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December 1965 - January 1966 |
The story opens as Miklos, a sponge fisherman, relates how he cut his hand on a strange rock marked with a strange sponge-man shape. Later he felt feverish. And when he awoke, he was a human sponge! Can the Challengers help?  By the way, a pretty girl next door caughtMiklos's eye. She'll resurface in COTU 51, "Smash the Sponge Man - or Die!" |
Prof guesses the rock is a meteor with some "freakish life-force". They'll take test samples and do their best to counteract the condition. Buta sneaky next-door neighbor, Stacy (bald, of course), offers a quicker deal. He knows a foreign doctor who can cure Miklos, but he'll need lots of money. Miklos is horrified at the idea of stealing, but even the pretty girl next door shuns him. Miklos will steal! Roaming downtown, he begins to use his strange powers. Growing blotchy with color, he soaks up all the local color, causing a traffic jam. And he grows as he absorbs! Before the Challs can act, they find they're speechless. The Sponge has absorbed sound! |
Stacy, meanwhile, is using the confusion - no alarms can sound - to rob a bank. The Challs jump from car to car to get him, but the Sponge absorbs their energy!  |
Poor Miklos is just not thinking straight, but he's not an ogre. As a truck runs out of control at the Challs, he crushes it to save them. Then he carries Stacy "a friend" to safety. The Sponge goes after a ship, draining a lock dry to beach it. "This will be the last robbery!" A ransom for a Rembrandt painting will buy him a cure. But the Challs arrive with a police report proving Stacy is a crook. There is no cure! Outraged and shocked, the Sponge wanders off in a daze, unaware he's still absorbing water! Left unchecked, he drain the world - and we get some nifty worst-case scenario pics that demonstrate that horror.  |
But Ace has a plan, once they round up the stuff they need. Soon "four do-or-die daredevils race along at breakneck speed", their only time on motorcycles. The plan? Taking a short-cut, the Challs get ahead of the Sponge and empty chemicals into a lake - sleeping pills, presumably. But they might have outsmarted themselves. They smell smoke. A forest fire threatens people trapped at a campsite! The sleepy Sponge wanders on while the Challs ferry people out. But a little girl is trapped by flames!  The Sponge is the only one who can save the kid, and the Challs slowed him up! |
But Miklos is a decent man, and he knows he must save the little girl. "With a final desperate effort, he lurches to his feet" and releases all the soaked-up water, dousing the fire. With the chemicals released, Miklos regains his mind. The Challs offer help. Maybe science can find a cure. But the Sponge rails. "I'm a freak! There's no place for me on land!" And he dives into the sea. Rocky would dive after, but Ace stops him. Miklos can absorb oxygen. "He's traded in his old life for a new one!" They'll keep looking for a cure. "We know where to find Miklos." |
But Miklos is where he belongs. "This is my rightful home now... here in the sea..."  A sad and strange and beautiful ending. |
"The Terrors of Mr. Tic-Tac-Toe" |
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The second is another "Challenger Casebook: Untold Tales from the Death-Cheaters' Secret Past". (Which really means the story was drawn before the Challs got their new yellow uniforms.) Pretty straightforward. The Challs are given a delicate vial of something mysterious to fly to Washington. An Einstein-esque doctor assures them that only he and his assistant, Dr Bradford, know its contents. (Scooby-Doo could solve this mystery in ten minutes, but it will take the Challs a little longer.) The Challs fly over the desert. To pass time, Prof experiments with some stinking concoction. But the jet runs out of fuel - which is impossible - and the radio is dead! Ace makes a forced landing at a Western ghost town. The Challs need water, because their water has also mysteriously disappeared. So they split up. Ace wanders into an arroyo that, from the air, resembles a tic-tac-toe board. He's roped, hauled up, and tied down. Red chases Herbert, the bald thug, onto a stack of railroad rails (tic-tac-toe again), but falls through a trap door. Captive 2. Rocky, hearing his pal's voice from a shack, picks up an ore car(!) and smashes the door. He ends up behind bars - and is crossed off in another tic-tac-toe capture. |
Prof's the only one free, and he's summoned to the master's office. Mister Tic-Tac-Toe is Dr Bradford! Prof would nail him, but there are high explosives buried under the Challs. "What's the price?" The vial. It contains meteorite dust collected by a satellite. A drop of the liquid inside freezes into diamonds! But Prof refuses to turn over the vial. "It was entrusted to us! I can't surrender it!" And his buddies give an imaginary cheer. "We're living on borrowed time anyway." Then Prof drops the vial. Herbert and the Doctor dive for it, and are blinded by pink gas as it breaks! Prof rips out the wires and shoves the villains outside. Prof's stinky concoction? "A more efficient tear gas!" So, crossing out three goose eggs, Prof announces, "As for your, Mr Tic-Tac-Toe - you lose!" |
Comments Another terrific issue with self-sacrifice written all over it. It's part of what makes the Challs heroes. Note how the two stories compare. The older purple-suit adventure has the Challs running a routine assignment for the government which goes awry because of one schemer. The yellow-uniform "superhero" adventure has the entire world endangered. It's nice to see the editor, Murray Boltinoff, had the sense to upgrade the Challs' adventuring status. Note the Challs are called "the 4 Fantabulous Fear-Fighters!" on the cover. This is a take-off on the Beatles' being called "the Fab 4". |
A couple of wacky ads are fun. Withthe spy craze at its height, Jimmy Olsen got into the act. Instead of agent 007, he's agent Double-5! The cover lists his gadgets: flamethrowing button, flashlight parachute, and - tapping his toes together, a secret weapon! Hey, I bought a copy!  |
The other fun guy of the month was Ultra, the Multi-Alien, who was four conglomerated parts of aliens, each with a superpower. As my father would say, "Boy, they don't write 'em like that any more!"  |