Fantastic Four + Challengers of the Unknown = Challengers of the Fantastic

Challengers of the Fantastic #1
“Challengers of the Fantastic”
Writer: Karl Kesel
Penciler: Tom Grummett
Inker: Al Vey
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colors: Joe Rosas
Separations: Digital Chameleon
Assistant Editor: Glenn Greenberg
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras
Cover: Grummett and Vey
Published by: Marvel
Released: April 2, 1997

Characters and elements from a couple earlier Amalgam installments take on a classic Marvel story with a decidedly DC influence in “Challengers of the Fantastic.”

This should come as a shock to nobody who's read any of my previous Amalgam posts, but I know a lot more about the Marvel side of the equation here. My experience with DC's Challengers of the Unknown is limited to three sources: the bystander tokens of the characters that came as accessories to the Heroclix collectible miniatures game, their trippy cameo in “Teen Titans Go to the Movies” and, well, this issue. I know they're a group of adventurers, and they challenge stuff about which not much, if anything, is known.

The Fantastic Four, of course, are credited with launching the Marvel era of comics. They're also explorers and adventurers, but I didn't realize it's believed they were somewhat influenced by co-creator Jack Kirby's previous work... on Challengers of the Unknown, making this Amalgam a bit more meta than the rest.

Although this story happens after we first met these Challengers in “Spider-Boy” #1, the issue-opening splash is followed by a two-page origin recap in which the team's experimental space flight crashes. It's not due to cosmic rays, as the shields designed by Reed “Prof” Richards and Victor, I presume, von Doom keep them out. But when Victor, who stayed behind on Earth so as not to risk his “good looks,” finds out that the foursome on the ship will be hailed as heroes upon their return, he sabotages the flight.

The crew – which consists of the FF's civilian identities with Challenger nicknames – survives, and Prof, Sue “Ace” Storm, kid brother Johnny “Red” Storm and Sen. Ben “Rocky” Grimm come away without powers but with the original Challengers' conviction that they're living on borrowed time. They decide to use their second chance to challenge the fantastic rather than the unknown.

In the present day, Sen. Grimm leaves a tense summit with Bronze Tiger, the Wakandan king referenced in “Amazon,” and the Communist inhabitants of Gorilla City to answer the call for a Challengers mission. Prof is pulled away from his discovery of a parallel dimension that features the descendants of World War II heroes playing professional sports as Infinite Kickers Inc., while Red is hanging with his diminutive Johnny Stormtrooper clone and trying to use video games to distract himself from being separated from his love, Dream Crystal, a member of the Un-People, a mix of the Inhumans and, I think, Kirby's Forever People.

Ace has called them together to hear the warning of Uatu the Guardian, who seems much less homicidal and much more alive than when we last saw him in “Speed Demon.” He pays even less lip service to his vow of non-interference than Marvel's Watcher before informing them that Galactiac is coming.

A combination of Galactus and Brainiac, this cosmic giant drains energy from planets and seems to be a big enough threat to maybe call in the Judgment League Avengers or one of the mutant teams or, heck, even Diana Prince and Frank Castle. But the Challengers decide to enlist the aid only of June Masters, a mix of Alicia Masters and NOT DC's Enchantress June Moon but actually the fifth Challenger, June Robbins (thank you, Comicvine). Like her Marvel half, she's the daughter of a villain who has tangled with the team before. In this case, her dad is Multi-Masters, part Puppet Master, part … checks Marvel Universe Appendix Amalgam Index … Multi-Man. There's added angst in that she's super into Rocky and he feels responsible for her blindness.

June's computer Computo warns that Galactiac will fall when a Challenger dies. On that happy note, they take the Fantasticar from Fantastic Mountain to the Baxter Building, where they find Dr. Otto Octavius and other supporting characters from Spider-Boy unconscious. An editor's note directs us to “Spider-Boy Team-Up” #1 to see what the mall-crawling wall-crawler is up to, and the team encounters the Silver Racer, who answers the question, “What's more ridiculous than an alien surfing through space?” with “An alien skiing through space while wearing a cape.” This New Asgodian mix of the Silver Surfer and Black Racer says he's just here to claim a life and points the Challengers to a skylight, where Galactiac is apparently assembling his planet-killing device on the roof.

Like his robotic DC half, Galactiac plans to preserve a portion of this planet, specifically New York, in a bottle. The Challengers about trying to disrupt the process. Uatu summons Red for a special mission, reminiscent of the Human Torch's effort to acquire the Ultimate Nullifier in the original Galactus story, while June appeals to the Racer's better nature to fight the towering menace rather than just collect whoever he kills.

Rocky tries to pull the plug on one of Galactiac's machines and winds up transformed into a rocky, orange, four-armed “thing.” As Ace and Prof deal with their mutated friend, Red uses his video game skills to fight his way through... somewhere... en route to a machine Uatu tells him he must, ultimately, nullify.

Using a force field belt and Doc Ock's arms, Ace and Prof fend off Rocky, then redirect him to tear through Galactiac's machines. Wherever Red is, he blasts something important, Silver Racer attacks Galactiac, there's a blinding flash of light and... Rocky's back to normal and a weakened Galactiac departs and promises to return. In a twist on Reed's repeated, often unsuccessful efforts to transform Ben back from his rocky form, this Grimm says he wants to transform again to help them on future adventures. Red rejoins the team and reveals his clone was the Challenger who bit the dust, after Uatu sent him inside Galactiac* to blast stuff while controlled by Red's mind.

The team wonders what happened to the Racer and we see Doctor Doomsday, aka Victor, who made a brief appearance during the battle, opportunistically stealing his powers and skiing off to confront the Challengers.

This issue is packed with Silver/Bronze Age fun and so many winking references to Marvel and DC, it's easy to overlook some things, like why the heck did Galactiac park on the roof of the Baxter Building or why is Doc Doomsday's homeland referred to as Latkovia when it was just Latveria in X-Patrol? Kesel understood the assignment, and while this one doesn't run quite as smoothly as Spider-Boy, it's a hoot nonetheless. Grummett's artwork is clear and classic, and my only real complaint is I feel like we've never gotten to see Doctor Doomsday used to his full potential. There's so much going on in these Amalgam books that that would be hard to do, but, man, a running battle with a Doomsday-level bruiser spouting Doomian dialogue would have been a blast. And certainly better than the overly vain glimpse we got of Victor in the origin story, although it did kind of remind me of Julian McMahon's version in the 2005 movie. But having the power of Doomsday and still wanting more? That's classic Doom.

Also kudos to Kesel for referencing perhaps the weirdest element of the Spider-Boy issue by revealing it was June who helped Prof overcome the evil DNA Dabney Donovan had been sneaking into his food.

Best Amalgam: I'll give Doctor Doomsday the nod. He played a bigger part in X-Patrol, but had no chance of beating out Shatterstarfire. Oh man, I think I just inadvertently justified Judi Dench winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her limited “Shakespeare in Love” screen time. Maybe it's time to finally let that one go? Side note: Is it weird that I want to know more about Infinite Kickers Inc., despite having read exactly one issue of Kickers Inc. and no Infinity Inc.? Well, I did 13 posts on NFL SuperPro, so it's probably not surprising.

Most Confusing Amalgam: The Un-People. I can pick out most of the Inhumans, but I only guessed the Forever People because of the big hairy guy mixed with Gorgon. As usual, that's a me problem. Fourth World fans may have gotten all these references just fine. My only real complete is does this invalidate Miss Miracle? No, Alamgamath doesn't prevent multiple mixes.

* – Thankfully there is no entry or exit scene.