CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN: EARLY ADVENTURES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at DC’s team of adventurers called the Challengers of the Unknown.

SHOWCASE Vol 1 #6 (Feb 1957)

Title: The Secret of the Sorcerer’s Box

Villains: Morelian and creatures from Pandora’s Box

Synopsis: In this origin story, wrestling champion Rocky Davis, scuba diving marine biologist Professor Walter Haley, war veteran jet pilot Ace Morgan and circus daredevil Red Ryan miraculously survive a plane crash. Deciding that the odds of them surviving were so low they consider themselves living on borrowed time. They devote themselves to challenging the unknown.

After attracting publicity over some minor escapades, the Challengers of the Unknown are hired by millionaire Mr. Morelian to open Pandora’s Box and survive. Our heroes take the box to a remote desert island and open the relic.

The Challengers defeat the menaces unleashed by Pandora’s Box – a giant lizard, a miniature sun, a giant stone warrior and more. With the dangers eliminated, Morelian steals the ring he wanted from the box and flees, only to die when his escape craft crashes.

SHOWCASE Vol 1 #7 (Apr 1957)

Title: Ultivac is Loose

Villains: Ultivac and Felex Hesse

Synopsis: The Challengers of the Uknown are hired by Nazi War Criminal Felex Hesse to protect him from his rebellious android Ultivac, which he created as part of a plan to take over the world. Ultivac attacks our heroes and Hesse. The Challengers are defeated and Hesse is abducted.

Our four main characters turn to female scientist June Robbins (in her first appearance) for help. She is able to locate Ultivac for them but the android has spitefully turned Felex Hesse’s plan around on him – as Hesse planned on using an army of Ultivac androids to conquer the world, Ultivac has made an army of Hesse androids to conquer the world.

The Challengers defeat Ultivac and his army, but the android has fallen for June Robbins. She and the others succeed in reasoning with Ultivac to coexist with humanity. Hesse, furious that now he can’t use Ultivac in his evil plans, destroys the now-pacifist robot, then is captured and taken away.   

SHOWCASE Vol 1 #11 (Dec 1957)

Title: The Day the Earth Blew Up

Villains: The Tyrans

Synopsis: The Challengers of the Unknown are hired to investigate strange occurrences at a military base in the Arctic. Eventually, they learn that an alien spaceship has landed in the area and wind up being held prisoner by the extraterrestrials – a race called the Tyrans.

The Tyrans are planning to use their advanced science to reverse Earth’s gravity, expelling all living creatures and much else into space then resettling our planet with their race. The Challengers manage to escape and warn the U.S. military about the aliens.

Our heroes then lead a Top Secret military campaign near the North Pole to fight the Tyrans. The aliens are defeated and are also stopped before they can blow up the world since they have been prevented from resettling it.

SHOWCASE Vol 1 #12 (Feb 1958)

Title: Menace of the Ancient Vials

Villain: Karnak

Synopsis: The Challengers and Karnak – an international criminal they’ve been hired to capture – all wind up together on an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. An archeologist there has discovered ancient vials containing mystic powers from a lost civilization.

Karnak steals the vials and uses the powers they give him to grow into a giant to attack the Challengers of the Unknown. They defeat the giant Karnak and then an army of duplicate Karnaks.

When Karnak summons an enormous Kraken, our heroes must defeat it, too.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #1 (May 1958)

Story 1: The Human Pets – When a spaceship lands in a field out west, the Challengers are hired to investigate it. They wind up trapped inside it and whisked away to the home planet of the alien race which built the spacecraft.

Everyone on that alien world is gigantic and a giant child treats our heroes like playthings until his parents catch him. They make him return the Challengers of the Unknown safely to Earth.

Story 2: The Man Who Tampered with Infinity – June Robbins rejoins the team as the government hires them to stop a series of mysterious robberies at laboratories around the country. It turns out a gang of thieves who can teleport away with things are responsible.

In the resulting struggle, our heroes all get teleported with the thieves to the hidden mountain base of their leader – the evil scientist Olan Tagorian. Doing a Villain Rant, Tagorian lets the Challengers know that he has created an army of mutated monsters with the stolen technology.

Our heroes defeat Olan and his men and take him into custody. They then round up his unleashed creatures as they run amok in the country. 

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #2 (Jul 1958)

Story 1: The Traitorous Challenger – When the Challengers are hired by a prospector to drive a deadly subterranean creature out of his mine, our heroes beard it in its den. They mistakenly think June is sabotaging their mission but she is actually giving sound advice and saves the day in the end.

Story 2: The Monster Maker – The Challengers of the Unknown are hired to capture the Asian supervillain called Roc. They find him on a private island where he has forced a captive scientist to give him the ability to create thought-monsters that materialize in the real world.

After Roc and his monsters defeat and capture the Challengers, the captive scientist manages to use his invention which gave Roc his powers on Ace. Ace and Roc pit their armies of thought-creations against each other, with Ace winning. Roc and Ace’s powers are removed and the device then blows up.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #3 (Sep 1958)

Story 1: Secret of the Sorcerer’s Mirror – The Challengers fail to stop the Microft Gang from stealing an ancient sorcerer’s mirror from a museum. They must then follow the villains around the world as they gather other relics that the mirror leads them to.

The Microft Gang outdo our heroes in every clash and assemble all the relics needed to take over the world. But Red managed to steal one of the relics and replace it with a phony, so the mystic weapon doesn’t work. The Challengers defeat the gang and turn them in.

Story 2: Menace of the Invincible Challenger – When Rocky flies an experimental rocket into space, he gets exposed to cosmic rays which grant him superpowers but drive him crazy. Those powers? The ability to shoot flames, turn invisible and others. Hmmmm. The writer and artist was JACK KIRBY!

At any rate, the other four Challengers clash with Rocky and eventually manage to cure him. He loses his superpowers but regains his sanity. 

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #4 (Nov 1958)

Title: The Wizard of Time

Villain: The Time Wizard

NOTE: Back to just one story per issue.

Synopsis: When a Greek soldier from the past steals an airplane and other 20th Century items, the Challengers of the Unknown are called in. They learn that the Greek man was plucked from his proper era by Darius Tiku, a criminal from the future who is traveling through time in his Time Cube causing chaos.

Tiku, the Wizard of Time, tells our heroes he gave the technology he stole to people in ancient Greece and ancient Egypt, then flees in his Time Cube. Using the other Time Cube that Darius invented, the Challengers destroy the tech back in ancient Greece and Egypt to prevent history from being altered.

Following the Time Wizard into the future, the team is no match for his advanced technology but the law enforcers of the future save our heroes and send them back to their proper time period. And yes, Darius dresses like Immortus and messed with ancient Egypt like Kang the Conqueror. And AGAIN the writer and artist was Jack Kirby.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #5 (Jan 1959)

Title: The Riddle of the Star-Stone

Villain: Vreedl

Synopsis: Our Fantastic Five (as it were) are hired to thwart a super-powered criminal named Vreedl. The villain used to be an assistant to Professor Brandon, an archeologist.

Vreedl stole Brandon’s latest discovery – an ancient gem called the Star-Stone because it was believed to fall from the sky long ago and landed in a Middle East kingdom. The stone has granted Vreedl super-powers and, from the tomb where Professor Brandon found it, he knows that there are other Star-Stones that landed on Earth long ago.

The Challengers clash with Vreedl at various sites around the world, but he beats them each time and finally assembles all the Star-Stones, making him seemingly unstoppable. Ace outsmarts Vreedl and the Star-Stones get destroyed and Vreedl himself arrested.   

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #6 (Mar 1959)

Story 1: Captives of the Space Circus – The Challengers respond to an SOS from a ship in distress. It turns out to be a trap set by aliens and our heroes are whisked into space to become the latest attractions in an intergalactic circus.

The team is forced to fight alien creatures but eventually escape. They free the other captives and lead a takeover of the spaceship housing the circus. The Ringmaster and his forces are beaten, he is turned over to intergalactic authorities and the Challengers are returned to Earth.

Story 2: The Sorceress of the Forbidden Valley – During a cavern expedition, June becomes possessed by a magic lamp, then manipulated into being a sorceress by fugitive criminal Charles Agar. Through her lamp-bestowed powers he conquers a long-lost hidden city, but the other Challengers find the place.

June is brought back to normal and the inhabitants of the hidden city are freed from Agar’s dictatorship. The Challengers head home and June throws the magic lamp into the middle of the ocean.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #7 (May 1959)

Story 1: The Beasts from Planet 9 – The Challengers of the Unknown are called in to deal with three rampaging kaiju-sized monsters from outer space. One is an enormous armadillo-type creature, the second is a gigantic jellyfish and the last one is a huge fire-breathing bird-beast.

The team manages to capture each of the creatures, following which a spaceship from the home planet of the monsters arrives. The aliens thank the Challengers for capturing their escaped beasts and take them back home.

Story 2: The Isle of No Return – The Challengers are hired to stop the crime spree of Anton Zammer, who is committing incredible robberies via the advanced technology of the late Professor Macon. When the team raids his base, they are shrunk down to just inches tall and imprisoned.

Zammer gets the hots for June and his attempt to woo her enables our heroes to escape, return to normal size and use some of Professor Macon’s other inventions to defeat the villain.   

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #8 (Jul 1959)

Story 1: The Man Who Stole the Future – Marie, a friend of June, has inherited a castle in the fictional nation of Mordania. The Challengers of the Unknown accompany her there to investigate the castle when Marie shows them drawings of the relics in the castle’s lower levels.

While our heroes inspect the relics themselves, an alchemist named Drabny emerges from hiding and steals the items, which grant him assorted powers. Drabny defeats the Challengers, forms a rebel army and wages war to conquer Mordania. The team escapes and helps the Mordanian army defeat Drabny.

Story 2: Prisoners of the Robot Planet – A friendly alien named Juhl covertly meets with the Challengers by using his tech to bring down their plane. Juhl informs them that they are renowned throughout space and their help is needed to free their home world, Zuna, from the rule of their rebellious robot race.   

The team agrees and accompanies Juhl to Zuna. After assorted clashes with the humanoid-hating robot armies, the Challengers triumph and liberate the planet. The grateful Juhl returns the team to Earth.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #9 (Sep 1959)

Story 1: The Men Who Lost Their Memories – A sea-going villain named Dekkar and his crew prey on shipping around the world and leave their victims amnesiac thanks to Dekkar’s ray-gun. The Challengers manage to locate Dekkar, and after June incapacitates his ray-gun our heroes mop up him and his crew.

Story 2: The Plot to Destroy Earth – In a story reminiscent of a few other Challengers adventures so far, an unnamed alien race uses a series of kaiju-sized monsters to attack the Earth but the team keeps defeating them. The aliens plan to wipe out Earthlings, strip our world of its resources and leave.

The Challengers manage to fool the aliens into thinking we have greater technology than we really do, and the aliens flee back to outer space. 

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN Vol 1 #10 (Nov 1959)

Story 1: The Cave-Man Beast – While searching for missing scientist Dr. Manning, the Challengers run afoul of a brutish cave-man beast on a rampage. June realizes it is actually Dr. Manning and tricks the cave-man into drinking Manning’s chemical formula to turn him back into Dr. Manning.

Story 2: The Four Faces of Doom – The Challengers of the Unknown explore ruins and trigger a portal that transports them through time. Earth has fallen to a dictatorial regime and the Challengers see that their future selves were killed and declared traitors for rebelling. They soon put things right and undo the temporal chaos.