Showcase Presents Challengers of the Unknown #2

In "The Menace of Mystery Island," the Challengers of the Unknown find themselves stranded on a remote Caribbean isle after June inherits the property. When they rescue an alien creature named Cosmo, the team soon faces a volcanic split and a hidden danger—man-made traps and a secret weapons depot beneath the island's surface. With Prof and Red trapped in a steel cage and Ace, Rocky, and June ensnared in a net, Cosmo's surprising powers become their only hope.

In "The Doomed World of Tomorrow," the Challengers of the Unknown are thrust into a future where Earth faces annihilation by alien Cosmic Creatures. With the fate of humanity resting on a powerful volti-ray, they volunteer to sacrifice themselves—but not all who step forward have pure intentions. As tensions rise and secrets unravel, the team must confront a dangerous deception before they can save the world.

In "The Alien Who Stole a Planet," the Challengers encounter two stranded aliens in need of a rare element to repair their ship, only to find one of their own has a far more dangerous agenda—seeking to return and seize control of their homeworld. Written by a team known for their sci-fi flair and illustrated with a sharp, grounded style, the story blends alien intrigue with the moral weight of choices made in desperation.

In "The Beasts from the Fabulous Gem," Hank Roney finally claims the legendary gem he's long pursued—only to unleash its dark power, granting him control over two colossal creatures. The Challengers of the Unknown must race to reclaim the gem and stop the rampaging beasts before they bring ruin to the city.

In "The Curse of the Golden God," the Challengers of the Unknown venture into the jungle on a rescue mission, only to stumble upon two lost explorers, Hinton and Jarvis, who claim to be haunted by the ancient god Xechulan and demand gold. After retrieving a sacred shield and witnessing their bizarre transformation into golden statues, the team unravels a deception that leads to a shocking revelation about the true nature of the curse.

In "The Thing in Challenger Mountain," the Challengers of the Unknown find themselves facing five mysterious warriors—gladiator, knight, Babylonian, cave man, and viking—stranded in a modern-day town near Challenger Mountain. When the team subdues the time-displaced fighters and brings them back to their base, a sudden intrusion by the alien J’Kal and his monstrous companion Monstus throws everything into chaos. As the Challs fight to escape their captors, a surprise arrival by an alien lawman promises a resolution—but not before the fate of the warriors hangs in the balance.

In "Death Guarded the Doom Box," the Challengers of the Unknown race against time to recover the legendary Doom Box from the clutches of thief Burt Langdon, who’s stolen the Horn of Herix. Trapped in a treacherous valley, the team navigates deadly traps—ravenous alligators, a tree that lifts like an elevator, and ancient robot Romans—before confronting the box’s fiery guardian and a two-headed dragon. When Ace blows the horn, a powerful beam repels the beast, but the real danger is just beginning as Langdon’s gang makes their move.

In "The Island in the Sky," the Challengers of the Unknown are called to a rooftop restaurant where objects have begun vanishing into thin air. When the team investigates, they uncover a hidden cloud city above the earth, home to alien criminals who’ve seized control of a flying platform and imprisoned innocent people in mysterious cylinders. As Ace and Red confront the hijackers on the platform, Rocky and the Prof battle a colossal metal insect, only to be joined by the platform’s rightful alien scientists—now freed from the criminals’ grasp—leading to a final clash that brings the skyborne threat to an end.

In "Multi-Man, Master of Earth," the shape-shifting villain unleashes his newfound power as an energy being, morphing into surreal forms like a floating moon-man and a sponge-man to outwit the Challengers. As he schemes to seize control of Earth, the team must race to stop him—only for a desperate twist to send him crashing into a mountain, leaving him with no memory of who he was.

In "Master of the Volcano Men," the Challengers of the Unknown journey to a secluded island to investigate a mysterious force tied to ancient volcanic activity. There, they confront Dr. Gruner’s creations—volcano humanoids—engineered to battle the fabled Volcano Man, whose true nature remains shrouded in mystery.

In "Four Roads to Doomsday," the Challengers of the Unknown race against time to stop four mysterious machines from unleashing global catastrophes—only to discover the truth is far more complicated than they imagined. When their efforts to destroy the devices backfire, they’re forced to confront a shocking betrayal and a planet that may have been saved by the very threat they sought to eliminate.

In "The War between the Challenger Teams," the Challengers of the Unknown find themselves caught in a violent clash between two underwater factions—the fish-like Martinels and the fiery Lavanites—each vying for control of ancient oil pipes beneath the ocean floor. As Prof and Rocky are taken captive by the Martinels, Ace and Red plunge into the depths to rescue them, only to stumble into the midst of the same escalating conflict, unaware that their own actions are fueling the danger. With both sides racing to set explosives that could trigger a volcanic eruption, the teams finally collide, forcing a tense realization: their fight isn't just about territory, but about survival—and peace may be the only way out.

In "The Man Who Saved the Challengers' Lives," Wilfred Clayton claims he was the hero behind their survival after a plane crash, sparking each Challenger to recall their pasts. Rocky remembers defeating a brutal opponent in the ring, even after being drugged, while the Prof reflects on a reckless moment that changed him—colliding with a work boat and discovering the true cost of heroism through a man who labored to save a forgotten statue.

In "The Secret from the Challengers' Past," the origins of the team’s bond begin to unravel as each Challenger recalls a pivotal moment before they ever met: Red, a young technician in a South American dictatorship, faces a moral choice when a child pleads with him to stop a tyrant’s plans. Ace, a daring pilot ferrying dangerous cargo, proves his courage when a crate of nitro escapes, and later, after a crash that leaves them all clinging to life, Clayton reveals he was the one who saved them—now asking for a favor that ties their fates to a mysterious statue in the jungle.

In the jungles of South America, the Challengers of the Unknown race against time to assemble an ancient statue—only to find themselves trapped by its mechanical limbs. When the statue reveals itself as a dormant robot, Clayton captures the team and Dr. Steuben, the inventor behind the machine. As Ace and Rocky struggle to reattach the final arm, the robot’s sudden frenzy hints at a deeper betrayal buried in the past.

In "One Challenger Must Die!", the Challengers of the Unknown face a terrifying threat as two re-emerging volcano-men erupt from the earth, forcing the team into a tense split. With Prof advocating for carbon dioxide foam and Ace pushing for liquid oxygen, their conflicting strategies lead to disaster—until the two monsters merge into a single, overwhelming force. As chaos unfolds, the team must set aside their differences and unite to face the fused threat, discovering that only cooperation can turn the tide.

In "Cosmo Turns Traitor," the Challengers face a mind-bending threat when Mastermind manipulates the alien D'Jann into turning against them, using a substance converter to transform the team into elemental forms—flame, cloud, wind, and flat. As the Challengers struggle to fight back, Cosmo's strange behavior hints at a hidden truth, but it's only when D'Jann realizes the real villain that the tide turns.

In "The Challengers Meet Their Master," the team faces off against the elusive criminal Jacquard, who tests each Challenger in their own domain—Prof at skin-diving, Red at mountain-climbing, and Rocky in the ring—leaving them humbled. When Ace seemingly loses a dogfight to Jacquard, the group is crushed, only to realize he faked the defeat to teach them a lesson—until Jacquard escapes and strikes, forcing the team to rely on quick thinking and a well-timed sprinkler system to turn the tide.

In the storm-lashed waters off Cape Cod, the Challengers of the Unknown track a mysterious science buoy—only to uncover a long-sunken Nazi submarine, its crew preserved in suspended animation. When the Nazis awaken and launch a final, desperate attack by planting a super-bomb on American soil, the team must fight their way to shore, using their wits, courage, and the captured enemy weapons to stop the detonation. With Prof deciphering their chilling mission and Rocky making a daring move to save the day, the fate of the Eastern seaboard hangs in the balance.

In "Multi-Woman, Queen of Disaster," the Challengers of the Unknown race to stop Multi-Man, who’s hijacked a rocket armed with a death ray and is demanding his own nation where crime reigns—his loneliness driving him to build a giant female robot companion and drink Liquid Light to become a colossus himself. When the team finally confronts him, Prof makes a desperate move with the antidote, only to be blocked by the towering menace.

In "The War against the Moon Beast," a reckless scientific experiment sends shockwaves across the cosmos—unleashing a monstrous entity from the Moon that descends upon Earth, devouring metal and blasting through the ground with organic jets. With the Challengers of the Unknown racing to contain the rampaging beast, they uncover an alien ship's log and a jar of ancient anesthesia, leading to a desperate plan to stop the creature before it destroys everything in its path.

In "Sons of the Challengers," a futuristic vision at Fun-Land reveals a world where the Challengers have aged, married (Ace and June), and raised a new generation—kids who play at being heroes, led by a bold young girl named Roxy Davis. When the children chase the Flying Fishmen, who raid ships from an underwater dome built on a forgotten movie set, Roxy proves her worth by following the others despite being dismissed as a pest. With the elders arriving to rescue their kids and stop the crooks, the line between prophecy and imagination blurs—was this future truly glimpsed, or just a clever illusion?

In "The Last Days of the Challengers," the team finds themselves caught in a deadly trap set by the late Professor Elber, whose final scheme outlives him. With his robots now operating on their own, the Challengers must fight to survive the very machinery he designed to destroy them.