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April - May 1965 |
"Into the fascinating - and besieged - world of tomorrow go a famous team of today, to do battle with an awesome thing from out of yesterday!"
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The Challs (in their purple uniforms) work on the jet as Prof returns in a green wetsuit. He was diving in a lake searching for Indian relics, but there was too much sediment - MMMMMMMMM!!!!! A hum becomes a moan, getting louder and louder. The heroes begin to glow. Then they're blacked out to negatives. "Weightless... no pain... just dizziness..."  |
And just like that, they're back in Challenger Mountain - or so they think. With two bald men in space age clothes. "Who are these kooks? They must've kayoed us, then took over the place." Red adds, "We didn't put a welcome mat outside! Let's give 'em the heave-ho!" But the intruders draw guns and shoot - rings of blue force that paralyze the Challs. |
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Then they holster their guns. "We mean no harm! Our weapons are merely a precaution against any brashness!" "What plays?" demands Rocky. "We are scientists - occupants of your mountain cavern in the year 2265!... You're brave men - perhaps the most courageous who ever lived!" They turn on the Scan-O-Scope to reveal a domed city nearby. "You won't recognize the once-remote area around your mountain headquarters! Weather-proff cities have been built everywhere!" ("Weather-proof". Remember that.) "Skip the travelogue and get to the point!" grouses Rocky. "How come we're here?" |
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"There's your answer, Challengers!.. Monstro, Ravager of Cities!"
"Wow-ee! What a bruiser!"
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Aero-cars are buzzing around Monstro, "trying to lure him away from the city! Their ray cannons don't harm Monsto - only distract him!" Then the monster freezes, and turns toward the mountain! "It must have sensed our presence here!" A "mighty arm smashes through the cavern wall..." Monstro's scaly hand grabs. "It's got Prof!" |
Prof can't break free. "Looks like this is it - the end for me - three centuries later than I figured!" But suddenly Monsto recoils, drops Prof, and runs away! "Monstro's taking it on the lam!" says Ace. "What did [Prof] do to scare him off? Tell him he'd have to fight Rocky?" The champ growls, "Yeah. I'd like to take him for a couple of rounds!" Prof has no idea. "He had me cold!" The scientists don't understand either. Every weapon they tried failed. But "now that he's gone, we can outline your task!... I must impress on you that - you must not fail!" |
Seems that back in 1900, a supposed-meteor hit the mountains. But "it was a missile, fired by an alien space ship! Inside the missile was a chemical embroyo... like a seed... sent deep into the earth to incubate and hatch." In 1965, the missile-cocoon hatched. Baby Monstro bored into the Earth's core, seeking heat, to mature. Then it emerged in 2265. "It will wreck our civilization unless it is stopped!" "An' we get the honor of doin' it?" asks Rocky. (Rocky is fast gaining the position of Team Loudmouth.) |
The Challs
have to return to 1965, find the missile-cocoon before it hatches, and
destroy it. They're given a signaling device to return to the
future if necessary. |
The Challengers jet to Monstro's landing site and march down the tunnel. "We're just in time! The missile-cocoon is beginning to vibrate! Ready your grenades!" Out pops Baby Monstro, and the Challs hurl grenades. The explosion rocks the tunnel. "That should do it! We wound up this bit faster than I thought -" |
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Wrong. "That blast didn't even make Monstro blink! He's boring down toward the Earth's core!" And "through the twisting trail of the "infant" Monstro go the die-hard Challengers..." But as they plunge deeper, even their asbestos suits begin to smoke. "Monstro's beaten us! We have to turn back!" |
Still, they
can observe and debrief. On the surface, Ace notes, "Monstro
zigzagged through the ground like a termite boring through wood!
How come, Prof?" The team scientist muses, "A termite leaves a
twisted trail because it avoid the hardwood areas and bores only
through the soft... Monstro went through both hard and soft
areas, and only avoided... steam pockets!" Rocky says, "It better be good, chum - or Monstro's headed
to blast the future! I gotta protect the family I'll have
someday!" |
Still, they
can observe and debrief. On the surface, Ace notes, "Monstro
zigzagged through the ground like a termite boring through wood!
How come, Prof?" The team scientist muses, "A termite leaves a
twisted trail because it avoid the hardwood areas and bores only
through the soft... Monstro went through both hard and soft
areas, and only avoided... steam pockets!" |
Pulled back to the future (Hmm... sounds like a good movie title,) the Challs show off tank-backpacks and "ancient" looking weapons. The scientists are perplexed. Rocky gloats, "Looks ain't everything, pal! Just lead us to this Monstro character! Man, is he gonna get a surprise!" The Challs get a quick course in flying an aero-car, and head for New York City, which Monstro is ravaging. Rocky crows, "Wowee! This baby hits 3,000 miles an hour - and I feel like I'm sitting in an easy chair!" Once again, observation pays off. The Challs see that "Monstro smashed his way up through that building from underground!" Ace flies close so Prof can get in the first shot. But Monstro grabs like King Kong and catches the flier! "Blazes!" yells Rocky. "He fielded Ace and Prof! Guess it's up to us, Carrot-Top!" |
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Popping the bubble top, the Challs take aim. "We get about one shot - that's all!" And they nail Monstro with what looks like water. "Right in the kisser!" Rocky, "hopes Prof didn't flip his lid - because this is it!" As Monstro staggers, Ace and Prof bail out of their flier into Rocky's. "Welcome aboard, mates! We've got him on the ropes, pals... Give him the pay-off punch!" More liquid blasts Monstro, and he falls, falls, falls to crash in the street, dead. |
 "Water!" Prof squirts a grinning Rocky. "Plain water!" |
Prof remembered he wore a still-wet wet suit when Monstro dropped him. And the monster avoided steam pockets underground. The scientist nods. Moisture never touched Monstro in the weather-proof cities. And moisture is rare in space. They don't know if the aliens who "seeded" Monstro will ever return, but probably not. "You've earned out thanks, Challengers. Now we must return you to your time!" |
"And in what seems a split-second..." the boys are back home. Rocky barks, "Hey, I forgot something important! I wanted to ask that guy in the future if the Mets win a pennant! And the way we live on borrowed time, we might not be around long enough to find out if they do!” (As we know, the Mets won the World Series in 1968.) |
Second Story
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"Somewhere in uncharted waters is an isle populated by "phantoms"! Here, creatures and beings who have cheated death now threaten four gallant men who also live on borrowed time [and] dare defy the "ghosts" of The Haunted Island." |
Our four heroes enter the Egyptian wing of a museum to see the mummy of an ancient pharaoh recently unearthed. According to an anonymous tip, someone plans to steal it. (Anonymous tip, eh?) But "it just doesn't add up! The only value the sarcophagus has is historical -" |
Rocky hears a sound like wings. And in through the window flies a winged bird-man, a male harpy!  "Dig that crazy bird! Man, that's from way out! What kind of a kook is it?" |
"It's no turtledove, that's for sure!" Red ducks as the harpy-man tears a heavy curtain with its claws! Ace, man of action, climbs a statue. "Grab some window poles! Drive it this way!" (Window poles were used to open and close tall windows before air conditioning.) The guys slash the air, driving the harpy. "It's all yours! And you can have it!" "Thanks, 'pal'," quips Ace, as he jumps - onto the harpy's back! |
He hammers the beast with both fists, but it "doesn't even register! What's wrong? I'm not old enough to have tired blood!" ("Tired blood" was a pseudo-symptom of a TV commercial to sell Geritol, a vitamin tonic.) The harpy swoops high and scrapes Ace off its back. Thud! Then the monster hooks the sarcophagus in four claws and zooms out the window. "We can do some flying, too! Our plane's parked outside!" yells Ace. "Let's go, team - on the double!" |
Chasing the harpy, the gang reflects. Other oddball "lost objects" have been stolen in the past month. One was a thought-extinct dodo bird, another Montezuma's royal headress, thought to have been destroyed so Conquistadores wouldn't get it. "Could be that weirdie pulled those jobs, but I'll be darned if I can figure out why!" |
They land and discover ruins that even Prof can't identify. "Must be the remains of a civilization that nobody knows of!"  One clue is that ground is lava. Prof bets the island resurfaced after an undersea quake. Ace calls it, "A dead island that rose from its watery grave!" A huge brass door with an Incan face beckons. "Push, you lugs, push!" |
Inside (as seen on the cover), the team discovers "huge glass vaults", and inside "perfectly preserved bodies of a giant scorpion and a dinosaur!" There's more: the missing dodo and headdress. And the dinosaur and scorpion move. "They're alive!" Ace has "a feeling... something else is alive..." And right behind them! |
A Frankenstein look-alike knocks the guys flat with a fist like a battering ram. Rocky quips about the monster's Beatle haircut, and Red jokes, "Yeah, yeah..." Ace offers, "Maybe we can cut him down to size!" As if playing Chicken Fight, Rocky leaps to Ace's shoulders to punch Franky in the breadbasket. "Like hittin' a stone wall!" Prof and Red can't topple his legs. "You can say that again!" Rocky gets grabbed. "Lemme down, you big goon!" Ace offers "this king-size character [needs] a king-size poke!" Hoisting the stolen sarcophagus, they ram the beast and make him drop Rocky. |
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The creature runs. The Challs, wanting answers, follow. Right into a trap, as glass partitions slam down and green gas fills the air. They slip into unconsciousness... And are awoken by a spotlight. To find they're wearing "new duds" of yellow piped with red. "What next, I wonder?" (Note this is the first pass of the uniform. In following issues, the wings get bigger and the hourglass logo smaller.)  Next is the Council of "Oddballs". The Frankenstein look-alike, the harpy-man, a frog-man, porcupine-man, and a big-eared snaky-man. Who are they? |
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"Once we were humans, like you," says Big Ears. Scientists working with a "new type of atomic radiation". An accident zapped them. Once screamed, "We'll never survive this! We're as good as dead!" They didn't die, but mutated to fantastic forms. "We've no right to be living - not even in our present forms! There's no place for us - so we must make our own world - for our kind!" They found the risen island. And a giant scorpion, thought extinct. "We'll capture it - start a collection of things that should be dead, extinct, but somehow still exist... that are living on borrowed time, like us." And they sent the Challs' an anonymous tip of the sarcophagus theft "to lead you here". (Dumb, guys!) |
Prof can guess why: to be added to the collection. "Huh?" snorts Rocky. "They just gotta be kiddin'!" Nope. The Challs even get new uniforms with "the hourglass emblem symbolizing the sands of time running out - borrowed time!" "We gotta shake this kookie pad," whispers Rocky. Obviously the radiation affected their minds, too. The boys bolt. "Thanks for the generous offer, but we'll need time to think it over - like 20 years or so!" Adding, "Yeah, we hate to make snap decisions!" |
But glass slides up, and the "pet" scorpion blocks their way, poisoned stinger swinging. Prof stumbles and gets caught by a pincer. What to do? Ace yells, "Bait that thing into going for us," as they run to the dinosaur cage. Prof yells, "Scram, you lugs! Stop making like heroes and save yourselves!" Rocky yells, "His mouth's flappin', but I don't hear him!" Red adds, "He always did talk too much anyway!" |
The "payoff pitch" shatters the T-Rex vault. And the King of the Dinosaurs, "hungry for battle" pounces on the scorpion, which soon writhes in its ferocious jaws."  "That's what I call a heavyweight bout!" jokes Rocky. "Ten bucks says Ol' Rex wins!" Red runs. "You've got a bet, but I'm not waiting around for the last round!" |
They don't get far. The mutants ring them with fire from flying platforms. They drive "the fools" toward the Radiation Reactor. Had they been willing to join up, the Challs would have "had the privilege of becoming mutants like us!" Instead, they get their own glass vault filled with gas, "put in suspended animation to join our collection of Death-Cheaters!" |
Of all people, Prof drops to his knees and begs! "Suspended animation... not to see or hear... to be as good as dead! Please, I'll do anything! Even become a mutant!" Rocky is shocked. "A Challenger - a coward?" But Ace holds him back. "Prof is making believe he wants to change." The narration disagrees. "Nothing could be further from the truth." Prof reckons that only by becoming a mutant can he help his buddies escape this place. And he's sizzled. ZZZZZZ! |
Prof changes to an octo-cloud with a human head. And he's forgotten that the radiation affects the mind! "The thing that once was Prof laughs insanely - and attacks the very men he tried to save!" |
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Energy-Mutant Prof wraps energy-tentacles around his friends' necks to strangle them. Only Ace evades. "Maybe the trick with the scorpion will work again!" The energy-tentacle lashes, Ace ducks, and Prof connects with millions of volts of sizzling electricity! Ace watches as his hunch pays off. "The reactor is soaking up the energy from Prof's body..." And he reverts to normal. |
But the excess energy starts a chain reaction. The mutants can't turn it off. The Challengers know when to run. The dinosaur comes after, having defeated the scorpion. Rocky yells, "Hey, Red, you own me ten bucks!" The King of Dinosaurs plummets in a crevasse as the earth splits. "The whole place is coming apart!" The guys race for their plane. |
As the jet soars, the island explodes. "That curtains for the mutants and those monsters that should have died a long time ago." The end of the Haunted Island. "But we're still alive... living on borrowed time!" With new hourglass emblems to match. Ace likes the new uniforms, and the guys vote them in. Ace nods. "Let's hope we wear them for a long, long time, and the sands of time never run out for us!" |
Comments Why? One word: Batman. Batman was an incredibly hot TV show. Yes, it was a
campy parody and a one-joke show, but it was successful. And DC
has always applied the Procrustean formula when embracing a
trend. If something is working, EVERYONE gets mashed into the
same mold. But
it was time. The premise of the Challengers had
always been a dodge. Coming from the non-super 1950s merging with
the 1960s, they were were larger-than-life non-superheroes fighting
super-menaces. Same as the Blackhawks and the Sea Devils.
This is comics, after all. Big splashy wild visuals are the
medium. And, as usual, the Challengers adapt well because they're
flexible. The Blackhawks were stuck with military uniforms and
still mired in World War II, and never did evolve. The Sea Devils
were stuck in one medium - underwater - so their story possibilities
were limited. The Challengers had an easy-to-apply formula. Four
daredevil adventurers, period. They would wear anything, use any
gadget, go anywhere, and fight anyone. (Echoes of Doc Savage's
Fearless Five.) So the Challs embrace new look, and move on. Soon
they'll new gadgets, a special vehicle - the Gallopin' Gizmo - and even
wilder, weirder villains. And how about that T-Rex vs Scorpion battle? Is that right out of a Saturday Matinee flick or what? The fun is just beginning. |
As part of
their new promotion, the Challs again jump to the top of the
subscription page. Note the colorist gave them full-sleeved
uniforms. Icky.
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Interesting ads, superheroes and funnies...
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And an ad for
everyone's hero, GI Joe, which was still fairly new, having been
introduced at the previous Christmas, soon to become the best-selling
boy's toy of all time.
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Challengers' Mail ChuteKids vote for their favorite Challenger, and the editors want to hear more votes. A science geek inspired by the Chemical Chameleon of issue 40 writes about how many chemicals occur in the human body. DC editors had discovered that, instead of printing a few long
letters, you'd sell more comics if you included excerpts from LOTS of
letters with the fan's name, so we get "Chit-Chat from the Mail
Chute"... A new fan club in Miama... Two fans want to know
about the Challs' future brides... Complaints Rocky's slang is
too hip... Requests for the return of Gaylord Clayburn III, The
Fifth Challenger... Requests for team-ups, which the editors
doubt because that's the point of Brave and Bold. (But of course, many teamups are to come with the Doom Patrol and the Sea Devils.)... A fan who thinks Rocky "hogs the whole show"... More "letters worthy of mention"
by a list of names... Pleas for patience as Bob Brown prepares a
photo of the team in their new uniforms... Don't forget to
subscribe, and send letters! |
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Letter-writers include George Barbera, Albuquerque, NM. Charles M. Bolden, Jr, Detroit, MI. Daisy Schorr, Chicago, IL. Frank McKisic from Miami, FL. Linda Williams, Manassas, VA and Monty Lehmann, Barstow, CA. Steve Perrin, San Francisco, CA. Jim Rossow, South Bend, IN. Sidney Rowntree, Southport, England. Richard Walls, Des Moines, IA. Dianna from Huntsville, AL. William Charoh, Marina, CA. Martin Swiatkowski, Cleveland, OH. Roy Haws, Jacksonville, TX. Leonard Dean Adams, English, WV. Tom Maves, Presho, SD. The Young Challengers Steve, Lee, David, and Robin of Cincinnati, OH. Kenneth Belden, Sylmar, CA. Clayton Hurlburt, Jr, Media PA. Brenda Rose Bilyou, Dunnstown, PA with an injured arm. Susan Combs, DeLand, FL. Jeffrey Gentile, Ashtabula, OH. |