The Challengers of the Unknown is a group of adventurers who debuted in Showcase #6 (Feb. 1957).

When acquaintances miraculously survive a plane crash unscathed, they conclude that since they are "living on borrowed time" they should band together for hazardous adventures. The four — pilot Kyle "Ace" Morgan, daredevil Matthew "Red" Ryan, strong and slow-witted Leslie "Rocky" Davis, and scientist Walter Mark "Prof" Haley — became the Challengers of the Unknown. Soon famous, the Challengers accept many "unknown challenges" from The Pentagon, mad scientists, and people with a problem. They encounter genies, common and sophisticated thieves, rocs, aliens and robots good and bad. Their adventures later veer toward superheroics, and take in everything from occult menaces to Bermuda Triangle mysteries. The Challengers travel through space, time, and other dimensions. They encounter the likes of the Doom Patrol, Deadman, Swamp Thing, Jonny Double, and the Sea Devils, with whom they fight the criminal group Scorpio.

Scripts for the first stories are often credited to Dick and Dave Wood, two brothers who also wrote other Kirby-illustrated material, such as the "Sky Masters of the Space Force" comic strip; but others have claimed that Kirby created the Challengers himself or together with former partner Joe Simon. The stories had weird menaces, fistfights, wild vehicles and gadgets, spectacular terrain, daring escapes, and a sense of humor.

The inspiration for the Challengers' adventures were drive-in movie fodder about skin divers, test pilots, acrobats, mountain climbers, boxers, and other adventurers. Comic books had a crying need for content. Superhero comics had mostly vanished from about 1949 to the mid-1950s. The revival of the Flash, seen as marking the return of the superheroes to popularity, had occurred only four months earlier, in Showcase #4. A team of larger-than-life adventurers with echoes of a World War II infantry squad were a natural fit. The group's name may have also derived from a 1950 horror title, Challenge of the Unknown.


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