Not So Challenging . . .
The Challengers of the Unknown are an old mainstay at DC Comics. The only real exposures I’ve had to them are throwbacks, mentions in other stories, and their cameo in Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier. But I’ve never actually sat down and read a Challengers story myself. After this brief encounter I’m not sure I’m going to continue. It wasn’t a bad issue, but it also wasn’t anything that really captured my attention.
The story revolves around the new Challengers of the Unknown reality TV show where “celebrities” are put the test in challenges. Ace Morgan is the only character that I recognize from the original team and he’s soon dispatched so that we’re left with the group of reality TV stars who are completely unlikable. I understand that they’re supposed to be unlikable but they’re supposed to be unlikable in a fun way. All of these characters just feel like stereotypes that don’t really go anywhere.
That being said I did enjoy the last sequence where they encountered the giant snow monster and had to make a daring escape. I think if they had focused less on the real world (put in any pun you’d like) situations and more on the classic monster and adventure stories that make Challengers so great that it would have turned out to be a little more exciting. I can appreciate that they were trying to change things up, and comic book titles definitely need that, but the reality TV show thing was kind of a poor move.
I’m willing to check out the next issue, but unless all of these characters end up dying I might drop the book. I also can’t believe I just said. This issue gets a 2.5/5 for being okay on the whole, but nothing to write home about.
