By request, Phantom Stranger #42
Feb. 20th, 2010 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingrockwell posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyAs 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)
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)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-21 06:08 am (UTC)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.