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February - March 1960 |
The splash page pretty much sums it up.  |
On the planet Krandan, S'Ntaga is famous. He's got a statue in town and his face carved on a mountain. He's Krandan's Superman. Then one day, blue-striped four-armed aliens arrive, blasting a path of destruction. S'Ntaga drives them off, but he must know their plans, and follows. To Earth. Where Red Ryan acts as a mountain climbing guide, in civvies for once. He calls off the climb and radios his buds. The Challengers bring Red's "glad rags". Prof yells, "Now take us to the aliens!" They find a blue-striped alien blasting trees with a ray gun plugged into its body, or suit. When the Challengers circle around, they find another alien, who lets fly. Prof is blasted off a rock. The Challengers grab Prof, but the giant is pursuing - until it's driven off by a flash of light. S'Ntaga arrives. And takes charge of Prof. "I must get your friend to my ship - he's at death's door!" |
Aboard S'Ntaga's spaceship, he bathes Prof in a Hawatta Light, which works like suspended animation. He then seals Prof in a healing chamber and floats him into the sky on anti-gravity rays. "The sun's penetrating rays will create a Sunga action to start the healing process." As for the aliens, they are renegades here to "build a devastating machine to use against their own planet." S'Ntaga's ray guy flare can drive them off, but is otherwise useless. So is his deflecto-shield. The aliens are stronger here under Earth's sun, which is why they chose to build here. But so is S'Ntaga. And when crashes sound in the next valley, he scoops up Red, Ace, and Rocky and JUMPS into battle. The aliens shoot up a town. Rocky and Red pitch rocks to distract the giants - and almost get zapped - while Ace clings to S'Ntaga. Ace jumps and rips off an alien gun. Which won't fire because it's not plugged in. The townspeople have fled, so the Challengers split. They find the valley where other aliens work. They've refined minerals and erected a force dome to build their mysterious machine. Rocky argues, "If they just want to build their machine and leave Earth, why not let 'em?" Because other planets would be endangered, is why. |
Prof arrives, fully healed. He meets his savior.  Prof's actually better than new. He lowers his head and bashes into a mountain side, caving it in. "Something real strange happened to me in that chamber." |
Hmm... S'Ntaga didn't expect that. It's the first time an Earthman has been exposed to the process. But "this gives us a chance now." S'Ntaga takes a mystery box from his spaceship. He orders Prof to charge the force-dome as a "human battering ram". Prof breaks through with a thunderous crash. But the aliens take off in their spaceship, towing their doomsday device. S'Ntaga jumps after, and lobs his mystery box. A gigantic explosion destroys the alien ship and device. The box was a "thermo-explosive" that became supercharged by Earth's sun. Time for S'Ntaga to go. Prof's powers will wear off. "Goodbye, my friends! May our trails cross again!" |
"The Three Clues To Sorcery" |
Deep in Africa, June Robbins, in a pretty red frock, works in a lab with Dr. Fenton. (What she does is not clear.) One morning the wall is broken open. A lab monkey fed "special formula food that prompted unnatural growth" has fled, leaving destruction and giant footprints. June knows "just the men to summon and send after this thing." |
The Challengers are just then touching down in the Colorado Rockies, flying into a secret remote-controlled door in the mountainside. They have a new hide-out, Challenger Mountain! (See Headquarters for more details.)  They barely land before the short-wave radio buzzes. (Bzz-bzz-bzz?) Only June knows the frequency. Something's gone wrong. "Great! No time for even a house-warming in our new headquarters!" |
Soon the Challs touch down in Africa. They meet Dr. Fenton - and June in a cage!  Fenton yells, "Touch me - and Miss Robbins' life is forfeit!" June was a lure. The "giant monkey" evidence was faked. Why? The Challengers must retrieve three mysterious objects. (What else?) A metal box atop a mountain full of quartz. A bottle from a submerged ship. And a ruby from a stone idol guarded by a giant gorilla. An alchemist left a record, yada, yada. All the artifacts are close by, we'll learn. |
The mountain is within telescope-eyeshot. Red climbs. Falls. Lands on a ledge. Fenton lends Ace a hot-air balloon. The balloon whips around the mountain. Red fears Ace won't last long. Ace knows it. He deliberately snags the balloon on a crag. He throws Red a rope ladder. Together they scale the mountain and find the metal box full of quartz. But the box has "fresh dents and scuffs - as if it had been dropped here lately." The Challs need to "huddle for a skull-session." Just off shore, Prof swims for an ancient galleon. And finds sharks! Ducking into bull kelp, he finds the bottle. And a giant octopus that snares him with a tentacle! Trapped, low on air, Prof deliberately thrashes around to attract the sharks, who tear into the octopus. Prof escapes. (Talk about a cool head!) Prof meets Ace and Red. The bottle seems suspiciously wrapped in seaweed, not in a natural way. Same as the mountain box is suspicious. They can only wait for Rocky. |
Not far off, Rock-head slips past native guards to steal the gem from the idol's head. "This baby's a lead pipe cinch." A gorilla disagrees.  Rocky lunges forward. "Got to break his grip on me." They somersault, and Rocky body-blocks the gorilla! Grabbing the gem, ducking native spears, he fashions a log raft and poles across a forbidding swamp. The guys meet, but "Whatever power these three objects are supposed to create is a mystery to me!" Ace wonders. Back at the lab, the boys bring the goods but demand June be freed. She comes running. "I'm already free! I had some lab tools... and picked the lock!" |
Ace reckons "the secret must be in the gem itself." He twists and BR-ROOM!  |
The Challengers knock the assistants flat. Fenton shoots at Ace and destroys half the gem. Then he collects a knuckle sandwich. The gem stores up solar energy released when it's pulled apart. The box and the bottle were just "misdirection" to keep anyone from examining the gem. "We'll turn these birds over to the authorities, and then - we've got a "house-warming" on our hands! You might as well join us, June!" |
Comments Two incredibly lame stories. In "The Challenger from Outer Space", S'Ntaga is never made even an unofficial Chall. Ace sees that the aliens' gun needs to be plugged into their bodies, then forgets. Rocky wants to let bad guys fly away. S'Ntaga does all the work. And we never learn what the doomsday device does. In "The Three Clues", the guys chase two McGuffins to no purpose. And a giant monkey that doesn't exist - not to be confused with the giant gorilla. And... oh, never mind. |
The ads are almost more interesting. One is for various space-fantasy titles that were still popular in 1960, but on the wane.  |
The other is a Public Service ad with Superboy giving advice on how YOU can help your community, no matter what age!  Play with handicapped kids, collect toys for needy kids, do handicrafts at the hospital, and more. Contact your local United Fund or Community Chest, whatever that is. |