DC Comics Review: The Phantom Stranger #42 (Blackest Night)

By Peter J. Tomasi

Art: Adrian Syaf & Vincente Cifuentes

I'll preface by saying that this was an enjoyable issue. I was not into comics at the time of the original Phantom Stranger series, but I've always found him to be an interesting character, and this issue for the most part confirms me being right.

(Spoiler Warning)

Plot: The Stranger and the Blue Devil are where they were left at the end of Blackest Night #2 (A long way back at this point) Staring down the terrifying prospect of the Black Lantern Spectre. Quickly for the uninitiated; The Spectre is the Judeo-Christian god's hand of Vengeance. Cain (him being marked as a murderer that is), Sodom and Gomorrah, the 10 Plagues were all that guy. More relevant to the DC Universe, he was a large part of the solution to 2/3 of the Crises. He is one of the most powerful creatures in the DCU, and can do just about anything. Needless to say even the mysterious Stranger, is wetting himself a bit at this point.

The Phantom Stranger has a large point (perhaps mandate) of non-interference, though how much that matters, or is true is up for nerd debate. The Phantom Stranger, throws first motivation, and then insults at the Spectre to see if he can commune with the Spirit of Vengeance itself, rather than its human host Crispus Allen, who has been possessed by the black ring. The Spectre does not respond kindly to insults, and proceeds to try to claw his way out of his host body. Unfortunately we have a sort of Warhammer 40k conundrum of everything being the most powerful something, and the black ring ultimately wins. The Spectre gets called to the pages of Green Lantern #50 (coming tomorrow) where evidently the Stranger can't follow, so he and Blue Devil go in search of a way to rescue Deadman (Boston Brand).

Basically the rest of the issue is the Spectre gathering mcguffins and heading to Nanda Parbat to rescue Deadman, who is jumping in and out of Black Lanterns forcing them to kill themselves (In a sense). A black ring finally grabs the incorporeal Deadman, and either makes him manifest, or drags him to his body (I'm not really sure). The Stranger does a little song and dance, and some art shows parts of his potential origin, and in the end rescues Deadman. A nice cliff-hanger is reached with them mentioning something about Deadman's body being useful for something or another.

(End Spoilers)

Art: Syaf is a very talented artist. His technique reminds me of somewhere between the Kuberts/Tony Daniel, and Ivan Reis. Strong use of straight lines, for shading and effects, but when it comes to outline characters, and other important things, curves are used adequately. Needless to say it is also very detailed, very similar to Blackest Night Batman. However I'm worried that what worked there in BN Batman doesn't quite work for a magical tale of the Phantom Stranger's sort. A lot of this book is scenes of the Stranger talking, and being profound. That is fine but someone who oozes magic and mystery needs to have something going on behind him to emphasise his power, or just to give people something to dwell on. An Artist more in Tony Harris J.H. Williams or Ethan Van Sciver (When they let him off of his meds, like the speed force scenes in Flash Rebirth) might have been more appropriate, at least for some of the standing around scenes. However I understand that those guys are high profile, and probably mega expensive. Still the art is good, just not quite what was needed.

Overall Impressions: I liked this issue. It doesn't really change any part of the game, or introduce anything new; but it is solid. The story is pretty linear and straightforward, and was accessible enough to me who is only wiki educated on the Stranger. I can't say how its done justice or not to the original series, but I think the point of the Blackest Night title resurrections were to garner interest in past series, and on that note it succeeded. The artwork is fine, on its own merits, but I personally don't feel like it suits the story. Finally just to add my own little flavour to this issue...It doesn't mesh perfectly but try The Grand Conjuration by Opeth with this issue. If you know the song, you'll know the pace to read at and it actually fits pretty well.

Also, sorry I haven't been keeping up with this (All 100 of you who have at least stumbled this). School has started again, so I'm stuck between real reading, and leisure reading. I'll try to have this weeks issues up by Sunday or Monday depending when I stop drinking/being hung-over from my birthday this Sunday.

Marvel Offering Variant Seige #3 Covers.

   I think it's obvious. What they want to do is reverse engineer the success of Blackest Night. They'll start with Adventure Comics #4, since Geoff wrote that, thus being closer to the source. Then move on to Justice League by Robinson, and Outsiders by Tomasi judging by degrees of separation.

Review: Final Crisis Requiem

Final Crisis Requiem

Yes so I'm starting my reviews way behind the times, but hell; this is a test run. Final Crisis Requiem is a homage to Jonn J'onzz The Martian Manhunter. Written By Peter Tomasi, Drawn by Doug Mahnke, and inked by Christian Alamy and Rodney Ramos (Man it's weird typing most of those in lowercase).

I'll start off with some preliminaries. Jonn is my favorite superhero. He has all the powers of Superman, with twice the tragedy of Kal-El, and Bruce Wayne combined. The only person who has lost more would be Power Girl (Kara Zor-L). As a fan I would say that this is a pretty faithful interpretation of the Martian. No one likes to see a strong character that they love get hurt, and especially so soon into a big summer event, but Tomasi treated the character with respect, or at least with as much respect as one can get by being murdered by a revived 1970s villain retooled by Grant Morrison, who is only attacking you at the whim of a guy named Mike with fire nipples. Still though they did leave out one big continuity thing in their Homage. Where was the events of the 8 issue Martian Manhunter Mini Series The Others Among Us. While it wasn't the strongest story IMO, it was still a good one that challenged Jonn similar to how Superman is being challenged in World of New Krypton right now.


Minor Plot Points given away in this part, just a heads up.

In terms of being a new story for people to get into, I'd say this one is a little bit inaccessable. There are references to a lot of different past comics and series'. Elastic Man squeezing Dr. Light is the most obvious one, calling back to Identity Crisis. Captain Marvel forcing Sivana to eat worms may be a reference to Kingdom Come (an out of Continuity Story, though the reference could come from elsewhere and I wouldn't get it). Who Batman is making out with still elludes me, but it's funny and refreshing in such a dark scene and issue. This issue would be good for someone trying to make up their mind on the Martian Manhunter, as almost his whole story is on display here, to say nothing for his powers, compassion, and connections with all of the big hitters in the DCU.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS

A couple of notable points regarding the plot: Having Nightwing find his dead body was brilliant, Grayson is second to Jonn' in terms of having the most contacts in the DC Universe, and so it would be fitting that he finds him.
-When Green Arrow and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) are talking, it's a nice callback to the old brave and bold dynamic of Hal wanting to do anything in his power to punish the guilty as harshly as possible with Ollie holding back his bloodlust (I know it's a bit strong of a word) in order to push forward with what's actually right.
-The Final Page is very powerful, with an Unmasked Batman placing a Choco on Jonn's grave, followed by Jonn being united with his whole family for the first time in thousands, possibly millions of years (Depending on who's writing).

End Potential Spoilers

Artwork: Doug Manhke is a pro for sure. The man pays very close attention to detail, not only of the characters, but the backgrounds as well. The place where the Confrontation goes down there is noticable trash around. The Martian Symbology is well defined, and the Blood-red moon is gorgeous. Now that I'm finally putting things on the internet though, I finally need to ask this. What the hell is this man's deal with cheekbones? This is one thing that really throws me out of the experience. Cartoony art I can deal with, guys who's abs have abs (I'm looking at you Ed McGuiness) I can handle that as well. Manhke though is so close to perfect, especially when they let him loose on something like Superman Beyond (I will do a full review of the Final Crisis Hardcover at some point). But the cheekbones man, scale them back please. Beyond that fantastic job. Jonn looks human enough to be relatable, but when they zoom in on his face, his alien features show through very nicely.

Final Thoughts: Wonderful issue. While it's not necessary to have to understand Final Crisis (and yes it is understandable), it's still good to have if you keep up with the DC universe and would like to see more than just a footnote about the guy who has been in every version of the justice league. I would not recommend this to new readers, unless of course for some bizarre reason they're interested in the Martian Manhunter. Artwork is overall fantastic, save for the canyon-like cheekbones. The story is solid, though Tomasi sometimes has a hard time transitioning voices between characters. (Something that really bit him in the ass on the Outsiders). Pick it up if you have some spare change, or your comic shop still has one lying around. If you're a first time Reader and would like some real insight to the Martian, Try The Others Among Us or the Fernus storyline from JLA and see how you like that.

It's nice to see a character I love treated with respect. When/if he comes back I would love to see either a mini series or graphic novel depicting all of his years. Treating him something more like a Dr. Manhattan-like immortal. He could have been around for so much, the Early Green Lantern Corps, Krypton (Is it really reasonable to believe that he would stay and weep on his planet for Five Million years instead of taking on aspects of a Sun Eater (The 52 style ones) and travel the universe in search of new lives. Sinestro subjugating Korugar (SP). All kinds of past events of the DC Universe. One final note to make this a little more interesting than other reviews, especially since this was much more dull than I intended it to be (I will work on that though, I promise). Some good music to listen to would be something that is dark at first, but goes to a lighter mood later in the Song. Cynic's The Space for This is one idea. It's not perfect but it worked for me.