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of the Challengers of the Unknown |
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All the major superheroes are busy. Barbara Gordon/Oracle calls in every second-string and non-superhero by hacking their phones and computers and even their masks. And she gets the Manhunter from Mars to link everyone telepathically. (Villians United: Infinite Crisis Special 1.) This ragtag army pile of minor
superheroes tries to knock escaping prisoners back into their
cells. Including two Challengers. (Villians
United: Infinite Crisis Rocky Davis (face unseen and hair
miscolored) and Prof Haley are pounding perps. Ace and June
can't be too far away. And the young Challs? Dunno. (Villians United: Infinite Crisis Special
1.) |
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The Challs have either ordered new uniforms or just new jackets with hourglass logos on the back and 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 trying to get back to Hypertime to rescue Red. A bigger emergency popped up, and is likely to pop for a while. Blackgate Prison is barely contained
before the Challengers rush off to The Battle of Metropolis (Infinite Crisis 7). Rocky trades shots with
supervillains, and we assume his buddies are close by. |
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Batman, Green Lantern, Adam Strange, and Supergirl discover the Luck Lords plan a thousand-year war between Rann and Thanagar to glom up the universe. They succeed - until Batman pulls his ace in the hole: there are four men who are NOT in The Book because they should have died. "The Men Who Were Not There" get zeta-beamed to Rann. The Challengers of the Unknown. Since their actions can't be predicted, the Challs turn the tide and scotch the Luck Lords. All in a day's work. Adam Strange entrusts The Book of Destiny to our heroes, and they're shot back to Earth. (Brave and Bold 6) |
The Challs have tweaked their uniforms. The hourglass logo has yellow sand.  |
Thus begins a new chapter in the "destiny" of the Challengers, as guardians of the most powerful artifact in the known universe... Guarding The Book of Destiny, the Challs start reading about other heroes' current adventures...When Wonder Woman and Power Girl save Superman, the Challs read about it as "current history". Prof's still not sure what he should find, but the name "Megistus" appears again - but before they can investigate, a stampede of extinct animals tears up downtown Phoenix. The Challs are off! (Brave and the Bold V2 7) The Flash and Doom Patrol (Brave and the Bold V2 8) save Wally's children from disaster. The Challs see it all - as slowly they get sucked into the menace of the mysterious Megistus. |
The Challs see more history happen before their eyes. The Metal Men and Robby Reed / Dial H for Hero fight a Mechasaur that squawks "Me-gis-tus!" During World War II, the Blackhawks meet the Boy Commandos in Eqypt, and find mummies serving Megistus. Hawkman and The All-New Atom meet at a seminar interrupted by the Warlock of Ys, who gets chucked into a void... The Warlock reenters the world through The Book of Destiny, animating it as a paper-golem. Ace is knocked cold, and June is forced to stare into Destiny. Perhaps her own... (Brave and the Bold V2 9) The paper-golem chases the Challs into the jet hanger - and gets jet-blasted back to pages. The ancient alchemist's plan becomes clearer. He's stealing "people and things of great tranformative power". And, according to the page at hand, is after Green Lantern's power battery! The Challs fly. Along the way, they read stories of how Superman and the Silent Knight took the Golden Eye of Effron from an ice dragon before Megistus could. And how Aquaman and the Teen Titans rescued Aqualad, with his "postcognitive" powers, from another Megistus lackey. They find Edwards Air Force Base decimated, but oddly, the power battery still in Hal Jordan's locker? Why not steal it? Then Metamorpho, possessed, explodes from the battery! (Brave and Bold 10) |
The Challs can't do much about a giant Metamorpho-Megistus monster as he snatches Green Lantern's power battery and hurls it into the sun - turning it green. Superman and Ultra-Man begin to die as a red cloud of radiation threatens to engulf the Earth. (Brave and the Bold V2 11) Still, always game, the Challengers join other heroes to FLY INTO THE SUN to battle Megistus in his lair. The big-gun heroes beat down Megistus, but the red cloud of radiation begins to mutate Earth people into monstrosities. Someone has to stop it. And it's the Challengers' "mascot" who elects herself. June Robbins, who's never felt like a "real death-cheater" grabs the Philosopher's Stone and jumps into radiation-raddled space. June begins to die as the stone neutralizes the cloud, saving Earth. Then she's gone. (Brave and Bold 12) |
Or is she? Returning to Challenger Mountain, the despondent heroes find Destiny reclaiming his Book. They ask to read June's story one more time - and find June, like themselves, is... Not. In the. Book. Which can only mean that June cheated death and is alive. Where? Dunno. But the boys plan to find out. "Destination: Unknown!" (Brave and Bold 12) |
Scattered Like Autumn Leaves |
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Stay tuned... |