Challengers of the Unknown
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The Challengers of the Unknown is a group of fictional characters first drawn by Jack Kirby for DC Comics. This quartet of adventurers explored science fictional and apparent paranormal occurrences and faced fantastic menaces. The scripts for the first stories are often credited to Dick and Dave Wood, two brothers who also wrote other Kirby-illustrated material, such as the "Sky Masters of the Space Force" comic strip; but others have claimed that Kirby created the Challengers himself or together with former partner Joe Simon.
The group debuted in Showcase #6 (February 1957) as acquaintances who miraculously survived a plane crash unscathed. They concluded that since they were "living on borrowed time", they should band together for hazardous adventures. The four — Kyle "Ace" Morgan, Matthew "Red" Ryan, Leslie "Rocky" Davis, and Walter Mark "Prof" Haley — became the Challengers of the Unknown.
The inspiration for the Challengers' adventures were old serials, war movies, and drive-in science fiction. Superhero comics had mostly vanished by the mid-1950s; the revival of the Flash, often seen as marking the return of the super-heroes to popularity, had occurred only a few months earlier, in Showcase #4. As larger-than-life heroes without super-powers but having super-adventures, the Challengers helped pave the way for the 1960s superheroes. Like war movies, their "squad" had the standard archetypes: Ace, the hotshot pilot and leader; Rocky, strong and dumb; Prof, the skinny brain; and Red, the hothead daredevil. The stories had weird menaces, fistfights, wild vehicles and gadgets, spectacular terrain, daring escapes, and a sense of humor.
The most noted influence of this creation was Kirby's next major continuing series, The Fantastic Four, which was essentially the Challengers as a superhero family, complete with a similar origin. Both groups were quartets who resolved to band together after a crash landing; but the Challengers lacked the strong characterizations and much of the humor that distinguished the Fantastic Four. In Challengers of the Unknown #3, Rocky was shot into space and returned with multiple superpowers including invisibility, flame throwing, freeze-ray throwing, giant-growth, super-speed and super-strength.
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[edit] Their Own Title
The series continued in Showcase for three more appearances (#7, 11, 12) then moved to its own title, considered among Kirby's most notable in that period. After 12 issues total, Kirby moved on, and while the title continued through issue #75 (Aug.-Sept. 1970, followed by intermittent reprint and revival issues from 1973-78), the series never achieved the same level of acclaim. It was a typical DC B-List comic, a steady seller like the Doom Patrol and Sea Devils.
Soon famous, the Challengers accepted many "unknown challenges" from the Pentagon, mad scientists, and people with a problem. Over time the "Challs" established the hollowed-out Challengers Mountain as headquarters. Later they adopted an hourglass logo to symbolize time running out. They encountered genies, common and sophisticated thieves, rocs, aliens and robots good and bad, mad scientists, and super villains. Their adventures followed the flow of other DC comics starting with "Strange Adventures", veering toward superheroics (during the Bat Craze), to occult menaces, through Bermuda Triangle weirdness, and finally to cancellation (1979). The Challengers traveled through space, time, and other dimensions. Guest stars included the Doom Patrol, Deadman, Swamp Thing, Jonny Double, and the Sea Devils.
During a one issue crossover story with the Sea Devils in Challengers of the Unknown #47 they fought the criminal group known as Scorpio. June Robbins, a computer genius and archaeologist, joined the Challengers for many adventures as an "honorary" or "girl" Challenger, starting in their appearances in Showcase.
[edit] 1960s Superheroes
In issue #55, during their 1960s superhero run, Red was killed. Permanently, according to the editors, because "Red wasn't pulling his weight". A teen rock star/engineering genius immediately waged a vendetta against the three-man team. "Tino Mannaray" turned out to be Martin Ryan, Red's kid brother, who blamed the team for his death. Real-live teen fans, meanwhile, deluged the editors with protests until they relented (via the letters column) and resurrected Red. The missing Challenger had been blown up, dosed with shape-changing Liquid Light (Multi-Man's potion), and rendered amnesiac, but still nearly conquered the Pacific as a Tiki god.
As the series turned occult, so did the glamor. Red's brother Tino was blinded. Red donated an eye to his brother and donned an eye patch. Eventually Red received an eye transplant and the team was whole again. But not for long. Prof was next to succumb, possessed by an evil spirit and gut shot by a villain. While Prof recovered, Corinna Stark, a mysterious blonde with mystical knowledge, invited herself onto the team. The Challengers fought occult alien-monsters in backwoods villages and dark dreams. And for the first time, teamwork suffered as romance reared its ugly head. Rocky and Red fought - for real - for Corinna's affection.
By then the fad for superheroes was in decline, and DC put more emphasis on comic books in other genres, including licensed titles such as The Shadow and Tarzan as well as other adventure, romance, war and horror books. The Challengers were canceled with issue #77 in 1971.
In 1973, three reprint issues were put out (#78-80).
[edit] 1977 Revival
In a short-lived 1977 revival, the Challengers were a four-man, one-woman team again. The first came back in Super-Team Family #8-10, before getting their own title back with #81. They were joined by Deadman and Swamp Thing. June Robbins got a uniform and official status. No explanation for Corinna Stark's departure nor June's joining was given.
Their title was canceled with #87 in 1978, but they continued their storyline in Adventure #493-497. They also appeared in issues of Super-Team Family.
[edit] Volume Two
The Challengers were revamped with a "Dark Knight" cast in Volume 2 (1991) by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. The Challs were semi-retired, their mountain a theme park, and their adventures disregarded as cooked-up articles in "The Tattletale". Other-dimensional experiments and a bomb blew up the mountain and nearby town. Prof and June were presumed killed. Red, Rocky, and Ace were tried and ordered to disband. The three drifted apart, dogged by a ghostly Prof and June, then reunited to defeat a space-demon causing worldwide suicides and madness. "The New Challengers of the Unknown", including ghostly Prof and June, were poised to take on menaces in the dark corners of the DCU. Loeb planned a second miniseries to reset the Challs to youth and heroism, but it never materialized.
The mini series was 8 issues. It was reprinted in trade paperback as Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! in 2004.
[edit] Volume Three
The Challengers were revamped again by Steven Grant in Volume 3 (1997). Four new Challengers pursued X-Files-like horrors. They were Clay Brody, NASCAR driver; Brenda Ruskin, physicist; Kenn Kawa, radical games designer; and Marlon Corbet, commercial pilot, who also miraculously survived a plane crash. They stopped sacrificial wackos, drug-juiced zombies, vengeful ghosts, Amazon cults, Lovecraftian monsters, mass suicides, humming buildings, and other oddities. They were advised by Rocky Davis, older and grayer and alone. It was eventually revealed the original Challengers were dematerialized by a mad scientist's ray-weapon. The same ray caused both plane crashes, as well as others. Soon the original Challs reappeared, helped the young Challs defeat the madman, then walked back into oblivion (minus a wounded Rocky) to shut down a runaway Tesla field. The young Challengers vowed to fight on - until cancellation in 1998 with issue #18.
The missing Challengers - Ace, Red, Prof, and June - were discovered by Superboy in Hypertime. The team was waging guerrilla war against Black Zero (a Superboy variant). With Black Zero defeated, the team returned to Earth, but lost Red Ryan along the way. Reunited with Rocky in Metropolis, hosted by Rip Hunter, the original Challengers vowed to explore Hypertime, "the greatest unknown," to find Red.
Two Challengers partook in Infinite Crisis. Rocky Davis and Prof Haley helped stem the escape of prisoners from Blackgate Prison (Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special 1) and Rocky fought in the Battle for Metropolis (Infinite Crisis 7).
[edit] Silver Age
In 2000, a one-shot entitled Silver Age: Challengers of the Unknown was published. This comic was done in the style of the original Silver Age Challengers.
[edit] Volume Four
One more revamp was Howard Chaykin's Volume 4 miniseries (2004-2005) of 6 isses. On a world without superheroes, five troublemakers - a blogger, hip hop artist, eco-terrorist, etc. - discovered they'd been genetically enhanced and chip-programmed to be soldier-pawns. The villains are the Hegemony, a cabal of billionaires who secretly ran the world. Made slaves on a Moon base, three Challengers blew up the base, escaped to Earth, and declared war on the Hegemony until (like the obliquely-mentioned earlier Challengers) their "borrowed time" runs out.
This has been collected in trade paperback: Challengers of the Unknown: Stolen Moments, Borrowed Time.
[edit] Novel
In 1974, author Ron Goulart penned the novel Challengers of the Unknown as part of a DC experiment in new venues. The original four and June Robbins trekked to South America to investigate young men with old Nazi tattoos, ancient alien cults, Zarpa the lake monster, a castle in the desert, a robotic dog, and a bomb in a piano crate.
[edit] Elseworlds
The Challengers make a brief appearance in the Elseworlds miniseries Conjurers, set in an alternate DCU where magic is a part of mainstream society. These are the "Volume 3" Challengers, but given the nicknames of the originals: Kenn is "Prof", Clay is "Rocky", Brenda is "Red" and Marlon is "Ace". (Since Kenn was always shown as the most "mystical" of the new Challs, it makes sense that he would be "Prof" in a magical universe, rather than Brenda, the team's scientist.)
During Superboy's trip through Hypertime, referenced above, he briefly visits an Elseworld in which the Challengers were himself, Ace, Guardian and Dubbilex. The June who arrives in the DCU at the end of that story is also an Elseworlds version, coming from a universe where she was a full Challenger from the beginning. She was apparently exchanged with the June of the main timeline when she was struck by Hypertime energies.
The Challengers also made brief appearances in Justice League: Another Nail (when all time periods meld together) and Adventures of Superman Annual #7 (as part of a strikeforce of non-powered heroes).
In Amalgam Comics, the Challengers were amalgamated with their super-powered counterparts, the Fantastic Four, to form the Challengers of the Fantastic.
[edit] Awards
The 1950-60s series won the 1967 Alley Awards for Best Non-Super-Powered Group Title and Best Normal Adventure Group.
[edit] Reprints
DC has reprinted Kirby's Challenger run in two hardcover Archives. The Loeb-Sale mini was reprinted as a trade paperback, Challengers of the Unknown Must Die!, as was the Chaykin mini.
- Challengers of the Unknown Archive #1: Showcase #6,7,11,12, Challengers #1,2, ISBN 1-56389-997-3
- Challengers of the Unknown Archive #2: issues #3-8, ISBN 1-4012-0153-9
- Showcase Presents Challengers of the Unknown vol. 1: Showcase #6, 7, 11, 12, Challengers #1-17 (black & white). Solicitations listed issues 1-18, but the book runs to 17.
