Johnny Cloud was on patrol with two new pilots when they encountered ten bandits at twelve-o-clock high, plus several more below. Cloud sensed a trap, so he ordered the new pilots to duck into the clouds. But it was too late. The high-flying Me-109s were diving fast and the lower group was climbing. 

Cloud's patrol was getting pinched. He feared that he would lose his new pilots.

It was time for desperate measures. Cloud told his new pilots to head for base while he turned towards the enemy. Cloud blasted his way through the line, killing two of the Huns. And he was not finished. Cloud turned to re-engage, when suddenly, a black Me-109 with white stripes engaged him.

These were the marking his father had warned him about. The markings of a killer. The same markings that his father saw in the First World War. Incredible? Yes. Was it the Hawk of Death? Cloud was convinced it was. 

The Hawk seized the advantage and took a kill-shot, sending Johnny Cloud’s P-51 spiraling downward in smoke. This is when he jumped …

Cloud falls. He doesn't open his chute. He wants to be a small target -- just a man, tumbling at terminal velocity. The Hawk sprays the sky with bullets.

Finally, Cloud pulls his ripcord with only seconds to spare and drops in a forest. The Hawk of Death lands nearby and with help from infantry gets a rifle to hunt for Cloud. 

He tracks him to a river’s edge and opens fire. With a lucky shot, he hits Cloud’s pistol, sending him reeling backwards into the river. The pistol is lost.

Cloud lies there, underwater like his father did, hiding as the wily Hun wades into the water. But when the Hawk of Death stands over him and aims his rifle, Cloud leaps up and flicks his wings at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead. WHACK! 

The Hawk is dazed and falls forward into the water. Cloud rolls him over and drowns him before he can recover his wits.

As Cloud walks out of the forest, he sees his Big Brother smiling. Cloud vows to write his father: He no longer needs to wear the white feather of shame. The Hawk of Death is dead!

Image Credit:

AAMOW#88 (December 1961): Story Art: I. Novick; Writer: R. Kanigher.

Johnny Cloud TM DC Comics

Mission Seven: Ace of Vengeance

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.

Once I open my chute – this buzzard will have me in his claws.

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