The Classics - Challengers of the Unknown #24

   There are several reasons why I love this issue of Challengers of the Unknown.

   The team was one of several non-powered teams of heroes at DC in the '60s who tackled strange menaces using their unique skills.

   The team was made up of daredevils Prof, Red, Ace and Rocky - with June occasionally joining in on an adventure.

   This issue from 1962 includes two separate stories. One takes them to southeast Asia, where they try to track down a swindler - but first they must pass a gauntlet of tests that challenges their ingenuity.

   The second story is the one I like, because it features Multi-Man, who's probably the villain who most often plagued the team during their original run.

   In his original appearance, his power was tied to his own death! Every time he was "killed," he was reborn with a new and terrible power. But this story seems to lock his baseline form in as a big-brained, small-bodied "man of the future."

   While his powers vary widely, his look would stay the same through numerous future appearances - he was about the closest the team came to having an arch-enemy.

   I love the Challs because they were like brothers (like my three brothers and I) - they squabbled more than any team at DC (with the possible exception of the Doom Patrol), but they used their brains to overcome the bad guys.

   But there's another reason to like this issue - this was the month that DC's comics jumped in price, from a mere 10 cents to a massive 12 cents per issue! The inside front cover features a full-page letter from the editors, apologizing for the jump in price - how classy is that? After 25 years of only charging a dime, rising costs forced the increase.

   It's quaint and admirable that they cared so much about their readers. These days, prices jump up by a dollar without so much as an "eat it, fanboys!"

   Those were the days.

Grade: B

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The Classics - Challengers of the Unknown #35

Having spent the better part of a couple of decades going to comics conventions, I love to hit the back issue bins.

There are comics I look for to fill gaps in a particular collection, there are others I pick up just for fun, and there are issues I track down out of a sense of nostalgia.

Among the many titles I look for in the last category, there are several old DC comics I love to find in almost any condition just because they return me to the warm glow of my childhood. Among those are Blackhawk, Doom Patrol and Challengers of the Unknown.

For the longest time, all but the earliest issues in those series could be picked up cheap - and they were always fun.

There is a remarkable consistency to those comics as we look at them in hindsight. None reaches the heights of its earliest, prototype stories, but they all maintain a professional level that (almost) always promises an entertaining tale.

Let's take this issue, which I picked up at a small convention a few weeks ago for a couple of bucks. Released in 1963, it offers two Challenger stories.

The first follows the usual format for this series: a gigantic menace appears after a laser experiment somehow awakens a monster that had been trapped on the moon. It immediately rockets to Earth and begins wreaking havoc.

The Challs investigate and discover the secret behind the creature's original imprisonment and they fight to use that knowledge to save the day in the face of an impossible opponent.

It's all a bit silly and extremely far-fetched, but it still manages to be a solid story from start to finish, with professional, clear artwork by longtime series artist Bob Brown.

The second story is a style that DC fell to in moments of weakness: the "look through time at the children of the Challengers." DC apparently loved these imaginary / fantasy stories (they did loads of 'em), though I suspect they left readers cold (at least I never much cared for them).

It's fine for what it is, but it's mighty thin stuff.

Still, overall, it's an entertaining comic and it makes me smile.

That's pretty good for a 50-year-old comic that cost less than a new issue!

Grade: B-

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DC Universe Presents #6

As my Dad once said, "City boy gets slickered again."

DC must know that there are certain characters I'll follow no matter where they appear. The Doom Patrol, Adam Strange, Metal Men, Metamorpho and the Challengers of the Unknown. So I was tickled to see the cover of DC Universe Presents with an updated version of the Challs.

They even threw in artwork by Jerry Ordway, one of my favorite artists, and a cover by another fave, Ryan Sook.

Unfortunately, they forgot to include the Challengers.

Wait, that's not entirely fair - they're in there. Rocky, Ace, Red and Prof are in the plane that crashes at the beginning of the book - but they're nothing more than supporting characters here.

The focus is on June Robbins, who is the producer for a TV reality show called "Challengers." She's leading a planeload of second-banana celebrities to a site in the Himalayan Mountains when it all goes south.

What follows is a strange, dream-like series of events, which is followed by an encounter with a monster (but not the one on the cover - that scene happens nowhere in this comic) and more mysteries.

The story by Dan Didio and Ordway isn't bad, it's just... confusing. I understand updating the Challs for a modern audience, but this doesn't contain any of the elements of camraderie or humor or adventure - it's more like "Lost" in the mountains.

It might still work out, and I'll buy the next issue at least to see if they can make sense of it all - but so far, this doesn't feel at all like the Challengers I know and love.

Hopefully they'll turn up next issue, and I won't feel like I got snookered.

Grade: B-

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The Classics - Challengers of the Unknown #47

By the time this comic came out (it's cover dated December 1965 - January 1966), I was picking up fewer of DC's titles and gravitating toward Marvel's line - but one of the DC books I held onto the longest was Challengers of the Unknown.

(Don't worry, I eventually came back to DC's titles - but it took several years.)

Like The Doom Patrol, the Challs were very different from most of DC's heroes. For one thing, they didn't really get along, although it was obvious they were friends and good teammates.

But they would argue, they would tease each other, they would crack jokes - they just seemed like a fun group to be around.

Which seems funny, since their origin was a bit odd and decidedly serious. The four men who made up the team were each experts in their field: Kyle "Ace" Morgan (a pilot), Matthew "Red" Ryan (a daredevil), Leslie "Rocky" Davis (a boxer) and Walter Mark "Prof" Haley (a scientist). They survive a terrible plane crash, decide they're living "on borrowed time" and devote their lives to exploring the ultimate mysteries.

That brings them in conflict with an amazing array of monsters, aliens and strange life forms.

This issue was a particular favorite because of the lead story (there are two stories in this issue). In "The Sinister Sponge," an ordinary man is transformed into a Sponge-Man, capable of absorbing anything - sound, energy, even color.

This gave long-time (and vastly underrated) Challengers artist Bob Brown lots of room for fun visuals, as a crime spree leads to widespread destruction.

But the surprising thing about the story is the fact that it doesn't wrap up with a happy resolution. Writer Bill Finger (one of the greatest of the Golden and Silver Age writers) takes what could be another "Challs vs. a monster" story and makes it a tragic tale.

The Sponge-Man is actually the victim of a freak accident and led into crime by a con man. When his actions accidentally threaten the lives of the Challengers, the Sponge-Man saves them. But the ending of the story is the real surprise, though I won't spoil it here.

The backup story written by France Herron and drawn by Brown is a bit thin, as the team is trapped by Mr. Tic-Tac-Toe (honest!), and other than some nice art and a few clever uses of the game design, there's not much there.

In fact, the issue is a good synopsis of the team's comics: when they were good, they were great fun; but when the stories were just OK, the series suffered.

After too much of the latter (and a shuddering infusion of campy stories), the series ended with issue #75. There have been some attempts to bring the team back, but these days they're rarely seen.

It would be great to see a series take the team back to its over-the-top style - but these days, comics are a serious business, so perhaps we'll have to be satisfied with the occasional guest appearances.

Grade: B+

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