Random Happenstance

Trash everywhere, punks roaming the streets freely, handy bricks and blunt instruments in the streets...great Rao, it's that Challengers of the Unknown/Double Dragon crossover l wanted! Awesome! From Adventures of Superman #508, "The Future is Now!" Written by Karl Kesel, pencils by Barry Kitson, inks by Ray McCarthy.

Karl Kesel is cool, yet often seems to get the shaft: he's also done some Fantastic Four stuff that really shone, just nailing the way they worked as a family. He also did a short run of Daredevil that was leaning more towards the old Stan Lee party-funtime DD, less the brooding-in-the-graveyard Frank Miller version. Over at DC, he did a ton of the new Superboy stories, even some with Hypertime, both of which are never to be spoken of again in the new continuity.

Unfortunately, while he tells interesting stories in a timely fashion, it seems like Kesel is often called in when time is tight, than replaced but another "hot" writer, or rotated out on editorial changes. Disappointing, but he still gets the job done when he comes in. And he loves him some Challengers of the Unknown, having done more than a couple of guest spots, one-shots, and the Amalgam Challengers of the Fantastic.

Somewhere in blogville, somebody was talking about what a great idea the Challengers are, and how it would translate pretty well to movies or TV. And it probably would've, too, if so much of it hadn't already been stolen/appropriated/'homaged'. Their origin, four strangers who meet after walking away from a plane crash, probably wasn't completely new at the time, but would be hard to do now, as new audiences would scream "Lost rip-off!" and leave before the credits started.

There have been several different incarnations or interpretations of the Challs, and while I enjoyed what I saw of the 90's X-Files-style version, it usually comes back to the Kirby jumpsuit guys, and often leaves them in the 50's or 60's. That's OK: they were of their time, and I like the idea of a different era of heroes at DC. (Post JSA, pre-JLA.) And they'll be back: one of the great things about comics, is that characters can turn up whenever and wherever, and you don't have to worry about the actors getting all old, cranky, or dead.