Return of the (Black) Max

Its occured to me lately that i've not featured any Black Max for quite a while. Think that its because, subconsciously, i was blocking him out. When i started this here Blog, it became quite a love letter to my favourite ever Britsih comic character and a while back, deep down, i chose to veer away away from him. But, think enough's time passed now, so went ahead and bought me an issue lacking from my collection - Lion & Thunder 8th Jan 1972:

Although my choice of issue was a random one, it turned out to be rather fortuitous, at least with "Black Max". Turning to the tale, we start with the aircraft of both sides being batted (ha!) out of the sky by "a shrieking, whirling wheel of air":

Max gets one of his Giant Bats to check out something coming out of the ground, something i've seen before in later episodes:

Its the craft of Doktor Gratz, "The Mad Dwarf":

So here we have the first meeting of Max and his future ally, and eventual replacer for him in the comic. Elsewhere, we have "Adam Eterno" and a setting that's just crying out for the magnificent art being produced on the strip, the Great Fire Of London:

But, its odd. Most tales of the Big Guy follow a trusted formula: (A) Escape gold-themed death trap, (B) Plot advance, (C) Gold-themed deattrap. Here we have neither. It starts with Adam being hung up to be consumed by the fire, and ends with him in more non-golden peril, but seeing a vision of a chair of gold. Most odd. "AIEEEE" WATCH: None.