Charlton Comic's The Fightin' 5 was a (DC Comic's) Blackhawk-style (with greater character development) Special Forces paramilitary team. The members include Frenchy the Fox, Irv the Nerve Haganah, Granite Gallero, Hank Hennesey & Tom-Tom.
The five men were recruited by the CIA, in the fall of 1963, during the height of the Cold War, consisted of five commandos, with their initials spelling out "FIGHT". The Fightin' 5 undertook missions around the world fighting international terrorists, despotic rulers and thwarting Communist agents. They wore bright blue BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform) with red berets. The Fightin' 5 usually flew around in a modified Convair B-58 Supersonic Bomber utilizing many different military-use weapons systems as well as James Bond-like gadgets to accomplish their crucial missions.
The Fightin' 5 #28-#41 (1964)
Numbering continues from Space War.
Intro & 1st appearance of Fightin' 5. Origin of the team.
Some of the adventures involved the Fightin' 5 travel to Mexico to stop the communist Lev from training the Aztec people to be terrorists.
The Black Dragon cult attempts to take over an African nation. The President of the United States sends the Fightin' Five to stop them.
Then-current President Lyndon B. Johnson makes a cameo appearance in the series.
The only change in the team, during this initial run, was to kill off Irv and have Hank lose an eye and an arm, at the end of its run.
Some of the villains the Fightin' 5 faced were (communist) Lev, Black Dragon, S.A.T.A.N., General Chu, Dr. Nijus, Zeru, Lady Dawn & Agents of D.E.A.T.H. and an undersea monster!
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| Fightin' 5 #41 My favorite cover in the series! |
Script: Joe Gill-creator
Pencils: Bill Montes-creator
Inks: Ernie Bache
Dick Giordano provided many of the covers.
Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio takes over covers with issue #33.
With issue #34, Bill Montes pencils covers with Mastroserio inks.
Issue #34 & #37 have Sarge Steel features on the sport of Judo, by Frank McLaughlin.
Montes & Bach take over covers with issue #37.
The Fightin' 5 also ran as a back-up feature in The Peacemaker #1-#5. Not so odd, for Charlton Comics, The Peacemaker's first appearance & origin as a back-up feature in Fightin' 5 #40 by Joe Gill & Pat Boyette.
Peacemaker #1-#5 (1967)
Fightin' 5 as a back-up feature with all new stories.
New stories cover members of the Fightin' 5 stop a communist madman from destroying the world but at the cost of one of their own, Irv Haganah!
In the first issue of the Modern Comic, one story page from original story not reprinted.
The Fightin' 5 and their new female member (Sonya) travel to the Arctic to fight Russians.
Credits go to:
Script: Joe Gill & Steve Skeates
Pencils: Bill Montes
Inks: Ernie Bache
The Fightin' 5 #42-49 (1981)
Numbering continues from previous Fightin' 5 series.
Reprints of the original Fightin' 5 run.
I enjoyed the Fightin' 5, as well as the Blackhawks. Fast paced action, grueling suspense & great gadgets were fare for the day. The characters were great, developed so you grew to really know these soldiers. Too bad they have fallen by the wayside.
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| Power of 5 #1 Canadian reprint of Fightin 5 #38! |
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| Our case of heroes! |
Thank You!
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| Pages from Fightin' 5 #40 |
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