By request, Phantom Stranger #42

[kingrockwell]

As of today, the Blackest Night revival of Phantom Stranger is now a month old, and therefore no longer a recent comic. I figured this is the perfect occasion for sharing the as-yet unposted tie-in.



Eight out of twenty-before pages.



The issue picks up where we left the Stranger in Blackest Night #2, fighting the Black Lantern Spectre with Blue Devil (Zatanna went to warn the JLA). Stranger, never one to know fear, opens with a fierce calling-out.



Cris isn't all that receptive, of course.




Cris punches the Spectre back into his chest and runs off looking for Hal Jordan. You can read all about what happened when he found him in Green Lantern #50 (and prolly last Wednesday's #51, i couldn't say for sure, not being a GL reader)
Anyway, the Stranger and Blue Devil decide to switch gears and focus on the task they were busy with when the Spectre attacked: investigating the empty grave of Boston Brand.



Using Devil's trident and various totems from Brand's grave, the Stranger divines Deadman's location, which is pretty obvious to a guy who knows Boston as well as the Stranger does. Nanda Parbat is under attack by hordes of Black Lanterns, who perceive it as a threat given its status as the place where death cannot enter.
Deadman's hopping between the BLs and using their own hands to rip their bodies apart, but the sustained exposure to the Black is starting to make him loopy. The Stranger tries to shake him out of it.



Nothing really new here, these seem to just be revisitations of the Stranger's multiple-choice-origins. Nevertheless, the Stranger gets a little more aggressive in bringing his friend back to his senses.



Of course, the Black Lantern Boston chooses this moment to pop in. The Stranger talks Deadman out of his hesitation toward re-inhabiting the body, given the adverse reaction it gave him last time he tried. The Stranger then wraps the possessed body in his cloak, in an effort to purge the Black from it.
The ring flies off as Stranger and Deadman crash within the walls of Nanda Parbat.

Later,



(the issue actually opened with the same narration, but i figured it made for a more apt closing here)

Comments

[pyrotwilight]

God I loved the issue though I love how they continue to make the Stranger enigmatic and they seem to imply (to me at least) that ALL his origins are correct.

"You think you can devour the heart of the Stranger with no repercussions? You have seen everything and you have seen NOTHING!"

[zordboy]

I know right? I definitely think this issue was my favourite BN tie-in. The sheer act of trying to reach the Stranger's heart causes the mother of all magical feedback whammies and knocks the Black Lantern on his ass.

You can't help but love the Phantom Stranger anyway, but this issue just kicked ass from start to finish.

[crinos]

Phantom Stranger: Badass motherfucker.

[theanswer]

Clearly his TRUE origin is depicted in Pulp Fiction, where the part of the Stranger is played by Samuel L. Jackson as Jules.

[kingrockwell]

Shit, he's even sporting that big-ass chain! It'd take a real fool to front on Stranger's cred.

[crinos]

Okay, now I have this hilarious image in my head of them holding a freestyle rap contest at the Oblivion Bar (Why? How? Who the fuck cares!) and Stranger coming in and blowing everyone away with his phat beats and kickin lyrics.

Also an image of Detective Chimp dressed in a black jumpsuit like an 80's rapper. Just because.

[theanswer]

I was kind of hoping this would end with Boston taking on his Kingdom Come appearance. I really like that look.

[kingrockwell]

It's not exactly new, people have been skeletizing him for decades. Prolly since Kelley Jones in the late 80s.

[zordboy]

I adored this issue. Absolutely adored it. I was cheering when I read it, heh. And the thing I loved most -- that most of the characters targetted by a Black Lantern have had to come up with something unique and unusual to figure out how to defeat, stop or otherwise slow down the zombie (or ring itself) coming after them.

The Phantom Stranger just *lets* the zombie have a crack at his heart. And *that's* enough to knock the zombie on his ass. Tells you just how much power the Stranger is playing with.

And I also loved that, as said, they did resist the urge to flesh out the Stranger's backstory. We got one tiny picture of each of the four possible origins, and that's it. And good. The Stranger doesn't need a backstory, he just needs to be awesome.

And he was.

[salamangkiero]

See, this is the reason why I always loved the Phantom Stranger as a character. Written correctly, he's probably the most contrary, contradictory and badass magical character in DC. I've always had it in my head that the only reason why he prefers to remain an observer was because it appealed to his basic personality to be that way - not that there were really any rules tying him down. It's like a self-imposed limitation in payment for whatever sins or mistakes he has committed in the past.

In his sphere of influence, he is probably even more powerful than Dr. Fate. I'd say that he probably is more powerful, hands-down, but that his personal preferences prevent him from being more "flashy."

And really, if he were written as a true badass, then he would probably be one of the major players, being that he has not died (at least, it's never been shown categorically). and if some of the Vertigo stories are canonical, we're talking about a high-power classic Angel here, or at the very least a man empowered by what should be a divine (in the Judeo-Christian sense) role given to him.

Given that his multiple-choice origins are shown, is it possible that he's some sort of multi-facet being? That he's a gestalt of many "facets" that live different lives all across time? and given his abilities, he's probably the nexus point for all these personas. That would make him even more badass - and a potential landmine for anyone who tries to take him over, as Boston Brand discovered.

[bruinsfan]

I've always gotten the impression that while he may not have as much raw power as Dr. Fate (at least the full octane Nabu-in-control version), the Stranger operates on a higher plane in terms of breadth of awareness, responsibilities, and whatever his nature actually is. I loved that the Monitor was unable to find out anything substantial about him in Crisis on Infinite Earths and he was unaffected by the universe merger/timestream mix-up in that JLA-Avengers crossover.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

P.S. is my favorite comic book character by far. He's just too damn awesome. :D

Thank you very much! ♥!

[ninjapeps]

it's not enough for the Phantom Stranger to be an awesome character. he also has probably one of the snazziest outfits in comics.

[comicoz]

This was a pretty solid tie in, and good call on waiting to post to get more story.

Also a virtual tip of my non-existant hat to the writers for avoiding giving the Stranger an actual solid background (like Rip seems to be getting now). He's much better as the randomly popping in oddly powerful character.

[bluefall]

Man, my priorities are clearly skewed, because all this does is make me feel sad about Madame Xanadu.

[tifaeria]

Oh wow, Blue Devil!! <3333 He's actually being used! ;_;

Great scan, ties in with the big event, and I just learned about a cool character. These scans are great!