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Story and art © DC Comics. Much text generously supplied by DarkMark's Comic Indexing Domain! |
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Story and art © DC Comics. Much text generously supplied by DarkMark's Comic Indexing Domain! |
April - May 1977 |
Not sure about the new logo tucked on the cover. Looks like the Challengers's heads have been have been stuffed and mounted. |
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On a Pacific Island, the US Navy witnesses an atomic test. But someone got through the cordon to reach the beach - as the bomb goes off in a stupendous mushroom cloud. Navy officers and reporter gawk as a giant rises from the flattened island. It's Multi-Man crowing, "World, meet your master!" Inside Challenger Mountain, Ace, Rocky, and Red watch the news report in a personal theater. "It can't be! That pip-squeak is locked away on our island prison! ... We'd better check this out pronto - right?" Three Challengers jet to the private volcanic island in the Pacific. Volcano Man is still strapped to a wall. Kra is immobile under a shower. And Multi-Man is a decoy plunked in front of the monitor! Throughout the world, MM rants by overriding TV signals. "The leaders of the U.S. have 72 hours to make me supreme dictator or I'll destroy your country - one city at a time!" "Whew!" says Rocky. "He's really gone bananas this time!" MM can "explode any nuclear power plant by remote control." Los Angeles will be the first. "As the film demonstrates, I can survive any explosion!" And he shows imaginary footage of LA exploding into ashes. |
Prof appears on the scene. He's been to the doctor's and silently broods, "I can't believe my time is really running out! I've cheated death so many times!" The tests are conclusive. Prof's going to die, but no one can identify his disease or a cure! Prof thinks a remote detonator for atomics might be possible. Ace requests a batch of antidote to cancel MM's powers - a big batch since he's giant-sized. Red gets a report. Someone resembliing MM raided the west zone electronics lab. He took synthetic red quartz transistors. Prof snaps his fingers. "I bet he hasn't made his remote-control device and is just now getting the materials together!" He needs the 72 hours to assemble it! Ace, Red, and Rocky will check the atom-bombed island for clues while Prof works. He thinks, "I can't save my own life, but at least I can try to save others!" Wearing enviro-suits, Rocky and Red check the island. Rocky wonders if MM wasn't really here, but was just a "three-dimensional projection - a hologram." Red notes the others considered that a while back. "Oh." They find nothing on the island but ashes. No trace of MM, not even footprints. |
In walks June Robbins with, of all people, Gaylord Clayburne! "Rich and resourceful, he once tried to be a Challenger (COTU 30)." June thought they might need technical help, but Ace growls at Clayburn, "Who asked you to butt in? ... Now isn't the time to find out if you have what it takes." Clayburn vows to beat the Challengers to Multi-Man. And tows June out the door.  June looks a little bemused - and a whole lot gorgeous. Ace grumps, "Every time that playboy gets tired of tennis, he thinks he can be a Challenger. And I don't like the way he's started up with June all over again!" |
Prof has a plan for a miniature reactor, and only one company on the West Coast makes them. So the Challengers are off. Descending on the plant by night, they catch Multi-Man, who grows gigantic. "Ha! You fools can't touch me!" Ace barks, "You may be indestructible, but you can't disappear!" Ah, but he can. Multi-Man becomes ghost-like.  |
The Challengers fare better pounding MM's thugs. (Note the way James Sherman's art bursts out of the panels to jump off the page. But who'd believe Rocky would brag about "fisticuffs"?)  Our heroes delay MM from grabbing reactor parts, but he dematerializes again. Once solid, the Challs tackle him. June dashes in, having finished the antidote per Prof's orders. She squirts MM - and the antidote goes through him! MM gloats, "It's a sorry day, Challengers, when you send a woman to do your work!" He pulls a red glove and hoses the Challs with gas. They pass out. June pops up with what's left of the antidote. "Eh? The she-mouse again?" The antidote gets slapped away, and June is gassed. |
When the four guys awake, Multi-Man is gone. He got the reactor. Prof leads the rush to the plane. "If we don't get him, he'll complete the detonator - and it's good-bye Golden Gate City!" (An error. San Francisco owns the Golden Gate Bridge. It's LA that's threatened.) The Challs bump into Gaylord Clayburn. "Uh oh! It's Mr. Cool again!" He has a pickup truck with a "deluxe machine gun." Ace tells him, "You're too late. We've got a deadline with a nuclear explosion." Gaylord asks about June. "Oh, my God!" Still fuddled by the knockout gas, they forgot her! Gaylord gets snotty. "First you lose the villain, then you lost my girl!" Ace roars, "Your girl?"  Rocky reins Ace in. "We haven't got time for this foolishness!" Red adds, "June is a big girl! She knows what she's doing." |
Maybe not. A image of Multi-Man projects on the wall. "In four more hours I will see to it that you four are put out of commission, as I take over as supreme dictator of the world! ... I even brought along a little insurance to make sure you fools don't interfere again! Ha-ha-ha!"  Gaylord and Ace play the blame-game. Red breaks it up. And Rocky takes off running. "Are we going after Multi-Man or not?" The narrator adds, "Join the Challengers as they conclude this epic battle in their very own magazine! Don't miss CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #81, on sale March 24th!" |
Comments Not the best issue ever. The Challengers are as effective as the Three Stooges. And June acts like an airhead girlfriend and gets taken helpless hostage. Still, the issue brought good news, that the Challengers got their title revived. Don't blame the readers, though, if they hope the stories improve. |