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June - July 1978 |
In the "bleak, far-distant future of Twelve Million AD", in a "hell-hole slum called Black Alley", Deadman gets creeped out when he's outed by Lucas Lawspeaker, who can read his mind even as he hides in a rebel's body. Deadman sums up the trouble. In 1978 AD, monsters have been popping out of boxes all over the world, more all the time. Three Challengers - Ace, Rocky, and June - used Rip Hunter's Time Sphere (Rip himself is missing ) to journey to the future to stop the menace. Swamp Thing came along. Deadman hitched along too, though no one knows it. (Usually no one is aware Deadman's around, which is why he's spooked by Lucas Lawspeaker.) Everyone but Deadman was captured by the Sunset Lords and their mind-slave, Rip Hunter. Back in 1978, meanwhile, Red ran away from home. Prof, still recovering from demonic possession, was left behind in Challenger Mountain, which was then overrun by mutant monsters. (Summary of COTU 86.) Lawspeaker is the head of the rebellion against the drippy Sunset Lords. And tonight they attack, so Deadman better run along and "tell his friends." He does. The Challs are shackled and led
along airy walkways by Sunset Lords, who use mutant goons to
stay in power. The prisoners are told, "Once your minds
have been re-programmed by the Persuader - you'll be loyal to
us forever!" |
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The Challs make their break as they pass under some arches, mangling their manacles. They grab "heaters" and start shooting and slugging. The Sunset Lords send an army of bald mutants at them. Their "zappers" soon run out of power. Swamp Thing offers to hold the bridge while the Challs go after the head honchos' time machine. "You... must... go! I... stay!" The Chall chug away. Swamp Thing bashes mutants by the score, thinking, "You fellas... may look mean... but I AM mean! I've got... a lot of pain in my heart... and I'm going to share some of it... right now!" |
Back in 1978, Red pilots a jet-helicopter home. He thinks, "Losing my temper and quitting the Challengers was about the dumbest stunt I've ever pulled! It took me some heavy thinking to realize that when a guy walks out on his buddies - no matter what the reason - the fault's not theirs - it's his!" (Red quit in COTU 85.) Inside the mountain, Prof is being trashed by red and green mutant monsters. Still weak, he wears an "experimental motorized and pressurized space suit giving me enough artificial strength to fight these monsters", but his oxygen's almost gone. Having landed, Red's hopes of a
happy reunion are dashed. No one's around and the intruder alarm
is howling. Red runs to a remote video. "I can see every
room in the mountain with this gizmo." A map of Challenger
Mountain is revealed! |
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Red (who's lost his curls) sees Prof getting hammered. Red zips through the mountain on a "solar-powered mini-cycle" but finds the "safety airlock" jammed shut. "There's only one way to save him! I've got to raise the temperature level inside the lab to a point where the creatures can't survive! I just hope Prof's space suit can stand the heat!" Red cranks the temperature, and
the monsters croak. "Anyone for Kentucky fried time-monsters?"
Prof has to hold his last breath of oxygen - no chore for a super-diver
- until the labs cools and he can open the face plate. Air! |
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In 12,000,000 AD, Rocky, Ace, and June reach their goal - the Mutant Breeder-Lab! (Earlier their goal was the time machine, but never mind.) It's guarded by "a horde of armed uglies". One SREEEZZs June. Rocky (currently crushing on June) goes nuts, ZOFing mutants. Ace shouts June is alive. "Destroy the breeding vats!" Rocky yells, "With pleasure, boss-man! Watch my dust!" A panel-filling POP! ends the labs.
"What was that?" "An implosion!" An IM-plosion?"
"Yeah - an implosion!" |
Swamp Thing still holds the bridge against mutant guards, but now comes The Persuader, a "genetic giant". It cries, "Outling - prepare to die!" Swamp Thing thinks, "I'm... always ready... for death!" The monsters collide like freight trains. They pound each other for a page and more.  Swamp Thing finally takes The Persuader for an airplane spin - smack into a turret. A Sunset Lord shrills, "Your
victory is meaningless, Outlander! For no living being can withstand
a nova blast from my sun-staff!" But the staff explodes
in his hand. |
The cavalry arrives in the form of Lucas Lawspeaker and his Sky-Riders! "Masters of misery, your reign of blood is over!" Many mutants get mashed.  |
Rocky, Ace, and June, having accomplished their missions, run toward the palace explosions to find Swamp Thing. (Or as they call him, "Doctor Holland".) June wonders why Rocky is so distracted. Rocky thinks, "I'm just glad June is alive... but how can I tell her how I feel about her? Cripes, I wish she'd play it safe - and never fight again!" Back in our time, Prof and Red
direct the Justice League and other heroes - we see Batman, Elongated
Man, Green Lantern, the Demon, and Lightray of the New Gods fighting
- in a victory over the time monsters. |
In the future, the rebel Sky Riders rout the mutants, who flee. But the evil Sunset Lords reach for a button to destroy the city. "We shall survive. Afterwards, we shall renew our experiments -" But the button console explodes!  Rip Hunter, controlled by Deadman, stopped the city's destruction. The Sunset Lord asks, "Hunter?.. Why aren't you responding to my mind-control?" An un-Rip like answer comes from Deadman, "Sorry, stupid! That's my secret!" Rip-Deadman stuns the Lords and leaves them for Lucas Lawspeaker. "I'm a Deadman - not a judge!" Deadman then unpossesses Rip, who
can finally think clearly. "At last... I'm free!.. I think!?" |
That's that. The heroes shake hands with Lawspeaker. Deadman stows away in "Greenie". Ace says, "Come on, Rocky. We're going home." But Rocky is too distracted by June. "Home, Ace? Where's that?" The time sphere disappears with
a THRUMMMMMmmmm! Lucas tells a cohort, "Our children will
be proud to know they live in a place where once dwelled the
Challengers!" For now, "We have a world to rebuild."
The cohort adds, "Perhaps this time mankind will build it
right." |
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"And what of the time-travelers wedged together in the tiny sphere?" Rocky decides he'll tell June how he feels just as soon as they're home. A good idea, because Rocky's whatever's-wrong is driving her crazy. And Ace hopes Prof is all right. For the record, the cast from left to right are Bonnie Baxter, Rip Hunter, Corky Baxter, Rocky, Swamp Thing with Deadman in possession, Ace, June, and Jeff Smith of Rip's crew. When were these folks last seen in a comic? The early 1960s? "Back through the ages hurls the time sphere - to 1978!" A postscript notes, "And upon
returning, the Challengers are once again reunited! Rip Hunter
and crew, the Swamp Thing, and Deadman bid farewell to the Death-Cheaters
and leave - to pursue their individual fates - each going his
separate way - into the pages of history..." |
Comments The letters column announces the good news - a new logo suggested by Andy Proctor of Bel-Air, California.  |
The bad news is, it won't get used because this is the last issue. (The last Silver Age CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, in fact.) "But don't despair. Red, Rocky, Ace, Prof, June, The Swamp Thing, and Deadman will still pop up in the pages of other DC comics. They are not dead, but they have lost their home." (Makes it sound as if Swampy and Deadman are permanent team members!) An inauspicious end. The whole issue is a mess. Giffen's early art is much worse than it looks here (enlarged and enhanced), and the coloring is so bad on the cheap paper that red and green monsters are just blobs. Half the time the action is half off-screen, or the heroes have their backs to the audience. The story isn't any better, just a Marvelesque mish-mash of too many charactes, page-long fights, and trite melodrama. And blatantly ripping off Luke Skywalker's name only three years after Star Wars? And once again the guest stars outshine the Challs. All jammed in just 17 out of 32 pages. What a fizzle for the end of a series! But the 1970s was a lean time for comics. That Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas were superstar writers says it all. |
With many DC comics of the time, the highlights were often the whimsically weird Twinkies ads such as this one.  |
And here's a weird item, a Spanish Challengers cover. Foreign editions were often in black and white and just mooshed many DC stories together, using whatever cover looked zingy. Fun to see Deadman gabbling in Spanish, but perhaps ghosts speak a universal language.  Finally, read all there is to know about Rip Hunter at the Unofficial Rip Hunter Site. |
