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From AMAZING HEROES, MAY 15, 1983[Editor's Note: This article is reproduced without permission. We're not sure who owns the copyright. If Jeffrey Sattarella sees this, please email the webmaster so we can give you proper credit for this terrific article!] |
AN ORIGINAL CAST The original Challengers of the
Unknown were: |
THE KIRBY CHALLENGERS A certain factor in the quick acceptance
of the Challengers was the artist/writer at the time, Jack Kirby.
For Kirby, this was second go-round with DC, where he had worked
from 1942 to 1944 with his then co-pilot, Joe Simon. The partnership
with Simon had dissolved after nearly 20 years, and his union
with Stan Lee was years in the future. Kirby was brimming with
storytelling ideas and new visuals. Six panels to a page was
the rule of the industry (look at the ECs) - Kirby bent, manhandled,
and just plain broke that rule on every one of the 24 pages of
hls first Challengers. Panels are round, jagged-edged, squashed,
and stretched-very much like a modem comic book layout, in fact. The object had four chambers, and the real start of the story were the incredible menaces that emerged therefrom: a seed that grew into a giant Bronze Age warrior made of stone, a semi- sentient sun that absorbed rather than radiated heat, and a whatzis that enveloped everything in webbing and cocoons. While the Challengers tried to cope with these, Morelian opened the final compartment of the Sorceror's BoK.by himself and seized what he believed was the secret of immortality: a ring. The ring turned out to be another menace, and Morelian died in a plane crash, eerily echoing the event that spawned the Challengers at the story's opening. |
Honorary Challenger June Robbins was introduced in the second adventure (Showcase #7), wherein she played Fay Wray to a giant robot named Ultivac. This was a considerably different June, with black hair and the name Walker. She was a full-fledged Challenger for this one issue, reverting to honorary status for her many subsequent appearances. June was blonde when she returned (in Challengers #1 's first tale) and became June Robbins in her fifth bow without explanation or reason. (There is a rather famous June Walker in Lee Falk's Phantom newspaper strip, wife of Kit Walker- The Ghost Who Walks.) Since there is some evidence that June was unattached later, perhaps she experienced a divorce between January and May, 1959. June had directed the scientific staff of a progressive government project in her first contact with the Challengers. She was relegated to the position of assistant, or even secretary of Dr [Eminent Scientist] in her later appearances. Each time, it was a different scientist and a different locale, as if the inevitable entrance into her affairs by the Challengers resulted in June's loss of employment. The second Kirby Challengers also introduced traces of the two newspaper strips he and Wood co-produced in 1957(Sky-Masters of Space and Surfhunter). The two strips folded in 1958, and Wood joined Kirby on the Challengers comic discreetly (his EC-associated art was taboo in the immediately post-Comic Code Industry). |
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With this staff, the Challengers sought the secrets of the Ancient Vials (Showcase #12), Sorceror's Mirror (Challengers #3), and the Star Stone (#5); they plunged into space as "The Human Pets" (#1), "Captives of the Space Circus" (#6) and "Prisoners of the Robot Planet" (#8): they even traveled in time with "the Wizard of Time" (#4). Two villains were featured in a return match in the final Kirby issue (#8; July, 1959) who had Kra, a large robot intelligence who dominated the Robot Planet, and Drabney, whose brain-amplifying helmet turned thought into reality. Kra and Drabney joined with other Challengers foes six years later to form the League of Challenger-Haters (discussed later). In a little more than two years, Kirby and Wood had produced 18 Challengers adventures. Kirby found an ever-increasing market for his work at Atlas in 1958 (starting with Strange Worlds #1), leaving him little time or inclination to continue a freelance career. In November, 1961, Kirby and Stan Lee launched the beginning of Marvel Comics with the first issue of The Fantastic Four - a team whose resemblance to the Challengers has been pointed out more than once. This new quartet was older than the Challengers: Reed Richards and Ben Grimm were World War II vets, while Ace dated from the Korean conflict a decade later. But certain parallels can be drawn between the "Rocky" character and Ben Grimm, and between "Red" and the Human Torch. Mr. Fantastic combined both "Ace" and "Prof' into his persona; Sue Storm, however, cannot be fairly compared with the irregularly appearing fifth challenger, June. The most striking similarities between these two quartets lie in their origins: both involve flights - the FF fly into space, a more ambitious maneuver - and both flights end in a crash. A comparison of the two stories as Kirby laid them out brings out a very similar composition: the airplane caught in a storm versus the spaceship caught in cosmic ray bombardment. Kirby's artwork shows subtle refinements and changes, but the sequences are broken down nearly identically! Wally Wood was probably one of the factors that triggered Kirby's abrupt desertion of DC: insinuated into the Kirby artwork inconspicuously at first, Wood's inks became more and more recognizable. Again, the stigma of EC worked against Wood - DC wanted pressure from the Code no more than any other company. After the loss of his Challengers outlet, Wood faced a dismal period, relying on his Mad work and illustrations for SF magazines to fill his schedule. In 1965, he made a strong comeback at Marvel and, one year later, produced the unforgettable T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for Tower. After the late '60s, Wood's output dwindled to infrequent (and often indecent) exposures. He died October 31, 1981, a tremendous loss. |
 Their first appearance. |
On to the Bob Brown Challengers... |