Wait, there was a CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN novel?
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From November 1977, this is mighty poor stuff and a failed opportunity by Ron Goulart to make use of a great concept. The Challengers of the Unknown, as originally created by Jack Kirby way back in 1957, were four men who had miraculously escaped a plane crash which should have been fatal. One member of the group said even his watch was still keeping time and the leader, Ace Morgan, said, "Borrowed time, Red. We're living on borrowed time." That haunting phrase was the motivation and guiding force behind the group the four survivors formed.
Living on borrowed time, they decided to make the most of their new lives and plunged into hair-raising exploits that other adventurers declined. Each had earlier set records in their fields as individuals but as a team, they set out to investigate the supernatural and the unexplained-- and either debunk or defeat it.
This book makes little use of the premise of the comic, giving brief reference to the first story with one or two mentions of "borrowed time." Instead of a dramatic origin sequence and the founding of the group, we meet the Challengers as well-established ghostbreakers and crime-fighters who have been around for years and have settled down to taking their careers for granted. They're not excited by their work anymore and it rubs off on the reader.
Goulart gives the all the characters excessively glib, flippant dialogue that pads the wordcount without revealing anything about the heroes' responses or thoughts. Prof Haley in particular talks like Groucho Marx, with the difference of not being funny, while Red is a slightly less smug version of Prof. Ace Morgan has no noticeable personality. Rocky Davis has been reduced to a simple-minded jock who works in constant comments about health-food with no relevance to the situation. At least once on every other page where he appears, Rocky says, "Kee-rist", a remarkably ugly exclamation that gets more offensive with each use. I was able to visualize the four men because of a childhood spent devouring Jack Kirby comics, but a reader who had never heard of this bunch would have a hard time keeping straight which one was which.
The plot is a basic investigation into a reported Black Lagoon-type monster in South America. Mixed in with this menace is a colony of eighty-year old Nazis who look young due to a scientific treatment, still plotting to conquer the world. Goulart gives no convincing background for any of this, and his action sequences are sketchily described with no feeling for movement or danger. The Challengers pull out any gadgets or weapon they might need without explanation, including a remote control than can over-ride the signal given a robot-guided killer truck (Red just happens to have this device on him). And it is so convenient that their electric stunguns just happen to be able to open an interstellar gateway when the monster attacks. The monster itself is just a more ferocious version of Universal's classic Gill-Man, with an extraterrrestrial origin glued on to its pedigree.
So much could have been done if the Challengers had spent the book tracking down and capturing the beast, perhaps discovering it was intelligent, discovering it had laid dozens of eggs along the way back to the United States. But no, it just shows up to mutilate a few dispensable characters now and then and is promptly dispatched.
The cover to this Dell paperback also had little to recommend it or to draw in a curious browser on the news stand. There's the monster, certainly, looming up out of the shallow lake, water pouring off it. Within reach of the critter but apparently deaf are June Robbins and Prof Haley, looking in the wrong direction, while the other Challengers in the background appear concerned. Instead of the more realistic dark purple jumpsuits (looking like pilot's gear) that Kirby outfitted them in, our heroes are wearing skin-tight (June's in particular) costumes of a lurid hot purplish-pink, with a wide yellow stripe down the left side of the chest. Challengers of the Unknown with a literal yellow streak... who thought THAT symbolism was appropriate?
I've always thought a great movie could be made from this series. Done as a brisker-paced X-FILES with some GHOSTBUSTER cheekiness, it would be a fun two hours. And the casting offers space for speculation. I see the ads highlighting a ticking watch with a badly cracked cover, and the tagline, "When you're living on borrowed time, every second counts."
![]()
From November 1977, this is mighty poor stuff and a failed opportunity by Ron Goulart to make use of a great concept. The Challengers of the Unknown, as originally created by Jack Kirby way back in 1957, were four men who had miraculously escaped a plane crash which should have been fatal. One member of the group said even his watch was still keeping time and the leader, Ace Morgan, said, "Borrowed time, Red. We're living on borrowed time." That haunting phrase was the motivation and guiding force behind the group the four survivors formed.
Living on borrowed time, they decided to make the most of their new lives and plunged into hair-raising exploits that other adventurers declined. Each had earlier set records in their fields as individuals but as a team, they set out to investigate the supernatural and the unexplained-- and either debunk or defeat it.
This book makes little use of the premise of the comic, giving brief reference to the first story with one or two mentions of "borrowed time." Instead of a dramatic origin sequence and the founding of the group, we meet the Challengers as well-established ghostbreakers and crime-fighters who have been around for years and have settled down to taking their careers for granted. They're not excited by their work anymore and it rubs off on the reader.
Goulart gives the all the characters excessively glib, flippant dialogue that pads the wordcount without revealing anything about the heroes' responses or thoughts. Prof Haley in particular talks like Groucho Marx, with the difference of not being funny, while Red is a slightly less smug version of Prof. Ace Morgan has no noticeable personality. Rocky Davis has been reduced to a simple-minded jock who works in constant comments about health-food with no relevance to the situation. At least once on every other page where he appears, Rocky says, "Kee-rist", a remarkably ugly exclamation that gets more offensive with each use. I was able to visualize the four men because of a childhood spent devouring Jack Kirby comics, but a reader who had never heard of this bunch would have a hard time keeping straight which one was which.
The plot is a basic investigation into a reported Black Lagoon-type monster in South America. Mixed in with this menace is a colony of eighty-year old Nazis who look young due to a scientific treatment, still plotting to conquer the world. Goulart gives no convincing background for any of this, and his action sequences are sketchily described with no feeling for movement or danger. The Challengers pull out any gadgets or weapon they might need without explanation, including a remote control than can over-ride the signal given a robot-guided killer truck (Red just happens to have this device on him). And it is so convenient that their electric stunguns just happen to be able to open an interstellar gateway when the monster attacks. The monster itself is just a more ferocious version of Universal's classic Gill-Man, with an extraterrrestrial origin glued on to its pedigree.
So much could have been done if the Challengers had spent the book tracking down and capturing the beast, perhaps discovering it was intelligent, discovering it had laid dozens of eggs along the way back to the United States. But no, it just shows up to mutilate a few dispensable characters now and then and is promptly dispatched.
The cover to this Dell paperback also had little to recommend it or to draw in a curious browser on the news stand. There's the monster, certainly, looming up out of the shallow lake, water pouring off it. Within reach of the critter but apparently deaf are June Robbins and Prof Haley, looking in the wrong direction, while the other Challengers in the background appear concerned. Instead of the more realistic dark purple jumpsuits (looking like pilot's gear) that Kirby outfitted them in, our heroes are wearing skin-tight (June's in particular) costumes of a lurid hot purplish-pink, with a wide yellow stripe down the left side of the chest. Challengers of the Unknown with a literal yellow streak... who thought THAT symbolism was appropriate?
I've always thought a great movie could be made from this series. Done as a brisker-paced X-FILES with some GHOSTBUSTER cheekiness, it would be a fun two hours. And the casting offers space for speculation. I see the ads highlighting a ticking watch with a badly cracked cover, and the tagline, "When you're living on borrowed time, every second counts."
statistics: Posted by doctorhermes428 — 9:25 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 8 — Views 346