Challengers of the Unknown: Stolen Moments, Borrowed Time
Challengers of the Unknownwas a long-running 1950s and '60s comic about four adventurers devoted to taunting danger after surviving a plane crash. They figured they were living on borrowed time, anyway. Chaykin, updater of such other DC properties as the Shadow and the Blackhawks, radically retools here. Retaining just the title and the "borrowed time" premise, he uses those as pegs for a mixture of over-the-top action, macho derring-do, and smartass social satire at the expense of terrorism, media manipulation, and Fox News. Chaykin's Challengers are disparate rebels (industrial saboteur, hip-hop artist, muckraking blogger, etc.) who, unbeknownst to themselves, have been turned into genetically enhanced professional killers. They meet and gradually begin learning that they are being manipulated by the Hegemony, a secret cabal of multibillionaires that covertly pulls society's strings. These Challengers are, however, a rather nondescript bunch, and the only truly memorable characters here are the villains. Fortunately, Chaykin's attitude-heavy flamboyance and distinctively stylish artwork (Madsen's the able colorist) carry the day.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved