Modern Comics #78

This October 1948 issue of Modern Comics puts Blackhawk up against a genuinely striking villain — the cover, rendered by Reed Crandall, shows a confident, butterfly-costumed Madame Butterfly dominating the foreground with her dramatic winged cape and antennae headpiece, while a crouching Blackhawk scrambles through a burst of smoke and debris behind her. The bold cover blurb — "Blackhawk hunts the deadliest of the species, Madame Butterfly!" — perfectly sets the tone for what looks like a cat-and-mouse pursuit. At 52 pages for just a dime, this Quality Comics entry delivers a wonderfully vivid slice of late-Golden Age adventure.