Secret Origins (1986) 12 (2)

Secret Origins (1986) 12

Mar 1987

Challengers of the Unknown

by Mark Evanier, Chuck Patton, Bob Oksner, Carrie Spiegle, Carl Gafford, Bob Greenberger

The story opens with the Challengers of the Unknown getting ready to make an appearance on a TV show, Real Incredible People. The four original members of the team (Rocky Davis, Ace Morgan, Prof Haley, Red Ryan) tell their fifth teammate (June Robbins) about their individual origins while they wait for their turn in front of the camera.

The Challengers leave the studio before it is their turn in front of the cameras and the studio audience. They take with them a very large box which reminds them of another box they found during their very first mission together. The box belonged to Mr. Morellian. He wanted them to open it for him. During their first mission they took turns opening different parts of the box. Each section they opened released a different kind of threat.

This time around they let June, who was not with them the first time they encountered the box, open it. There are no threats inside the box, just an old man. He tells them that he has been living in the box for over 300 years. He can never leave the box. It is keeping him alive.

Thoughts

This is the first team or group to get the spotlight in this series. 

What a weird ending. I found it to be very anticlimactic. 

I like how this issue retells their individual origins and the story from their first appearance. It doesn’t exactly inspire me to want to read more stories of the Challengers of the Unknown. I like how it isn’t just a straight retelling of their first appearance or origin and that they include June Robbins in the story.

Notes

The Challengers of the Unknown first appeared in Showcase 6 (Feb 1957). June Robbins first appeared in Showcase 7 (Apr 1957). She appeared in several more of their stories but didn’t become a full fledged member of the team until the mid to late 1970s. 

The team got its own comic book after starring in four issues of Showcase (7, 8, 11, 12). Their first run of comic books lasted 75 issues and ended in 1970. There were 5 reprint issues (76-80) in the early 1970s. The team appeared in new stories in three issues of Super Team Family (8-10) in 1976-77 after which their comic book was revived for 7 more issues (81-87). The last issue was published in 1978.

The team didn’t get their own title again until 1991 when Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale wrote and drew an eight part story which was later reprinted in trade paperback format when it was titled The Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! I have read that story.

The television program Real Incredible People sounds like a mashup of That’s Incredible (ABC, 1980-84) and Real People (NBC, 1979-84). Both were reality style TV shows of the era that immediately preceded Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Origins. I recall watching That’s Incredible back in the early 1980s. It frequently featured people doing dangerous things, which seems in line with a team like the Challengers of the Unknown.