Challengers of the Unknown #59 (1967)

Key Details

• Issue Number: #59 

• Cover Date / On‑sale: December 1967 / January 1968 

• Editor: Murray Boltinoff 

Plot Summary

• The Challengers (Prof Haley, Rocky Davis, Ace Morgan, and Red Ryan) travel to a remote Pacific location — Vaniki Island — because the island’s king (King Venuka) has gone silent. 

• Upon arrival, the Challengers are met with hostility: islanders in war canoes attack them with machine guns and knockout‑gas leis.

• The heroes are captured and dumped into a sacrificial well. Prof Haley blocks the exit with rocks, enabling them to float free.

• They discover worship of a stone idol or “Stone God” named Seekeenakee (sometimes called the Petrified Giant) which the locals treat as sacred. 

• To stop the menace, Prof Haley concocts a ruse: convincing the islanders that their island is about to be hit by an atomic bomb. This frightens them and causes chaos around the idol. 

• Meanwhile, Seekeenakee’s worshippers try to defend the idol. The Challengers engage in battle, then in a climactic act they drop a huge bomb down the stone god’s throat in order to destroy the monument.

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