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October - November 1969 |
"80 years ago, an eerie, glowing sphere pitched from the brooding sky and buried itself near the Lovecraft family farm" at the base of Skull Mountain, "a place of darkness, of a strange evil so alien that it has no name in any human language." Spooooooky. That "comet" 80 years ago drove the locals mad. Mass murder and suicide ran rampant. They formed a cult called the Slaves of Chu and now "practice fantastic rites when the moon hid and the stars were dark." Skull Mountain is in the Ozark Mountains, not far from the castle of Algernon Stark and his daughter Corinna... |
Now Ace, Rocky, and Red spring into action. They need a doctor. The city is an hour's drive away. "What are we standin' here for?" Corinna insists they dress in more than sleeveless yellow-red. "In this weather, you'll all die - of pneumonia!" Her father "had some clothes put away. They're not exactly conventional, but neither are your uniforms."  Red objects - to everything. He considers Corinna pushy, taking Prof's place and changing their uniforms. And since her father shot Prof, Red won't trust her. "The Challs need a femme like we need malaria!" |
The team runs through a drenching electrical storm. Rocky, who's smitten, offers to carry Corinna. She thanks him, but can take care of herself. The Challs gain their Land Rover and race - not far. The bridge is washed out. "Nothing to do but sit on our hands while Prof dies!" Reluctantly they turn back to the mansion. Where Algernon Stark wakes from Rocky's punch.  Hating both the Challs and his "spiteful daughter", Stark runs to a control room. Years ago he anticipated "unwelcome visitors" and built booby-traps. He throws a switch. FZZZT! With a hum of power, a yawning pit opens before the Challs' feet! But the Challengers aren't called "death-cheaters" for nothing. In "a single clock tick that seems eternal", Ace grabs Corinna's hand and hammer-throws them to one side. Rocky flings out hands and feet and spans the pit. Red, the acrobat, drops, ready to land - and spots a criss-cross of copper bands charged with electricity! Without missing a beat, he points his toes and lands between the wires! |
Algernon Stark rages and jerks a sword off a wall. "The Challengers - and Corinna - must die!" Red's stuck in the live-wire hole. The guys can't reach him, but Rocky remembers a generator in the mansion. Corinna (whom Rocky calls "Miss Stark") tells him where it is. Rocky takes off. Into the castle, to shut off the juice. He's jumped and almost beheaded by Algernon Stark. Because he's Corinna's dad, the world champion boxer punches him "real gentle!" again. Rocky carries Stark outside. Ace will watch the prisoner - |
- but before they can kill the power, lightning hits the castle. The generator explodes and "the shock wave slams the Challengers like the slap of an angry giant!"  Anyone who thinks Jack Sparling was the wrong artist for the Challengers should take another look at that panel. |
An hour passes "with the stillness of death", then the Challs revive. Red climbed out of the hole. But if the generator blew, that means Prof's cryo-tube is without electricity! The team rushes into the ruined mansion. Rocky tosses beams like jackstraws. But Prof's gone, and so is Algernon Stark! Red blames Corinna, and Rocky snarls, "It ain't her fault!" Ace asks where he might have gone. "The nearest place is an old farmhouse - the Lovecraft place! It's deserted! The local people claims - it's haunted!" Sounds like a perfect spot to challenge some unknown... |
Red and Corinna bicker like newlyweds. Red doesn't want her along, "trippin' over a dame!" Corinna is familiar with the mountain: they'd get lost otherwise. The Lovecraft farm is hardly deserted. The Slaves of Chu are having "a Saturday night wing-ding" dancing around a fire. And someone's coming! (Rocky's English has hit rock bottom. Here in his old stomping grounds, he reverts to his worst Southernisms.) "Hail Chu! Hail Chu!" The hooded figure orders, "Silence, slaves!" Chu has a prisoner: Algernon Stark! "This earthling has served me well this night! We gather to reward him!" (Earthling?) Stark begs for his life. |
In the shadows, Corinna jolts. "My father!" Ace drags her down. "We haven't a chance against that mob!" They'll bide their time. Bad call. Chu extends his arms - and tentacles - to suck out Stark's "vital life-force! Chu boasts, "Know that as you perish, that you aid Chu in the conquest of this planet!"  The old man ages another 50 years in seconds, and dies. |
Corinna Stark flips. "Father!" Chu howls, "Intruders! Seize them!" Ace barks, "Back to back, guys... Hit hard, and don't worry about fighting fair!" The Challs are mobbed. "Even creampuffs can win a fracas if there's enough of them!" Rocky spots Corinna getting dragged and is brained by a club. Ace gets walloped with a fist. Red decides to exit and flips into the trees. Ace and Rocky awake tied to chairs with Corinna between them. Spotlights glare just like a police interrogation. They're alone with Chu. Ace demands an explanation, and it "amuses" the monster to answer their question. Chu takes up a bowl of what look like horse chestnuts. They're spores. Touching a tentacle to one, Chu channels the stolen life-force into the spore. It grows into a prickly green head - just like Chu's! "I take life from your kind - and give to my brothers! We are the Togga - the Conquerers!" |
Eons ago, Chu left their planet "for reasons that need not concern you." The crew were dried to "tiny vegetable form". Chu's spaceship crashed on Earth 80 years ago. The locals thought he was a god, and he played on their superstition. He sucked out some life-forces to heal his injuries, and has finally recovered. There are THOUSANDS of Chu's "brothers". Most are small as dust particles, but a whole shelf's worth will be Chu-sized in weeks - because the Challengers are about to "donate" their life-forces. Rocky just wishes their "chicken good buddy Red" were getting zapped too. |
Red does feel like "a stinker" for running out, but now he coshes a human guard to scout the haunted house. Chu starting to wrap a tentacle around Corinna Stark. Rocky howls, "I ain't gonna let you do it!" He's helpless, "but I'm willin' to die tryin'!" Fine, Chu aims a tentacle at Rocky -  |
- until Red bursts through the window! The alien wallops Red. "He hits like a coupla heavyweights!" Red keeps jumping out of reach, but a tentacle snags him. "My... gosh! The feel of that thing's making me sick!" Rocky's tipped and broken his chair. He rallies - "Red's in trouble!" - and punches Chu. Then hoists the monster overhead and pitches him into the spotlights. When the Challs turn the lights back on, Chu is gone! Ace snaps, "He won't get far! He's stuck on this blasted mountain - just like us!" Rather than chase him, "We have another job to do!" Grimly the Challengers pick up clubs and smash the spore-eggs. Ace grates, "Maybe this is wrong... But as long as the Togga live, they threaten the whole human race!" With that grisly chore done, they turn to the next - find Prof. Searching the house turns up his cryo-unit, but it's empty. "Prof must be outside someplace! He can't be - alive!" |
They dash outside to find him. Rocky apologizes to Red. "I was thinkin' some pretty low stuff 'bout you.. and I'm sorry!" Corinna also thanks him. Red barks, "Skip it! I didn't risk my neck for you, sister!" And Rocky thinks, "I guess it's too much to ask... that a swell gal like Corinna would notice an ugly, oversize galoot..." Next issue: The Challengers "learn the sinister reason for Prof's disappearance!" |
Comments Denny O'Neil was then a god at DC because he'd won awards for his 60's-heavy Green Lantern / Green Arrow. Now he's turned his talents to the Challs. We get weird supernatural-esque menaces (superheroing was out, adventuring was in) that are really science-fiction based: very HP Lovecraft. We get old buddies sparring like high school kids over a girl. We get an ongoing mystery: where's Prof? And we get exaggerated personalities: Red is suddenly obnoxious, Rocky dumb, Ace all business. It's interesting we get no tears from Corinna, who saw her father killed in a grisly fashion. But who's got time to grieve when you're about to die yourself? If the story seems patchy, it's at least packed full at a frantic pace. The Challengers literally run from death-trap to explosion to mad mob to murdering alien, all through spooky nights and crashing storms from Jack Sparling. And a Neal Adams cover always helps. Altogether it's a good direction and natural outgrowth for the Challengers, who were in danger of getting stale. But let's see if this new direction can last... |
Monsters were back in a big way. The back cover announces the return of the Aurora monster models.  |