 |
Challengers
of the Fantastic
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Challengers
of the Fantastic
|
|
|
|
|
The Challengers finally get a cool secret hideout inside a mountain (COTU 12, but first seen in COTU 1). Challenger Mountain becomes their new home, and they throw an house-warming party (COTU 12). (Get a tour in Headquarters.) Red occasionally hires out as a guide for mountaineers and hunters, proving the Challengers do spend time apart - and earn money. (COTU 12) "The Challenger from Outer Space" (COTU 12) is an alien hero come to Earth after menacing four-armed giants. The Challengers get to tag along. Prof gets temporary super-strength that lets him ram his head into a mountain. June Robbins helps a scientist
in a animal research lab in Africa. Unfortunately he cages her
to force the Challengers to find "The Three Clues to Sorcery"
|
The Challs free "The Prisoner of the Tiny Space Ball" (COTU 13), then travel to his planet to liberate it from a tyrant. The Challengers accompany June and a scientist on a quest for the real Golden Fleece. When Rocky dons it, he falls under a spell and conjures "The Creatures from the Past" (COTU 13): a cyclops, a centaur, and a dragon. Multi-Man makes his first appearance as "The Man Who Conquered the Challengers" (COTU 14). An archaelogist's crooked assistant, Duncan Pramble, concocts an alchemical formula called "liquid light" from an old manuscript. He transforms into a different super-creature with each death, and the Challs have to resort to trickery to take Multi-Man alive. The Challs are "Captives of the Alien Beasts" (COTU 14), but not for long, since the beasts are essentially harmless. |
In "The Return of Multi-Man"
(COTU 15),
Multi-Man breaks jail. A criminal named Gurk employs him to find three
pieces to a golden turtle statue. Pramble actually makes out better
than the Challs when he morphs into a super-brain. "The Lady Giant and the Beast" (COTU 15) pits June against a giant red dragon. Shades of the 50-Foot Woman! "The Incredible Metal Creature" (COTU 16) from another world pairs with a local criminal to build a destructive weather machine. An interplanetary lawman comes to the Challs' aid. The Challs enter a Brigadoon-like medieval land as "Prisoners of the Mirage World" (COTU 16). They joust and duel to free June and escape before the mirage traps them forever. |
The Challs witness the first official press conference announcing the JLA on television. Red wonders if the Challs won't be displaced, even become "unknown". (JLA Year One 2. Arbitrary placement, but COTU 16 and JLA 1 came out in October 1960.)  |
The villainous Malvolio and his gang release Ahmed, "The Genie Who Feared June" (COTU 17). June accidentally shows the way to contain the genie. In this adventure, Ace and June wear civvies town.  A Navy ship breaks open an iceberg to reveal "The Secret of the Space Capsules" (COTU 17). The Challs battle tentacles and a drill-nosed star-monster with the help of aliens unfrozen from the last Ice Age. |
June inherits a Caribbean island from an unnamed uncle. On the way, an alien pet drops from the sky in a space capsule. It's an orange space-raccoon with weird powers. Together they uncover "The Menace of Mystery Island" (COTU 18). At June's urging, they adopt "Cosmo" as their mascot, a "true Challenger".  The 23rd Century is "The Doomed World of Tomorrow" (COTU 18). Doomed because future humans are pretty inept. First the Challs get accidentally transported there. Then they have to take over the battle against four rampaging "cosmic creatures". All because a conniving scientist can fool the elders with robotic companions. Not much hope for future generations. |
"The Alien Who Stole a Planet" (COTU 19) "The Beasts from the Fabulous Gem" (COTU 19) When he breaks prison and steals super-science gadgets to reproduce his supernatural powers, "Multi-Man Strikes Again"
(COTU 20). "The Cosmic-Powered Creature" is a lost and dazed astronaut whose space-dust contamination transforms African animals into mutant menaces. Rocky gets super-big and Ace super-leapy. (COTU 20) |
"The Weird World That Didn't Exist" (COTU 21) is a movie set. Or is it? "The Challengers' Space-Pet Ally" (COTU 21) is Cosmo. In the Amazon jungle, "The Curse of the Golden God" (COTU 22) turns Prof and Red into slaves of Xechulan! Monstus is "The Thing in Challenger Mountain" (COTU 22). The creature helps a warped alien steal human beings for his own private zoo. The Challengers are on his "git" list. |
A forgotten canyon is where "Death Guarded the Doom Box" (COTU 23). Hunting a criminal gang and a magic ram's horn, the Challs get snared by fiendish traps. A cloud over Boulder obscures a spaceship. Soon an alien coup spills over to the city and leads the Challs to "The Island in the Sky" (COTU 23). "The Challengers Die at Dawn" (COTU 24) unless they can best some Asian natives in four contests. Plus they need to nab a fled con man. A moon-man, a flame-being, and
a sponge-man are new manifestations of "Multi-Man, Master
of Earth!" |
"Return of the Invincible Pharoah" (COTU 25) "Captives of the Alien Hunter" (COTU 25) "Death Crowns the Challenger King" (COTU 26). In a lost medieval city, Prof meets a lookalike prince and takes his place to brave weird dangers. "The Secret of the Space Spectaculars" (COTU 26) "The 1,001 Impossible Inventions" (COTU 27) "Master of the Volcano Men" (COTU 27) |
"The Revolt of the Terrible FX-1" (COTU 28) How did the Challengers' faces get inscribed on a temple in ancient Egypt? The answer is "The Riddle of the Faceless Men" (COTU 28). In "Four Roads to Doomsday" (COTU 29), the Challs get conned by conniving aliens into traveling to the hottest, coldest, deepest, and highest places on Earth. The boys jump to conclusions trying to help a race of lava-men and fish-men. They end up in "The War Between the Challenger Teams" (COTU 29). |
In this latest adventure (COTU 29), the Challengers use color-coordinated diving suits. No swim fins.  |
"Multi-Man - Villain Turned Hero" (COTU 30.) Yeah, right.  Lest we think the Challs only wear purple, they escort a dazzling June to a charity ball in dark suits (COTU 30)! |
Gaylord Clayburne, a bored playboy who survived a racing accident, vies to join the team as "The Fifth Challenger" (COTU 30). He saves the Challengers' lives with June's help, but decides to make other uses of his personal borrowed time. A businessman contends he's "The Man Who Saved the Challengers' Lives" (COTU 31). He extinguished the fire engulfing the Challs' first plane crash. Thinking it over, the Challs recount the personal crises they faced just before the crash. But the businessman is only conning them to assemble an ancient statue to wreak havoc. The Challs recall one detail the businessman didn't know: Rocky stuck gum on the "Lucky Ace" name on the fuselage of Ace's jet. |
"One Challenger Must Die!" (COTU 32) to stop (another) Volcano Man. Super-foam does the trick. "Cosmo Turns Traitor" (COTU 32), but not really. He was just distracted because his alien master has been co-opted by a beatnik gangster named Mastermind. The Challs get transformed into weird beings, but triumph. And the alien awards them Cosmo as a permanent mascot. But Cosmo has never been seen or mentioned since, so it's likely the Challs relented and sent him home. "The Challengers Meet Their Master" (COTU 33), a blowhard named Jacquard who threatens to beat the Challs at their own specialties. But what's Ace up to? The Challs get a helper who turns out to be "The Threat of the Trojan Robot" (COTU 33). But the robot ends up being a real Challenger for a day. |
A submarine full of frozen Nazis comes to life. The Challs fight World War II on Cape Cod in "Beachhead, USA" (COTU 34). In an untold tale, the Challengers capture the Flying Fish. (Mentioned in COTU 41, the adventure takes place near the coast.) Multi-Man gets more than he bargained for when he builds "Multi-Woman, Queen of Disaster" (COTU 34). A laser blast to the moon unleashes an ancient menace, leading to"The War Against the Moon Beast" (COTU 35). "Sons of the Challengers" (COTU 35) is a tale told through a crystal ball of the three sons and one daughter of the Challs. Purely imaginary - or is it? The "Sons" fight fish-men raiding the city, and track them to their underwater lair. |
"The Giant in Challenger Mountain" (COTU 36) is Rocky, who becomes a destructive giant by night. "Bodyguards to a Star" (COTU 36) finds the boys on the set of a dinosaur movie, where the Challs must solve a murder mystery. "The Triple Terror of Mr. Dimension" (COTU 37) "The Last Days of the Challengers" (COTU 37) |
In Africa, a criminal gets doused with odd chemicals from a grenade explosion to become "The Menace the Challengers Made" (COTU 38), an an all-absorbing blob. Rocky pulls out his old pith helmet, but doesn't wear it for long.  In this adventure, Red needs jet engines, so calls the 51st Air Wing. They give the famous Challs whatever they want. The "Time Bomb on Holdout Island" (COTU 38) are a Nazi scientist and Japanese soldiers from WWII buzzing the world with flying saucers. |
The Challengers visit Madame Zaddam again to glimpse the future. They see the Sons - and Daughter - of the Challengers hunt "The Phantom of the Fair!" (COTU 39). The World's Fair of 1990, that is. Rocky gets brain-zapped and becomes "Rocky, the Genius Challenger" (COTU 39). He uses his super-brain to stop Wizard Welles's electronic thinking machine (a computer) from building an ultimate weapon. Super-gadgets become "The Super Powers of the Challengers" (COTU 40). Super costumes and supervillains are not far off. |
The Spy in Challenger Cave (COTU 40) is Multi-Man on a robot insect kick. He loses again. Rocky is "The Challenger Who Quit! " (COTU 41). Wounded in an explosion, Rocky quits the team rather than be a liability just as his pals battle the Quad-Man and other weird menaces. Prof has "2 Hours to Die!" (COTU 41) when he's trapped in a tiny submarine with a bomb. |
Kra calls on Volcano Man, Multi-Man, and Drabny to band together as "The League of the Challenger Haters" (COTU 42). They embark on a reign of terror to attract the Challs. The Challengers' superhero run really begins with this story. The yellow costumes will arrive soon. "The Secret of the Masked Challenger" (COTU 42) means Red must wear a mask of bandages. The Challs fight an evil magician and his faceless android. The Challs get transported to the far future to fight an alien Godzilla ravaging cities in "Four Against Monstro " (COTU 43). The Challs venture underground with a bearded Cave Carson on an untold adventure to investigate a weird yellow light, possibly Skartaris. (Untold tale in History of the DC Universe.) |
The boys are stunned by "Ace - The Challenger Who Went Bad!" (COTU 44). A "Challenger Casebook" because the Challs are still in purple pajamas. "The Terrors of Mr Tic-Tac-Toe" (COTU 47). The Challs are picked off in the desert one by one in this "Challenger Casebook", still in purple. In an untold tale, The Challs dump "Tyrannosaurus X", a Nazi dinosaur, over a cliff (untold, shown as flashback in COTU V3 16). Clay Brody suggests it's a tall tale invented by Rocky to impress women, but T-X is real and even returns (GGW 29)! |
It's
super time!
|