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December 1976 - January 1977 |
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The Cold War turns hot as the American and Soviet ongoing proxy war in some unnamed nation brings them both to the brink of nuclear war. And the USA's chief "peace negotiator", Doctor Henry Kissinger, has disappeared in the Devil's Triangle, AKA the Bermuda Triangle! An extensive air-and-sea search turned up nothing. June Robbins visits President Gerald Ford (1974 - 1976). Gerry is smart enough to call for "specialists in the unknown". |
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Page 1 sums up a whole lot. Superimposed on a map of the Bermuda Triangle are the Challengers, a dinosaur, and a big fat stone title.  |
 The Challs are obviously the right choice. In a gorgeous summary page, they show off their specialities in unknown weirdness. Ace space-walks. Prof discovers unknown monsters at the sea bottom. Red finds yetis at the top of the world. And Rocky works on his pounding against a robot. |
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The Challengers are actually FIVE people these days, since June has (finally!) been issued a uniform! Note the neckline is cut a tad lower than the boys' uniforms. The tailors must have been short of material. |
The Challs take off from their mountain hideout in Ace's new jet. It's so "extremely experimental" that he didn't get a chance to test run it! "Still, if any plane can get us to hell and back - this is the baby to do it!" Down off Nassau, June sees the boys fly overhead from a cabin cruiser. She tracks them on radar as they near the spot Kissinger's plane vanished. Then the blip grows faint. The Challs' jet is caught in terrific turbulence. It's so bad they think back to their first plane crash - the one that led to their second lives. The "hovering qualities" Ace built in work, though, and they land on a beach. They're greeted by time-lost humans on triceratops. Rocky gets ten-fingers from Red and catapults into action. Immediately all four Challs are fighting numerous opponents: French Foreign Legionnaires, Mongol warriors, cave men, Ancient Persians. But the dinosaurs' horns begin to vibrate, throwing the Challs off-balance. The riders are immune. The heroes black out. And awaken in a cell with Henry Kissinger and the US aircrew. The dino's vibrations make the island vibrate a split-second out of sync with the world. The vibrations also draw in planes and ships AND make the inhabitants immortal. Prof, "No wonder the island has never been discovered! It's in another dimension!" The locals are "paranoic". Your only choice is to stay or die. They're then brought before the tribunal. Rocky, eager to get out and prevent nuclear war, offers a third option. "We choose to escape - even if it IS against your stupid rules!" The Challs fight. But Prof is struck from behind. He'll get his throat cut. The Challs give in. Back to their cells. Now what? Prof and Red get busy "borrowing an idea from our captors' creature friends." With equipment from their boot heels, and "Red's electronics genius", they build a vibrator that trips the doors open. Out they go, belting guards along the way. Slipping out a window of this castle (? It's never seen from outside), they reach the beach. Where June has arrived in the boat. She "got caught in the same teleportation field that enveloped the boy's plane." |
And once more the attackers rush on dinosaurs, and once again the Challs fight. Henry Kissinger, peace activist, even slings his briefcase. Note June's cute karate moves on the right.  The trikes' horns start to vibrate again. "We've had it!" Nope, says Prof. "This little gizmo I made - from parts copped from our plane - gives us the edge again! It absorbs the creatures' vibrations - amplifies them - and sends them right back at them!" But its power won't last long. Long enough, figures Red. He's noticed the obnoxious roar of the dinosaurs, and counters by boarding and blowing June's boat horn. It sounds just like their mating call, and the dinosaurs rush the boat. The Challs get to their plane with Kissinger and the aircrew and take off. Red is still leading the dinos away in June's boat - and running out of fuel. But "God smiles on Red Ryan again!" Hovering the jet, Ace lowers a rope ladder from the plane and Red grabs hold - just as dinosaurs ram the boat. Ace floors it, and they soon hit "the vibration field!" They break through to our world, safe. Dr Kissinger reflects. "Perhaps we can learn from those islanders! Think of it - so many people from so many different cultures banded together against a common enemy!... If only our world could band together against one common enemy - and have that enemy be war itself!" |
Next up, more beyonding.  The rest of the issue reprints a Doom Patrol story. |
Comments This is the first cover that shows Challengers shooting guns. And they're wearing not one, but two guns each. Regular cowboys! Why revolvers, though? It's great to see the boys back in action, but rescuing Henry Kissinger? It shows either the Challs' devotion to duty or their political naiveity, since many people regard Henry Kissinger as one of the great mass-murderers of the 20th Century. In 1976 it was natural for the Challs to visit the Bermuda Triangle. A rash of "documentaries" clogged the airwaves in those years "uncovering" everything from Bigfoot to the Loch Ness Monster to the Secrets of Pyramids. One critic called it "the New Nonsense." The Bermuda Triangle was visited more times than Disneyland. For a while there, Wonder Woman's Paradise Island was also in the BT. The story reads like a Marvel tale. Lots of flash and fighting, but pulling equipment out of their boot heels and cobbling new devices in two minutes? And Rocky's heated emotion seems tacked on. And why carry all two guns and not use them? The letters page "Team Talk" retells the Challengers' origin, with some new details such as Rocky is "the Bayou battler". Ace is now a Korean War hero. An ad for upcoming issues includes the Challs. "Live on borrowed time!"  |
An blurb for this issue appeared in the last Tarzan Family, a pointer to other books of interest.  |