The Challengers of the Unknown are a group of fictional characters which were created by Jack Kirby for DC Comics. They were a quartet of adventurers who explored apparent paranormal occurances and found themselves facing fantastic menaces.
The group appeared in Showcase #6 in 1957. They were a group of acquaintances who suddenly experience and survive a plane crash. Miraculously, they all survived unscathed and came to the conclusion that since they should have been killed, they were all living on borrowed time. Given this reprieve, they decide to band together for more hazardous adventures. With this new resolve, they create the Challengers with an hourglass being their company logo and a special hollowed out mountain called the Challengers Mountain.
The strip continued in Showcase for three more appearances then moved to their title which have been hailed as among the most noted of Kirby's work in that period. After 12 issues, Kirby moved on and while the title continued, the series never achieved same level of acclaim.
The most noted influence of this creation was that Kirby's next major continuing character series, The Fantastic Four which was essentially the Challengers series in a superhero format, complete with a similar origin.
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