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celebratoryTopic: Comic Book History
'Challengers Of The Unknown' 50 th ANNIVERSARY 1957 - 2007
Before Jack Kirby co-created the Fantastic Four with Stan Lee, he was involved in the creation of 'The Challengers of the Unknown' for DC Comics. The Challengers were a quartet of non-super powered adventurers who explored paranormal occurrences and faced fantastic menaces such as the one pictured on the comic book cover to the right. The Challengers debuted in DC's Showcase #6 which was published in February 1957, shortly after The Flash's Revival in issue #4. The four adventurers were Kyle "Ace" Morgan, Matthew "Red" Ryan, Leslie "Rocky" Davis, and Walter Mark "Prof" Haley. After they miraculously survived a plane crash unscathed, they concluded that since they were "living on borrowed time", they would team up together to become the Challengers of the Unknown. At this time in the 1957 superheroes had not yet had their revival, other than Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and now the Flash being published by DC Comics. Thus the Challengers helped pave the way for the 1960s superhero groups! Indeed, Jack Kirby's next major continuing series, The Fantastic Four for what became Marvel Comics, was essentially the Challengers as a superhero family, complete with a similar origin! Both teams, although created for different publishers, were quartets who came together after a crash landing! Plus, if you get a chance, take a look at Challengers of the Unknown #3 where Rocky was shot into space and returned with several powers that the FF later acquired! The Challengers series continued in Showcase for three more appearances, issues #7, 11, & 12, and then recieved its' own title. After 12 issues in total, Jack Kirby went on to Marvel where he drew the famous monster comics before the Fantastic Four were born! |
The 'Challengers of the Unknown' title continued through issue #75 (Aug.-Sept. 1970). After that it had intermittent reprint and revival issues from 1973-78. The Jack Kirby issues are among the most collectible of the series.
For those with additional interest on this group book, Just click on the CHALLENGERS comic book cover at the top to see what issues we currently have in stock! Thanks for reading our pop culture / comics blog post and feel free to comment below! Michael For info on the SAN DIEGO COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL just click on the Banner Below! |
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