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April - May 1970 |
A space capsule plops into the ocean (by parachute. This is pre-shuttle). The astronaut inside is dead, strangled - at 10,000 miles from Earth! "Call the Challengers!" The Challs are found in Manhattan, "in the lavish apartment of Ace Morgan." Red is baiting Corinna, urging her to take off since "we don't need her here any more." Prof has a cane, still recouping from near-fatal injuries from Corinna's father, Algernon Stark. He's been hospitalized for several months! Rocky, secretly in love with Corinna, brawls with Red, who hops around like a jumping bean.  Ace interrupts with a job. "Get into your Challenger togs - and let's move!" |
They meet Major Cheever, an astronaut who's walked on the moon. Corinna gets weird vibrations. Wandering off alone (duh!) to trace the spiritual emanations, she gets trapped in an airlock and suffocated. Rocky breaks in, bursting glass six inches thick with a stool.  Nice action shots by George Tuska. But man, could those suits be any tighter? Where does Ace keep his car keys? |
Guards are shot. Corinna calls a seance. A pink ghost is summoned, "not human". A grenade interrupts the seance. Corinna knows the source of the ghost: straight up, the moon! Ace, Corinna, Red, and Major Cheever will go to the moon. (Rocky is too big to squeeze into a spacesuit.) As they near the moon, Corinna feels a presence. So does Major Cheever, who pulls a gun. Red dives headlong but, forgetting they're in Zero G (though everyone is standing on the floor), bashes himself unconscious. Then we meet - Machu!  |
Cheever allied with Machu to prevent Man from venturing beyond his own planet. Now Machu can take Corinna's life. Meanwhile, on Earth, Rocky and Prof chafe. Prof suggests, unscientific as it seems, they consider praying. No fear. Machu refuses to take Corinna's life. It first met Cheever's mind, and thought all men evil. She's clean and pure - he's evil. Swirling around Cheever, it forces the astronaut to turn his gun on himself and - BLAM! (off-screen). Machu has now taken one innocent life - the strangled astronaut - so will now erase himself. Corinna calls, "Goodbye, Machu! And thank you!" Ace pilots back to earth, and the capsule sinks slowly under its parachute. |
Comments There isn't a lot of story here. The cover is generic: a seance and a spooky black shadow that could be anything, and a generic title. And we didn't get to see a Challenger walk on the Moon. This title got a teaser in, of all places, OUR ARMY AT WAR starring Sgt Rock. And did you notice these are THE NEW Challengers of the Unknown?  |