Leslie "Rocky" Davis is an Olympic wrestling champ, heavyweight boxing champ, former professional wrestler, movie star, and more, but most importantly, he's the heart of the Challengers of the Unknown. Before becoming a Challenger, Rocky proved himself unkillable in a sumo match. Crushed by an opponent, he was pronounced dead - but woke up just before the autopsy.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist, as they say, to guess that Rocky Davis is based on Rocky Marciano, the only heavyweight boxing champ to retire undefeated after 47 bouts. That Rocky was still very much a hero when the Challs were first conceived in 1957. Shop and compare the Kirby drawing to this painting of the Brookline Blockbuster.

Rocky is from the South, grew up in the Ozarks, and fought as the "Bayou Battler". (STF 8 letters). Still living in the Ozarks is Rocky's Granny Snopes, his mother's mother. A handy person to know, she taught Rocky witching rhymes as a kid. When Ace falls a victim to voodoo, Granny Stopes shows Rocky how to brew counter-magic to save Ace from a witch's curse (COTU 62). What's creepier is that Granny knows why Rocky is calling, even though she's a thousand miles away. So picture Rocky talking with a Southern accent or drawl.

Still as a child, Rocky lived in New Jersey. Growing up in New Jersey, home of Frank Sinatra, Rocky was fond of Ol' Blue Eyes' songs. He especially loved "One for My Baby (and One for the Road)" (COTU V2 5).

Rocky was the decathlon champion of the 1950s Olympics (newsreel in NF 03). The year is a typo: the Olympics were held in 1948 and 1952. According to www.decathlonusa.org, "The decathlon is a two-day miniature track meet designed to ascertain the sport's best all-around athlete. Within its competitive rules, each athlete must sprint for 100 meters, long jump, heave a 16-pound shotput, high jump and run 400 meters - all in that very order - on the first day. On the second day the athlete runs a 110 meter hurdle race over 42 inch barriers, hurls the discus, pole vaults, tosses a javelin and, at the end of the contest, races over 1500 meters, virtually a mile." So, pre-steroids, Rocky could run, jump, and throw things exceptionally well. Handy talents for challenging the unknown.

Another model for Rocky surfaces. A wonder of the 1948 Olympics was 17 year-old Bob Mathias, who returned to the 1952 Helsinki games to win a second gold medal. A 1948 photo shows Bob bears a striking resemblance to young Rocky.

Rocky's origin as a Challenger began in a championship wrestling match against a bald bruiser named Barton. Rocky won the first fall easily, but he feels groggy - and sees triple! He gets pinned in the next round. His trainer gets the word: the syndicate doped Rocky's water and bet heavily against him. "Quit now, before Barton kills you!" The ragin' Cajun yells, "Quit? Let a pack of crooks steal my crown? I don't dig that idea!" The champ stumbles into the ring totally blind! Yet he can hear Barton and spreads his arms to charge him. Barton balks. "Stop him! He's out of his mind!" Rocky homes on his opponent's voice, and takes him down! Afterward, reporters ask how it feels to win a match and break a syndicate ring in one night? Rocky feels fine, because he'll get 50 Gs for his next match. "And that's what I'm in the game for - cash! He's also invited to be on the show "Heroes". The champ sneers. "Big deal! That glory stuff doesn'timpress me! What does is all that loot they pay for appearing on the show! That's real glory!" (COTU 31) Yet as Rocky plummets in a jet toward certain death, he feels regret. (Recounted in COTU 31, Showcase 6, Adventure 493.)

Oddly, Rocky wasn't terribly BIG in the earliest issues. Under Bob Brown's brush, Rocky bulked up considerably. Or else he succumbed to temptation and injected steroids before they were known to be dangerous. Compare the pictures from Showcase 7 and COTU 57.

Rocky's first movie role, we're pretty sure, is as a caveman, an extra in a dinosaur movie (COTU 36). Rocky is to sniff around for clues to attempted murders on the set. He notes he's right for the role because he starred in two school plays! Perhaps the producer spotted the big muscular guy who could act and kept him in mind. More movie roles were to follow. In becoming an actor, Rocky followed in the footsteps of many decathlon champions. Glenn Morris played Tarzan, Rafer Johnson played a Tarzan villain, and Bob Mathias starred in a story of his life. After the Challs broke up, Rocky was invited to make movies. He made several action flicks, all the same. "The Viking" "The Cowboy" "The Milkman". He made lots of money that he didn't need (COTU V2 3).

A legacy of his wrestling days is Rocky's "trouble tooth" that aches. (COTU 45) The catch is, he lost the tooth years ago wrestling in Cleveland. But whenever that "ghost tooth" aches, trouble's coming. Given a spell-casting granny and a life in sports, it's no wonder Rocky's superstitious.