Blackhawk #59

Quality Comics swings for the stars with Blackhawk #59 (December 1952), featuring a Reed Crandall cover that pulls you straight into city-wide catastrophe — a cratered asteroid hurtles through a smoke-filled sky while missiles streak downward, setting buildings ablaze as a uniformed Blackhawk looks up in grim determination and bystanders scramble in the background. The portraits of the full Blackhawk squadron ringing the title remind you just how much firepower might be needed to answer the threat teased by the cover blurb: "The mysterious space missiles from Beachhead on Asteroid X." Inside, writer Dick Wood and artist/inker Bill Ward bring their own energy to the story "The Sea Devil," making this a double-barreled issue that blends cold-war-era sci-fi dread with the globe-trotting adventure the series did so well in 1952.