Some have claimed that Kirby reworked the basic concept of the series with Stan Lee in 1961 to create The Fantastic Four, the first creation that marked the rise of Marvel Comics.

[7] The series continued in the bimonthly Showcase for three more appearances (#7, 11–12, April 1957, December 1957 – February 1958)[8] then moved to its own title, starting with issue #1 (May 1958).

Elements of this revival later appeared in several Superboy stories around the turn of the millennium, as a second, unrelated group had a title in the late 1990s as part of the Weirdoverse line.

The roster included Ace Morgan, Prof Haley, Rocky Davis and Red Ryan, with their occasional companion June Robbins.

[12] Ryan was killed and briefly replaced by his younger brother Marty, a pop singer who used the anagram ID of Tino Manarry.

Toward the end of the original series, a woman with an occult background named Corinna Stark acted as a fifth member of the team.

Prepublication solicitations for various Countdown to Final Crisis tie-ins referred to the group of Donna Troy, Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner, and "Bob" (a nefarious, renegade "purist" Monitor), as "Challengers from Beyond".

This group went on a quest through the newly formed multiverse to find Ray Palmer, whom Bob claimed was essential to the survival of the universe.

Leslie "Rocky" Davis appears regularly in Doom Patrol, in which he serves as something of a counselor to the members of that team, and resides on Oolong Island.

Clay, the contestants, producer June, and pilots Ace and Maverick, were lost in the Himalayas when their plane crashed under mysterious circumstances.

[13] All but one of them showed up weeks later, remembering a recuperation in Nanda Parbat, in which the city's elder told them to beware the unknown, but also to challenge it.

With their home base on a Metropolis soundstage dubbed "Challengers Mountain", the group sought out the talismans in far-flung corners of the world, usually accompanied by some oddity, like warrior statues or giant-ant-spewing portals.

Their greatest initial challenge came when in a short period their show was cancelled and they were attacked by their dead friend, "Ace" the pilot.

The Dark Prof recruits Trina Alvarez, Moses Barber, Krunch, and Bethany Hopkins as the most current incarnation of the team.

They soon discover his evil intentions and send him back to the Dark Multiverse, saving Ace, Red, Rocky and Prof in the process.

When acquaintances miraculously survive a plane crash unscathed, they conclude that since they are "living on borrowed time" they should band together for hazardous adventures.

The four—pilot Kyle "Ace" Morgan, daredevil Matthew "Red" Ryan, strong and slow-witted Leslie "Rocky" Davis, and scientist Walter Mark "Prof" Haley—became the Challengers of the Unknown.

They encounter the likes of the Doom Patrol, Deadman, Swamp Thing, Jonny Double, and the Sea Devils, with whom they fight the criminal group Scorpio.

Red eventually returns; though blown up, he had been dosed with shape-changing Liquid Light and rendered amnesiac, but still nearly conquered the Pacific as a Tiki god.

They are Clay Brody, NASCAR driver; Brenda Ruskin, physicist; Kenn Kawa, radical games designer; and Marlon Corbet, commercial pilot, who also miraculously survived a plane crash.

They stopped sacrificial wackos, drug-juiced zombies, vengeful ghosts, Amazon cults, Lovecraftian monsters, mass suicides, humming buildings, and other oddities.

Reunited with Rocky in Metropolis, hosted by Rip Hunter, the original Challengers vow to explore Hypertime, "the greatest unknown", to find Red.

[23] The Challengers make a brief appearance in the Elseworlds miniseries Conjurers, set in an alternate DCU where magic is a part of mainstream society.

These are the "Volume 3" Challengers, but given the nicknames of the originals: Kenn is "Prof", Clay is "Rocky", Brenda is "Red", and Marlon is "Ace".

Since Kenn was always shown as the most "mystical" of the new Challs, it makes sense that he would be "Prof" in a magical universe, rather than Brenda, the team's scientist.

The Challengers also made brief appearances in JLA: Another Nail (when all time periods meld together) and The Adventures of Superman Annual #7 (as part of a strikeforce of non-powered heroes).

Started as a part of DC's Weirdoverse group of titles, the 1996 series was published for a total of eighteen issues, cover dated February 1997 to July 1998.

Yes, it can now be told, and I freely admit, that we threw out the original team because, Space Cowboys aside, trying to pitch a concept built around four aging white guys to a TV market focused on a youth audience and pushing a veneer of multiculturalism (plenty of activist groups argue it's a pretty thin, even invisible, veneer, and they make a good case) would have been flat-out stupid, a waste of everyone's time and money.

Though the series was generally unrelated to superhero conventions and the broader DC Universe, the group participated in the Superman storyline Millennium Giants and later have original Challengers member Rocky Davis as a mentor.