I'm not even sure this was the first update to their origin...

...but it wasn't the last, either. From 1983, Adventure Comics #495, "Yesterday's Clues!" Written by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Alex Toth, inks by Frank Giacoia.

This was the third chapter in the "Secret Origin of the Challengers of the Unknown," and they weren't a team yet, just four guys that had miraculously survived a plane crash. But the plane crash had been the result of sabotage, which goes towards explaining how ace pilot Ace Morgan plowed into a mountain. Now the trouble was, they weren't exactly sure who the sabotage was meant for. Rocky Davis had been "cleared," the previous issue: the mobsters that had tried to fix his prizefight were mad, but that wasn't their hit. Ace had previously flown a load of explosives for gold miners in Alaska, and may have rubbed a tribe of Eskimos the wrong way. Ryan had recently crossed a South American wannabe dictator, and Professor Haley had an inheritance that a cousin was gunning for; but Ryan may have figured who the target was...

Tying their new origin to a "That's Incredible" style TV show dates it terribly; but along with the sabotage, there's also a bit of an update for Rocky: the boxer might play at being a palooka, but was actually reading War and Peace while waiting here.

The rest of this digest was reprints: two Legion of Super-Heroes stories, including 1962's "The Legion of Super-Traitors!", guest-starring the Legion of Super-Pets. From 1953, Captain Marvel Adventures #141, "The Man Without a World!" which is really, really close to the Justice League episode "In Blackest Night." From 1943's Adventure Comics #84 Sandman versus the "Crime Carnival!" Possibly one of the earliest of so many crime carnivals in comics...From 1968, the Spectre #2, "Die, Spectre, Again!" This was one of several Gardner Fox/Neal Adams stories I first read as tiny reprints. And from 1969, Aquaman #44, part of a pretty solid Steve Skeates/Jim Aparo serial.

For good measure, the GCD mentions: "This comic book appears in the movie "Dreamscape" (1984) starring Dennis Quaid and Kate Capshaw. The comic book (along with Arak, Son of Thunder #17) are lying on a coffee table about 11 minutes into the film." Man, I haven't seen that movie in years...