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Challengers
of the Fantastic
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A COMPLETE
and EXHAUSTIVE History
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Challengers
of the Fantastic
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Years later we learn the magic box wasn't destroyed. It resurfaces on the show "Real Incredible People", a complete surprise to the Challs (SO 12). In this adventure,
the Challengers are clearly being paid by Morelian. Though they
have extensive personal fortunes, they accept pay whenever possible,
as "adventurers-for-hire" (DC Comics Encyclopedia). Getting paid was not uncommon for these
unfunded teams. The Blackhawks are a paramilitary unit, even
mercenaries. The Sea Devils are rescue-salvage divers and only
part-time superheroes. |
The Challs meet June Robbins, cyber-scientist, when "ULTIVAC is Loose!" (Showcase 7). They defeat the robot's evil creator - a fat bald scientist in a lab coat, first of many - and reduce the robot to a harmless computer. Rocky is shot at close range and looks to die. June is almost invited to join the team in his absence until Rocky, cheating death, pulls through. The
Challs gain enormous prestige from the ULTIVAC adventure. To track down
ULTIVAC, they're directed to the country's top-secret computer lab by
"Counter- intelligence". To find and fight the robot, they
coordinate with the FBI and US Naval Intelligence. Then they're part of
the "most unusual television spectacle of all time" as ULTIVAC pleads
for detente with mankind. No wonder the Challengers are household names! |
A young Perry White covers the Ultivac story, "one of my first big assignments!" (Adventures of Superman 508). Ace and June become friends after "the giant robot thing". They attend a car show in Coast City with Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris. (New Frontier 4) As for June, one fan speculates
that June and Lady Blackhawk might be the same person, but are
most likely sisters. Citation
is here. We don't know anything about June's background.
Could it be? |
On "The Day the Earth Blew Up" (Showcase 11), the Challengers are called in to find two scientists missing in the Antarctic. They're captured by an alien army called the Tyrans. The Tyrans "transmitted" to Earth, built an underground wonderland, and plot to blow big chunks off the Earth to lessen its gravity. They've conquered hundreds of worlds, bu they smack a stone wall fighting the Challengers. In this global adventure, the Challengers are summoned by Washington scientists and Navy officers as "experts in the unknown". Later they coordinate a joint Air Force/Navy attack against the aliens' army. And finally Ace, a decorated Air Force Colonel and war vet, leads a bomber squadron to wipe it out. The Challengers are heavyweight contenders! In Antarctica, the guys wear polar suits. Obviously not GI issue, they're likely custom clothes for mountaineering provided by Red.  |
In an untold
tale, a bug-eyed alien invades Rocky's bedroom! Where and
when is a mystery. (Adventure 499,
but the story was bumped. The Challs are wearing purple pajamas,
and the story is early, since it follows their Adventure origin.) |
 In one early adventure, the Challs
wore white ball caps. Presumably they discarded them because
people could only tell them apart by their hair color! |
An international criminal acquires vials containing sorceror's potions. "The Menace of the Ancient Vials!" (Showcase 12) expand a person's size, create a fire being, or create duplicates of its drinker. The Challs battle a giant octopoid off the coast of South America. A news camera catches the action.  In some early adventures, the Challs
carry guns, both automatics and revolvers. The guns are standard
equipment in their plane, and the boys strap them on when needed. |
Their battle against the giant
octopoid in a Chris-Craft powerboat is chronicled in The Movietone Newsreel, "Challenging the Unknown".
Shown in theaters across the country, it introduces the Challengers
to the world. And inspires many folks to take up good deeds,
including John Jones, a marooned Martian hiding on Earth as a
police detective (newsreel in New Frontier
3). Although the guys don't know it, the "octo-thingy" is a sign of The Centre's rising. (NFAE Annotations) Their first hint of The Centre
menace is when "the brass" ask the Challs to explore Monster
Island. Along with Rick Flagg's Suicide Squad, they see dinosaurs
and Johnny Cloud's cave wall warning about a gigantic living menace. (New Frontier Absolute Edition) |
A secret government flight to Mars, The Flying Cloud, goes awry. The spaceship drifts toward reentry. On their own, and unaware of the ship's deadly cargo, the Challs boost into space to save the rocket and its crew - and fail. Spectacularly (New Frontier 4). The very next week brings a national code alert (New Fronter 5.) Another dinosaur is parked atop Cape Canaveral. The Challs are warned off. Superman swoops in and clobbers the dinosaur. But "something big" is coming toward the coast - The Centre. Wonder Woman brings an early warning. Lois Lane reports the monstrosity to the world. Heroes fly in from all over - and begin to bicker. Superman rallies them with a rousing speech - and they cheer wildly - until Supes is blasted out of the sky... It's up to non-super pilots and
a handful of supers to invade The Centre with bombers and some
untested gadgets. (New Frontier 6.) Ace
Morgan leads three bombers with atomic warheads into the guts
of the prehistoric island. He nearly loses his mind and his life,
but Hal Jordan chooses that moment to burst forth as Green Lantern.
As the island is shrunk and detonated, the new Green Lantern
slings it into space. The world has a new batch of heroes to
brave the new frontier. And the Challs are at the forefront. |
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At the dawn of the Space Age, the Challs are summoned by President Kennedy to find a missing astronaut. Whisked into space, the Challengers get twinkled to an alien spaceship and attacked by the hateful Xerons, who want to destroy the Earth. Yet when the Challengers can turn the tables and destroy the planet Xeron, they balk at slaughtering innocents - and win. Drippy-pod aliens calling themselves the Enochians, Guardians of the Space-Time Continuum, staged this contest between two races poised to embark in space. The humans can continue. The Xerons are banished to their planet for 1,000 years. The Challengers showed courage and mercy. "The universe needs these qualities." For humans, "Today Is a Long Time Coming" (COTU V3 16). |
The President sends them on another mission into Communist Siberia and "The Great Unknown." (Legends of the DC Universe 80-Page Giant 2.) In deep caves they find a beautiful KGB agent, a White Russian fanatic, giant monsters and evil dwarves - and an atom bomb primed for action! (The Challs fly a prop plane, not a jet, but that might only be to stay under the radar.) Ace meets Nastallia "Nasty" Vedunia, one of the KGB's top agents. Even though she's a Commie, Ace can't get her off his mind. |
With June, the Challs face "The Man Who Tampered with Infinity" (COTU 1). A criminal scientist's "infinity machine" teleports monsters from other dimensions to Earth. The scientist's hidden lab is inside a shell of energy that displaces the molecules inside a mountain. This artificially hollowed mountain will become Challenger Mountain. The Challs are more simply decked out in purple shirts and pants with white gloves. For some reason, June eschews a uniform, and will for a long time. In "The Human Pets" (COTU 1), the Challengers are lured into a space probe which proves to be a trap for an alien boy's pet collection. This is the Challs' first adventure off Earth. |
June is "The Traitorous Challenger" (COTU 2). The Challengers cannot fathom why June Robbins deliberately sabotages their attempts to deal with an atomic freak, until they learn that she has seen a computer predict that they will die if they battle the beast. "The Monster Maker" (COTU 2) is a criminal who's stolen a mind-over-matter machine. The scientist who created it gives Ace similar powers to fight a "wizard's duel". Afterward, both men have their mind-matter powers withdrawn. (Though one wonders if Ace suffered any mental aberrations as aftereffects.) The Challengers try to retrieve
sections of an ancient apparatus scattered around the world.
Otherwise, a criminal with "The Secret of the Sorceror's
Mirror" (COTU 3) will reconstitute
an all-powerful genie. |
 Around COTU 3, the Challengers'
uniforms are finally being delivered "uniformly" from
the tailors. Purple shirts and pants (not jumpsuits) and white
gloves. Belts and boots run purple or white. June has to provide
her own whipcord riding pants and blouse and a natty scarf because
she's only an "unofficial honorary" Challenger. |
"The Menace of the Invincible Challenger" (COTU 3) is Rocky, who ingests an alien chemical and is rocketed into space. He returns with all the powers of the Fantastic Four plus. But he's insanely paranoid, turns on his friends, and is recruited by a criminal gang. "The Wizard of Time" (COTU 4) is an opportunist named Darius Tiko. He swaps a telescope and airplane to ancient Greeks and Egyptians to gain the secret of future-travel. There he amasses future marvels to rule the 20th Century. But the Challs dog him every year of the way and throw a monkey wrench in his plans. On the way home (back to 1958),
Tiko grabs the controls of the time cube and makes it crash in
1990's Metropolis. So "The Future is Now!" Tiko is
mugged for his rings by a gang of kids who transform into elemental
monsters. The Challs and Superman defeat them, and the Challs
depart. (Adventures of Superman 508.) |
The Challengers battle Hunzar. (Flashback in COTU 10, "The Four Faces of Doom".) "The Riddle of the Star-Stone"
(COTU 5) pits the Challs against a
villain with magic super powers. Vreedl becomes a fire-man, bird-man,
fish-man, and finally a super-man before the Challs trick him
into destroying the stone - and thus his powers. The Challs'
jet, Challenger 1, is knocked to flinders. |
The new "Justice League of America" is making news. The Challs even help in its founding, "The Origin of the Justice League -- Minus One!" The Challs work with Aquaman, Plastic Man, the Blackhawks, Robotman (the original), Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, the cowboy Vigilante, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Snapper Carr, Congo Bill and Congorilla, Rex the Wonder Dog, Batman and Robin, and the Manhunter from Mars. They fight White Martians, but the Challs don't actually do much. (How could they, with all that super-talent around?) The Challs wear uniforms of purple with white piping that disappear in the closet. (JLA 144. Darkmark places this adventure between COTU 5 and 6.)  |
The Challengers are kidnapped by aliens and forced to perform as "Captives of the Space Circus" (COTU 6). June crash-lands on an uncharted island and becomes "The Sorceress of Forbidden Valley" (COTU 6). "The Beasts from Planet 9" (COTU 7) get captured one by one, and turn out to be from Pluto, according to long-eared aliens. "The Isle of No Return" (COTU 7) is where the Challs are shrunk, not for the last time. June also stars. Drabny is "The Man Who Stole
the Future" (COTU 8), who steals weapons from the future
to conquer the present. (Same plan as Tiko in COTU
4.) Drabny will return as a Challenger Hater. |
Juhl, an alien from the planet Zuna, comes to Earth to bring the Challengers to his world as "The Prisoners of Robot Planet" (COTU 8). They defeat Kra, leader of the tyrant robots that conquered Juhl's people. Kra gets dismantled but is evidently reassembled later, since he later founds the League of Challenger Haters (COTU 42). A villain named Dekkar uses a machine to make the Challengers "The Men Who Lost Their Memories!" (COTU 9). June Robbins teaches her amnesiac friends how to defeat their foe, then craftily reverses the machine wires to restore their memories. "The Plot to Destroy Earth!"
(COTU 9) is an automated scheme to
carve the Earth into slices and steal it wholesale. Three destructive
creatures will do the work while robots follow a program from
their spaceship. |
A scientist is transformed into "The Cave-Man Beast" (COTU 10). The Challengers and June Robbins must find a way to subdue him. Beneath a Greek isle, the Challs discover "The Four Faces of Doom" (COTU 10) carved into a seamount. They're then transported through time by a beautiful rebel to war against a tyrant. "The Creatures from the Forbidden
World" (COTU 11) have enslaved one world, where the Challs
are transported, and plan to take Earth next. |
More
fantastic exploits...
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