Modern Comics#75(1948)

A jaded high-society gossip columnist develops an electronic ray that converts water into hydrogen and oxygen, explosively, and uses it to rob some banks in the seaside resort of Colomba. Bank guards get killed in the process; no conventional explosive residue is found at the crime scenes; authorities are baffled, the Blackhawks are called in. Blackhawk deduces that the "explosives" are the bank guards themselves, figures out how the effect is caused, and with Chop Chop's help, he whips up an antidote for the explosive-creating ray, drinks it, has his team drink it, and continues the investigation. It tastes terrrible. The investigation itself has been virtually taken over by the villain, Reynard, and is all an elaborate ruse to mislead the authorities. Blackhawk has figured this out early on, and plays along with Reynard until he makes his big play, to rob the Colomba treasury. A truckload of thugs fight it out with the Blackhawks and lose, and Reynard uses his device on himself, destroying the device in the explosion.