What do you think?
Rate this book
Challengers of the Unknown (2024-) #1
Spinning out of Absolute Power and the DC All In Special, the terror of the Darkseid shockwave has cascaded across the DC Universe…tearing open the very fabric of time and space itself! Only one band of super-scientists have the right stuff to challenge the fate of a universe… THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UKNOWN. Alongside the Justice League—where the Challengers run day-to-day operations for the massive Watchtower base in orbit above Earth—Ace Morgan, June Robbins, Prof Haley, Red Ryan, and Rocky Davis must team with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the League to seal the rifts that threaten the galaxy. But a mysterious foe from the Challengers’ past lurks in the shadows, and its connection to the godshock will put the DCU on borrowed time!
Kindle Edition
Published December 18, 2024
12 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 16, 2025
2/16/25
This first issue of a potentially ongoing Challengers comic is interesting, sets up some intriguing mysteries, but is just--frankly--not written very well. Obviously, American comics aren't fine literature, nor are they intended to be (though they absolutely can be).
But, shouldn't we expect a certain standard of quality of product as an audience? I don't expect all comics writers to be prose stylists, but is it too much to ask for a $4 comic book to be free of misused vocabulary, comma splices, ungrammatical or awkward sentences, and insipid clichés???
Seriously.
In the meantime, I'll probably pick up the second issue...
This first issue of a potentially ongoing Challengers comic is interesting, sets up some intriguing mysteries, but is just--frankly--not written very well. Obviously, American comics aren't fine literature, nor are they intended to be (though they absolutely can be).
But, shouldn't we expect a certain standard of quality of product as an audience? I don't expect all comics writers to be prose stylists, but is it too much to ask for a $4 comic book to be free of misused vocabulary, comma splices, ungrammatical or awkward sentences, and insipid clichés???
Seriously.
In the meantime, I'll probably pick up the second issue...
October 1, 2025
I love these guys! They are so fun.
A group of scientists escape death and commit the rest of their lives to solving problems the Justice League can’t. Real Saturday morning cartoon stuff.
It seems like DC as a whole is leaning towards having fun. Huge fan of that!
A group of scientists escape death and commit the rest of their lives to solving problems the Justice League can’t. Real Saturday morning cartoon stuff.
It seems like DC as a whole is leaning towards having fun. Huge fan of that!
December 8, 2025
I'll be rereading, seeking the rest of the story.
December 21, 2024
This series is off to such a great start, from the premise and especially to the characters and unknown mysteries behind everything. It’s really making me challenge everything I know and I’m all here for it. But the thing that really strikes me is that this issue tells us what is going to happen from the start. On the very first page we get a look at what is soon to come as we see the challengers facing the anomalies we get introduced to in this issue. These images are overvalued with an explanation from Ace that since darkseid left it was felt through the entire universe, ripples that went everywhere.
As such Mr Terrific is putting together the main challengers for an important mission to track down and investigate the anomalies left form the reverberations, but in the process keep them out of the loop on a lot of information such as the problem with one of the challengers in the main question series. So far they have knowledge on 4 locations and what I absolutely love about this is that each location already has heroes assigned to them. On the sea floor there is a rupture emitting a radio signal that is currently being watched by the sea devils, which is a crazy obscure choice, and Aquaman. There is an outbreak of prodigy-level intellectual life on dinosaur island and an unknown entity that swamp thing has cordoned off. There is an asteroid near Neptune that has been emitting bio electrical signals that captain comet is keeping an eye on. And this issue has a focus on Ace and Superman as they head to mars to investigate a seemingly indestructible glass that Miss Martian is watching. I’m so excited to get the chance to see all of these heroes in future issues!! Not only are we bringing the pretty unknown challengers into the fray but also all of these obscure heroes!! That’s so exciting.
But what’s even more exciting is the private log of Mr Terrific that we are shown in this issue. He believes darksejd is not gone, a god does not die. “Darkseid is somewhere, or rather, darkseid is somehow.” He thinks they have been too focused on the watchtower, and as question and blue beetle continue to check for glitches he is setting the challengers out into the rest of the universe to follow up on the anomalies that he believes are actually clues or beacons or something left behind. This is also why he has kept the challengers in the dark about the attempt on the other challengers life, as he needs them completely focused on this missions. If darkseid is not gone then he may soon speak and whenever or however he does they need be aware of it.
The only challenger not going out and being paired up with a leaguer to investigate is Rocky as he is staying in charge of day to day operations while Terrific leads mission oversight. Later that day June talks to Ace about how she believes there is more they are not being told. But regardless of how small they feel looking down at earth and all the other bigger heroes around them, Ace meets up with Superman that day to pilot a spaceship to mars for the first investigation. Other than the cover this is the first look at the Justice league challenger suits we get to see, and purple looks pretty good. Later on at they are talking Superman does admit that the professor was not the one to choose the colors but it does come down to team optics. The world needs to look at them and trust them and having outfits like this is just one way the optics work in their favor.
Since they are on mars and Superman is there it doesn’t hurt Ace’s ego too much to have him fly him to the site of the anomaly. Once they arrive they immediately meet up with Miss Martian and the testing begins. First test, have Superman punch the thing with full power…results: nothing. In order to get a sample Ace has Superman laser into it on an ionic level. But mysteriously as he begins Ace looks into the reflection and it appears to look back! Worlds flash before his eyes as he sees alternate realities. One where the crash doesn’t happen and he has a family, one where he becomes a green lantern. Earlier Superman was mentioning how he admires Ace’s courage and still being able to fly since the incident, even mentioning how Hal was surprised he didn’t end up with a ring. So it doesn’t seem like this reflection is drawing on his insecurities, and this is especially shown when all the alternative realities appear within his mind and start beating him and start yelling about how he should be dead. The challengers are built on the idea they are living by in borrowed time. Once he is finally pulled away from the crystal the headache he had earlier starts to come back and he starts bleeding. But it’s like the experience shot Ace’s ego up to the roof as when he got out he immediately tried to downplay the entire situation and refused to let Superman tow the jet back, he had to fly it.
When they got back to the tower Ace was put in medical, where nothing was found to be wrong and he refused to tell Terrific or anyone else what he saw but did ask June to get the other challengers together so he could tell them. As the rock sample was brought in for testing Terrific ordered all the other challengers out so that just Superman and him could talk about it, prof was not appreciative of that. Through their talk Terrific ordered Superman to destroy it and go back and vaporize the rest. He doesn’t even have a clue what it is but these anomalies aren’t just outside the watchtower he believes that they have manifested themselves within the challengers themselves!! This is really getting exciting!!
As such Mr Terrific is putting together the main challengers for an important mission to track down and investigate the anomalies left form the reverberations, but in the process keep them out of the loop on a lot of information such as the problem with one of the challengers in the main question series. So far they have knowledge on 4 locations and what I absolutely love about this is that each location already has heroes assigned to them. On the sea floor there is a rupture emitting a radio signal that is currently being watched by the sea devils, which is a crazy obscure choice, and Aquaman. There is an outbreak of prodigy-level intellectual life on dinosaur island and an unknown entity that swamp thing has cordoned off. There is an asteroid near Neptune that has been emitting bio electrical signals that captain comet is keeping an eye on. And this issue has a focus on Ace and Superman as they head to mars to investigate a seemingly indestructible glass that Miss Martian is watching. I’m so excited to get the chance to see all of these heroes in future issues!! Not only are we bringing the pretty unknown challengers into the fray but also all of these obscure heroes!! That’s so exciting.
But what’s even more exciting is the private log of Mr Terrific that we are shown in this issue. He believes darksejd is not gone, a god does not die. “Darkseid is somewhere, or rather, darkseid is somehow.” He thinks they have been too focused on the watchtower, and as question and blue beetle continue to check for glitches he is setting the challengers out into the rest of the universe to follow up on the anomalies that he believes are actually clues or beacons or something left behind. This is also why he has kept the challengers in the dark about the attempt on the other challengers life, as he needs them completely focused on this missions. If darkseid is not gone then he may soon speak and whenever or however he does they need be aware of it.
The only challenger not going out and being paired up with a leaguer to investigate is Rocky as he is staying in charge of day to day operations while Terrific leads mission oversight. Later that day June talks to Ace about how she believes there is more they are not being told. But regardless of how small they feel looking down at earth and all the other bigger heroes around them, Ace meets up with Superman that day to pilot a spaceship to mars for the first investigation. Other than the cover this is the first look at the Justice league challenger suits we get to see, and purple looks pretty good. Later on at they are talking Superman does admit that the professor was not the one to choose the colors but it does come down to team optics. The world needs to look at them and trust them and having outfits like this is just one way the optics work in their favor.
Since they are on mars and Superman is there it doesn’t hurt Ace’s ego too much to have him fly him to the site of the anomaly. Once they arrive they immediately meet up with Miss Martian and the testing begins. First test, have Superman punch the thing with full power…results: nothing. In order to get a sample Ace has Superman laser into it on an ionic level. But mysteriously as he begins Ace looks into the reflection and it appears to look back! Worlds flash before his eyes as he sees alternate realities. One where the crash doesn’t happen and he has a family, one where he becomes a green lantern. Earlier Superman was mentioning how he admires Ace’s courage and still being able to fly since the incident, even mentioning how Hal was surprised he didn’t end up with a ring. So it doesn’t seem like this reflection is drawing on his insecurities, and this is especially shown when all the alternative realities appear within his mind and start beating him and start yelling about how he should be dead. The challengers are built on the idea they are living by in borrowed time. Once he is finally pulled away from the crystal the headache he had earlier starts to come back and he starts bleeding. But it’s like the experience shot Ace’s ego up to the roof as when he got out he immediately tried to downplay the entire situation and refused to let Superman tow the jet back, he had to fly it.
When they got back to the tower Ace was put in medical, where nothing was found to be wrong and he refused to tell Terrific or anyone else what he saw but did ask June to get the other challengers together so he could tell them. As the rock sample was brought in for testing Terrific ordered all the other challengers out so that just Superman and him could talk about it, prof was not appreciative of that. Through their talk Terrific ordered Superman to destroy it and go back and vaporize the rest. He doesn’t even have a clue what it is but these anomalies aren’t just outside the watchtower he believes that they have manifested themselves within the challengers themselves!! This is really getting exciting!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2025
Challengers Of The Unknown is a fitting title, as by the end I felt I knew even less than I did at the start. To be fair I'm nit saying it's a bad comic, quite the opposite, I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to cracking the unknowns.
April 25, 2025
a new version of the challengers and a mystery involving the challengers.
definitely going to be one I'll continue reading
definitely going to be one I'll continue reading
July 19, 2025
3.5/5
December 11, 2025
a pretty fun team comic. the characters and plots arent super fleshed out or great but they are certainly attempted.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews