Red Ryan, loyal buddy of a million adventures, is dead!  Sacrificed for a world that will not long remember him!

 

 

Challengers of the Unknown editor Murray Boltinoff and writer Arnold Drake had delivered a stunning blow to their readers.  They killed off not just a regular character, but a star of the book.  In issue # 55, Challenger Red Ryan had unhesitatingly blown himself to smithereens in order to save millions of innocent lives.  His death was noble, dramatic, and had repercussions on his teammates.  That issue and the two following formed an arc which examined the remaining Challengers coming to terms with the loss.

 

After a brief bout with depression, Ace and Prof and Rocky realised that crying in their beers was no way to honour Red’s memory and they kicked themselves back into action.  They also discovered that Red had a kid brother, Martin, better known as rock-and-roll sensation Tino Manarry.  Tino had blamed the surviving Challs for Red’s death and came very close to killing them before learning how his brother had sacrificed himself. 

"He did it!" choked the anguished youngster, upon discovering the truth.  "He blew himself up to save half-a-country full of people he never knew!"

 

With Tino and the Challengers finally accepting the loss, it was time to move on.  And that’s just what they did in Challs # 58 (Oct.-Nov., 1967).

 

The story in that issue, “Live Till Tomorrow”, is a straight-up adventure pitting the Challengers against Neutro, a super-villain with the ability to transmute elements.  As they have on countless previous adventures, the Challs overcome a fantastically powered threat with nothing more than human skill and courage.  Tino Manarry makes another appearance, but it’s marginal.  The Challengers do the heavy lifting and put an end to the villain’s nuclear threat. 

 

In the meantime, the first wave of reader responses had arrived on Murray Boltinoff’s desk.  The previous issue’s “Let’s Chat with the Challs” letter column led off with this missive, followed by commentary by Boltinoff.

 

The subsequent comments in print supported Boltinoff’s statement that the majority of fans approved of the story, and while they may not have been happy over the demise of one of the Challs, they acknowledged it was a realistic development.  Some readers went further than that, entreating Boltinoff and Drake to avoid the typical comic book out-of-the-hat resurrection and keep Red Ryan’s dirt nap permanent.

 

 

 

  

In Challs # 59 (Dec., 1967-Jan., 1968), the Death-Cheaters are drawn into international intrigue when Prof is unable to raise his chess-by-radio buddy, King Taluga, ruler of the Polynesian island of Vaniki.  Flying to Vaniki Island, the Challs discover that Taluga has been overthrown.  His formerly peaceful subjects have been turned into a cultist army, held under the thrall of the ancient god, Seekeenakee.  According to island legend, Seekeenakee was a stone god who ruled their land a thousand years ago.  Ace and Rocky and Prof are certain that the real agency behind the revolt is a normal human taking advantage of the Seekeenakee myth---until they meet the stone god in person and nearly lose their heads to him.

 

The Challs go underground and uncover Seekeenakee’s scheme.  Using Vaniki Island as his base, the stone-hewn demagogue plans to spread his rule first to near-by island nations and then throughout the Pacific rim.  His “Holy Four”---a nuclear physicist, an international banker, a Hollywood actress, and a professional hit man, each seeing an opportunity for power---have begun to infiltrate those neighbouring islands and sabotage their governments from within.

 

The Challengers launch a pitched resistance but find themselves stymied at every turn, as their foe shows an inexplicable familiarity with the team’s own tricks and is able to stay one step ahead of them.  Fortunately, a fallback ploy arranged by Prof puts Seekeenakee directly under a bomb dropped from the Challengers’ aircraft.  Once the so-called god is buried under tons of rubble, the Challs make short work of the leaderless disciples.

 

It is not the end, though.  The adventure concludes with the discovery that, once the rubble has been cleared away, there is no trace of Seekeenakee.

 

 

 

 

The sequel follows in the next issue, as the Challengers, accompanied by Tino Manarry, return to Vaniki Island to search for Seekeenakee.  Instead of finding the remains of the stone idol, the team uncovers a none-too-friendly giant lizard-man.  They manage to set the thing ablaze with some incendiary bombs, only to see it transform into a huge bird and fly to freedom.

 

Putting 1 + 1 + 1 together, Ace deduces that Seekeenakee, the giant lizard-man, and the raptor were all the same being, someone who changes his form at will, and the Challs know just the guy who can do that---Multi-Man!  Flying to the cavern prison where they keep the Challenger-Haters locked away, the team is surprised to find that Multi-Man is still in his cell.  The gloating villain informs them that he has taught someone else the formula for “liquid light”---the elixir which gives him the power to transform.

 

Meanwhile, strange attacks are made on certain factories around the world, plants which manufacture frozen nitrox, a vital component of the liquid-light formula.  In each case, a bizarre creature invades the factory and steals the nitrox stores.  The Challengers rush to the only remaining unattacked nitrox plant, in Italy, and arrive in time to intervene in the changeling’s assault.  Following a heated battle, the Challengers are able to drench their shape-shifting opponent with gallons of antidote.  As his power wanes, the villain makes his final transformation, back to his normal form.  The form of a man . . . . 

 

Red Ryan!

 

The liquid light, it seemed, had scrambled Red’s brains to the point where he had become the power-mad Seekeenakee.  Even though he had believed himself to be the living stone god, his sub-conscious mind had retained enough memory of his life as a Challenger to enable him to anticipate his old partners’ usual tactics.  Now, freed of the effects of the liquid light, his mind returns to normal.

 

The story didn’t address all the questions.  How did Red survive the explosion in Turkey?  Why didn’t he contact his teammates?  Where did he encounter Multi-Man and learn the secret of liquid light?  Those answers would come later.  Right now, the Challengers and Tino were too busy being overjoyed at having Red back.

 

Also overjoyed were the fans, or at least those whose comments saw print in the Challs letter column . . . .

 

“My heartfelt gratitude for having brought back Red,” said Steven Archer, of Troy, New York.

 

Even more impassioned was Gary Skinner, of Columbus, Ohio, who wrote:  “All I can do now is give out a cry of happiness and a sigh of relief.  Red is home!”

 

There were a few who objected to Red’s resurrection.  The lettercol identifed two---Gordon Flagg, Jr., of Atlanta, Georgia,and Donald D. Markstein, of New Orleans, Louisiana.  Yes, the same Donald D. Markstein whose earlier letter of praise had been the first comment printed about Red’s death.

 

After stunning the comics world with the dramatic move of killing off a series star and then masterfully plumbing its emotional aftermath, why did Murray Boltinoff backpedal so quickly?  He provided his mea culpa in issue # 60 (Feb.-Mar., 1968):

 

 

 

 

Still unanswered was how Red avoided being blown to bits in Turkey and how he came upon the secret of liquid light.

The next pair of issues carried a two-part back-up tale, explaining how Red stumbled across the liquid-light formula and wound up as a native stone idol.  However, the biggest question---how did he survive blowing himself up?---was given the shortest shrift one could imagine.  The explanation was reduced to one ridiculous line of dialogue:  “Maybe it was because I was at the very eye of the explosion that I wasn’t destroyed---just blown sky-high!”

 

Speaking as someone who's had an uncomfortable acquaintance with things that go boom . . . .

 

B***s***!

 

People caught at ground zero don’t survive.  They vapourise.  It was such an insult to logic that it gutted any seriousness from rest of the story.  Arnold Drake might as well have written that mischievous elves turned Red Ryan into the stone god Seekeenakee.

 

It’s tough to blame Drake, though.  His boss told him to kill off Red Ryan and make it stick.  It wasn’t Drake’s fault that, a mere five issues later, Boltinoff changed his mind and told him to “unstick” it.  There was no remotely plausible way to pull that off.

 

 

 

 

Oh, I believe Boltinoff’s insistence that he intended for Red’s demise to be permanent.  The death scene that Drake devised left no wiggle room, and Boltinoff wouldn’t have painted himself into such a corner had he planned otherwise.  And he certainly wouldn’t have signed off on such a ridiculous explanation for Red’s survival, if it had been plotted in advance.

 

Unfortunately, Boltinoff’s decision to relent to the fans’ protests yanked the rug out from under the most dramatic storyline the title had ever seen.  Arnold Drake had not only given Red a true hero’s death, but he had realistically depicted its fall-out.  It was a remarkably mature effort.  Never had the Challengers seemed more human, more genuine, even among the usual comic-book trappings of costumed foes and fantastic menaces.

 

But death has the impact it does because it is permanent---at least in the real world.  Having Red pop up alive skewered the gravitas that Drake had inserted into the series.  Especially since Red’s escape from doom was given such a slap-dash and impossible explanation. 

 

It might not have mattered, anyway.  The end of the Silver Age was drawing near and, as with so many other DC titles, Challengers of the Unknown was about to experience a shake-up in tone and talent.  Beginning with issue # 62 (Jun.-Jul., 1968), the series underwent a thematic shift.  Super-villains and the occasional threat from outer space were out; witches, ghosts, and goblins were in.  The Challengers would now face threats heavily laced in the supernatural.  The first story in the new format put the Challs up against a cabal of mystic evil in the form of a vampire, an ancient Druid, a tribal medicine man, an Egyptian vizier, and a witch, known collectively as the Legion of the Weird.

 

Actually, this first foray into the occult wasn’t too bad a story, thanks to Bob Brown’s familiar art and Arnold Drake’s expert handling of the Challs.  Unfortunately, both Brown and Drake would be gone after issue # 63.  Brown’s solid, architectural drafting was replaced by the scratchy, murky art of Jack Sparling, a trade down by anybody’s yardstick.  And the writing chores were passed around among Robert Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, and Denny O’Neil, none of whom had the same feel for the individual Challengers’ personalities or sense of high adventure that Drake did.

 

To a savvy DC fan of the day, such changes signaled that the series was in trouble.  It would limp along for another year before turning to reprints for its last six issues.

 

Given the paradigm shift that was looming a mere two issues away, Boltinoff’s resurrection of Red Ryan seems even more pointless.  For many Challenger fans, including myself, the series ended when Drake and Brown left.  It’s a pity that they couldn’t have departed on the high note they had achieved when Red Ryan’s borrowed time ran out.

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  • What was really odd here was that the Liquid Light formula was supposed to be a sort of immortality serum, that caused the person who drank it to instantly "reincarnate" in strange new forms when they are "killed".  If they'd explained that Red had just taken the Liquid Light before he went after that bomb, the explosion could have simply caused him to transform into a giant stone monster, and it would have been perfectly reasonable within the established logic of the series.

  • One might suppose that in fact the real Red was killed in the explosion, that Red 2 was an exact duplicate, and the Challengers never found out.

    I can't find a picture of Seekeenakee online, other than the cover. I've seen an image or two previously. If my recollection of what he looked like isn't betraying me, he may have been the model for Kray-Tor in Strange Tales #180.

    The Donald D. Markstein who wrote those letters was likely the late Donald D. Markstein of Toonopedia.

    Might have beens dept: Perhaps instead of bringing Red back DC should have replaced him with F. Gaylord Clayburn III, whom the Commander wrote about here. Seekeenakee could've been revealed to be him instead of Red.

  • The Challengers have had miserable luck since the Silver Age. Their Bronze Age revival (which the Commander wrote about previously) wound up taking on a huge guest cast (Rip Hunter, Swamp Thing, Deadman ...). Then the next version killed a couple of them while implying (IIRC) that most of their adventures were just phony. Steven Grant's version used an all-new cast, and so did Howard Chaykin's.

    Though Mark Waid's use of them in the revived Brave and Bold was quite good.

  • One thing I really liked about DC's Zero Hour was that in the post-ZH history, the Silver Age second stringers (Doom Patrol, Challs, Sea Devils, Metamorpho) were established as having their glory days in the five years or so before Superman appeared, so they had an era when they were unquestionably the A-list heroes. But DC dropped that idea fairly soon.

  • The resurrection of Red Ryan was one of the biggest missteps in the Silver Age. Although Boltinoff mentioned the outcry from fans, I wonder if the titles falling sales were a factor. With Reds return along with all the other changes that occurred during the books final years, it seems like DC was trying anything and everything to attract readers.

  • According to Comichron, its reported average circulation in the 60s was as follows:

    1960 228,000

    That year DC's reporting titles ranged from Superman with 810,000 to All-Star Western with 154,000

    1961 235,000

    1962 195,000

    1965 220,965

    1966 210,316

    1967 182,200

    1968 166,450

    1969 140,238

    That year DC's reporting titles ranged from Superman with 511,984 to Showcase with 130,219. Challengers had five DC titles behind it in 1968, but in 1969 four of these were now ahead of it. The remaining one, Tomahawk, didn't report.

  • I reread the Commander's Log Entry through the link (and was amazed that I responded to it! I had forgotten!). Anyway Red had died and returned, had a sibling shattered by his "death" and lost one eye, then the other but had both replaced!

    Who does Red Ryan think he is?? Lightning Lad!
     
    Luke Blanchard said:

    One might suppose that in fact the real Red was killed in the explosion, that Red 2 was an exact duplicate, and the Challengers never found out.

    I can't find a picture of Seekeenakee online, other than the cover. I've seen an image or two previously. If my recollection of what he looked like isn't betraying me, he may have been the model for Kray-Tor in Strange Tales #180.

    The Donald D. Markstein who wrote those letters was likely the late Donald D. Markstein of Toonopedia.

    Might have beens dept: Perhaps instead of bringing Red back DC should have replaced him with F. Gaylord Clayburn III, whom the Commander wrote about here. Seekeenakee could've been revealed to be him instead of Red.

  • If Superman dropped from 810,000 to 511,984 during that time, a drop from 228,000 to 140,238 doesn't sound all that bad.
     
    Luke Blanchard said:

    According to Comichron, its reported average circulation in the 60s was as follows:

    1960 228,000

    That year DC's reporting titles ranged from Superman with 810,000 to All-Star Western with 154,000

    1961 235,000

    1962 195,000

    1965 220,965

    1966 210,316

    1967 182,200

    1968 166,450

    1969 140,238

    That year DC's reporting titles ranged from Superman with 511,984 to Showcase with 130,219. Challengers had five DC titles behind it in 1968, but in 1969 four of these were now ahead of it. The remaining one, Tomahawk, didn't report.

  • I think in the days prior to direct sales the circulation standards were a lot higher. Numbers that would be considered a roaring success today were cancellation bait then.

  • But Superman dropping by so much must have told them something was wrong and to expect their lesser titles to drop too. Superman fell by a bigger percentage. According to those sales figures the Silver Age ended in 1967. Perhaps many readers got drafted and never returned to comics when they came home?

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