Challengers of the Unknown 20
June - July 1961

First Story
"Multi-Man Strikes Again"

Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Bill Finger?
Artist: Bob Brown
13 pages
Still 10¢

Characters: Ace Morgan, Rocky Davis, Prof Haley, Red Ryan. June Robbins. Multi-Man, crooks, a farmer.

Synopsis: Multi-Man breaks jail and collects super- science devices to duplicate his lost powers.

Much text generously supplied by
DarkMark's Comic Indexing Domain!

Prof and Red arrive at the emergency meeting in the “Challengers’ city headquarters”, which looks suspiciously like June’s apartment.  June explains that MM, with a few simple materials, melted his cell bars and escaped.  “The mightiest power of all - the power of warped genius!”

MM was reported near the Blair Rocket plant.  Ace and Rocky are checking the tip.  Off they go.

Meanwhile, MM has slithered through a drain pipe into the rocket plant.  His gang waits outside for MM to cut the current to the electric fence.  A delicate alarm bell guards the shut-off.

MM shoots a “gummy plastic” from an “ultra-high- pressure” pen right through the glass and gums up the hammer.  (Clever, but not exactly a Doctor Doom plot.)

MM grabs the payroll to "satisfy his men".  It's the one-man rocket unit he's really after.  He's already strapped it on, and just in time.

Ace and Rocky rush in their purple pajamas.  Ace flattens a thug with a haymaker.  Rocky knee-tackles two more.

MM "shoots right between our fingers".  Boasting, "Look at me!  I'm a rocketing kangaroo!"

With more surprises.  A gas gun shoots a pink cloud that fells the guys.  "Sweet dreams, fools!  Ha, ha, ha!"

"Welcome to our little hideaway, my friends."  Ace and Rocky wake in a cabin.  MM brags about his plans to regain his former supernatural powers with scientific gadgets.  His next stop is the Electro-Dyne plant for "an amazing new energy gun!  Enjoy your stay!"  And he giggles that irritating malicious laugh again.

At the rocket factory, Prof, Red, and June do some old-fashioned police work and find the tiny drain pipe where MM slithered in.  And a newspaper clipping about Electro-Dyne's factory.  So they rush there.

At the factory, MM avoids the guards by flying in the tenth-story window.  He fiddles with the experimental ray gun, soldering on a rheostat to regulate the power.

Stuck in the cabin behind a steel door, and guarded by thugs with rifles, Ace and Rocky look for an escape.  They spot a farmer down in the valley.  Ace cuts a blanket while Rocky arranges lights and mirrors.

The farmer sees an “SOS CALL POLICE” cutout light up in the window.  “Better give the sheriff a ring.”

(The boys do get sprung, but we don't see them freed.  It would be pretty embarrassing anyway.)

At the plant, Prof and Red rush in to find MM, who wears a rocket pack like a shark fin.  And he’s about to break out “like a bolt of lightning!  HA-HA!”  There are jolts for everyone, as MM zaps the heroes.  BZZACK!  “I’m just giving you enough of a jolt to knock you out!”

Ace and Rocky arrive too late.  MM will zap them too.  Ace yells, “Cover your eyes, Rocky!” and grabs for a switch for the giant power tube.

A giant power tube flares and blinds MM.  (And any time you see a giant something like a giant typewriter or tube, you’re probably looking at a Bill Finger story.)  Still, MM triggers his “wings” and soars out the window.  Whoosh!

Ace unfolds plans found in the gang hideout.  Sketches show MM’s “ultimate goal”.  And a clue to his next job!  “Come on, we’ve got work to do!”

The Challs speed across the city in June’s spiffy convertible, she driving.  The boys pore over the “MM’s ultimate plan - to assemble all his powers in one machine!” 

He only needs a device that extracts oxygen from water.  Norse Nautical Instruments has been experimenting, so that’s their target.  But first, “we’ve got an important stop to make.”

At the lab, MM has an unperfected oxygen extractor.  Adding his own “chemical pellet” means he can remain underwater indefinitely.

The Challs rush him with sticks in hand - sticks of dynamite!  MM yells, “Stop!  I’ve turned this gun up to full power!  This time, I’ll shoot to kill!”

“Don’t try it!..  You’ll blow yourself sky high!”  (Threatening to suicide-bomb just to grab MM?  The Challs really are insane!)

MM just dives off the dock.  “Here’s how a human fish escapes your net!  Ha, ha, ha!”

Prof dives.  MM can breathe underwater, but Prof is faster.  “I’ll have that fish on land in a jiffy!”

Nope.  MM has "adapted that jetpack for underwater propulsion!"  WHOOOSH!  He's gone.

"He can swim any place," argues Prof.  But Ace disagrees.  "It's all part of a pattern!..  Come on!"

But undaunted, Ace and Rocky commandeer a rolling electro-magnet.  The electric motor is noiseless.  They sneak up on MM and "flip the switch".

The metal shield is yanked high, and MM goes with it.  It hits the magnet with a CLANG! and CLUNK!

Rocky nabs the shrimp.  “All right, big brain, just stop thinking and relax!  Your time has run out!”

As June drives with MM sandwiched between two Challs, she sighs.  “Let’s hope this is the last time we bring Multi-Man to book!”  There’s a escape-proof cell waiting.

Ace shakes his head, “Can any cell hold that fantastic brain?  I wonder?”

In space, a capsule separates from a rocket.  "I'm in orbit!"  (In 1961, this was still a big deal.)

World-wide tracking stations "fix in" on the capsule's course.  The Challengers in their secret mountain also help out.

The Challs plot the "touchdown" area - the west coast of Africa!

Less than 24 hours later, the team chugs in a WWII vintage truck on their "safari search".  June, "honorary Challenger", is along.

The Challs find the capsule and drag chute.  They radio the info, but the pilot is gone.  Captain Carlson’s tracks stagger off into the jungle.

June, Red, and Prof follow the trail in the truck.

Ace and Rocky “go upstairs for a bird’s-eye view.”  The chopper buzzes along, until Rocky gawks.  “I must be taken with jungle fever!”  Ace gawps.  “Your vision’s 20-20!  I see it too!”

A FLYING LION is “making a head-on pass!  Veer off!”  GRRRRROOOWW!

A swipe of a paw shatters the helo bubble.  “Leo is out for a kill!  How do you win a dog-fight with a - lion?”  No weapons, so they improvise.

Rocky fires a flare gun almost in the lion’s face, and it soars away.  “What kind of phenomenon are we up against?”  Time to ponder later.  The copter needs repairs, so they plop on the beach.

In the truck, June and the guys get a radio report of the “impossible”.  June says, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say they needed a long rest!”  Just ahead, natives are panicking.

For good reason.  A gigantic baboon is tearing up a village.  Prof shoots a high-powered rifle, but the slugs bounce off - and made the ape mad.

"Baboons don't take to water in their normal state!"  Prof unreels the fire-fighting hose on the truck, and they blast the beast.

The water supply is running low but, irritated by the high-pressure spray, the baboon dashes into the jungle.

The two teams confer by radio.  With the natives safe, Prof elects to keep searching for the missing astronaut.  They follow tracks to rocks, then climb a hill to look with binoculars.

The astronaut lies on the beadh unmoving.  But something else is coming.  A green killer whale WALKS out of the ocean on new legs.  It steers for the fallen man.

OK, Prof's got it.  The astronaut's sealed suit is "aglow".  Undoubtedly contaminated with space dust that transforms passing animals.  He's unaffected because he's inside the suit.

Unfortunately, Ace and Rocky don't know about the contamination.  Landing their copter, they rush to rescue Carlson from the walking whale.  Prof yells at the "two galoots".  "Ace!  Rocky!  Get back!"