Review: Showcase Presents Challengers of the Unknown

Showcase Presents: Challengers of the Unknown, Vol. 1 by Dave Wood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This collections follos the Adventures of the Challengers of the Unknown, originally created for DC by the great Jack Kirby. The basic plot: Four adventurers survive a plane crash, declare they are on borrowed time and set off on a series of fantastic adventures. They later are jointed by a woman named June who becomes an honorary Challenger.

The collection is a bit hit and miss. On the plus side, most of the stories represent the truly amazing fun of 1950s Science Fiction with strange monsters, aliens, weird magic, etc. One of the highlights of this book is the introduction of Multi-man. In addition, the art of Jack Kirby makes these stories a treat. In many ways, the series would seem to be a precursor to the Fantastic Four which he'd create just a few years later with Stan Lee.

The downside is the lack of characterization. With the books in black and white, it could be a challenge to tell the characters apart, although the pugnacious Rocky became fairly easy to distinguish. As for the rest of them forget it. They also seemed to think the same and talk the same. So this was Fantastic Four minus superpowers and characterization. In addition, some of the plots could get repetitive as someone was changed into creature/given Amazing powers and then Challengers defeats them and destroy whatever technology/magic was at the root of it.

So, mixed feelings. There were some fun moments reading this collection, but it didn't leave me wanting to read Volume 2.



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