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March 1987 |
A wild splash page promises thrills to come.  |
The story begins in the present. The TV show "Real Incredible People" is being filmed. Tonight's guests include "four men who live on borrowed time". And an artist who crafts celebrity heads out of potato salad "and a man who practices dentistry on snails"! The Challs wait in the Green Room. June is with them, glad to be along. Ace tells her, "Hey, you're one of the team, June." Rocky opines, "I still say we should have held out for "The Price is Right'." Rocky says, "It's weird, but it was a show like this that brought us together." And "Ace's clumsy flying", adds Red. June never heard the whole story. So while they wait, Ace relates... |
Four strangers were thrown together to appear on the show "Heroes". It was not a great night for flying. Ace complains about how the cheap producers wouldn't even pay for tickets, but insisted HE fly them there. No one's listening. Rocky is gassing about his latest bout - when the plane is hit by lightning! It loses a wing just as "static frost" (hunh?) jams the controls! Ace yells, "We can't make it! We're going to hit!" Hit they do. The plane cuts a swath through the mountain forest. They all think it's over. But they land - in pieces. Rocky breaks them out by wrenching off the door. Ace gasps, "Everyone is alive and accounted for - and alive to boot!" Bleeding but grinning, Red holds up his Bulova watch - still keeping time. "Borrowed time."  Ace concludes, "We figured we might as well team up and make the most of it!" |
June asks, "But weren't you all living on borrowed time before that?" In a manner of speaking. Prof agrees. "We all came from different walks of life, and yet each risked his life for what he perceived was a good reason." Prof flashes back to his dangerous projects. He once freed a dolphin snagged by a mine. The mine explodes. The ship's crew figured he was dead, yet he bobbed up - dolphins alongside - with his gear destroyed. Impossible! says Jacques Cousteau. (See Prof's bio.) Red once climbed Mount Fujioka. He got caught in an avalanche. Buried under ice and rock for 12 hours, he was presumed dead - but survived. (See Red's bio.) Ace was always taking risks, "always trying to go faster and further than the guy before me". It damned near killed him while test-piloting for McDonnell-Douglas. "The guys on the ground said they'd never seen a crash like it. No way could anyone have survived. Fooled them." (See Ace's bio.) Rocky once wrestled a sumo - and was crushed. He was actually pronounced dead - and came to just before the autopsy. (See Rocky's bio.) |
A stage hand interrupts. They're almost ready for the Challs to take the stage, but "they're bringing in a crate... something special we found to surprise you. Don't peek." But the mysterious crate is huge and unwieldy. It rolls down a ramp into a tall scaffolding that threatens to crush the potato salad artist. Red barks, "Not as long as we're here!"  Red swings and dives and snags the artist. Rocky snags the scaffolding - which is HEAVY! "Uh, I hate to be a bother, but can someone give me a hand... like... right away?" Ace and Prof, never slow, hook the scaffold with ropes. June buzzes up on a forklift and tugs it upright. "I can be kind of handy to have around." |
The Challs are curious. WHAT is this big box? They tug off the drape - and stare.  June asks, "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost! Guys?" It IS a ghost -from the past come to haunt them. A minute later, the show's host announces the Challengers of the Unknown - who don't show. Where ARE they? They left? Well, show the box! They took it with them! |
The Challengers' jet zooms out of the parking lot. What's the rush, asks June? They have to get away pronto. "That box is the most dangerous thing on the planet!" The Challs thought it was destroyed. A box of immortality must have a longer life than they thought. And Ace continues the story... The Challengers' first case took them to the wilds of northern Canada - and a million dollars. They met Morelian, a descendant of Merlin, who had an ancient box covered with cryptic runes warning of danger. A Pandora's box. To keep it from harming anyone, the Challs treated the expedition like an atomic bomb test. They flew the box to a remote Pacific Island and drew straws. Opening drawers one by one produced dangers. A giant egg that hatched a giant: not a stone warrior, but a sea creature. The frozen sun. And the whirling weaver. (Recapping Showcase 6.)  |
June gets in a dig. Rocky notes he was left to guard the box because he's the wrestler, only muscle. June pipes, "Like, 'Oh, she's a woman, let's leave her behind on important missions?'" The mission ended in disaster for Morelian. While the Challs grappled with the first three menaces, Morelian opened the last drawer and found the Ring of Immortality. He jumped in a plane and took off. And promptly went into a spin and crashed into the box. "The shortest immortality on record," notes Prof. "We misread the legend. It wasn't the ring that granted immortality... it was the box... the one he wrecked." |
Back on the island, the Challs roll out the box. And draw straws to see who opens the last drawer. "June, you want to stand back?" "Ahem!" June clears her throat. "I thought I was a full-fledged Challenger now." Oh, sorry. June gets the short straw. "Lucky." Red says, "Depends how you look at it." June pulls the drawer, and chirps, "Great God in Heaven!" INSIDE the box is an old old man in wizard's robes. "Don't hurt me! And don't make me leave the box! I can NEVER leave the box!"  Who is he? He helped build the box 300 years ago. The box's magic makes him immortal, "as long as I stay in the box!" Ace asks, "Don't you, uh, have to the market or the bathroom?" The old man smiles, "I don't have to eat! And if you don't eat, you don't have to go to the bathroom!" What to do? Close the box and leave the man in peace. Rocky marvels. "That man is going to live in there forever, never feeling love or excitement." Ace says, "But he'll be alive." As they blast off, Rocky asks, "You call that living?" |
Comment The origin-within-a-story approach makes this a fun issue. The Challs blithely tell their story to June, then get brought up short by the reappearance of the box they thought destroyed - a forerunner of ambush TV. We get to see four NEW pre-Challs stories of the boys, a rare joy. Then they tend the unfinished business of the fourth drawer never seen opened in Showcase 6. So we get some juicy backstory, a homage to Jack Kirby and a postscript - a triple treat. |