Phantom Stranger #1 - I can help

[perletwo]

Since it's a) come up in the comments to my Teen Titans post below and b) doesn't seem to have been posted from before if the tags are to be believed, here are four pages from Phantom Stranger #1, in which PS "helps" on-the-run escapee from Hell Rachel Roth.



The issue opens with the Stranger spooking a little boy playing soccer; the ball strays into the road and Billy goes chasing after it, with all too predictable results.



Rachel flees into an alley and calls out whoever's following her. "I'm not afraid of shadows!"





I'd like to take a moment here to say that while Raven has not always got the pick of the litter in terms of art, Rachel looks absolutely beautiful here - she looks young-teen'ish but not oversexualized, she's dressed in the "don't notice me" kind of clothes I could see a depressed semi-gothy girl on the run choosing, and her body language here is wonderfully expressive. I'm not acquainted with Brent Anderson's work, but based on this ish I'd say he's a very good choice for the Dark section of the DCnU titles.

Anyway. PS takes her to a diner where they discuss her troubled life further, and Rachel gradually senses a growing evil around them. Trigon's followers, the Church of Blood, have found her! (I missed Raven's resurrection into the Rachel Roth body the first time around - have Trigon and Brother Blood been so explicitly linked in the past?)

The Stranger pfoofs her away to safety, and she's horrified to realize he's brought her to Stonehenge - the spot she first emerged onto Earth when she escaped Trigon's hell-dimension, which Rachel says is a Trigon-conquered Azarath. "Do you realize what you've done? He'll know I'm here, he'll sense it!"

But it's too late. Trigon emerges from a sky-portal in a wondrous splash page (which I can add to this post if anybody'd like a good look at Trigon's current design). (BTW, icon_uk, there's a good close-up of Trigon's face in this ish that clearly shows 3 pairs of eyes, getting closer together as they go up Trigon's forehead.)



The demons drag her back to Hell, and Trigon and PS stand and chitchat for a page or two. The Powers told him to deliver Rachel to him, but not as a peace offering, PS says. Trigon says he was just about to unleash all his demon hordes onto Earth to find her, and perhaps the Powers were willing to trade one girl for millions of lives. Whatever, the Stranger says, he's sure the Powers had it happen this way to make it work out for the best in the end.

Comments

[crinos]

Wow, Fuck you Phantom Stranger.

[perletwo]

Pretty much, yeah, and just to add insult to injury he justifies it with the "just following orders" routine.

[theflames]

Nah, his reason is fair, this *is* higher powers at play and we all know how this'll work out, she'll become a good guy and most likely beat Trigon.

He saved a lot of lives doing this.

[janegray]

"Higher powers at play" tends to be used to justify a lot of shit.

We know that it eventually works out, but he didn't know at the time. As pointed out by other commenters, Universal Powers more often than not fuck up royally.

[theflames]

Nah, he would have a pretty good idea that it needs to be done, he's more 'higher power' than he is human, so him doing this is fair game, he might not have known, but he;s been around for how long? To him, the higher powers do well, and only fuck up in a relatively small amount of times.

[crinos]

Well yeah, my brain knows this.

But my heart says "He just handed an innocent girl over to her demon lord Pappy. Fuck. this. guy."

[sindra]

Yeah, because universal Powers always know the best course of action. *cough*guardians*cough*

Seriously, why does anybody ever trust the Stranger when all he does is screw them over?

[captainbellman]

I'd add *cough*Old-Testament-God*cough*

"Dammit, I should not have let my sons mate with these early developing people, now they're all evil. Better flood the place and start again." (Genesis 6:1-7)

"Moses is having a tough time convincing that Pharaoh to let my chosen people go! Lucky I hardened Pharaoh's heart, otherwise it'd have been just sooo easy. Besides, Azrael's been wanting to go on a Firstborn-Son spree for ages." (Exodus 10:1)


"For Me's sake, Moses turns his back for five minutes to have a chat with me and they're worshipping a Golden Calf! Well, I know I can rely on Moses to respond rationally...no, wait, he just had the Levites slaughter three thousand of them. Welp, that's what I get for making an ex-murderer the leader." (Exodus 32: 19-29)

"They're worshipping BAAL now? With that weirdo ceremony where one of them pretends to be the woman-god and one of them pretends to be the man-god and they do it? Interesting to watch, I admit, but I've gotta put a stop to it...better tell 'em to put it in Leviticus. 'No pretending to be a woman and doing it to worship another God, that's just gross'. Hmm...too complex...better ask them to simplify it. What could go wrong?" (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13)

[skemono]

Or God tells Moses to return to Egypt because everyone who wanted him dead was gone, and then tries to kill Moses himself.

(Okay, I just wanted to link to the Brick Testament.)

[espanolbot]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnEpOsGH4o

[theflames]

this is good fun.

[jlbarnett]

cause he doesn't. That's only when one of his coins falls off. He does lots of other stuff.

Actually it's kind of strange, it seems like the coins falling only just started.

[icon_uk]

One of the Geoff Johns Teen Titans runs most oddball reveals was that the entire "Church of Blood" had been Trigon worshippers all along, despite that making not one lick of sense.

[shingi70]

Dude is dick. Didn't he screw over the guy who become as the specter as well?

[espanolbot]

Depends, in the Madame Xanadu series it was his actions in the past that lead to Xanadu allowing the death of the man who'd become the Spectre, though neither knew specifically that it would happen.

Just how bad it was though is debatable, as the Event that the Spectre sensed caused him to start rounding up mystical adventurers to start preparing for the First Age of Heroes, and the Spectre's appearance was the trigger that eventually lead to the JSA, JLA etc.

So the Spectre was seen as being a horrible abomination that shouldn't even exist on the material plain... but he's also necessary to make the work a better place. See?

[kamino_neko]

Stranger is also responsible for the origin of the Spectre.

That seems to be the general theme of his life - the people behind him tell him to do something horrible to someone 'for the greater good', he does it, and one of his coins breaks off, moving him one step closer to getting out of the job.

(I suspect, though, once all 30 pieces are accounted for, they still won't let him go. Because they are fucking dicks.)

[jlbarnett]

Personally, I think he's just being made to witness/participate in great betrayals that turn out to be for the best for the world, because of his origin. Basically since he did one sucky job that had to be done, now hedoing a lot of sucky things that have to be done.

[kamino_neko]

Except that he quite specifically manipulates Raven and Corrigan into their situations, not just witnessing it.

If he's just been a witness, he'd have watched Corrigan die at the wrong time and place to become the Spectre's host, and followed Raven around until a demonic horde came up to claim her.

[theflames]

Well Jbarnett's theory still work, as Judas, he *actively* betrayed someone, and it had to happen, for the 'greater good'. Hence what he's doing here.

[kamino_neko]

Oh, yes, I certainly agree with that part. I just don't think he can be called a simple witness to what's going on - and, it really wouldn't fit thematically...as it is, he's being forced to repeat his crime at least 30 times.

[superfangirl1]

Wow what a jerky move poor rachel.

[randyripoff]

Who is this guy, and what have you done with the Phantom Stranger?

[leikomgwtfbbq]

A question that I ask about every week since the reboot. :(

(No, I will never stop sulking about that!)

[espanolbot]

"There is no Justice", said the Stranger. "There's just Me."

[cypherfdp]

Fucking Judas. Literally.

[kraesil]

Trigon's followers, the Church of Blood, have found her! (I missed Raven's resurrection into the Rachel Roth body the first time around - have Trigon and Brother Blood been so explicitly linked in the past?)

That'll be a yes, I think. There's always the chance I'm horribly wrong, but I believe the Church of Blood has always been based on worship of Trigon, and is/was partly responsible for Arella becoming the bride of Trigon and having Raven, etc.