Challengers of the Unknown

[Lupek]

I've just recently read Jeph Loeb and Tim Sales Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! and quite liked it. It wasn't what I was expecting (in a good way) in that I thought it would be a total action/sci fi yarn and it was more about the characters having a mid life crisis and finding themselves. I also didn't expect the addition of magic into the mix or the references to Dr Strange and Mary Jane from Spider-man. Did anyone else like it?

Have the Challengers been used since this book? What is their current status?

When this came out was there any commotion over Red Ryan going Punisher style vigilante?

And was the friendship between Ace Morgan and Hal Jordan in Darwyn Cookes New Frontier something already established or was that something Cooke came up with?

[Kid Kyoto]

I personally love it and wish they have kept these versions of the Challengers around.

There've been a few attempts to revive them since, there was an X-files type book in the late 90s with a whole new team and these days the 60s version has popped up in Mark Waid's Brave and Bold. But as far as I know the Loeb/Sale versions have not been seen since.

[Lupek]

thanks for the update.

Where the Professor and June included in the recent B&B appearence?

I guess it's out of the question but I would love a sequel to this.

[ponset]

I believe in the early 2000s Howard Chaykin wrote a Challs mini-series with
all new characters.
I never read it but I remember seeing an ad for it.

[Kid Kyoto]

I only get TPBs and HCs so I don't know what happened in B&B after the issue they turned up in. I think the professor turned up (don't forget the Chals are 4 white guys in identical jumpsuits, it's not like any of them stand out) but not June.

[Babylon23]

thanks for the update.

Where the Professor and June included in the recent B&B appearence

Prof definitely was. I don't remember seeing June though.

as far as i know, the Ace morgan/Hal jordan friendship was new to Last Frontier.

[FanboyStranger]

I believe in the early 2000s Howard Chaykin wrote a Challs mini-series with
all new characters.
I never read it but I remember seeing an ad for it.

In my opinion, it's the best work Chaykin has done since returning to his drawing board, although it does fly off the rails a bit in the last issue. The media satire parts are well done, though.

[CBikle]

And was the friendship between Ace Morgan and Hal Jordan in Darwyn Cookes New Frontier something already established or was that something Cooke came up with?

Nah, that was Darwyn's addition and I think that only applies to the "New Frontier" universe.

Pre-COIE, the Challengers (and a lot of other silver-age characters) sort of played a role in the secret origin of the JLA, but that was as close to a connection as Hal and Ace had up to that point.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/justice-league-of-america/144-1.jpg

[Thok]

Prof definitely was. I don't remember seeing June though.

June plays a fairly important role during the Megistus arc (issues 7-12), after which the Challengers haven't been in the book. She doesn't appear in the Lords of Luck arc.

[siberia77]

there was an X-files type book in the late 90s with a whole new team

yeah this was a good attempt to take the CotU forward, rather than just stuck in purplejumpsuits :evilangry:

[CBikle]

yeah this was a good attempt to take the CotU forward, rather than just stuck in purple jumpsuits :evilangry:

The X-files-ish CotU was pretty good, but the silver-age, purple (later yellow) jumpsuit version has its fans too.

The 90's Challengers book had some good stories and also did an excellent job of straddling the line of being part of the DCU and not really being a part of it, basically feeling like an "indy" /Vertigo book and a DCU title at the same time.

[dancj]

I love that Loeb+Sale series. It's by far the best thing Loeb ever wrote.

Steven Grant's version was okay - and he completely deinies there being any X-File connection. IIRC he said the main similarity was that it had a woman with red hair. To me the book was wall to wall plots that could have been used in X-Files and had an art style that invoked X-Files as well. The hair never even occured to me.

I just finished reading the Chaykin book last night. That was fun too, but I couldn't quite see them contuing this new version of the CotU

[DonEMC]

The last five or six issues of the 1970s version of the Challengers of the Unknown are great with super (but early) art by Mike Nasser and then newcomer Keith Giffen and (veteran artist) John Celardo (on inks). I think Gerry Conway wrote those issues and they are the best Challengers stories ever written, in my opinion. They have great Rich Buckler covers, too!
Those last few issues also guest star Swamp Thing, Deadman and Rip Hunter, and the last three are what got me interested in Swamp Thing, causing me to seek out the Wein/Wrightson issues and then the Wein/Redondo and Pasko/Yeates runs. And that, in turn, led me into the Alan Moore run, which, as everyone knows, was brilliant. But, I digress...
I loved the Loeb/Sale version of the Challs. It was a great story, and, I believe, the first teaming of these two great creators. I didn't care much for the Chaykin Challs and didn't get to read any of the Steven Grant version.

[Lupek]

Nah, that was Darwyn's addition and I think that only applies to the "New Frontier" universe.


I'd like to see that become part of current continuity. I think the Challengers would make good occasional guest stars in the Green Lantern book.

[Stressfactor]

Here's the skinny on the Challs, near as can be figured....

The whole team has been back and was seen in The Brave and the Bold so presumably when "New Earth" was created at the end of Infinite Crisis it reset the Challs back to the baseline... That does not mean, however, that the Loeb/Sale version of the Challs do not exist on some other Earth somewhere.

If you want the dish on EVERY SINGLE VERSION of the Challs over the years I suggest you go to the Challenger Mountain website... It's run by an uber Challs fan and is one of the most complete and exhaustive indexes I've discovered.

http://www.challengersoftheunknown.com/

SPOILER AHOY FOR B & B.....



The four male Challs were seen at the end of the B & B story arc "The Lords of Luck" -- Ace, Rocky, Red and Prof helped Batman, Green Lantern, and Supergirl retrieve the Book of Destiny because they were not in the book because they had cheated death.

During the Megistus story arc the Challs were taking turns reading the book, looking for clues to a supposed great evil that was going to come. June appeared there and offered to help but the other Challs refused to let her because she wasn't like them -- she wasn't a 'Death Cheater'.

When Megistus manifested, however, it attacked June and she ended up joining the rest of the guys and a slew of other heroes to stop Megistus and fly into the sun. At the end of the arc, June sacrificed her life to save them all... or did she? Destiny appeared to take the book back from the Challs but they asked for one last favor -- they wanted to look in the book and see what became of June's body. What they found was that June was no longer in the book -- which meant she had cheated death! She was finally, an official Challenger of the Unknown. The rest of the Challs then took off to begin the search to find June -- wherever she may be...

[jam]

The last five or six issues of the 1970s version of the Challengers of the Unknown are great with super (but early) art by Mike Nasser and then newcomer Keith Giffen and (veteran artist) John Celardo (on inks). I think Gerry Conway wrote those issues and they are the best Challengers stories ever written, in my opinion. They have great Rich Buckler covers, too!
Those last few issues also guest star Swamp Thing, Deadman and Rip Hunter, and the last three are what got me interested in Swamp Thing, causing me to seek out the Wein/Wrightson issues and then the Wein/Redondo and Pasko/Yeates runs. And that, in turn, led me into the Alan Moore run, which, as everyone knows, was brilliant. But, I digress...
I loved the Loeb/Sale version of the Challs. It was a great story, and, I believe, the first teaming of these two great creators. I didn't care much for the Chaykin Challs and didn't get to read any of the Steven Grant version.

It's funny but I was just thinking about the Challs around the time of Giffen artwork. I really enjoyed that whole sequence round about that time, when Deadman was almost a member of the Challs himself. Great stuff!

Wouldn't it be nice if the Showcase Challs can run for long enough so we can see this in print again?

[Lupek]

How about a JMS Challengers book?