Challengers of the Unknown Archives, Volume 1 Book

Widely regarded as a precursor to the Fantastic Four (Prof, especially, seems a sort of proto-Reed Richards), the Challengers are a far less interesting quartet. Their absurd origin is that when they all survive a near-death experience, they decide, since they are living on borrowed time anyway, they will devote the rest of their lives to challenging the unknown, putting themselves at risk for the greater good. Not really any more absurd than acquiring cosmic ray induced powers, I suppose, but since it depends on psychology rather than a sort of deus ex machina, and therefore on something more realistic, is paradoxically becomes less plausible. Anyway, they go up against the usual array of mad scientists bend on world conquest, aliens, and monsters, usually prevailing by figuring out some unlikely method for defeating the enemy (my favourite is the giant vat of imagined acid uses to destroy the blades of the giant imagined vacuum cleaner that's about to suck in the Challengers--read the story, it makes sense, or whatever sense one can expect in such stories). The less than stellar restoration often damages Kirby's art, but his usual design and dynamism are nevertheless still evident, and there's no question he has a dandy eye for designing fascinating oddities. If you don't expect too much, you should find this an interesting diversion.