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"The Challenge of the Faceless Five!": Five neighborhood boys grow up playing basketball together. They each develop their own unique skills that allow them to excel at the game and they become unbeatable through high school and college. They are so good that they become overconfident and smug.

Strange Sports Stories #4 is an issue of the series Strange Sports Stories (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1974.

Synopsis for "The Challenge of the Faceless Five!"

Five neighborhood boys grow up playing basketball together. They each develop their own unique skills that allow them to excel at the game and they become unbeatable through high school and college. They are so good that they become overconfident and smug. Immediately after their last college game, their coach senses a feeling of doom. He takes a walk and stops at a nearby carnival where he sees a fortune telling booth. He stops to see Fiona the fortune teller who seems to know that he coaches the most extraordinary team of all time. She foretells that the five boys will move beyond basketball and master other sports. They will also take on far more deadlier challenges. They'll be sworn in as the United Nations Emergency Task Force whose most important assignment will be to stop invading aliens and overpower them. The fortune teller reveals that the five boys will tackle their mission with overconfidence and conceit. This will result in the failure of their task and the aliens will overwhelm mankind and enslave them. Humans will turn into faceless creatures, helpless against their alien invaders all because of the missions failure. The coach is distraught by what he has just been told. He stands to leave when suddenly a team of faceless basketball players appear. The coach arranges for the faceless figures to play a midnight game of basketball against his undefeatables. The game progresses and the faceless players start to slowly take the advantage. The five unbeatable boys are amazed at the skill that the faceless players posses, they have never played against such a great team. In the end, the unbeatable five lose by a point as they realize that they were overconfident. The faceless players suddenly disappear leaving the five boys puzzled by what happened. The coach then reveals in his thoughts that Fiona sent the team back to the future. The faceless players were actually their own sons to be. The coach hopes that this strange defeat will cause the boys to be more cautious when their fateful day arrives. Only time will tell.

Appearing in "The Challenge of the Faceless Five!"

  • Appearances not yet listed

Synopsis for "Man with the Golden Gloves"

Battling Bill Huncher dominates the boxing ring but his 12 year old son Johnny worries that his fathers luck will come to an end and he will be badly hurt. Huncher is confidant that he will continue to win without getting hurt. He attempts to give his son a good luck charm that he received from the boys late mother but Johnny declares that he is cutting loose and walks away. The boy walks down a dark alley where he is attacked by the fighter that his father had just defeated in a boxing match. Bill Huncher arrives to rescue his son from his attackers but he is suddenly stabbed by a knife in the back. As he lays dying, Huncher pulls out his lucky charm and gives it to his son. Fast forward to the future and Johnny is grown up with a career in law enforcement. He is assigned to infiltrate and break up a betting ring that has been fixing boxing matches. Johnny enters a candy store that serves as a front for the gamblers and successfully apprehends the suspects. He renders the mob helpless in their ability to fix future fights. Johnny returns to his apartment where he begins to pack his belongings in anticipation of a move to a new house. As he rummages through his possessions, he encounters his fathers lucky charm that he gave him before his death. The charm feels warm and tingly as he holds it in his hand. As Johnny holds the charm, an intruder opens the apartment door and knocks him out. Johnny awakens in a boxing ring with a man named Stosh Lansen standing over him. Lansen introduces himself and reveals that it was his gambling operation that Johnny put out of business that night. He further reveals that it was he that attacked Johnny all those year ago and it was his father that had flattened his nose in the ensuing fight. Lansen reveals that Johnny will now have to take on two fighters armed with spiked gloves while Johnny has his hands weighted down with 50lb weights. The thugs go to work and Johnny is knocked down. All of a sudden the weights on his hands disappear and are replaced by golden gloves similar to the ones on his lucky charm. He easily defeats his captors just in time as the weights reappear back on his hands. He then notices that his lucky charm is mysteriously strapped to his wrist.

Appearing in "Man with the Golden Gloves"

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Links and References

Superboy Vol 4 69
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