Plot: The revival of Kirby's team of the sixties, given a nineties spin; a Vertigo title before there was a Vertigo.
Just had to share this with you, not a trade paperback in reality, but an eight issue mini-series from 1991. Yes, you may feel that I've flipped my lid, but these issues are well worth hunting down.
The pedigree behind them? Well howabout the first comics work of Jeph Loeb, and the first collaboration of the Loeb/Sale team? With Batman: Dark Victory currently winning critical (and sales) acclaim, and formerly the same for Batman: The Long Halloween and Superman: A Man For All Seasons, finding these eight issues in a bargain bin for just five pounds was like mana from heaven.
OK, so the relative inexperience of Loeb shows a little in the storyline, but the whole plot hangs together remarkably well for a first-time writer, and even for someone who had no real idea of the history behind Challengers of the Unknown, the story flowed well, entertainingly, and thoroughly enjoyably.
So, what's the plot then? A number of years after their last, successful, adventure, the CotU (a foursome of "ordinary" men, who did extraordinary things) live in semi-retirement in Challengers Mountain. At the foot of the mountain, a whole community has built up around them, for the tourist trade that the presence of such famous people generates.
There's also a magazine devoted to their current exploits - Tattletale - which is falling on hard times as the CotU really have nothing unknown left to be challenged by. The biggest story of recent weeks is one of the CotU obtaining a cat, which subsequently died (cause unknown - hmmm, maybe that should be their next challenge?).
Peace and serenity pervade the area - well, that's until the mountain gets blown apart by person supposedly-unknown, one of the Challengers is killed in the explosion, and the rest held responsible. Escaping jail by the skin of their teeth (thanks to a deposition by Superman in the trial), the remaining trio are left destitute and split up to go their separate ways.
One goes off to become a movie star, one to study magic, and one to become a vigilante.
And then people start to die.
The reason behind all these deaths, the initial explosion, and how the CotU reform with a surprise fourth member (not the man whom you're led to believe all the way through), is covered in these eight issues. And maybe the secret behind the man who laid the explosives at the start of issue #1 is relevant to the storyline in Dark Victory? Well, we shall see.
Not your standard comic book series, not (much) related to the CotU of old, a few stylistic tricks to break up the standard panel format - some of which appear old, but that's just because other creators have ripped them off in the intervening nine years.
Well worth tracking down and reading as a whole run - go on, treat yourself, you won't regret it.
