The Wizard Of Time Challengers Of The Unknown (not sure which issue)
The Challs & the villain Tiko are arrested in the year 3000 for violating laws. An electronic judge tries them and decides that they are not guilty because with their antiquated thinking they are not responsible for crimes in a rational society. Huh? So if Tiko had gone on a killing spree the judge would find him not guilty of Murder just because he comes from the primitive 20th Century?
NANJAO
In the late '50s/early '60s, Jack Kirby created/wrote/drew a comic called The Challengers Of The Unknown for DC. Then he went over to Marvel and helped Stan Lee out on a couple of comics that you might have heard of. ;-)
It's interesting to compare the Challs with The Fantastic Four.
Prof. Haley seems like an early version of Reed Richards.
Rocky Davis seems like an early version of Ben Grimm.
In The Man Who Stole The Future the Challs go up against Drabney, a man with access to future technology that allows him to take over the country of Mordania, with plans on the world.
Gee, four heroes going up against a man who rules a European country who controls incredible technology... Why does that sound familiar? ;-)
The Challengers Of The Unknown were four adventurers who should have died in a plane crash & decided to take advantage of their second chance to challenge the unknown.
The Man Who Defeated The Challengers Challengers Of The Unknown #14 Reprinted in The Brave & The Bold #113
Plot: On the Island of Ruins, Duncan Pramble discovers Liquid Light, an alchemists potion that will give him superpowers & multiple lives. The Challengers discover that the alchemist also created some potions that when mixed properly would nullify the powers & the Challs must find a way to stop Multi-Man before it's too late.
Page 5, Panel 5. One of the boulders Multi-Man is sending at the Challs is red. Page 6 Panels 2 & 3. The red boulder is brown. Page 6, Panel 4. It's red again. Page 7, Panel 1. It's greenish-brown. Panel 2. Brown.
Liquid Light also seems to affect Pramble's clothing as well as giving him powers. His first incarnation his clothes glow a bluish-white. His second life his clothing becomes green & scaly. His third life his clothes turn into yellow-brown feathers. When doused with a counter-solution his powers fade & his clothes turn back to normal. (Although he still has the ability to gain new powers each time he dies.)
DC Special #S-25
S-25? Why not just 25?
The splash page for the issue lists Prof Haley as Prof Hale. Not knowing where or when this splash page was originally published I'm not sure if the splash page is incorrect or the usual name of the character is.
The Man Who Stole The Future Original publication not listed Reprinted in DC Special #S-25
On the splash page Drabney says, "My D-Ray will disintegrate them in split seconds!"
Wouldn't split seconds add up to a whole second?
The Challs, June & Marie go to Mordania to investigate the mystery of Marie's inheritance, & June & Marie are wearing purple jumpsuits like the Challs.
NNAN but it seems odd & no reason is given for it.
Okay, Drabney has stolen three boxes left by an alchemist ancestor of Marie's. Prof & Red get out of the castle to find Drabney in a Star Car. Now the first box contained a youth serum. The second box contained a helmet that allowed the wearer to use mind over matter & the third box was a pair of goggles that would allow the wearer to see the future. Later Drabney has an army of Star Cars, presumably built with future tech that Drabney saw using the goggles. However, he hasn't had enough time to build the Star Car he is in using the goggles so where did it come from?
Was it something he was working on previously and later used future tech to create more with the weapons we see?
Drabney has taken a castle as his command center & has guards guarding the place. Prof swims silently through the moat to knock out the guard then lets Red know the coast is clear, so rather than walking across the drawbridge Red dives in the moat & swims across.
Drabney has seized control of this town & he wants the Challs captured, so they walk around town wearing their distinctive purple jumpsuits.
Page 10, Panel 3. The Star Car in the rear has a different star tail than the other Star Cars.
Captives Of The Space Circus Original publication not listed Reprinted in DC Special #S-25
After capturing the Challs an alien says, "these four most powerful Earthlings".
Four most powerful? How long has he been studying Earth? Okay, Superman is a Kryptonian & J'Onn J'Onzz is a Martian, but that still leaves Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Zatara, Captain Comet (if he's still on Earth at this time) and a whole slew of super-villains.
Page 15, Panel 2. A caption reads, "As the Fingmaster".
Ringmaster
The Wizard Of Time Original publication not listed Reprinted in DC Special #S-25
Darius Tiko says, "In the Miocene age, I've hunted dinosaur".
Well that's some trick. The Miocene was around 5 to 26 million years ago. The Mesozoic (the age of dinosaurs) ended 65 million years ago. (Of course in the DC universe there are places where dinosaurs & dinosaurlike creatures survived till the present day, sooooo...)
Tiko can travel to the past, but not the future. (I guess returning to the present from the past isn't the same thing?) So he's been talking to ancient predictors of the future, an astrologer in Egypt, a Greek oracle & Nostradamus to learn their methods of seeing the future so he can travel into the future. The first 2 were a bust (well, duh), but Nostradamus had a mathematical formula that he used & Tiko was able to adapt it for his machine.
Yeah, right, surrrrrrrrrrrrre...
Strategy For Survival Original publication not listed Reprinted in DC Special #S-25
This was a one-page text story.
"That Ace was a daredevil. He'd risk his own life, but Prof didn't want his own imperiled."
Maybe he should have thought of that before he became a Challenger of the Unknown. You know, one of those guys who got a second chance at life so they risk it to help others.
To Doomsday And Beyond! Super-Team Family #9
That title sounds like something Buzz Lightyear might say. ;-) Surprisingly the title is not a nit as there is a doomsday.
Page 13, Panel 5. It's supposed to be Prof punching the robot, but it looks more like Red Ryan.
Team Talk Super-Team Family #9
The editor, I guess, was discussing the history of people who worked with the Challs & said that June Robbins never wore the Challenger uniform. Obviously he never read The Man Who Stole The Future where she and a friend wore Challenger uniforms.
Multi-Man Rules The World! Super-Team Family #10
Maybe a nit, maybe not. In the first Multi-Man story when doused with the solution to the Liquid Light formula Multi-Man reverts to being powerless Duncan Pramble. In this story we find out that the last time Multi-Man was captured he was placed in the Challenger's Island prison. So why didn't the Challs douse Multi-Man with the solution & revert him to Duncan Pramble again? Why leave him in his hypercephalic genius form?
Caption reads, "Multi-Man, whose amazing change-formula allows him to take a new form for every crime he commits!"
Uh, no. The Liquid Light formula was created by a long dead alchemist and it only gives him a new form when he dies.
Soooooooo, the Challengers have an island in the Pacific where they keep the villains they have fought prisoner? Hmmmmm...
At the beginning of the story a nuclear bomb was detonated on an island, Multi-Man appeared giant-sized to say nothing could harm him now, then a short time later he threatens to destroy Los Angeles, so the Challs fly to the island that the bomb was exploded on & Ace announces that the radiation level's safe.
Huh? What kind of nuclear bomb was that? Or did he just mean it was safe for the suits Red & Rocky were wearing?
Page 9, Panel 5. One of the Challs says, "There wasn't a trace of Multi-Man!--But somehow I have a feeling really was there and really survived that blast!"
First off there seems to be a missing 'he' between Feeling & Really.
Second, the previous two panels had Rocky & Red talking about possibility that it wasn't Multi-Man on the island, but a projection. So if there is no evidence Multi-Man was there, why does he think he might have been?
In the Team Talk for Super-Team Family #9 they gave the history of those who have worked with the Challs. One of them was Gaylord Clayburne who was said to have been voted in to be a Challenger, but who turned it down. Here Clayburne shows up & says that it was the Challs who turned him down. So which is it?
Multi-Man's Master Plan Challengers Of The Unknown #81
NNAN. Okay the Challs run in Super-Team Family was greeted so enthusiastically that DC decided to revive their book, but for some odd reason, rather than letting Steve Skeates, who had been writing the Challs, continue as writer they turn it over to Gerry Conway. Halfway through the Multi-Man storyline even.
The flashback to Super-Team Family #10 shows Multi-Man's knockout device over his glove, whereas last issue he removed his glove to use it. (I suspect the colorist didn't realize the glove was supposed to be off at that point & just colored the hand red.)
Multi-Man is giant-sized, holding Rocky & the device he will use to detonate a nuclear reactor in Denver (they stopped him at Los Angeles). Rocky sees the Challs plane coming up from behind and he kicks Multi-Man in the face, then at Multi-Man's lair, Prof disables the device that's giving Multi-Man the powers to teleport, grow to giant size & turn intangible, & Multi-Man starts to shrink, but the caption says that Ace doesn't have enough time to turn away and strikes Multi-Man with the plane.
Okay, if he doesn't have time to turn away from the shrinking Multi-Man how would he have had enough time to turn from the giant-size Multi-Man? I think Ace intended to hit him with the plane.
Not a nit here, but Post-Crisis when Multi-Man is reused they draw him in the hypercephalic, bad fashion sense that he appears in Super-Team Family #10 & the beginning of this issue (& presumably the last time the Challs had fought him before this storyline). However since Multi-Man dies here & is reborn in his original appearance he shouldn't look like that anymore.
Then again since it's post-Crisis they could just say this story never happened.
An interesting thing about the Challs is how different writers seem to enjoy hooking June up with different Challs.
Steve Skeates had Ace be jealous when he thought June was dating Clayburne.
Gerry Conway had June be interested in Rocky & had Red be jealous.
Ron Goulart (in a Challs novel) had June & Prof together.
Honorary member? Sounds more like team bike.
Challengers Of The Unknown #81
In a caption & a computer printout the setting for the next storyline is identified as Perdition, Massachusetts, when it is supposed to be in Pennsylvania. The next issue cutely anti-nits the computer readout with the comment, "So the computer has a bug!", but that doesn't anti-nit the caption.
Challengers Of The Unknown #81-83
The spelling of the villain keeps changing from M,Nagalah to M'Nagalah to M'Nagala throughout the issues. Not having Swamp Thing #8 I don't know which is the correct spelling.
Seven Doorways To Destiny! Challengers Of The Unknown #83
This starts of replaying the last scene of the previous issue. It changes some of the wording, but also last issue it said that the Challs had no choice but to agree to Dr. Monroe's demands, but this issue they decide to fight instead.
Despite saying twice that June would die if the Challs didn't agree, Dr. Monroe decides not to kill June.
Last issue the battle between Swamp Thing & M'Nagala (Swamp Thing #8) was said to have happened months ago. This issue that incident was said to have happened in 1974 & that Swamp Thing hasn't been seen since 1976 (this issue came out in 1977).
Usually when someone says something happened months ago they mean less than a year.
Clayburne's brown hair is now black.
Page 9, Panel 3. The caption describes the jet as "designed much like a new NASA space shuttle".
Well if the artist actually based it on a NASA design it certainly wasn't the winning design for the space shuttle.
NNANJAO. The Prof's first name is given here as Mark. I don't know if the Prof had ever been given a first name before this or not. IIRC in Ron Goulart's novel Challengers Of The Unknown he said the Prof's first name was Irwin. When some TV hacks later did a (post-Crisis) Challs comic book mini-series they called him Walter.
Swamp Thing's thought balloons are simply white rather than their usual yellow. Then again Alec Holland recently switched back to being Swamp Thing so maybe he isn't having as much trouble thinking yet?
To Save A Monster Challengers Of The Unknown #84
Okay, Prof is still suffering from M'Nagala's fungoid poisoning & the Challs are unable to cure him so Deadman enters his body and somehow causes the fungoid to die off. Holy Dues ex Deadman! I think Gerry Conway just gave up on trying to find a believable way out!
The events of Swamp Thing #1 are said to have happened months ago.
Why is Duncan Pramble in an insane asylum? He was a superpowered crook, not a lunatic. He should have been locked up in a jail.
The Creature From The End Of Time! Challengers Of The Unknown #85
Prof runs a carbon-14 test on the creature and gets a negative number.
Sorry, it doesn't work that way. The test is a measurement of how much carbon-14 the organic object has & from that you can calculate how long it's been since it was alive. Also the test is limited to IIRC hundreds, maybe thousands of years, at which point no more carbon-14 is to be found. There is no way the Prof can determine that the creature is from 12 million years in the future based on carbon-14 since he could only use the test to figure out how long the creature has been dead & since it's only a couple of hours dead the test wouldn't show anything anyway.
Rip Hunter is said to be missing for 10 years.
*gasp!* Not for months??? Funny how a character who was created after the Challs now precedes them.
Prof describes Hunter's exploits, "Battling prehistoric beasts in the Mesozoic Period--Cavemen a million years later".
More like 65 million years later, Prof.
How does Prof know so much about Rip Hunter and his exploits anyway?
The War At Times End Challengers Of The Unknown #86
Letterer forgot to put the apostrophe between the E & the S in Times.
Swamp Thing's thought balloons are white edged in orange.
Twelve Million Years To Twilight Challengers Of The Unknown #87
Swamp Thing's thought & speech balloons now white edged in green.
Page 6, Panel 3. Red's skin is white.
Me - Ron Goulart (in a Challs novel) had June & Prof together.
I misremembered. Prof hit on June, but it was implied she might have a thing for Rocky.
IIRC in Ron Goulart's novel Challengers Of The Unknown he said the Prof's first name was Irwin.
Finally found & reread that book. Nope. Ron Goulart did not give Prof Haley a first name.
Secret Of The Sorcerer's Box Showcase Comics #6 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
NNANJAO. Rocky is called Rod.
Hair color is pretty much the only thing that identifies the speaker as Rocky, so maybe it was supposed to be Red, but mistyped? Or maybe Rocky’s real name is Rod?
Me - DC Special #S-25
The splash page for the issue lists Prof Haley as Prof Hale. Not knowing where or when this splash page was originally published I'm not sure if the splash page is incorrect or the usual name of the character is.
The splash page first appeared in Challengers Of The Unknown #1, but according to the reprint in Showcase Presents Challengers Of The Unknown it did read Prof Haley, so presumably something happened when it was reprinted in DC Special #S-25.
All stories reprinted in Showcase Presents Challengers Of The Unknown
Table Of Contents
For one story they credit Ed Herran, but I wonder if that's just a typo of Ed Herron, who's credited with other stories.
Ultivac Is Loose! Showcase #7
In this story Prof Haley is named Prof Harrison.
Ultivac can read minds, but his creator, Felix Hesse, is able to build a gun that can stop him. & at the end of the story Hesse is able to destroy* him despite Ultivac being on the lookout for treachery.
Errr..., what about that mind-reading ability?
Red says, "I hear Hesse got a stiff sentence for damaging Ultivac!"
Excuse me???
Since when is it a crime to damage your own property? There might be other criminal charges the government might bring against Hesse, but damaging his own creation & personal property???
* Technically Ultivac wasn't completely destroyed, only his mind/soul/personality, the mechanical part of 'him' was damaged, but still functioned as a calculator.
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Showcase #11
The Day The Earth Blew Up
Reprints the intro from Showcase #7 so Prof Haley is still Harrison.
Prof finds a living trilobite off the New Guinea coast.
While there are some vague similarities to a trilobite I have to wonder if Jack Kirby even bothered with any reference material at all.
True 220 million years of evolution may have resulted in strange changes, but I find it hard to believe that trilobite legs would become soft, flexible extensions that just hang off the side of the body.
Despite the great scientific advances of the Tyrans, the base is just blown up by bombers.
So what's to keep the Tyrans from trying to conquer Earth again?
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Challengers Of The Unknown #1
Cover is missing issue number.
The Man Who Tampered With Infinity
June Robbins becomes June Walker with this story.
Okayyyyyy, the Challs capture Tagorian's men then have June guard them with a rifle while Tagorian works the machine to send the Challs after the creatures he let loose.
Yep, one person keeping an eye on three people who are not tied up or locked up in any way. Yeahhhhhhhhhh...
NNANJAT. Tagorian's teleporter is damaged in the fight at the end, however since Tagorian is still alive & in government custody you'd think he could still make another transporter for the government.
The Human Pets
Page 6, Panel 4. The caption reads, "the cage falls over, its cover loosed by the impact!"
Except the actual picture shows the glasslike wall of the cage broken open.
The alien child who captured the Challs has two parents who appear to be male & female.
NNAN given all the more human-looking aliens in the DC universe, but if you're gonna try & make them look alien why give the alien female an hourglass figure?
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The Monster Maker Challengers Of The Unknown #2
Page 2, Panel 1. Someone says, "Keel cool!"
I think they meant 'Keep cool' given the context.
Page 7, Panel 3. "Perhaps le treatment"
Given the space in front & the context it seems to be a printing error that cut off the T & most of the H.
NANJ a funny bit of dialogue. Rocky says, "He won't listen to reason! Look... he--he's thinking!"
LOL!
Okay in the story the villain can mentally create things by concentrating, but even in context that just sounds ridiculous.
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The Secret Of The Sorcerer's Mirror Challengers Of The Unknown #3
Kregon the sorcerer, who lived in the Middle Ages, created a mirror that would give anyone who used it the location of secrets buried by ancients sorcerers. Surprisingly the mirror gives longitude & latitude coordinates.
I thought one of those (longitude?) was not created until the 18th century or something?
The Menace Of The Invincible Challenger
Scientists have found an extraterrestial substance that can give test subjects invulnerability to extreme conditions. When they got to human testing they were planning to give it to a man & launch him into space.
Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the subject on Earth so you can see if it worked?
NANJAO. Rocky is launched into space & when he comes back he has Fantastic powers. Hmmm..., why does that seem familiar? ;-)
While I like the Challs this collection has some oddly repetitive elements. True lots of series repeat things, but for some reason it just stands out more to me here than with other series.
The first thing was when in back-to-back issues the Challs faced enemies who both had independently invented teleporters. Also the number of stories that feature items created by ancient sorcerers that give people powers. Stuff like that. It's almost like they have a dartboard of various elements to use in various stories & they just go with the dart's choice rather than thinking it out.
This was more prevalent in the early stories though.
All stories reprinted in Showcase Presents Challengers Of The Unknown
The Riddle Of The Star-Stone Challengers Of The Unknown #5
June is back to being June Robbins.
Okayyyyyyyy, a star stone fell from the sky long ago, a sorcerer discovered four niches in it & determined that four stones fit into each niche & that if a stone is placed in that when the stars are just right the person will gain a temporary power, except for the fourth stone which will give the person permanent power.
Man them ancient sorcerers was geniuses...
The contrivance of that almost requires another Roy Thomas-style story explaining it.
Fire Opal from the Sleeping Volcano will give a person fire powers.
Uh, yeahhhhhh...
Oddly enough one of the stones is over in India, while 2 appear to be in the South/Latin America region (along with the star-stone itself). Not sure where the Bay of Sharks is supposed to be.
Red calls Prof a "fly-boy".
Wouldn't that be more fitting for Ace who is a pilot?
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The Beasts From Planet 9 Challengers Of The Unknown #7
Are the beasts really from Planet 9? Yeah the aliens are from Planet 9, but since they were transporting these beasts through space it would seem more likely they had been captured on other planets.
The aliens say they "are from Planet 9 -- the most distant from our sun!"
What an odd way to refer to your planet. It'd be like a Human saying, "Hi, I am from Planet 3!"
Prof assumes they mean Pluto, although that's never confirmed. However given the extreme cold of Pluto it seems unlikely a native of it could be standing on Earth unprotected.
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The Prisoners Of Robot Planet Challengers Of The Unknown #8
Opening caption says, "Out there, a billion miles away, is a planet ruled by iron masters!"
That would seem to place it within our own solar system, which does match the statement that an Earth rocket exploding near our moon created a radiation which caused the robots on Zuna to rebel & take over. However when the Challs are being transported to Zuna there is a statement that images of suns race past, indicating that it is several star systems away.
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The Men Who Lost Their Memories! Challengers Of The Unknown #9
Dekkar has used a machine to steal the memories of the Challs. He then plays a copy of their memories to watch their past adventures.
All four of the Challengers are visible in the playbacks.
The Kraken looks different here than it did in Showcase #12. Also it shows all four Challs fighting it, when in the actual story 2 were on the boat it attacked, the 2 were picked up by the other 2 in a seaplane.
The great stone giant looks very different from the one they faced in Showcase #6. That one looked more like a Greek or Trojan warrior this one looks more like an Aztec.
The Plot To Destroy Earth!
An alien spacecraft orbits Earth & releases giant animals, so the government summons the Challs.
So where was Superman? Did Jimmy Olsen sprain his ankle & Supes couldn't leave his side to investigate?
(Okay, at the time this story was written the Challs were treated like they existed in their own separate continuity, but later stories placed them in the normal DC Universe.)
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The Four Faces Of Doom Challengers Of The Unknown #10
The Challs are somehow sent back in time to a scientifically advanced civilization where their faces are carved in stone as traitors.
How the Challs got sent through time is never explained.
Their missing memory of the first time they got sent back is pure supposition.
Also never explained is how the Challs can understand the civilization's language.
Under the carved faces is an engraving in English.
All stories reprinted in Showcase Presents Challengers Of The Unknown
Challengers Of The Unknown #11
Cover missing issue number.
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The Challenger From Outer Space Challengers Of The Unknown #12
Prof is stuck into an alien healing tube & S'ntaga is surprised when he gains invunerability, but at the end of the story the Challs ask S'ntaga if Prof will keep his powers & S'ntaga says they will wear off.
Okayyyyyyyy, S'ntaga was surprised that Prof gained powers, but he knows they will wear off??? How?
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The Prisoner Of the Tiny Space Ball Challengers Of The Unknown #13
Zanna, leader of Ak-Sel, had been shrunk down & stuck in suspended animation in a satellite which got knocked out of orbit by a meteor & sent to Earth.
1. In space it's called a meteoroid, it's called a meteor when it's in an atmosphere.
2. How fast was that 'meteor' travelling to knock a satellite who knows how many light years to Earth in the short amount of time shown?
Challs agree to help put Zanna back on the throne after hearing their story.
A trusting lot these Challengers, for all they knew the story could have been a lie.
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The Incredible Metal Creature Challengers Of The Unknown #16
Thark refers to his world simply as, "the world of twin suns".
Yeah, that narrows it down.
Me - Super-Team Family #10
Maybe a nit, maybe not. In the first Multi-Man story when doused with the solution to the Liquid Light formula Multi-Man reverts to being powerless Duncan Pramble. In this story we find out that the last time Multi-Man was captured he was placed in the Challenger's Island prison. So why didn't the Challs douse Multi-Man with the solution & revert him to Duncan Pramble again? Why leave him in his hypercephalic genius form?
Because in Challengers Of The Unknown #15 Multi-Man changed to that form which he believed to be his last since he no longer had the tingle that told him he had another life waiting & the Challengers had run out of antidote to turn him back to normal.
Of course in Challengers Of The Unknown #81 they douse him with an antidote & turn him back to normal & we find out in Challengers Of The Unknown #84 that Multi-Man did gain a new power it just took him a while to figure it out.
All stories reprinted in Showcase Presents Challengers Of The Unknown Volume 2
The Alien Who Stole A Planet Challengers Of The Unknown #19
Well, not the actual planet per se, but the people & animals who had been reduced to magnetic tape.
The aliens come from a far planet in the galaxy whose sun was about to explode & destroy the planet, since there were not enough spacecraft to take the whole population, but they did have the ability to turn matter to energy & record it on magnetic tape, they reduced the people, some items & animals to that form & carry it on one ship to find a new planet to live on. (They stopped on Earth to repair some damage to the ship.)
1. How long have they been searching if they are now on the far side of the galaxy from where they started?
2. Why not make copies of those tapes & put it on a second ship as a backup?
The Thing In Challenger Mountain Challengers Of The Unknown #22
The Challs return to Challenger Mountain to find a giant monster & it's alien master in their HQ.
Where the heck is Cosmo, the alien pet the Challs acquired in issue 18?
The Challengers Die At Dawn Challengers Of The Unknown #24
This story starts with the Challs flying to southeast Asia to find a charity swindler.
Errrr... wait a minute, when did the Challs become policemen/bounty hunters? Yeah, there were earlier stories where they captured crooks, but that was usually because they encountered them during an adventure. I don't actually recall them being assigned to capture a crook unless it was an old enemy or there was something unusual about the robbery.
Prof, Red & Rocky accidentally break a tribal taboo & are sentenced to death. Prof demands, "the right of all captives under your tribal code... trial by combat!" The chief answers, "So you know of our custom! Then I must grant your wish!"
Sooooooo, because Prof knew tribal law the chief was forced to follow tribal law? ;-)
Multi-Man, Master Of Earth!
Ace says, "And if he can fly to the moon, he can threaten to do the same to Earth to make it surrender!"
Well, Multi-Man's already on Earth so he doesn't need to fly there, but even so, just flying isn't a threat. ;-) (Okay the threat would be his ability to blast the moon with energy, but Ace didn't say that. The writer should have cleaned up that clunky speech.)
Return Of The Invincible Pharaoh Challengers Of The Unknown #25
Grungy Nitpicking. The cover calls it, "Return of the Mighty Pharaoh".
NANJAO. The villain, Torbert, calls himself Immortal Man a name that would be re-used a few years later for a hero.
NANJAO. Pharaoh Tut Aba's immortality solution made me wonder if there was a connection to General Immortus from the Doom Patrol series. Also I believe it's been stated that the immortal villain Vandal Savage was an Egyptian pharaoh, for part of his life, as well.
Tut Aba comes out of his sarcophagus in one piece, unlike real mummies who usually had their internal organs removed.
Okayyyyy, legend says that Tut Aba was working on a potion to save his queen that would give life & that he succeeded just before an explosion killed him. The story seems to indicate that this is the life liquid that Torbert used to become impervious to harm.
The life liquid makes someone invincible & both Immortal Man & the revived Tut Aba are.
However Tut Aba was killed 5000 years ago & stayed in a death-like state for all that time.
When revived Tut Aba glows, Torbert never did.
The life liquid that Torbert used had to be retaken every quarter moon, Tut Aba, presumably, didn't take any for 5000 years.
The chemical Tut Aba created to save his queen supposedly exploded in the fireplace, so how could there be any legends about it granting immortality or needing to be retaken every quarter-moon?
If the writer intended this to be the same liquid he didn't think it out very well, if it was supposed to be two different liquids he wasn't very clear about that.
Captives Of The Alien Hunter
Ace says the alien communicates through mental images.
However the writer simply writes a translation of what the alien says rather than actually using images to communicate. Probably because it would be tough to communicate what he's saying through pictures alone.
The alien, Kubagy, is searching for the element he calls bura-x.
If the alien communicates in mental images, how would June know these names?
The Challengers try to get their alien pet, Cosmo, to locate Kubagy like he did before, but he can't & the Challs assume Kubagy's ray erased the brain pattern of himself from Cosmo's memory. (The Challs assume he tracks brain patterns.) Now Ace wonders how they are going to track the alien who has kidnapped June.
... you're kidding, right Ace? Geeeeee... how could Cosmo track the alien who has kidnapped June, whom Cosmo has known ever since he came to Earth. I mean, it's not like June has a brain that Cosmo can track. *rolls eyes* Oddly enough the Challs never do come to the obvious conclusion & instead figure out where the alien will strike next.
The Secret Of The Space Spectaculars Challengers Of The Unknown #26
Kandu a magician who has been touring with a one-man space spectaculars show is really an alien policeman searching for three pods planted by space criminals which will hatch deadly beasts.
Uhhhhhhh... yeahhhhhh... I'm not sure why he assumed that touring as a magician would be less suspicious then simply pretending to be a geologist or something. Maybe he secretly wanted to be a performer & deluded himself into thinking this would be the best option?
Kandu's real face is bigger than the face mask he wears.
I wonder if he hired an Earthling to book him in the places where he needed to search or what?
The 1,001 Impossible Inventions Challengers Of The Unknown #27
More like 7, but who's counting?
Two crooks shrink an armored car & it's contents, which you'd think would include the guards, load it onto a truck, take it back to the hideout & return it to normal size.
1. The Compact Ray must lighten the things it shrinks or Gates & Lowther have super-strength.
2. We don't see the guards that would be in the armored truck, so did Gates & Lowther kill them, or are they still shrunk by story's end?
The Revolt Of The Terrible FX-1 Challengers Of The Unknown #28
Okayyyy... Rocky & Red have been blinded, while Ace & Prof are unable to use their legs, so Ace sits on Rocky's shoulders & Prof sits on Red's shoulders so they can see & move around.
NNAN but they'd be more sturdy if the sighted members rode on the backs of the blinded members rather than the shoulders.
Four Roads To Doomsday Challengers Of The Unknown #29
Ace & Rocky can't destroy the alien device at the south pole, so they take it far away & drop it in a crevice, then they melt the surrounding ice to seal it in.
This device was supposed to generate enough heat to melt half the ice cap, how is freezing it in a block of ice supposed to stop it?
Okayyyyy... the Challs are told by an alien that criminal aliens have planted four devices on Earth that could destroy Earth: a machine in the Marianas Trench that will cause enormous oceanic vibrations & eruptions; a machine on top of Mount Everest that will absorb sunlight & black out & freeze that part of the Earth; a machine in Antarctica that will generate intense heat, flooding the world and a machine in the Sahara that will cause intense heat that will create whirlwinds that will bury the Mediterranean in sand. The twist is that these devices were actually left by some space police who knew the alien crooks were heading for Earth's solar system & the devices really generate a force shield around Earth to keep the alien crooks out until the space police can catch them.
So why did one device need to be put in the Marianas Trench? Wouldn't it make more sense to put all the devices on mountain tops, or even in orbit?
Also aliens could easily blackmail Earth into surrendering by grabbing asteroids & shooting them at the Earth.
It's rather amusing that the space police can't stay on Earth because they don't know which planet in our solar system the crooks plan to blackmail.
*snicker* Yeahhhh... I guess the writers of that time still believed life on the other planets in our solar system was possible.
Multi-Man... Villain Turned Hero Challengers Of The Unknown #30
When last seen Multi-Man ended up getting amnesia. This issue the doctor treating him asks the Challs to tell him more about him. Ace says, "We first met Multi-Man shortly after he discovered the ancient potion that gave him the power to change his form!"
While that's technically true, Duncan Pramble didn't become Multi-Man until after he drank the Liquid Light potion, you did meet him as an ordinary human before he took the potion.
Some native villages are in danger of a mountain lake flooding from too much snow melt. Multi-Man devises a series of balloons & lenses over the lake to evaporate the excess water away.
Wouldn't a better solution have been a pumping station to drain away the excess water, or even just create a channel where the overflow could pour down at a location where there are no houses?
One Challenger Must Die! Challengers Of The Unknown #32
In issue 27 the Challs faced Volcano Men, this issue they discover evidence that the Volcano Men are active again. While discussing how to stop them Ace mentions that water didn't stop them & explosives only split them in two, Prof mentions CO2 being effective against them, Ace responds that the CO2 pained them, but that's all & wants to try liquid oxygen this time. This disagreement actually splits the Challs for no good reason.
1. There's no reason they couldn't try both techniques.
2. There were actually two types of Volcano Men in that story. The artificial ones brought to life by Dr. Gruner (immune to water, split when exploded, pained by CO2 fire extinguishers) & the real Volcano Man who they only tried the CO2 against & was immune to it.
3. The reason for the disagreement was that each realized a dangerous flaw in the other's plan, but didn't want to say it out loud, which is a dumb reason, since discussing the flaws can help you overcome them.
This time Prof wears a protective heat suit while facing Volcano Man in the open but the heat is too much for him. Which is odd considering that last time he faced Volcano Man was without a heat suit inside a volcano next to a lava pool.
Prof tries the CO2, but the heat of Volcano Man bakes the foam to a solid.
Combining their techniques, the LOX cools the air enough so the CO2 reaches Volcano Man which then bakes into a shell cutting off the oxygen from Volcano Man destroying this one.
Wait... a creature that lives underground in molten magma can be stopped but cutting it off from oxygen???
The Challengers Meet Their Master! Challengers Of The Unknown #33
Master criminal Jacquard has an electric suit that creates a high voltage web that surrounds him.
I got that far, stopped & thought for a few seconds & wondered, "Why don't they just shoot a stream of water at him with a high-pressure hose?" I laughed when Prof's plan was to splash Jacquard with a liquid (but he had to get up close.) At the end they used a sprinkler system.
Multi-Woman, Queen Of Disaster Challengers Of The Unknown #34
Multi-Man changed into a giant & stands up from the sea and we see his cape flap as if the breeze caught it.
Given that it should be soaking wet & really heavy, I'd imagine it would take a very, very, very strong breeze to do that.
On the one hand the writing of Multi-Woman is rather sexist. On the other hand, she is a robot created by an arrogant villain who doesn't think any living woman would be good enough for him, sooooo...
The War Against The Moon Beast Challengers Of The Unknown #35
The cover has the T missing from Throat.
Dr. Warner describes his laser "gun", "concentrated light! It gains its power the way a garden hose does when you increase the pressure of the flow of water!"
Don't recall hearing a laser described that way before.
A creature from the moon is flying towards Earth so the military fires an a-bomb at it to destroy it. When it survives the a-bomb they alert the world to this menace to Earth.
Uuuuum... how could they determine the thing was a threat to Earth when all they had was a detector that showed it approaching Earth?
One of the Challs is wondering about the reason behind the moon beast's actions & Rocky says, "Why does it have to have a reason? Does a mad dog need one?"
Well, the mad dog doesn't need one in the sense of justifying its own actions to itself, but a reason for its behavior usually does exist.
The Giant In Challenger Mountain Challengers Of The Unknown #36
The cover gives the title as "THE GIANT IN CHALLENGEI MOUNTAIN!".
Looks like most of the R got cut off somehow.
That is some radio Rocky's wearing. He gets knocked into a stream, sinks to the bottom, but when he's brought out, it's still playing.
Okayyyy... Rocky kept turning into a giant, because some multi-colored water in the stream he fell into earlier got into his bloodstream because of a cut he had. The multi-colored water was caused by a rock that they believed had come from outer space. To get rid of it they dump the rock into the Marianas Trench.
1. Amazingly Rocky didn't swallow any of the water when he went into the stream.
2. The stream was within the Azul Caverns, so if the rock did come from space it came a very, very long time ago.
3. This rock, plus water caused a bad reaction. Does it really make sense to dump it into water to dispose of it?
The Last Days Of The Challengers Challengers Of The Unknown #37
Ace & Red go to a nearby air force base and ask a captain if they can fly the plane he's about to use to bomb a robot. He points out it's against regulations, but they mention that the robots* killed two of them & they're next so they want to take it out & the captain agrees.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute! Wouldn't it still be against regulations? Wouldn't they need the permission of the guy in charge of the air force base? Don't they have their own planes?
*Not technically incorrect. The robot that is about to be bombed was originally two separate robots that combined into one.