A group of heroes published by
DC Comics and created by
Jack Kirby. The
Challengers of the Unknown first appeared
in
Showcase #6 in January 1957.
Men have often found that the priorities in their lives are greatly
changed with a close brush with death. Many people devote more
time to family or their spiritual lives when they look their
mortality in the eye. In the case of the members of the
Challengers of the Unknown, a single event caused
them to rethink the direction of their lives and decide
to spend their remaining years on pointless, hair-raising
adventures.
While traveling on a small airplane, four men with various
backgrounds found their lives nearly cut short. Aboard this
plane were Professor Mark Haley (an expert in undersea
exploration), Ace Morgan (one of the world's premiere
test pilots), Red Ryan (mountain climber and daredevil), and Rocky Davis (the world heavy weight
boxing champion). When the plane crashed, the men found
that they were unhurt and felt that this was a sign that they
should do something. They decided to band together and seek
to do good and fight evil, since they felt that they were living
on borrowed time. And so, the Challengers of the Unknown were
born.
The four had many adventures, fighting evil, giant robots,
combatting terrible monsters, and stopping evil geniuses from
taking over the world. They were often joined by June Robbins,
their token Kirby female, with the Sue Richards
hairstyle and varying last name; half of the issues June was
not Robbins, but Walters.