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August - September 1967 |
"The World's Greatest Fear-Fighters" face a blue-skinned electrified giant atop a dam. The bold narration trumpets, "Red is dead! The fiery-haired Challenger sacrificed himself for a world that will little care or long remember him! And now there are only three Challengers to battle the strangest and most dangerous duo ever..." The footnote continues, "... No other mag can claim having killed off a hero, but that's the way the cookie had to crumble! And the Challs scored an historic first!" Rocky charges Power Man. "If he reaches the electro-turbines here, he'll be able to "gas up" again! And then he'll knock us all right through this wall of concrete!" But Rocky gets punched flat. The Challs joke as they attack - because jokes are about all they've got. Ace throws a tackle. "Now I'll show you how we used to block out a tackler on the varsity football squad at good old Benedict Arnold High!" Power Man goes down. Prof dives atop. "And here's how my Phys-Ed instructor at Jack the Ripper Prep used to teach us to take a guy apart." Nope. Prof gets punted high and hard - and sails over the dam's edge. Ace snags Prof's ankle. "Hey, don't cut out yet, Prof! The party's just starting!.. I wouldn't joke with you! Pull your leg a little - but that's all!" |
Rocky recovers. The Challs chase Power Man into the plant, trying to keep him from "juicing up" on the main power lines. Rocky needs a weapon, so rips a large box off the wall. He hurls his "li'l ol' guided missile" at the lamp over Power Man's head, shearing the chain. The villain is knocked down, but "with one final effort, snaps the generator line... " "... energizing me once more into an invincible human bolt of lightning! .... The energy of 10,000 men joined in one body!" To prove it, Power Man rips up an entire turbine and chucks it at the Challs. They decide "discretion is the better part of valor!" "English translation - last man out is a mess!" They roll shut a steel door weighing a ton. Power Man splits it like tinfoil. The Challs run faster.  Outside, a helicopter hovers. Rescue? Hardly. "Look! Th-That nut! He didn't come to rescue us! He came to take our pictures!" True. The laughing pilot is the kooky kid who plagued them in Mexico (COTU 56). Power Man is charging like a freight train. Prof uses their last hope, a homemade smoke bomb, to cover their escape. |
Back in their sub-Pacific HQ, Rocky is ashamed for running from Power Man. He feels worse when they see a newspaper with the headline "Challengers Turn Chicken-gers." "That fink in the copter... Makin' us look like yellow rats!" Yet Rocky knows he's seen that kid before. "His face was on the tip of my tongue!" "Forget him!" says Ace. "Our job is to pay back Power Man!" They review what they know. He was a criminal scientist (another bald guy in a lab coat, natch) working on a giant atom-smasher when the cyclotron overloaded and he was bombarded with a mass of wild energy. "He emerged as Power Man, a being with limitless power able to draw from any energy source - electrical, magnetic, thermal..." "Yeah, yeah," says Rocky, "a walking power plant!" An egghead problem for Prof. Who has been "investigating some of the fantastic gizmos left us by the alien, Scientist X." (Recall their new Pacific HQ has many layers stuffed with alien widgets.) Rocky gripes, "This is no time to be playing with atomic-powered tinker toys!" But Prof takes them down a light-beam elevator to the teleportation machine. They've used it a few times to teleport around the globe, but Prof has discovered the machine tape-records each trip. He shows Rocky a video where he fought a polar bear in the Arctic while investigating earth tremors. (An untold tale. See Rocky's bio.) Wow! But now what? |
Under the Pacific, Prof plies some "atomic-powered toys". He sends drone missiles with TV cameras soaring where Power Man was last seen. The drones will radio back what they see within a 500-mile radius. In that heart of that zone, Power Man prowls. A new television station, WMLZ-TV, inaugurates its 500,000 watt transmitter. The villain heads for "a tasty snack" like a bee to honey. Power Man tears into the wires and absorbs the energy, growing larger. Just for fun, he rips up the tower and smashes the building, sending the broadcasters scrambling. "My strength is limitless!.. I will move from one energy source to the next - growing at each stop!.. Soon, whole nations will be my slaves - then entire continents, then - the world!" He hasn't reckoned on the bravery of average cops. "The local constabulatory! Good! This should prove amusing!" A cop in a gas mask yells, "Maybe bullets won't bring you down... but you've got to breathe like the rest of us!" They hurl gas grenades, and the giant goes down coughing. "The mightiest man - COUGH - that ever lived - ARRGH! - crushed by these fleas! GASP!" |
But a car - "like no car I ever saw" - comes whizzing up. Jets suck up the gas. Some henchman is rescuing Power Man! The groggy supervillain climbs aboard and they race off, leaving the cops flat-footed.  |
Luckily, in the Pocific HQ, the Challs see the rescue on a monitor relayed by a drone missile. "One he stops, we start!" In some secret base, Power Man is astounded to see his rescuer. "Egad! A child! A mere boy!" Who not only saved him, but built the amazing vehicle. Watching the scene, Rocky - always up on his pop culture - snaps his fingers! "The kid fink - is Tino Manarray!" "The juvenile king of the juke box?" "The richest teenager in the world?" "The kid mechanical wizard?" Ace objects. "But why should he be after our scalps? It's nutty!" Rocky gripes like an old man. "So what? All kids are nutty these days!" Prof invites "Grampa" to step into the teleportation booth. They faze out. Prof can go with his buddies this time because "I've learned enough to pre-set the transmitter! We'll automatically return in 30 minutes!" Power Man argues with Tino. If he's "rich beyond dreams", what does he want? Tino answers, "Not cash or corruption, buddy! Just a chance to help you with one job - the death of -" The Challengers teleport smack into the room. "- those creeps - the Challengers! And just in time!" |
Rocky thinks Tino and Power Man make "a dandy duo, the kook and the kilowatt killer!" Prof urges they stick to the master plan. "When his energy runs low - then we strike!" Ace taunts Power Man. "Nyaah, nyaah! Your mother eats light bulbs! Your father was a dead battery! And you can't catch me!" Power Man, short-tempered, lunges but misses. Prof calls out - and throws sand in his eyes. Rocky rushes in to hit and run. He belts Power Man good, but is tripped up by "the young fink!" Power Man grabs Rocky, turning down the voltage in his hand. "Surrender now, you two, or I'll burn him to a crisp!" Rocky protests in pain, but Ace and Prof give in. Tino is left to guard them while Power Man moves off to some unspoken task. "I'll have use for them later." Tino has his own plans, and pulls a gun! "Like right now - you die!" Rocky blurts, "You teen creep! What's bugging you? Why are you flipped about knocking us off?" |
Because, "you killed my brother - Red Ryan!"  Of all reactions, the Challs argue! Rocky demands Prof tell the kid the truth. Prof counters "That kid's got to shoot us! If he doesn't - he'll go off his chomp!" Ace says he IS off his chomp! Then Prof drops to his knees, begging for a chance to explain. Ace and Rocky watch in horror as Prof begs for just a few minutes. Tino goes to shoot - just as the Challs vanish in a pink-purple rainbow! Prof set the teleporter timer for 30 minutes - remember? |
Back in their Pacific HQ, Prof says, "We've got to find some way to prove to that kid we didn't kill his brother! Otherwise he'll keep gunning for us!" Ace objects. "We can't prove that Red died alone - by his own decision! Only he could testify to that!" Rocky adds, "And he's not comin' back just to have a tea-time chat with us!" Prof snaps his fingers. "Maybe he is!" Power Man, meanwhile, is off "to cut into the entire power network of the East Coast - absorb every last kilowatt of energy from it - dominate the country -and kill the Challengers!" Tino adds, "Once that's done, we're through! I'm no partner of yours!" Power Man rips into an electrical nerve center - and blacks out the entire East Coast! "Now I have more power in my own body than in 100 atom bombs!" The Challs rush to the teleporter, ropes over their shoulders. Ace orders, "This time, Rocky, stick to the plan!" Rocky nods. "No more lectures! I don't need a brick wall to fall on me." Prof quips, "I'm not sure you'd know if it did!" |
The Challs touch down near Power Man.  The plan is to taunt him again. But there's a twist. PM flings electric charges "like a dog shaking off water! All bets are off!" The Challs use Plan B: and run for their lives! |
Flipping the ropes, they slide down a cliff. PM flicks the ropes and sends the Challs sprawling on the beach. "I hate sand in my shoes!" The villain then STEPS DOWN to the beach! Prof backs against the rocky cliff, waiting for "those electric spitballs!" PM comes running, flinging electric jolts everywhere. The Challs run - and the shattered overhang crashes down on PM! While PM is digging out, Prof readies another baby gas bomb - but Tino jumps in with a machine gun. "This time I won't miss, Challengers!" Prof counters, "Red died voluntarily, and we can prove it!" Prof pulls out - a miniature tape playback unit. The tape shows Red in Turkey (COTU 55) waiting for a bomb to stop the earth tremor. But the bomb misfired. Prof explains, "If that fissure reached the nearby volcano, the loss of life would be staggering! He couldn't depend on the timer of his remaining bomb! So, for a guy like Red, there was no choice! He detonated the bomb by hand!" Tino cries. "He blew himself up for half-a-country full of people he didn't even know!" Yet Tino tried to kill his buddies and joined up with a dangerous egomaniac. "But no more!" |
Power Man hears. "So you've turned on me, you jellyfish!" Enraged, he chases Tino, who dives into the surf! Rocky asks, "What's he want to commit suicide for?"  Prof understands. "Shoving pure energy into water is like surrounding it with a million copper wires - it's being conducted off in all directions!" PM shrinks "like an igloo at the equator!" "Wet and whipped", the pale pink "Power Man" is hauled out of the surf. "Any words for our listeners?" PM can only say, "YICHHHH!" Later, at HQ, Tino laughs and shoulders his guitar. "Me, a Challenger? Thanks, men! I know you offered it mostly for Red! But it's not for me! Those corny uniforms - and the boy scout schedules!" Rocky barks, "Scram before I shove those six steel strings down your throat!" But the narrator notes, "You're bound to see more of Kid Whiz!" |
Comments It goes to show: Never trust a guy in a bow tie. The editors are hyperbolic about Red's death being a first for comics. The hot hero Menthor had been killed in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents two years earlier, and was never resurrected. And Lightning Lad of the Legion of Super-Heroes had died, though he was brought back. The Bat-Craze was still on TV, so jokes were a standard element, even when inappropriate - and often strained. They seem more natural with the Challs, rather than say, the Atom. It's very strange that Red Ryan never mentioned that he had a brother who's a genius inventor, rock god, and filthy rich. Don't the Challs ever talk about their families? Don't they report the news from Thanksgiving and Christmas? Still, this is a fun issue, with the Challs cracking jokes and trying to crack heads. It's a final combination of nerve, brain, and muscle that wins, their classic winning formula. |