Kickin It Old School

Here's the deal, over the past few years my fiance's dad has been giving me some really great older comics. We're talking everything from New Adventures of Superboy, pre-Crisis Teen Titans, very early Avengers books and so on. Each week I'll pick a book based on it's weirdness or coolness and give a little write up with at least a cover scan.

This week's terrifying look back at the old school is the completely wacked out Challengers of the Unknown #47 from 1965. Bob Finger penned the first story, entitled "The Sinister Sponge," with art by Bob Brown. Yup, the Challengers (Ace, Red, Prof, and Rocky) face off against the terrible Sponge. Actually, the Sponge, aka Milkos, is a mild mannered deep sea sponge diver who comes across a man shaped sponge attached to a meteorite. Well, as they tend to do, the meteorite turns Milkos into a giant sponge who can absorb everything. EVERYTHING. We're talking color, sound, strength, and, of course, water. After being duped into committing some crimes by his mischevious next door neighbor, Milkos decides to spend the rest of his life at the bottom of the sea. Not exactly the happy-co-lucky ending I was expecting from these swingin' cats.

The second story, entitled "The Terrors of Mr. Tic-Tac-Toe" is less depressing. The France Herron written and Bob Brown drawn story opens with the Challengers accepting a job from a scientist that looks an awful lot like Einstein to transport a mysterious container to Washington, D.C. On the way, Prof decides to play with chemicals. In an airplane. Wow. I bet even I could get a doctorate from whatever crack pot university he graduated from. Anyway, Mr. Tic-Tac-Toe brings down their plane and, with the help of his assistant Herbert, captures three of the four Challengers and shackles them on a giant tic-tac-toe game in the desert. How they were able to keep three world class adventurers shackled to sand I'll never know. Finally, Prof saves the day and reveals that Mr. Tic-Tac-Toe is the Einstein-like scientist's assistant. Crazy.

My guess is that these characters have not been rejuvenated. Mostly because they're lame. I do like the Challengers as a group though. It's almost painful to read the forced "hip" dialogue at points, but overall they interact well. Does anyone know the deal with these guys? I couldn't help but draw comparisons to the Fantastic Four, especially with the orange monster on the cover, but am not clear on the history. Who came first?

For more information on the issue click here.