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December 1968 - January 1969 |
At the state mental hospital for the insane, a young man with white hair screams for the Challengers.  Something horrific lurks at Cobra Canyon. It turned the young man's hair white and drove him insane. |
Landing the Galloping Gizmo, the Challengers sweep the canyon. Ace steps in quicksand and is quickly pulled out, but notes, "Lucky I wasn't heavier - or I'd still be taking an express elevator down to a bottomless pit." Farther on appears a crackling fireball that sears their eyes, throats, brains, and bodies. The shimmering colors fade and merge into a "macabre being". A giant alien has a Frankenstein head, complete with scars and neck bolts, on an insect body. He plucks up the Challs. "The planet of Dread which spawned me - never gave me such sport as I am having with you earthlings in my Devil Circus!" The Challs are scooped up easily. "My fume-ray deprived you of your will to battle me!" |
The alien carries the Challs to an oversized ant farm. "To one coming from my planet Dread - your Earthlings are no more than crawling ants!" The alien's intuition tells their talents so they can be paired against the right individual "to proved me with the greatest sport!" Rocky notes, "You're tickling my funnybone - with an axe!"  |
Rocky's opponent is an eight-foot bug with "too many arms... and bad breath!" Rocky punches as he's squeezed. Red, still sporting an eye patch, has been blinded by a tape sealed over his eyes - because he's dropped into a hole with a blind bug for an opponent. A sword is stuck in the ground. Red bumps the hilt, but the bug grabs it first. Red needs all his agility. "The swish of the sword in the air - tells me when to dodge - before it lops my head off." |
Ace and Prof have a different challenge - fighting each other. One man will drop into a "molecular-rearranging chamber of my labyrinth". The other man has a choice. "Do you dare enter the maze... to lead your comrade out and restore him to normalcy? Or will you leave him to his permanent transition?" Prof lands and, not transformed, starts running, though he wishes for a thread to unwind. "This place has more twists than a pretzel!" Opening a door, he finds what happened to Ace.  In a gruesome scene, Ace is nine-tenths bug and bent on killing Prof. But Prof has, despite the pretzel turns, memorized all the twists and turns. Running from bug-Ace, he soon feels a draft from the opening - and turns to find Ace rearranged to normal. |
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Back to Rocky, still fighting the big bug. Pinned by pincers, he delivers a double-hammer uppercut and KOs the bug. Red has been dodging steadily, and his opponent is breathing heavily. Daring, Red darts a hand and "Well, what do you know? I got hold of the toad-sticker!" Ignoring "lacerating pain" to his hand", blind Red knocks out his opponent. Threading the maze, the Challs drop out at the feet of their sneering captor. The monster roars, "Do you think I shall let you escape after you performed so ingeniously? I must take you back with me to the planet so others can enjoy your brilliant acts!" Ace orders they scatter. "He can only follow one of us at a time!" And Ace promptly jumps into the quicksand! "As Dread's massive weight forces him down into the primordial ooze," Ace mounts the insectoid body like a ladder. His buddies form a human chain, and Ace jumps for the "brass ring". Free, the Challs grab shoulders. Ace sums us, "So he thought of us as ants to amuse him, did he? Well, maybe we just did behave like them... because ants sometimes band together to help each other!" |
The second feature continues from COTU 64. It's Part 2 of the Challs' first adventure from Showcase 6. A block of narrations explains "The story so far..."  |
Comments A typically well-done Bob Kanigher story. Open with a shocker, hit the ground running, carry a theme (being treated like bugs), and wrap back to the beginning. Some details are fuzzy, but who cares? |
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An ad teases us with the forthcoming Dolphin in silhouette. By 1969 generic superheroing had been done to death, and DC was hunting for different slants. Dolphin would sink. She only had the one Showcase appearance, and her origin was never explained. She surfaced years later and eventually married the grown-up Aqualad / Tempest.  |