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.]] 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. THEIR OWN TITLE The series continued in ''Showcase'' for three more appearances 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 supervillains. 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 Sea Devils. June Robbins, a computer genius and archaeologist, joined the Challengers for many adventures as an "honorary" or "girl" Challenger. 1960'S SUPERHEROES In issue 55, during their 1960's 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. Tagalong Tino was blinded. Red donated an eye to his brother and donned an eyepatch. 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 gutshot 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 superheroes were considered old hat. DC pushed "adventure" titles such as The Shadow and Tarzan (and paid to license both). The Challengers were canceled with issue 77. 1977 REVIVAL In a short-lived 1977 revival, the Challengers were a four-man, one-woman team again. June Robbins got a uniform and official status. No explanation for Corinna Stark's departure nor June's joining was given. 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. As larger-than-life heroes having super-adventures, the Challengers helped pave the way for the 1960's 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. In "Challengers of the Unknown" #3, Rocky was shot into space and returned with multiple superpowers including invisibility, flamethrowing, giant-growth, and super-strength. 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 National Tattler". 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. VOLUME THREE The Challengers were revamped again by Steven Grant in Volume 3 (1997). Four new Challengers pursued X-File-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. 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. VOLUME FOUR One more revamp was Howard Chaykin's Volume 6 miniseries (2004-2005). On a world without superheroes, five troublemakers - a blogger, hiphop 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. NOVEL In 1974, Author Ron Goulart penned a Challengers of the Unknown novel 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. The story is fast-moving, light-hearted, chaotic, but fun. Fairly rare, the book is a classic of the "Atomic Horror" genre. AWARDS The 1950-60s series won the 1967 Alley Award for Best Non-Super-Powered Group Title, and the 1967 Alley Award for Best Normal Adventure Group. 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".
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