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August - September 1963 |
Pay attention, because this story gets confusing fast. Our story opens as "In their great jet transport, the Challengers of the Unknown speed toward what may be their strangest adventure..." Ace pilots and lectures. "Remember, men, Jacquard is one of the smartest, toughest criminals who ever eluded the police! So don't underestimate him - or overestimate yourselves." The guys laugh it off. Ace has been lecturing about overconfidence for weeks. The Challs' jet descends to an abandoned amusement park that has a huge generator Jacquard needs to "recharge his unique electric suit." From high atop the roller coaster, Jacquard watches them land. Red and Prof enter a coaster car to climb after the criminal. Red touts his cable gun will wrap around Jacquard and ground his electrical powers. |
But Prof has a last-minute change, a fluid that will insulate Jacquard's suit. Red objects, "But that wasn't the original plan." Prof scoffs. "So what? The cable gun is too easy!" As they argue, Jacquard blasts away the tracks with a lightning bolt. Prof grabs the cable gun, fires at the crossties, and stops the car from plunging over. Ace trots up, smudged with dirt. He claims Jacquard fired a bolt at him, and the concussion knocked him down. A sheepish Prof explains how his new idea fizzled. Ace lectures, "If you'd stuck to the original plan... Overconfidence is going to kill us - Look!" Jacquard has inked a challenge on a funhouse mirror. "Challengers! Do you dare duel me, one by one, with your own specialities? Tune radio 20 meter sideband at midnight for my challenge! Jacquard!" Someone notes, "Talk about confidence! This guy's got it all!" |
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At their mountain base, midnight brings the challenge by radio. Jacquard challenges Prof to meet him at Diver's Reef to fetch a bell from a sunken windjammer tomorrow at noon. (Considering they're in Colorado, getting to the ocean will be a challenge in itself.) Prof will need his "bag of chemical tricks." Prof grins. "It'll be a pleasure to puncture that bag of wind!" Prof reaches the sunken wreck first. Jacquard arrives and shoots a jet of ink that makes a visual wall. Prof counters with a chemical that disperses the dye, but Jacquard is swimming off with the bell. Prof swims through a seamount but cuts his leg. The pain is so intense he passes out. And awakens on the beach with Ace resuscitating him. (The old-fashioned chest pushing kind, not mouth-to-mouth.) "Good thing I trailed you here without your knowing it! Didn't want you to think I didn't believe in you!" But Prof admits, "You were right. I almost had him, but got overconfident. Sorry!" And Prof is left with a game leg to boot. |
Where's Ace? Prof offers an answer. "Still coming back from that arena where he fought you, Rocky!" WHAT? Prof says, "It's been bugging me for days! Who knows enough about each of us to trap us at our own game? Ace! He's using this hoax to make his point about our overconfidence!" But how will Ace defeat himself? "The puzzle grows" as Ace returns in time to hear Jacquard's next challenge: "I challenge Ace to an aerial dogfight - without weapons - at Lucas Airfield!" Next day, at the airfield, Ace readies his jet - and Jacquard's touches down! Prof stutters, "I-I'm sorry, pal! I figured you were pulling our leg! But we're with you now, Ace Go, man - go!" |
Before Ace's silver jet can even take off, Jacquard's black jet swoops low and forces him to bump along the runway. The watching Challs grunt. "That guy's playing for keeps!" Jacquard power-dives! Ace peels off! Jacquard loops over to ram! Ace pulls up just in time! The Challs shout, "Go on the offensive, Ace, or that guy will kill you!" Finally Ace maneuvers over Jacquard's jet and skillfully forces him to land. But the Challs watch in horror as Jacquard scrambles out and zaps Ace's jet with his head-beam lightning bolt (as seen on the cover). "Yow! Poor Ace! That dirty doublecrosser couldn't beat him fairly, so he hit him with that!" Ace's silver jet, on fire, soars over a hill - and explodes! Leaving Jacquard for later, the Challs race over the hill in their jeep... |
... only to find Ace alive and his jet intact! Ace faked the explosion with a barrel of oil. He gimmicked his plane's fire with a smoke bomb. Ace is smug. He captured Jacquard at the amusement park and imprisoned him there days ago! But who'd Ace dogfight with? The substitute pilot is -  June! Drilled by Ace to fake the sky battle. Ace adds, "I hope this teaches you guys a lesson about never underestimating your enemy! Now let's get Jacquard and deliver him to the police!" |
Later, in the park's Wax Museum, Ace aims for a cell that's part of an exhibit. He stuck Jacquard in the cell with food and water. Except - Ace is shocked to find the cell empty. "He - he escaped! Somehow he melted the lock!" Prof laughs. "Okay, teacher! NOW who needs a lesson in humility!" Not Jacquard, who's got the drop on the Challs! One blast of lightning brings the roof down on our heroes! They duck into another room, "but Jacquard's getting away, and we can't touch him while he's wearing his "hot" suit!" Prof gets an idea and climbs on Rocky's shoulder. A match sets off the sprinkler system. |
 Jets of water fry Jacquard's "hot suit". Prof admits, "Ace, you proved we were getting too big for our britches!" But Rocky gets in the final laugh. "Naww! All he proved is that nobody can beat a Challenger - except another Challenger!" |
"The Threat of the Trojan Robot" |
The Challengers are trapped beneath the sea by a landslide next to a dangerous missile. It looks like curtains until a mysterious rescuer appears.  A Challenger robot! |
The robot quickly rams the missile into the sea bed to isolate the radioactivity. Then it brushes aside boulders trapping the Challs. Where'd HE come from, the boys wonder? Quickly they recount how the missile veered off its orbit and crashed in the ocean. The Challs were supervising the security guard at the base. Then they raced against time in special SCUBA gear to find the space instruments, which might leak radioactivity, and lock them in a lead box - until an underwater landslide caused by the impact trapped them. But now they're rescued and following the mystery robot, which orders, "Follow me!" It talks too! In "a sandy wasteland not far from the missile base", a steel hatch opens in the desert floor. Alert for trouble, the Challs descend. They're greeted by Larue, yet another bald scientist in a lab coat who can only be trouble. But Larue seems friendly. "I'm a great admirer of yours! That is why I invented Raymond for you! "CR" stands for Challenger Robot". Rocky is suspicious, but Prof and Ace decide to give Raymond a try. (No one asks, What kind of a name for a robot is Raymond?) It even calls Rocky "Master", which means "this cat's okay!" |
In the days that follow, Raymond proves his worth. At one point, he catches a toppling missile. The Challs are impressed. "Good boy, Raymond!" But the robot moves off by itself, opens its chest plate, and sends a coded message to Larue. The mad scientist figures he's tricked the Challengers, and pushes ahead with the final step of his plan. But the Challs aren't tricked. They bugged the base and intercepted the coded message. "Our suspicions were right! The robot is a spy - a Trojan horse in our midst!" Rocky's ready to "take the double-crossin' junk heap apart!" No, the Challs still need to know Larue's plan. Rocky says, "That robot must be wise to Larue's game! If we could only get him to sing!" Ace laughs. "That's it!" |
In his secret headquarters, Larue gloats as Raymond returns. Three years ago, Larue was banned from the base for tampering with dangerous weapons. Now he'll settle the score. His crawling bomb will carry a warhead under the base and destroy it!  The bomb is already en route. It detonates tomorrow at dawn. Raymond will return to the base and guard the bomb. |
Raymond has his own ideas. "Look this way, master!"  Prof and Rocky are inside a dummy robot, ready to "short-circuit your scheme!" |
Larue is not licked yet! He can push one button and summon Raymond, and use another to change the bomb's course. And before the Challs can nab him, he drops through a trap door! Outside, a camouflaged sand dune spits out a plane, and Larue is gone! "We're right back where we started," groans Red. No time to dig up the whole base to find the bomb or to evacuate. "We've got to get Larue to change the bomb's course. But how?" Prof offers, "How about pulling the same trick twice? Larue would never expect us to pose as Raymond a second time!" Okay. Larue is sure to summon Raymond. They'll stick to the robot and get there first. As the "deadline-at-dawn approaches", the fake Raymond finds Larue in a cavern. He's aimed the bomb at the liquid fuel storage tanks. The robot asks for orders. Larue sends "Raymond" after the bomb to guard it. "And kill anyone who interferes!" |
Ace and Red search for their buddies in the robot as a tremendous explosion rocks the desert. Larue gloats - until Raymond returns. "But it's impossible! Even you couldn't have survived that explosion!" Raymond quips, "Right, Daddy-O, because we weren't anywhere near it!" Again Prof and Rocky jump from the suit and this time nail Larue. Too bad the base was destroyed. Ace and Red arrive. The base is safe! "Something weird happened... Larue did such a good job making Raymond behave like a Challenger that he automatically responded when a threat arose! He stopped the bomb before it reached the base, as we had planned to do!" Looking at the shattered remains, Ace pronounces an epitaph for a robot. "In his last moments, Raymond was a Challenger! Like us, he was living on borrowed time, but his time ran out!" |
Comments One thing I love about Challs stories is the internal logic. Comics are notorious for random disasters and wild coincidences - but not in Challenger stories. The underwater landslide didn't happen, it was, as Prof notes, "a delayed reaction caused by the capsule's impact." Events are linked and proceed logically. Even as a kid I appreciated that, and more so as an adult. |
The letters column also asks subscribers to please be patient. So many people have signed up it takes two months just to process the orders! Not surprising. 10 issues for $1.20 delivered right to your door!  CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN means "Four heroes "on borrowed time" explore the unknown. Well, duh... |