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February - March 1978 |
What does an average writer do when handed a team book? Break up the team! KRAK! Red Ryan decks Rocky
with a snarl. “Stuff it! You want to make a pass at
June, make it! We’re we’re finished, wrestler-man!” We’re in the ultra-scientific
Challengers Mountain, as drawn by Keith Giffen. Weird crinkly
columns and runways sprawl. Hanging around are Swamp Thing and
(invisible and undetectable) Deadman. And June, who watches the
brawl. (What does she think about being argued over like the last
pork chop?) Interesting, too, that the Challs
wear guns inside the mountain. Except for Rocky, who for no
particular reason is shirtless. |
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“Red
is going to get his Irish block knocked off,” thinks Deadman. So
gives him an edge. Possessing Red, he makes an acrobatic leap to
avoid Rocky’s punch. (Deadman was the trapeze artist and
acrobat Boston Brand before he died, remember? Except. . . Red
was also a circus acrobat. Never mind.) As for Rocky, Swamp Thing grabs his arm. “Let me go, you plant!” June wades in and tells both guys
to “Clam it! You two have been snarling all week. . . I
don’t want anything to do with you until you start acting like men
again – and not mongrel dogs!” Rocky apologizes. Red says,
“You and Meat-Mind can go suck eggs! I’m leaving!” And he
SLAMS! the door on the way out, as any 14 year-old girl might. |
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Chapter 1 The Box from Beyond Meanwhile, in downtown Toronto, a
giant box polished like a mirror appears out of thin air in the
street. A citizen yells, “Don’t go near it! It might
explode!” Toronto is “an orderly city of
peaceful and pleasant people,” says the narrator. And the cops
are efficient as they respond to the potential menace. The
peaceful cops shoot at it, then fire grenades. A helicopter can’t
haul it away. Then the box lashes out with red
waves. A cop drops. He has “radiation sickness! And
he caught it from that cube!” |
Prof
got a call from the Toronto police about a mystery. June says,
“I’d go snorkeling up the Amazon for a change of pace!” Still
weak from fungus infection, Prof is confined to a wheelchair. So
Ace, Rocky, and June – and Swamp Thing - fly. “It’s our
meat. Let’s move!” As fast as Challenger 1 is, Deadman is
just as quick, and flies alongside unseen. June tells “Dr. Holland” he can
stay in the jet if he’d be more comfortable. Swampy (who can’t
talk?) thinks, “Alone. . . with a monster in my mirror?
Even a Swamp Thing . . . needs to belong.” Rocky wonders why Red got so
mad. Ace scoffs, “Seeing you with June was too much for
him.” Rocky snorts, “All the pilotin’ is scramblin’ your
brain. June and I are just friends!” “June may have other ideas.” And Rocky thinks, “June and. . . me?” Up ahead, Deadman spots the
cube. It’s invulnerable, “but a Deadman is something else!”
He tries – and CONG-G! bounces off. About then, the box fractures. |
Chapter 2 Monsters and Men A hideous red scaly monster breaks
out like a chick from an egg. Even Ace says, “We’ve fought a lot
of nightmares. . . but that baby makes King Kong look like Mickey
Mouse!” And Deadman figures it’s his fault! The monster rampages, smashing cars
and presumably people. The heroes charge with rocket guns.
POOM, POOM! They don’t hurt it, “but I think we made it
mad!” They’re knocked sprawling. |
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Swamp Thing picks up a police car and smashes it on the monster’s leg. The monster clutches him tight. June can’t rouse Rocky. He’s
too groggy. Deadman jumps into June’s body. “Maybe you’re
too light to fire one of those rocket guns alone – but with an old
athlete makin’ you brace your bod just right –“ June pulls the trigger. POOM! Swamp Thing simultaneously belts
the monster in the face. A KATHOOM and BAWHOOM knock it
down. (Why? When two rockets didn’t before?) Swamp Thing was squeezed “like
orange juice”, but June shot the monster. She’s puzzled (as
people deserted by Deadman always are). “Did I? Oh, yeah, I
guess I did. . .” |
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The
jet hauls the broken cube and dead monster back to Challenger
Mountain. Prof finds it “unbelievable. . . It shouldn’t be
alive. . . not in our world, at this time!” He ran a
carbon-dating test and got a negative number. It travelled
through time. And Prof knows a man who’s a “Time Master.
His name’s Rip Hunter. . .” (Odd the Challengers never heard of him, especially since they themselves have time-travelled, but OK.) The only problem is, Rip Hunter’s
been missing for “at least ten years”. (Last seen in Rip Hunter –
Time Master 29, actually.) |
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Background: A young scientist built
“the world’s first working time sphere”. With Jeff Johnson, a
research physicist; Bonnie Baxter, a young engineering student; and her
young brother Corky, they travelled through time. Dinosaurs,
cavemen, Indians, aliens – you know the drill. (Stuff the
Challengers fight on their lunch break.) |
Background:
A young scientist built “the world’s first working time sphere”. With
Jeff Johnson, a research physicist; Bonnie Baxter, a young engineering
student; and her young brother Corky, they travelled through time.
Dinosaurs, cavemen, Indians, aliens – you know the drill. (Stuff the
Challengers fight on their lunch break.) “If anyone can analyze this creature’s origins, Hunter can – but he’s gone – and no one knows where.” Ace and Rocky and June will fly to
Rip’s distant mountain lab (Where?). But a glow in the sky is not a
thunderstorm, it’s another box, and it shatters to reveal another
flying moth-monster! Swamp Thing and Deadman (unseen) tag along. Ace, who’s “handled worse when I
jockeyed a jet fighter” runs rings around the monster. It follows up
to the stratosphere, where the air is too thin to hold it (So. . .
never mind.) And Ace rips through the beast. THRAM! |
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Chapter 3 Flight into the Future Rocky and June are miffed.
June was almost scared to death. Rocky thought it was “Splat
City”. Ace chides, “You’ve got to have faith, right, Swamp
Thing?” But even Swampy is dizzy and mad. They find Rip’s weird lab thick
with dust. He was a scientist, he must’ve left notes. Swamp
Thing presses a button as Deadman panics. “If that thing explodes
–“ What happens is, Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere drops out of mid-air! “And there’s Hunter” inside. Or rather, his skeleton. . . |
On
second look, no. Back at Challenger Mountain, Prof analyzes the
skull, which is big-brained and fanged. “My guess is it’s a man
of the future. . . but man evolved into a super-genius. . . then
degenerated into something worse than the missing link!” So if Rip Hunter’s in that time,
he’s probably dead. Swampy thinks, “No one should die. . . like
that. . . so far from home. . . and alone. . .” “End of the road?” Carbon-14
dating marks the skull and time sphere as from 12,000,000 AD. If
that’s where the monsters come from. “It could be dangerous,
Challengers.” Rocky says, “Heck, Prof, that’s the whole point!” |
They
polish the sphere and load it with supplies. Deadman stows away
inside Swamp Thing, who doesn’t talk, “so I won’t have to answer any
embarrassing questions.” Monster-boxes are popping up
everywhere. Time to go “before those boogies overrun the whole
planet!” With a hum, the time sphere
vanishes. Shivering, Prof turns back to work. But doesn’t
see the sudden glow in a dark corner. . . (More on that next issue.) The Challs zip through time. How long passes? Who can say? |
They
thump down in a cave of smooth floors and twisted rocky ledges.
“It seems deserted.” Fantastic buildings have crumbled into
ruins. “There’s nobody here.” “Correction, interlopers!”
You have trespassed on the streets of our sacred city. . . and for your
crime. . . you must all die!” A ragged figure in a green-red uniform and crown holds a smoking scepter. Icky pale goblins close in with rifles. “It’s Rip Hunter! And he’s going to kill us!” Next issue: “War at Time’s End” |
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Challenger Mountain Mail Room Paul Laxon of West London, ONT is
thrilled the Challs are back, and hopes it isn’t the end of Multi-Man.
. . JCH (Jack C. Harris) says they’ll “experiment” with the
Challengers, which is why they’ve gone through art teams James Sherman
/ Jack Abel, then Mike Nasser / Bob Wiacek, then Keith Giffen / John
Celardo in just a few issues. Jeff DeMos of Baltimore, MD
compares the Challs to the Blackhawks (whose revival fizzled). “Five
is just the right number of personalities to work with.” He likes
cameos such as Swamp Thing. And he likes their politics since the
“tractor salesman” (Nixon) was fed to a monster! JCH notes June is now the fifth
Challenger. . . Robert A. Bueths of Elmont, NY heard of the revival of
Deadman, Rip Hunter, and Swamp Thing on the DC call-in Hot-Line. He
objects to Red Ryan’s “positive neutrons” weapon, but suggests they use
anti-protons. JCH notes there’s a contest on to name the letters page. “Send us YOUR comments. . .” |
Comments Well,
the DC Hot Line and various teasers promised guest stars galore, and we
got ‘em. Or else you can think that CHALLENGERS is the dumping
ground for canceled series. Swamp Thing, Deadman, Rip
Hunter. Who’s next? Sugar & Spike? At least the
Challs still have a comic – for now. |
This issue got two teasers in other mags. A blurb in Daily Planet, and a bottom of the page teaser.
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At the Daily Planet, “Karate Kid Battles Legion!” and “Joker’s Laughing Fish Are Loaded!”
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Showcase was back, this time with Power Girl. It's a sign of the times that a derivative writer like Gerry Conway ran the show at DC. He was given too many comics like Challengers and Blackhawk, and even got his own new characters like Firestorm and Man-Bat and Steel.  |
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And
speaking of time machines, on the back cover, you can buy a "superhero
time machine" which looks suspiciously like a wristwatch.
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