Challengers of the Unknown in the Battle of Blackgate Prison

Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special 1
June 2006

"A Hero Dies But One"

Cover: Karl Kerschl with Dave McCaig
Writer: Gail Simone
Penciller: Dave Eaglesham
Inkers: Art Thibert with Drew Geraci
Colorists: Rob b Schwager with Guy Major
Letterer: Rob Leigh
37 pages
$4.99
Story and art © DC Comics

Characters: Prof Haley, Rocky Davis, a ton of supervillains and every second-string hero in the world.

Synopsis: Lex/Alex Luthor's Secret Society breaks open every prison on the planet. With the big guns out in space, Oracle calls in every second-string hero to stop them. Including the Challengers of the Unknown.

The Infinite Crisis that rocks the DC Universe manifests in many ways.  Worlds are created and destroyed, the dead return to the life, the cosmos itself gets shredded.
 
And at the smallest level, Lex Luthor, under the control of Alex Luthor, organizes the Secret Society of Super-Villains.  One of their major goals is to open every prison on the planet release every super-villain imaginable to serve as their tools.  The non-super criminals get sworn in as muscle.

Every prison cracks open at the same time.  Alcatraz.  Arkham Asylum.  Prisons in Central America, England, Vietnam, and everywhere else.
 
Including Blackgate Prison, on an island off Gotham City, New Jersey.  Blackgate is for metahuman villains who are NOT insane, which is why The Penguin is penned there.
 
All the major superheroes are busy off-planet.  Barbara Gordon/Oracle calls in every second-string and non-superhero.  She uses a combination of hacking their phones and computers and even their masks.  And she gets the Manhunter from Mars to link everyone telepathically.
 
So we find a pile of minor superheroes trying to knock escaping prisoners back into the cells.  In this scene, we have the Crimson Avenger, Black Canary, Plastic Man, and others.
 
And two Challengers.

We assume they are skinny Prof Haley and Rocky Davis, though Rocky's hair should be colored black, not brown.

The big guy (face unseen) could be Clay Brody, who wears a racing jacket with an hourglass on the back, but Clay would never wear a uniform.

Furthermore, it's Rocky in the Battle for Metropolis (Infinite Crisis 7). Ace and June can't be too far away.  The Challengers are a team, after all.
 
Somewhere along the way they ordered new uniforms or ­ looking at Prof - at least new jackets.  The jackets have hourglass logos on the back and at least one sleeve.  The logos are in brown (strange choice) framed in black, on purple.  Or is this a coloring error too?

When last we saw our heroes, they were using a lab in the basement of Planet Krypton in Metropolis.  Red was lost in Hypertime, and the team is trying to get him back.  Obviously they dropped that project for this emergency.

Which is about to get much more emergent.  With a ton of supervillains running amok (though a few were foiled and stuffed right back in their cells), and Doomsday threatening Metropolis, the Challengers wrap up Blackgate Prison and race to -

- The Battle for Metropolis!

Comments

What more needs saying? The world is threatened as never before and the Challengers answered the call. One brief glimpse in one panel? We'll take it!

Ya-hoo!