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Volume 2, Issue 5 July 1991 |
Betrayed by a revolutionary called La Bamba, Red is tortured in an El Segundo prison. His captors want him to admit he's CIA. He continues to smartmouth - "The accommodations aren't exactly four-star." - but figures he'll last 100 days at most. Another prisoner, Paolo, has made it "his life mission" to save Red. Paolo's been in prison 27 years. Red asks, "What's the point?" and rejects Paolo's help. "Leave me alone, pal. If I wanna die... it's my own friggin' business." Yet Paolo keeps at Red through Day 15, Day 26, Day 96. Paolo casts shadow puppets on the wall. "Look! A burro, too stubborn to listen... Look, a wolf, always fighting, can't be touched...." Finally Red comes around. Paolo reminds him, "The struggle for life... is the only struggle." "Day 100, Checkout time." The guards drag Red out of his cell. He fights back. "La Bamba made one big mistake... He kept me alive." |
Grabbing guns, Red tears up the prison.  La Bamba exits Paolo's cell quoteing John Wayne, "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch." Red kills him. "I always liked John Wayne. I hate it when jerks quote him." Red's free, but Paolo is dead, murdered. Red puts a pistol to his head. "If this is livin' on borrowed time... what good is it?" |
Harold Moffet, sometimes-reporter, tries to sell his TattleTale editor on a big story. "Something... unknown is out there - making people act crazy!" (Remember pilots flying into buildings, school kids going nuts with guns, and so on?) She's not interested. Neither is the Tribune's editor because he hates Moffet. As does the Joe Robertson, Daily Bugle's editor. Even Bob Gucci, owner of ultra-sleaze PENTHOUSE, won't listen. So if a reporter can't report, what's left to do? |
Ace, or "Kylemorgan", wakes up in a native hut deep in the Amazon jungle. The Chief, the Kabu, communicates telepathically. By chance - or the machinations of fate - he's found the "lost legendary tribe" of the Tuto. The Kabu suggests he rest. Ace drifts off, thinking, "Once again, I am living on borrowed time." Ace studies under the Kabu. Ace ponders the riddle about the bird who seeks the worm inside the poisoned apple. "The bird HAD to sacrifice himself to achieve his goal." "That's one way of approaching it. Yet being dead is no fun," says the teacher. "You're rash, impulsive. That may do you good going up against Villo and Brainex! (Two of my personal favorites, by the way.) but understanding the universe takes time." Kabu touches Ace's brow, and universes explode in his head. "There are no beginnings... or endings... Only a series of opening and closing doors to different realities." Ace collapses under the weight of new knowledge. Yet he still doesn't get it. That night, at council, he offers to help the tribe, the Tuto, fight off the agressive Agre tribe. "I will be your champion." Yet even he knows "the Tuto always succeed in existing elsewhere." The teacher only offers more riddles. "Who said the bird decided to go after the worm?" Ace is patient. Not sure how, he sketches a door in the air. "Once I was a Challenger of the Unknown. A man of action. I need to open those doors." |
And he does.  |
Ascending ethereal stairs, "I sense that I am nearing the answers I seek..." Above is a door. "I realize this will be my only chance..." Yet a whisper reaches him, "A cry of battle. The Tuto are in danger. I look away for only a second..." And Ace stands alone in a burned and deserted village. "I was given a gift of borrowed time... and I wasted it. Why should I continue to live?" |
Harold Moffet pursues his own quest. He seeks the surviving Challengers. "Mr Fong" (actually Wong, Doctor Strange's "building manager") has no forwarding address for Ace. Rocky's agent doesn't "babysit". And Commissioner Gordon is glad Red pulled out of Gotham. "This town isn't big enough for two vigilantes." Moffet even bugs Guy Gardner at JLI HQ. Guy snarls, "What do we look like - a Lost and Found for super-heroes? Go bother the Metal Men! Next you'll have us looking for the Inferior Five!" |
Rocky drinks. Even Corinna is disgusted. "Seems the only thing you want to put your mouth on lately is that bottle."  Rocky asks one question. "Why d'ja have to come back into my life - just to ruin it?" Corinna smirks, "Because... it was fun." Exit Corinna Stark, again. |
Rocky couldn't be broker, since Corinna ran up a ferocious tab for hotels, furs, jewelry, even flowers. (Delivered by a surly Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milk Man.) So he drinks. "The worst thing 'bout livin' on borrowed time is - everything goes to Hell." He's alone in a crummy bar in Hoboken, New Jersey. "Room costs three bucks. The booze is another two. Nice life." Rocky listens to Sinatra croon. "What happened to songs like that?" |
Suddenly a BIG guy says, "Get up. You've had enough." Rocky goggles. "That's... me?"  |
Yes. A younger, more vital Rocky. Old Rocky rebels. "This is your fault! Get out!" Young Rocky laughs. "This is gonna be fun." And Old Rocky is overpowered by images of being beaten as a child. Young Rocky roars, "You're nothin'! Always runnin' - always hidin'. You needed the guys. Then Corinna. Then the booze. Rocky coulda been somebody, but you, Leslie, always screwed it up!" Old Rocky thinks, "Must... get... away..." And spilling out of a giant bottle, baby-naked, he swirls down a drain and ends up... ... on the DT Ward of a hospital. "I don't wanna live on borrowed time anymore..." |
As for Harold Moffet, our maybe-intrepid reporter is stuck. No Challs, no story, no leads. Ding-dong! A messenger delivers a heavy box from El Segundo. It's gold, a pile of it! Moffet tosses it in the air, laughing -  - until the man in the mirror says, "DO YOUR JOB!" Moffet's stunned. Is this a dream? "Prof IS dead... isn't he?" Then, "I gotta find the guys..." |
Next issue: Since they can't get worse, things get a little better... |
Comment At rock bottom, each of the Challengers thinks about living on borrowed time. In a way, it seems they've outlived their borrowed time but they're still not dead. So they're - walking ghosts? Can these guys really stand on their own two feet without their buddies? If not, what are they, exactly? Makes for weighty thoughts... |