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Challengers of the Unknown (2024-) #5
How are the Challengers of the Unknown connected to Darkseid’s death, and isthere a way back from Omega? Does the most frightening unknown the Challengershave ever faced lie within? As the rift between the Challengers and the JusticeLeague grows and becomes untenable, it’s up to Rocky Davis and Wonder Woman totry to get to the heart of the matter…or die trying! But an old foe will rear its headonce more—this time aboard the Watchtower, all in an effort to use the Challengersas a means to a nefarious end. Doors close, and alliances tilt, even while othergateways open...
Kindle Edition
Published April 16, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 18, 2025
WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WAS THAT?! OMG, first off hell yes to Rocky what an MVP. Sure he had some thoughts about turning the entire challengers group against the JLU, but he was just doing it to protect his family and omg that was such a crazy ending. Like I have major theories now, and I can’t wait to see where they pop up next. As referenced in Terrific’s logs, this is it. This is the moment that everything has led up to. Terrific begins his logs by talking about everything that has come to this moment, the challengers they have had to quarantine and how Rocky stands by on his own still without any omega energy and all their theories about why that may be. But the most important thing that terrific references is something that happens off panel. Apparently he got visited by the phantom stranger because of the challengers!! What?! Dude, that is a huge deal. And the stranger specifically had this to say: “the challengers stand T the threshold of a door. It is their choice whether to close it…or open it.” I think we find out exactly what that door is in this issue, and omg that has huge potential behind it if what I’m thinking is true.
So the deck is stacked, the challengers are quarantined and rocking with the last remaining pieces of omega energy in the universe, where do we go from here?! Well which JL member hasn’t been included yet? Seems like this would be the perfect time for Diana to use her lasso of truth to try and compel something out of the challengers they may not know while everyone else stands safely behind glass, lol. And wow is that an effective method to take, almost immediately their eyes glow red and they begin to speak of their omega dying, but it must not die because omega is death and death is everything…”death is absolute.” WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?! ABSOLUTE?! Rocky describes himself as the strong man of the group, he doesn’t solve problems, but upon seeing his family like this he immediately knows something is wrong and understands whose power they are being flooded with.
Suddenly as these challengers react, all the other challengers in the base react as well. Rocky is the only one who doesn’t become light headed because he doesn’t have omega energy within him. But among the chorus of challengers muttering “absolute,” there is one voice saying it with the utmost certainty…ultivac. Now I do want to point out something strange that kinda occurs around this moment in the issue, I love the art but at some points Rocky’s head looks way bigger than the rest of his body and it makes his hands look like baby hands, lol. Nevertheless, Wonder Woman uses her power to knock back the out of control challengers and knock them back to their senses.
Afterwards Doc Mid-Nite recommends medically induced comas for all of them, but I have to agree with Rocky that putting them on the edge of death seems like the worst idea. Now what I don’t agree with Rocky on is the next drastic steps he takes, which is attempting to shut down the power to the watchtower. WW catches on and stops him, but it does leave a time where they have to get power full restored…which of course leaves the defenses down for ultivac to breach the watchtower. Now for some reason WW made a pit stop along the way to the ultivac fight to change out of her WW challengers styled uniform back into her normal WW armor. No clue why, but I guess it matches the cover of the issue now. As ultivac breaches the watchtower it begins saying something very similar to what the stranger warned about that omega is dying which threatens their absolute and they will open the door now to find HIM and restore omega. Ultivac immediately begins to use his tech to reach out into the watchtower and connect with every single challenger to call upon their omega energy and attempt to open the door. If you haven’t pieced together what door they are trying to open then you obviously haven’t read the all in special, lol.
Everything is going chaotic, space time fluctuations are off the chart and all the challengers are included except Rocky. So he steps up to Ultivac and calls him out on it. Why isn’t he included I. The big scheme, why does the have any omega energy. Ultivac admits that it does not know, but it knows a way Rocky can help…with his own death! I am shocked to my core as Ultivac sends a bolt right through Rocky’s chest. But it leads to my favorite moment in the entire issue, Rocky’s monologue on what death and life mean to him. He explains it like this, before the crash his entire personality revolved around being the strongest, but afterwards everything became so simple and he just let it all go and chose to live instead. Every second of every day became a gift. Rocky doesn’t have the capability of omega energy because he gives no power to death, only to life; and in some strange way this allows Ultivac and Rocky to meet on a different plane of existence. A plane of life, and it allows them to talk:
Ultivac: “I do not understand. Death is: Power.”
Rocky: “No. Life. Life is power.”
Ultivac: “But each challenger. We have touched death. We know death. Intimately.”
Rocky: “You’re right. Each one of us has seen it up close. Too close for comfort. But each time, for every single one of us…life won. Even for you. Friends die. People die. But you survived. We survive, ultivac. We live on. Why? Do you really think it’s to serve death? Or to be servants of this life we’ve been given?”
And with that emotional speech on the edge of death, ultivac realized too late that he was wrong and is sorry. That allows for Ultivac to release from the challengers, but it doesn’t stop the overload of omega energy and explosion that sends Ultivac and Rocky, still attached, into space. But as the challengers run to the scene and everyone tries to get their bearings…something happens with Rocky and Ultivac. A white light appears, and encompasses them, and next to that light is a single figure…skeets!! The rest of the Justice league doesn’t know this, they think that Rocky and Ultivac dissipated throughout the universe. It’s an unfortunate thing to bond on, but it finally allows for Terrific to apologize and join forces back with the challengers on even ground. But what they don’t know is that Rocky and Ultiva are still very much alive. They awake to find themselves on challengers mountain, which should be impossible as all of that was destroyed…unless they were sent into the past. But I have different idea, they very well could be in the past but we saw skeets. Which makes me think an even worse idea, what if they are in the absolute universe instead? That means they have crossed into a world of omega energy, into a world controlled by darkseid. Welcome to the ultimate unknown fellas!! Wow this is gonna be a bumpy ride.
So the deck is stacked, the challengers are quarantined and rocking with the last remaining pieces of omega energy in the universe, where do we go from here?! Well which JL member hasn’t been included yet? Seems like this would be the perfect time for Diana to use her lasso of truth to try and compel something out of the challengers they may not know while everyone else stands safely behind glass, lol. And wow is that an effective method to take, almost immediately their eyes glow red and they begin to speak of their omega dying, but it must not die because omega is death and death is everything…”death is absolute.” WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?! ABSOLUTE?! Rocky describes himself as the strong man of the group, he doesn’t solve problems, but upon seeing his family like this he immediately knows something is wrong and understands whose power they are being flooded with.
Suddenly as these challengers react, all the other challengers in the base react as well. Rocky is the only one who doesn’t become light headed because he doesn’t have omega energy within him. But among the chorus of challengers muttering “absolute,” there is one voice saying it with the utmost certainty…ultivac. Now I do want to point out something strange that kinda occurs around this moment in the issue, I love the art but at some points Rocky’s head looks way bigger than the rest of his body and it makes his hands look like baby hands, lol. Nevertheless, Wonder Woman uses her power to knock back the out of control challengers and knock them back to their senses.
Afterwards Doc Mid-Nite recommends medically induced comas for all of them, but I have to agree with Rocky that putting them on the edge of death seems like the worst idea. Now what I don’t agree with Rocky on is the next drastic steps he takes, which is attempting to shut down the power to the watchtower. WW catches on and stops him, but it does leave a time where they have to get power full restored…which of course leaves the defenses down for ultivac to breach the watchtower. Now for some reason WW made a pit stop along the way to the ultivac fight to change out of her WW challengers styled uniform back into her normal WW armor. No clue why, but I guess it matches the cover of the issue now. As ultivac breaches the watchtower it begins saying something very similar to what the stranger warned about that omega is dying which threatens their absolute and they will open the door now to find HIM and restore omega. Ultivac immediately begins to use his tech to reach out into the watchtower and connect with every single challenger to call upon their omega energy and attempt to open the door. If you haven’t pieced together what door they are trying to open then you obviously haven’t read the all in special, lol.
Everything is going chaotic, space time fluctuations are off the chart and all the challengers are included except Rocky. So he steps up to Ultivac and calls him out on it. Why isn’t he included I. The big scheme, why does the have any omega energy. Ultivac admits that it does not know, but it knows a way Rocky can help…with his own death! I am shocked to my core as Ultivac sends a bolt right through Rocky’s chest. But it leads to my favorite moment in the entire issue, Rocky’s monologue on what death and life mean to him. He explains it like this, before the crash his entire personality revolved around being the strongest, but afterwards everything became so simple and he just let it all go and chose to live instead. Every second of every day became a gift. Rocky doesn’t have the capability of omega energy because he gives no power to death, only to life; and in some strange way this allows Ultivac and Rocky to meet on a different plane of existence. A plane of life, and it allows them to talk:
Ultivac: “I do not understand. Death is: Power.”
Rocky: “No. Life. Life is power.”
Ultivac: “But each challenger. We have touched death. We know death. Intimately.”
Rocky: “You’re right. Each one of us has seen it up close. Too close for comfort. But each time, for every single one of us…life won. Even for you. Friends die. People die. But you survived. We survive, ultivac. We live on. Why? Do you really think it’s to serve death? Or to be servants of this life we’ve been given?”
And with that emotional speech on the edge of death, ultivac realized too late that he was wrong and is sorry. That allows for Ultivac to release from the challengers, but it doesn’t stop the overload of omega energy and explosion that sends Ultivac and Rocky, still attached, into space. But as the challengers run to the scene and everyone tries to get their bearings…something happens with Rocky and Ultivac. A white light appears, and encompasses them, and next to that light is a single figure…skeets!! The rest of the Justice league doesn’t know this, they think that Rocky and Ultivac dissipated throughout the universe. It’s an unfortunate thing to bond on, but it finally allows for Terrific to apologize and join forces back with the challengers on even ground. But what they don’t know is that Rocky and Ultiva are still very much alive. They awake to find themselves on challengers mountain, which should be impossible as all of that was destroyed…unless they were sent into the past. But I have different idea, they very well could be in the past but we saw skeets. Which makes me think an even worse idea, what if they are in the absolute universe instead? That means they have crossed into a world of omega energy, into a world controlled by darkseid. Welcome to the ultimate unknown fellas!! Wow this is gonna be a bumpy ride.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2025
Really glad I decided to start reading this series. Its pretty important to the whole Absolute line going on. Can't wait to see what's next.
August 19, 2025
interesting thriller with conspiracies and of course the challengers
August 29, 2025
Seriously? THAT'S where you're going to end it?!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews