Challengers of the Unknown #5 // Review
Diana is using the Lasso of Truth on every one of the team. At once. (Well...MOST of the team anyway. Only Ace, June and Prof. Red are infected by the radiation so they’re the ones who are being questioned.) Rocky Davis is a bit upset about the situation. Feels he has to save his friends before the Justice League does something rash. Of course...that just might involve HIM doing something equally as rash in Challengers of the Unknown #5. Writer Christopher Cantwell continues a new vision for the team that is brought to page and panel by the art team of Sen Izaakse and Amancay Nahuelpan. Color comes to the page courtesy of Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Their eyes begin to glow red as each of them holds the lasso. Diana holds the other end. She can feel it. They are flooded with the power of the Omega. Darkseid’s power. Dana has got to do something about it. She CAN do something about it. But before she does ANYTHING, she’s going to have to apologize to Rocky in advance for any injuries that he’s going to sustain. And he IS going to sustain injuries from what she does. It’s okay, though. He survives. He forgives her. But this is only the beginning.
Cantwell’s big climax is a bit...cheesy and sentimental, but it draws right from the largely unspoken heart at the center of the Challengers concept. It’s clever stuff. Each issue seems to have been focussing on a different major crossover with a different major Justice League member. If he’s going to be focussing on a peaceful solution to a violent threat, he’s chosen the right team member with Wonder Woman. There’s some wisdom in the nucleus of the script and quite a bit of wit around the edges of it all. It fits together quite well in a major conclusion to a big conflict.
Izaakse and Nahuelpan deliver action and drama to the page through some pretty imprssively-framed visuals. It can be difficult to get across the dangers of a massive physical conflict on a space statino the size of a large office complex, but Cantwell’s script gives the art team ample opportunity to get an appropriate fel for the dangers involved. The feeling of the more thoughtful moments of the issue are given a bit of power as well. Fajardo’s color gives a sinister radiance to the glowing red eye of those possessed by the Omega.
This is the last issue of this particular run of Challnegers. It’s a very sharp idea with a lot of passion at its core, but it’s never really had a great deal of success since its initial late 1950s run with creator Jack Kirby. Cantwell does a good job of presenting the concept of intrepid non-super-powered explorers of the unknown. The focus on a group of people given a new lease on life having survived death remains a very appealing idea which will continue to echo into other series as the team makes supporting crossover appearances elsewhere.
