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The Short Death of Red Ryan (Part 3) |
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Written by Commander Benson
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Thursday, 24 January 2008 |
 “Red Ryan, loyal buddy of a million adventures, is dead! Sacrificed for a world that will not long remember him!”
Challengers of the Unknown editor Murray Boltinoff and writer Arnold Drake had delivered a stunning blow to their readers. They had killed off not just a regular character, but a star of the book. In issue # 55, Challenger Red Ryan had unhesitatingly blown himself to smithereens in order to save millions of innocent lives. His death was noble, dramatic, and had repercussions on his teammates. That issue and the two following formed an arc which examined the remaining Challengers coming to terms with the loss.
After a brief bout with depression, Ace and Prof and Rocky realised that crying in their beers was no way to honour Red’s memory, and they kicked themselves back into action. They also discovered that Red had a kid brother, Martin, better known as rock-and-roll sensation Tino Manarry. Tino had blamed the surviving Challs for Red’s death and came very close to killing them before learning how his brother had sacrificed himself. “He did it!” choked the anguished youngster, upon finding out the truth. “He blew himself up to save half-a-country full of people he never knew!”
With Tino and the Challengers finally accepting the loss, it was time to move on. And that’s just what they did in Challs # 58 (Oct.-Nov., 1967).
 The story in that issue, “Live Till Tomorrow”, was a straight-up adventure pitting the Challengers against Neutro, a super-villain with the ability to transmute elements. As on a thousand previous occasions, the Challs proved how human skill and courage could overcome a fantastically powered threat. Tino Manarry made another appearance, but it was marginal. The Challengers did the heavy lifting and put an end to the villain’s nuclear threat. This was the first tale after Red’s death not to involve him or his memory in some fashion. It would turn out to be the only one, as well.
In the next issue, the Death-Cheaters are drawn into international intrigue when Prof is unable to raise his chess-by-radio buddy, King Taluga, the ruler of
Vaniki
Island
, in the Polynesians. Flying to
Vaniki
Island
, the Challs discover that Taluga has been overthrown. His formerly peaceful subjects have been turned into a cultist army, held under the thrall of the ancient god, Seekeenakee. According to island legend, Seekeenakee was a stone god who ruled their land a thousand years previous. Ace and Rocky and Prof are certain that the real agency behind the revolt is a normal human taking advantage of the Seekeenakee myth -- until they meet the stone god in person, and nearly lose their heads to him.
Eluding the living rock being, the Challs go underground and uncover Seekeenakee’s scheme. Using
Vaniki
Island
as his base, the stone-hewn demagogue plans to spread his rule first to near-by island nations and then, throughout the Pacific rim. “The Holy Four” -- a nuclear physicist, an international banker, a
Hollywood
actress, and a professional hit man, who serve as the living stone idol’s lieutenants -- have begun to infiltrate those neighbouring islands and sabotage their governments from within.
The Challengers launch a pitched resistance effort but find themselves stymied at every turn as the stone god shows a unexplainable familiarity with the team’s own tricks and is able to stay one step ahead of them. Only a fallback ploy instituted by Prof leaves Seekeenakee vulnerable to a bomb dropped by the Challengers’ aircraft. Once the so-called god is buried under tons of rubble, the Challs make short work of the leaderless disciples.
It is not the end, though. The adventure concludes with the discovery that, once the rubble has been removed, there is no trace of Seekeenakee.
The sequel follows in the next issue, as the Challengers, accompanied by Tino Manarry, return to
Vaniki
Island
to search for Seekeenakee. Instead of finding the remains of the stone idol, the team has its hands full dealing with a giant lizard man. They manage to set the thing ablaze with some incendiary bombs, only to see it transform into a huge bird and fly to freedom.
 Putting 1 + 1 + 1 together, Ace deduces that Seekeenakee, the giant lizard man, and the bird were all one being, a being who can change his form at will, and the Challs know just the guy who can do that -- Multi-Man! Flying to the cavern prison where the Challenger-Haters are imprisoned, the Challengers are surprised to find that Multi-Man is still in his cell. The gloating villain informs them that he has taught someone else the formula for “liquid light” -- the elixir which gives him the power to transform.
Meanwhile, strange attacks are made on certain factories around the world, plants which manufacture frozen nitrox, a vital component of the liquid light formula. In each case, a bizarre creature invades the factory and steals the nitrox stores. The Challengers rush to the only remaining unattacked nitrox plant, in
Italy
, and arrive in time to intervene in the changeling’s assault. Following a heated battle, the Challengers are able to drench their constantly transforming opponent with gallons of antidote, whipped up by Prof. As his power wanes, the villain makes his final transformation, back to his normal form. The form of a man . . . .
Red Ryan!
The liquid light, it seemed, had scrambled Red’s brains to the point where he had become the power-mad Seekeenakee. Even though he had believed himself to be the living stone god, his sub-conscious had retained enough memory of his life as a Challenger to enable him to stymie his partners’ usual tactics. Now, freed of the effects of the liquid light, his mind returns to normal.
The story didn’t address all the questions. How did Red survive the explosion in
Turkey
? Why didn’t he contact his teammates? Where did he encounter Multi-Man and learn the secret of liquid light? Those answers would come later. Right now, the Challengers and Tino were too busy being overjoyed at having Red back.
Also overjoyed were the fans, or at least those whose comments saw print in the “Let’s Chat with the Challs” letter column . . . .
“My heartfelt gratitude for having brought back Red,” said Steven Archer, of
Troy, New York
.
Even more impassioned was Gary Skinner, of
Columbus, Ohio
, who wrote: “All I can do now is give out a cry of happiness and a sigh of relief. Red is home!”
There were a few who objected to Red’s resurrection, DC admitted. They named two -- Donald D. Markstein, of
New Orleans
, and Gordon Flagg, Jr., of
Atlanta
-- but didn’t print their letters.
 After stunning the comics world with such a dramatic move in killing off a series star and then masterfully plumbing its emotional aftermath, why did Murray Boltinoff so quickly backpedal a mere five issues later? He provided his mea culpa in issue # 60 (Feb.-Mar., 1968):
Take our word for it, you frantic fans! We sincerely planned to do away with Carrot-Top, living up to our promise of scoring a unique “first” in comics history, not liquidating him for sheer sensationalism, but because bull sessions with Bob Brown, Artie Drake, and Ye Ed resulted in the rash conclusion that Red just wasn’t pulling his weight with the champ Challs.
But then came the deluge of mail protesting his annihilation. Never did we think his death would raise such a furious fuss of pro and con. In subsequent stories, we walked a tight rope, whether or not to restore him to life. But as the hue and cry boiled up to a crescendo -- condemning us for destroying him without justification, expressing genuine grief over the untimely demise of a long-established pal for whom they’d developed a strong affection, and disappointment over our failure to revive the ol’ Red-head -- as outraged readers made themselves heard, Bob, Artie, and Ye Ed had no alternative but to reconsider, and yield to the voluminous, vociferous voices of our vast readership. That, as it’s been said, if the American way.
Still left unexplained was how Red avoided being blown to bits in
Turkey
and how he came upon the secret of liquid light.
The next pair of issues carried a two-part back-up tale, explaining how Red stumbled across the liquid-light formula and wound up as a native stone idol. However, the biggest question -- how did he survive blowing himself up? -- was given the shortest shrift one could imagine. The explanation was reduced to one ridiculous line of dialogue: “Maybe it was because I was at the very eye of the explosion that I wasn’t destroyed -- just blown sky-high!”
This was incontrovertibly absurd! People caught at the centre of explosions don’t survive. They become “pieces parts”. One doesn’t have to look any further than the fates of the two terrorists who steered a boatload of explosives into USS Cole in October, 2000. They were literally vapourised at the point of impact.
I believe Boltinoff’s insistence that he had intended for Red’s death to be permanent. As it was written, there was no wiggle room. We, the readers, were privy to Red’s thoughts and actions right up to the instant he had hand-detonated the charge. Boltinoff wouldn’t have painted himself into such a corner had he planned otherwise. And he certainly wouldn’t have signed off on such a ridiculous explanation for Red’s survival, if it had been plotted in advance.
 Unfortunately, Boltinoff’s decision to relent to the fans’ protests yanked the rug out from under the most dramatic storyline the title had ever seen. Arnold Drake had not only given Red a true hero’s death, but he had shown its fall-out realistically. It was a remarkably mature effort. Never had the Challengers seemed more human, more genuine, even among the usual comic-book trappings of super-villains and fantastic menaces.
But death has the impact it does because it is permanent, at least in the real world. Having Red pop up alive undercut most of the gravitas that Drake had inserted into the series. Especially since Red’s escape from doom was given such a slap-dash and unlikely explanation. With Red’s death, the readers were left with the grim understanding that they could not count on the convention that the good guys would always survive in the end. It gave the subsequent stories a subtle edge. With Red’s return, the fans were put back in their comfort zone.
As it developed, it might not have mattered, anyway. The end of the Silver Age was drawing near and, as with so many other DC titles, Challengers of the Unknown was about to experience a shake-up in tone and talent. Beginning with issue # 62 (Jun.-Jul., 1968), the series underwent a thematic shift. Scientific-based villains and the occasional space menace were out; witches, ghosts, and goblins were in. The Challengers would now face threats heavily laced in the supernatural. The first story in the new format put the Challs up against a cabal of mystic evil in the form of a vampire, an ancient druid, a tribal medicine man, an Egyptian vizier, and a witch, known collectively as the Legion of the Weird.
Actually, this first foray into the occult wasn’t too bad a story, thanks to Bob Brown’s familiar art and Arnold Drake’s expert handling of the Challs. Unfortunately, both Brown and Drake would be gone after issue # 63. Brown’s solid, architectural drafting was replaced by the scratchy, murky art of Jack Sparling, a trade down by anybody’s yardstick. And the writing chores were passed around among Robert Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, and Denny O’Neil, none of whom had the same feel for the individual Challengers’ personalities or sense of high adventure that Drake did.
To a savvy DC fan of the day, such changes signaled that the title was in trouble. The series would limp along for another year before turning to reprints for its last six issues.
Given the paradigm shift that was looming a mere two issues away, Boltinoff’s resurrection of Red Ryan seems even more pointless. For many Challenger fans, including myself, the series ended when Drake and Brown left. It’s a pity that they could not have departed on the high note they had achieved when Red Ryan’s borrowed time ran out.
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